Glasscock Apprenticeships Benefit Students

Amy Murphy '10 and Claudia Bustamante '11 gain publishing experience through Glasscock Apprenticeships with TAMU Press.

The apprentices . . . they’re hired! However, these apprentices aren’t business professionals competing on television for the favor of a fickle mogul. Instead, Amy Murphy, class of 2010, and Claudia Bustamante, class of 2011, are liberal arts majors at Texas A&M who will now have an inside look at the world of scholarly publishing at Texas A&M University Press thanks to a collaboration initiated and funded by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research.

The joint venture reflects their mutual interest in promoting and supporting excellence at Texas A&M. The Glasscock Center is dedicated to fostering and celebrating the humanities and humanities research among the university’s community of scholars, the Press, the principal publishing arm of the university, has the primary mission of publishing authoritative books of interest to both academics and general readers.

While the Glasscock Center and the Press have collaborated on humanities projects in the past, the newly created apprenticeships offer these Aggie undergraduates invaluable experience in an exciting and rapidly evolving field.

The positions will allow students to be extensively involved in both editorial and marketing aspects of the Press’s operations.

The apprentices, whose jobs are funded for the 2007­–2008 academic year and summer 2008, will help the two department complete major projects that will strengthen their infrastructure and effectiveness. Murphy, the editorial apprentice, is assisting with special projects and various steps in the acquisitions process, as well as with data collection and analysis for the editor-in-chief. Bustamante, the marketing apprentice, is helping in the production of promotional materials such as subject catalogs, book flyers, and classroom adoption brochures.

Murphy is pursuing a double major in international studies and history. Bustamante is studying political science. Both found their positions on jobsforaggies.com.

Murphy, a “self-professed bibliophile,” says she is excited about the opportunity her editorial apprenticeship will offer her to get a glimpse of the publishing world. Bustamante is pleased to see that her work in graphic design and the networking skills she gained as student body president at Bryan High School will help her support the Press’s marketing efforts.

For more information about the Press, visit http://www.tamu.edu/upress. For more information about the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, visit http://glasscock.tamu.edu.