Meet a VC Intern: Jocelyn Song

Learn more about one of our 2020 VC Interns, Jocelyn Song, the Getty Multicultural Programs Intern.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Jocelyn Song, and I was born and raised in Monterey Park. I am a junior at Claremont McKenna College, dual-majoring in Media Studies and Economics with a sequence in Asian American Studies. My studies encompass a lot of what I am interested in-- I have always been passionate about editing videos/photos, watching films (horror, mystery, thrillers, and action are my favorite genres), learning about the economy, and supporting Asian media. I am also a huge basketball fan and have been playing for over twelve years now; I am currently a guard on my college’s women’s basketball team (Sco ‘Nas!). In my free time, I like to hike to waterfalls, watch YouTube and Tik Toks, travel with friends, paint, play board games, and add Pins to my Pinterest boards.

How did you hear about Visual Communications and what drew you to apply?

I heard about Visual Communications through a Media Studies class I had taken called Asian American Media in Communities (shoutout to Professor Ming-Yuen Ma!). The purpose of the class was to work in small groups and engage in service-learning projects in collaboration with non-profit community partners. Luckily for me, Visual Communications was one of the community partners! I will never forget the day that Francis walked into our class to give a presentation on VC, and I had asked him after class if the organization was offering any summer internships. Fast forward a few months and here I am almost a year into my relationship with VC. What immediately drew me to apply was VC’s mission to amplify Asian American & Pacific Islander voices. I like that VC genuinely supports its community and offers a platform for AAPI artists to share their stories. Additionally, VC opened up a whole new world of AAPI media to me that I had never seen before! If I got involved, I knew that I would learn so much about my identity and the AAPI community overall. 

What are your intern duties at VC? Which part do you find interesting?

I am the Programs Intern under the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program. My intern duties mainly focus on community outreach and researching for an upcoming First Street North project. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Festival team as the 2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival moved online, coordinating with community partner organizations about discount codes and sending emails about the Festival’s weekly lineup of films and artist conversations. I also got to briefly communicate with programmers, draft invites to filmmakers, and take part in early programming meetings with Eseel (Operations Director) and Stephanie (Festival Programming Coordinator). Aside from the Festival, I update and keep in touch with all of VC’s community partners about upcoming events. For the First Street North project, which will be online soon and hopefully activated in-person one day, I have been utilizing former +Lab Artist-in-Residence Fellow Tina Takemoto’s research and various databases such as Restrata, TESSA, Densho Digital Archives, and newspaper archives to investigate the businesses and people tied to the buildings on East First Street. Looking through archives dating back to the 1900s, I record any historical information that I can find about a certain building on the block. The most interesting part about my First Street North research has been learning more about the history of Little Tokyo in general and using breadcrumbs to trace a person or story. While I have run into many walls and dead-ends, the process has been insightful!

What is your favorite thing about working here? Any memorable moments?

My favorite thing about VC is the people! The VC staff is a family of genuine, hard-working people. Their passion and commitment to their work is inspiring and such a testament to how the organization continues to thrive and support its community. Since my first day as an intern, I have always felt welcomed, included, and supported! I love that I have been able to build relationships with staff members over Zoom meetings and Slack chats, listening to what they did over the weekend or what they were working on. The most memorable moments of my internship have been celebrating wins with the team, especially for the First Street North project. It would sometimes take hours of scouring newspapers to find one historical fact, but when it was found, it was always the best feeling ever! I remember I was looking for an African American woman tied to First Street during the Bronzeville era, and I could only find her name and story in secondary sources that failed to cite/reference their primary sources. A few days later, I finally found her in a newspaper and got to celebrate her existence with Eseel! 

Where would you like to travel to after the pandemic?

There are way too many places I want to travel to after the pandemic. My first destination would probably be Manchester, UK, to visit my older sister and watch her play in her pro-basketball league while visiting surrounding countries! My second post-pandemic trip will probably be a tour of Asia to see family and friends, hitting the Philippines, Taiwan (where my family is from), South Korea, China, and Japan. My third destination will probably be Iceland or Canada, and I am going to stop there because I am getting way too excited about traveling now. 

Being a Student and Intern in a Pandemic

by Jocelyn Song

Being a student and an intern working remotely has been interesting. Even though it was initially disappointing that I could not return to school or work at the VC office with other staff members, managing school and work from home have not been all that bad. Sure, class discussions online are awkward at times and interning in-person is ideal; but regardless, I feel blessed to be going through this experience in a safe and healthy way. Thanks to my professors and VC staff, my transition to online learning and working has gone rather smoothly- everyone has been very patient and gracious about technology problems, work overload, and Zoom fatigue. 

JOCELYN AND HER SIBLINGS

In terms of my sanity, my family and friends play a huge role in how I have been handling 2020. Being at home has given me a lot more time to spend with them, trying out different quarantine activities and engaging in meaningful conversations. It has been pretty chaotic, though, especially when I first moved back home. Because my brother took over my room, I did not have a workstation for weeks. However, we soon turned our living room into an office and I finally arranged my space. At my workstation, my laptop sits on my desk, which is actually a dining table from my sister’s old apartment. Beside my chair is a 3-tier, rolling Ikea cart that carries all my books, notebooks, and pens and is useful for when I need to move around the house or share my “desk.” While it does get crowded and loud at times, I appreciate that I have a designated space to do my work.

When it comes to my plans for winter break and the near future, I would be practicing with my basketball team right now, but our season was unfortunately canceled just a few days ago. Nonetheless, I am going to take time to learn Mandarin, improve my video-editing skills, start a podcast with my close friend, and possibly write a screenplay. Hopefully, I will be creating more video content to add to my portfolio in the next two months before the start of my spring semester. Aside from that, I want to have photoshoots using this old point-and-shoot camera that I was recently gifted, and embroider and design clothes with fabric paint. Finally, I really hope to go skiing with my friends soon!