South Pacific island internship means more hands-on, real-world experience for Gabby Brinez-Pardo ‘25
When Gabby Brinez-Pardo ‘25 applied for an internship at the South Pacific World War II Museum on the remote South Pacific Ocean island nation of Vanuatu, she assumed she would be doing things like welcoming guests or giving museum tours. Instead, Brinez-Pardo has had the opportunity to do so much more involved work that would typically be reserved for a museum archivist or curator.
A Presbyterian College history major, English and Women and Gender Studies minor, Brinez-Pardo is actively registering artifacts into museum databases and developing procedural standards to help keep the collections streamline going forward. She is creating storylines for museum exhibits and conducting research for descriptions about the items on display.
“The internship has turned out to be more fulfilling than what I could have expected,” says Brinez-Pardo. “It has also opened my eyes to the fact that I not only love visiting museums, but I love working in one. Being able to do higher-level professional work as an intern confirmed that I made the right choice in coming here.”
It took two full days of travel for Brinez-Pardo to reach her home for the summer; Vanuatu is about 500 miles west of Fiji and nearly 1,100 miles east of Australia. It is an archipelago, made up of a double chain of 13 primary islands and many smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. The islands are volcanic and coral in origin, most famous for its coastal terraces and coral reefs.
The South Pacific WWII Museum is the number one tourist destination of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. It highlights Vanuatu’s unique history as the second largest American military base (after Pearl Harbor) in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. Brinez-Pardo was inspired to travel and work abroad in Vanuatu by PC professor Roy Campbell, Ph.D., who spent time in Vanuatu as a Fulbright student in graduate school. He has also taken two PC study abroad groups there, once in 2017 and again in 2022.
“This is a partnership I set up with the museum a few years ago, but it was suspended during COVID,” says Campbell. “PC alum Bill Loeble provided funding for the travel associated with the internship, and we were happy to be able to resume and cover the costs for Gabby this year.”
“The way Dr. Campbell talked about this place made me feel like somewhere I definitely wanted to go and explore,” says Brinez-Pardo. “After a two-day trip across the world, I completely understand why Dr. Campbell fell in love with this place.”
Brinez-Pardo says the culture in Vanuatu is starkly different from the United States, with everything running on “island time,” as the locals say.
“It has been very nice to be able to slow down and enjoy things as they come, as opposed to the faster-paced setting of the U.S. and the rest of the Western world.”
Following her internship and graduation from PC, Brinez-Pardo hopes to work in a history museum, eventually attending graduate school. Her ultimate end goal is to be a college history professor, gaining further experience in the field of history through museum work in the meantime.