The Kennedy Center Interns (Avalon Harder ’15, first on the left)
The Education Department at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts generously gave me the opportunity to be their “Research and Evaluation” intern. The Research and Evaluation department is fairly new, and its projects are currently limited to the Center’s arts education programs offered in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. elementary schools.
I worked under the program’s director, Ivonne Chand O’Neal, an esteemed researcher specializing in creativity and a current PhD candidate in cognitive psychology at the Claremont Graduate University. Much of my work involved Ivonne’s inaugural project, a longitudinal study of the Center’s ‘Changing Education through the Arts’ program. I created data files for the program’s 796 students, their parents, and their teachers who participated in the study. I also organized various components of the data to be archived for future reference and became more familiar with the research instruments used, the nature of the study’s participants, and the depth of the research process.
The Center also hosts International Fellows during the summers who attend trainings there to improve their organizations. Each Fellow has their own set of goals and challenges, and it’s Ivonne’s task to use her workshops to demonstrate the importance of focused, purposeful program evaluation. Examples of data collection, analysis, and results from her own research show the Fellows how research findings can lead to greater accountability and increased funding for their arts organizations.
Witnessing Ivonne’s ability to apply her knowledge of evaluation to an incredible range of cases helped me to envision my own future as a professional researcher. Before the Kennedy Center internship, I held research positions in government, nonprofit, and private sector settings. The opportunity to investigate research in an arts setting made me use my skills in a new way. An “a-ha!” moment struck me when I realized the universal relevancy of evaluation. No matter what the program, product, or service is or where it is located, it can be evaluated using standardized research methods to test its effectiveness in carrying out its intended purpose.
My experience at the Kennedy Center proved to me that I’ve chosen a thrilling and diverse area to specialize in. The research and evaluation techniques I have practiced in this internship and others have prepared me for a career full of variety, and I have the skills I need to conduct research in any area I find passion in.