Beyond the Classroom: Miya Menscher (CFA’28)
Music major interned at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center as a teaching assistant and theater technology assistant, putting on musicals and workshops

Taking on a multi-faceted role: My internship at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center
In CFA’s Beyond the Classroom Series, music, theatre, and visual arts students at BU share their professional work experiences. These Terriers express how the resources at BU prepared them for success beyond the classroom.
Beyond the Classroom: Miya Menscher (CFA’28)
New Jersey native Miya Menscher (CFA’28) learned a thing or two (or three) as an intern for the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, a leading arts complex host to concerts, musicals, and symphony orchestra performances.
1) Teaching art and working with children is rewarding.
2) There’s power in learning new skills aside from your major.
3) Diving into an international opportunity made it easier for Miya to adapt to life as a college student in Boston.
Miya, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Music through BU School of Music, was a teaching assistant and theater technology assistant, working closely with a musical theater summer camp for children and teens held by the company Shanghai Fresh Prime Limited at the performing arts venue.
Miya shares with CFA her experience working with the students in preparation for their final show, getting a sense of what it’s like to work in the production and technology side of theater, and how this role continues to inspire her into incorporating more forms of media into the music she makes.
Q&A
WITH MIYA MENSCHER (CFA’28)
CFA: Tell us about your different roles as an intern at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
Miya: I took on a couple of roles such as a teaching assistant and a theater technology assistant. I worked with a children’s musical theater group called Serious Play Musical Theater. They host week-long workshops for kids where they learn excerpts of choreography and songs from mainstream and original musicals all in English, and by the end of the week each class works together to put on a show for the public.
During the week I mostly watched over the kids, helping them read their scripts in English and coaching them on intonation and how to project their voices clearly.
During the dress rehearsals and the final show, I worked closely in the booth with the show controls team. I helped the stage manager with lighting cues and the monitor manager to record the performance, as well as aided the audio operator when there were issues with the kids’ mics and operated the Chinese-English subtitle monitors so the audience could understand the show better.
CFA: How did you learn about this internship opportunity, and what steps did you take to secure it?
Miya: My mother’s old classmate and her husband oversee the building operations for the Serious Play Musical Theater in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. When I went to Shanghai, I met with them during a small reunion dinner. Her husband asked me a couple of questions about the type of work I was interested in doing within tech.
CFA: What are some of your most notable accomplishments from this experience?
Miya: I successfully put on two complete musicals across three nights and worked with two workshop classes who put on a shorter show with several excerpts of musicals.





CFA: Did any resources at CFA or BU help you prepare for success?
Miya: Since I worked on the internship before I came to BU, it kind of worked backwards for me. I was sort of thrown into it with no lengthy training process or time to acclimate to Shanghai once I got there, and coming to BU and experiencing college and being away from home for a long time just on my own was a very similar experience. It allowed me to skip taking a lot of time to get used to things in Boston and I felt a lot more comfortable just exploring and wandering the city just as I did in Shanghai.
CFA: In what ways did your coursework from CFA connect with this internship?
Miya: My FA100 class connected in the way that during my time in Shanghai, I got to work with technology and media that I wouldn’t normally work with in my major and the class also gave me a chance to meet and connect with people outside my major and see the cool work they do.
CFA: How do you think this career opportunity will help you prepare for work beyond BU?
Miya: I’ve worked tech recording, doing sound, and lighting, for several shows, musicals, and even my own podcast, but they were all relatively in a controlled school environment. This internship showed a more realistic view of what it’s actually like to work in a theater behind the scenes: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
CFA: What did you learn about yourself?
Miya: I learned that I can adapt to new environments quite well. Most of my time working there I was living by myself with a relative who worked in Shanghai. I had to figure out a whole new metro system and readjust to my surroundings quickly so I could actually get to work and not have any breakdowns trying to get around the subway.
CFA: Any advice for current CFA students beginning this type of process?
Miya: I say just go for it! Do the things you want to do even if you have just a slight interest in them. My major at BU doesn’t necessarily correlate with the work I did during the internship, but I nonetheless really enjoyed it and am interested in combining the two to work with music technology.
CFA: What’s next for you, Miya?
Miya: I want to keep going with music and incorporate more forms of media and technology into it. I currently write and record my own music and am trying my hand at filming videos for it too. I’m really excited to see where this journey leads me and I hope others follow along for the ride!
Go for it! Do the things you want to do even if you have just a slight interest in them. My major at BU doesn’t necessarily correlate with the work I did during this internship, but I nonetheless really enjoyed it and am interested in combining the two to work with music technology.
CAREER & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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