Programs > Education Programs > CSUF Programs
California State University, Fullerton Programs
Intern With Us!
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Through a partnership with California State University, Fullerton and its Center for Oral and Public History, we offer hands-on internships that bring history to life through archival preservation, exhibit development, and museum operations. Students gain real-world experience working with the El Toro Oral History Project while contributing to the preservation and interpretation of Marine Corps aviation history.
Affiliation Between FLAM and California State University Fullerton
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During 2026, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was entered into by the Flying Leatherneck Historical Foundation (FLHF) and the State of California acting through the Trustees of the California State University on behalf of California State University Fullerton (CSUF). The MOU allows for collaboration between CSUF’s Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History (COPH) and the FLHF which permits unrestricted use of the COPH’s El Toro Oral History Project video and audio recordings as well as written transcript files collected during the oral history project commissioned by the Great Park Irvine due to the closure of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro. The estimated value of this gift-in-kind use to FLHF is $850,000.
​COPH has shared copies of all 525 oral histories with the FLHF which were recorded with men, women and their families who served and lived at the former MCAS El Toro. The oral histories will be maintained in the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum (FLAM) Library and will be incorporated into the exhibits and displays at the new Museum as educational and research tools for students of all ages as well as family members and the general public interested in such historically relevant and significant records.
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FLAM Intern Program
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Additionally, FLAM, COPH, and the CSUF College of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) provide multiple CSUF undergraduate and graduate students with internship opportunities to assist in the refinement of the oral histories into the FLAM Library, exhibits, and assist in exhibit curation, library management, and the preservation of archival material and content. These internships are both paid and unpaid opportunities with some students receiving unpaid internships for academic credit. All interns gain exceptionally valuable exposure to and development in the unique skill sets associated with career fields in the humanities and museum operations.
​Although outside the conditions set forth between FLHF and CSUF for interns, FLAM also invites students from other local universities and colleges to apply for internships. Currently, FLAM has an undergraduate intern from Chapman University and FLAM has outreach to California Polytechnic University Pomona as well as the University of California Irvine.
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