From July to September 2025, I had the privilege of being the RIAS intern over the summer of 2025. Although it was a quiet period, academically speaking, it still proved to be a very valuable experience for me as a master student North American Studies at Leiden University.
The variety of my tasks were very broad. Whether I was working on improving the website, helping our researchers, working with the microfilm computer, hosting students or having educational and pleasant conversations with my colleagues, I truly enjoyed every moment.
Diving into the archives was one of the most enjoyable and interesting activities. I was asked by Dario and Gaetano to help with a project involving the Dutch-Canadian emigration archives that the RIAS owned. Over the course of several weeks, I searched through those archives in search of any interesting cases. I found several letters related to missing people and potentially fraudulent immigration agents. One of those agents, Cornelius van Aken, was so interesting, that I decided to write my From the Vaults article about him. He was a Dutch Father of the church and worked as an immigration officer for the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR). He was soliciting Dutch farmers in the province of Brabant to emigrate to Canada. His story was more complicated than I initially imagined. When I finished my first draft of the From the Vaults article, Gaetano found an item that opened a rabbit hole of investigations and discoveries about Van Aken. It’s something that I hope to explore in the future, potentially even as my master thesis.
Just before the end of my internship, I was able to help with organizing a lecture by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering racial injustice for the New York Times Magazine. It turned out to be a great culmination of everything I’d learned. The lecture itself was very powerful and eye-opening, making a fitting end to the internship.
Looking back, I’m grateful to everyone at the RIAS for helping make the three months something special. The skills and memories I’ve gained will last a lifetime.
