Jackson Schreiber
By Zoë Eitel
While searching for an internship for the summer of 2020, Jackson Schreiber was worried about finding any opportunity at all due to how many others were also searching and because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When he found an internship with the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival on DePaul’s Handshake platform, he knew he had to apply. He couldn’t pass up an opportunity that related so well to his career aspirations. However, the internship was unpaid, which made Jackson concerned that he wouldn’t be able to support himself while working the internship.
After receiving the offer to join the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, Jackson received an email about the Internship Plus award through the Career Center. He applied and was granted the award, making an unpaid internship more realistic for him.
Festival Programming Assistant at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
BA Film and Television Creative Producing 2022
“My family and I ran into some financial hardships as a result of the pandemic as did many others, so receiving funds for my efforts towards the internships did at least a little to ease my stress about the situation,” Jackson says.
For his internship at the film festival, Jackson was a member of a viewing party that would watch all of the festival’s submissions and provide coverage on them. Because of the pandemic, the festival transitioned to being virtual for the first time, and Jackson’s internship was completely remote.
“I had to be disciplined and teach myself a lot based on feedback from my supervisor. I felt I was able to improve the more I worked.”
“It was really interesting to be exposed to how the festival team was dealing with adjusting to being a virtual film festival for the first time,” he says. “We had zoom meetings at least once a week, and all feedback on work was done virtually. It was upsetting to miss out on working in an office atmosphere and make in person connections, but the nature of the work I was doing was easily done remotely, so it worked out well.”
Since the internship was remote, Jackson had to learn to keep himself accountable and disciplined and learn to grow through his supervisor’s feedback. While not ideal, he feels he was able to grow professionally because of the situation..
Jackson compared the difference in completing work for an internship to completing work for school and the increased responsibility one has during an internship.
“Schoolwork is done largely for yourself—to get a good grade and learn something,” he says. “But for an internship, the work you do directly affects the organization or company. There is certainly a greater sense of responsibility.”
