SRMT Summer Intern Spotlight – Sophia Mitchell, Cultural Center Intern

By Ronni Sunday, Communications Summer Intern.

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe is proud to provide employment opportunities for high school and college students through the Department of Education's Summer Youth and Career Internship Employment Program. To help report on this initiative, we are proud to share the following summer student spotlight, which reports on internships in areas specific to the student's chosen career path.

AKWESASNE – Sophia "Sophie" Mitchell (she/her), 19, attends Syracuse University's Maxwell School on the pre-law track as an international relations major, with a minor in Native studies. She aspires to become a lawyer and help communities in need.

Sophie dedicates her time to the university's pride union and engaging with the LGBTQIA+ community. Next year, she will be the event coordinator for incoming and current Indigenous students attending SU. She loves to read, naming her favorite novel as A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi.

This summer, she is working at the Akwesasne Cultural Center Library and Museum. While there, she has learned how to reshelve books, and has been able to work community events, shadow museum tours, and set up displays in both the library and museum. She appreciates learning how to tell and portray our history from a present Indigenous point of view rather than a past tense Eurocentric view.