Senior Anna Beth Lee explores cultures through writing and video
February 2025 – Since the summer before her senior year at Drew University, Anna Beth Lee C’25 has been telling stories for the Smithsonian.
Her most recent piece explores Tsimshian cultural traditions—which had been outlawed or forgotten—in the village of Metlakatla, Alaska.
“I pushed myself to take advantage of the opportunities before me,” said Lee. “I was the only intern who pursued both writing and video. I was given the joking title ‘tweener’ (working between two groups) and impressed the intern team and my mentors with my ability to balance pursuits in writing profile pieces, capturing videos, and then editing those videos together. I wanted to prove that my interdisciplinary interests could be demonstrated through impressive work.”
Lee came upon the Storytellers Workshop in the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage by searching for internships that included keywords for her passions—storytelling, visual anthropology, cultural storytelling, photography, and environmental studies/justice.
“I was ecstatic to find it,” said Lee, who was able to reference her time in the Drew’s Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI), Center for Academic Excellence, and a local internship with the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts. She was also able to be an unpaid intern having received financial support from winning Drew’s Internship Award.
“I pursued this internship as a dedicated commitment toward my career development. Using lessons I had learned from the Center for Career Development at Drew, I took extra steps to network, connecting with participants in the internship from the previous summer, and ultimately directly contacting the supervisor of the role.”
As she continues to write for the program, Lee has spent her senior year working with Drew’s Special Collections & University Archives and Center for Civic Engagement while also serving as president of the Drew Environmental Action League.
To further prepare herself for her career, Lee is participating in Drew’s New York Semester on Museums and Cultural Management, which brings students into New York City throughout the semester to be immersed in the many facets of museum studies.
As she has gained connections and skills throughout her myriad experiences, Lee has grown more confident in her post undergraduate plans.
“I saw firsthand that my interests in anthropology, art, photography, video, environmentalism, and social justice can be combined within specific jobs. Now, I feel much more confident in planning future career goals.”
