I am Leonardo Solano, a doctoral student in the Department of Hispanic Languages ​​and Literatures. I am about to defend my dissertation. My interests are cinema of the 1960s and new Latin American cinematic and literary narratives. My dissertation is based on a documentary I made about the condition of women in Costa Rican sports. I take the experience of making the documentary as a case study to analyze the behavior of Central American media production in a society lacking a working media industry and a market for it.

This summer, I’m worked for the Office of Research Development with Ryan Champagne, the Assistant Director for Research Development at the University of Pittsburgh through a Humanities Engage Administrative Internship. For this internship, I studied the different benchmarks that are used to analyze the funds and resources available for faculty. I also reviewed different funds, opportunities, and resources to make these resources more visible and accessible to faculty. Finally, I had the opportunity to discuss and offer insights on the website that showcases all these resources.

I must say that this was a welcome return to the academy, after spending a few years away due to personal and work commitments. However, it was from a different perspective. Learning about benchmarking was something special for me in several ways:

1. It showed me the importance of the need for academics to bring resources to the institution. Knowing where and how to find them is essential. I feel that there is a “before and after” in my way of understanding the resources and opportunities that academics have, and this internship was the turning point.
2. It exposed how understanding the structure and format of each university is crucial in order to obtain the greatest benefit from its resources.
3. It reinforced my creativity and resilience, all necessary elements in my academic formation. Establishing group work and forming teams to achieve objectives is another great lesson. I was finally able to understand the need for group work and mutual collaboration. Perhaps this sounds very innocent, but the academy tends to be quite individualistic. In this project, productively, it was not.

It is precisely this last fact that helps me see beyond the academy. My research project, which focuses on collaborative work for a film project, describes one of my professional goals: enabling creators to share resources. Learning that there needs to be feedback, as well as really knowing where I can find the assets that will help me complete my projects (like knowing where and how apply for them), are crucial for my future. Knowing not only what to read or what resource to look for, but also how to look for it, are new skills that I acquired and imparted in these last months of work.

Something important that I will take with me today is that there is something more than being the traditional academic. An academic is not only one who works publishing articles and teaching classes under enormous pressure. The kind of academic I want to be is one that also understands the administrative structure of higher education. I would love to have an administrative position in the future. I feel that this increases my job possibilities, as well as being able to carry out different activities that allow me to reflect on the university itself. I feel that this internship made me confirm that I have a lot more possibilities as a future academic. Today, I am sure that university work is broader than what we learn in class.

I believe that the skills I learned during my graduate classes allowed me to do successful work. At first, I had to change my way of thinking. It was complicated because the system of working in groups, following instructions, designing, and offering pertinent solutions were new elements for me. Finally, the discipline in structuring and questioning any situation helped me fulfill Ryan's objective. Well, I'd like to think we made it. It was a tremendous challenge for me and for Ryan, since he had to push me out of my comfort zone to achieve the objectives set at the beginning. My square mind did not allow me to work in a group, or even in being fully self-directed. Usually, my classes have me respond to a requested assignment with instructions. 

With Ryan, I had to do a whole new job. Doing roleplays of faculty from other areas was enriching – this meant thinking (or trying to think, at least) like an academic from other areas to check if the website content was understandable. Classes are usually not interdisciplinary and can feature similar and repetitive assignments. Although a class is new, in the end we know the format. We know that our colleagues work in roughly the same way as we do, and that our content often overlaps. If a topic is new in one class, it won't be new in the next, since the second class might involve some of the same authors and readings. That is, we fall into a comfort zone. This job allowed me to challenge myself to learn something new. The gratification of achieving a goal in a group is unmatched. Understanding the whole university operation is crucial for every new academic. In short, I think that this type of experience is necessary so that academics can obtain better results in their research. Every graduate student should explore administrative roles. They will be frustrated at first, but then with patience they will turn their gaze to the academy and lead it to better serve its communities.