Apply to the Beauty Turner Academy

Applicants do not need to live in Chicago to apply. Participants may live anywhere within the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

If you live outside of the U.S., please contact Liú at [email protected] to discuss your eligibility and interest.

Our ideal Beauty Turner applicant is:

• Meaningfully connected to public housing.
  • We prioritize folks with lived experience in some form of government-subsidized housing, including traditional public housing, Section 8 housing, or residents of a mixed-income housing site.
  • Those with family or community ties to public housing will also be considered.
• Interested in public history and the power of narrative and storytelling as methods of resistance and change.
• Active in their own neighborhoods and communities.
• Willing and able to work collaboratively and build generative relationships with people different from them.
• Able to commit to 3-5 hours per week of work towards the program (this includes attending sessions). 
• Committed to long-term engagement with oral history, whether as an oral historian or applying its techniques to another practice.
• 16 years of age and older. Younger people with a strong interest may also reach out to discuss their eligibility.

Our review process includes a committee of National Public Housing Museum and Beauty Turner Academy staff, mentors, educators, and oral historians who will be involved in the 2025 Summer Training. Each initial application will be reviewed by at least two people, then discussed amongst a 4+ person group. 

The top 15-30 candidates will be contacted on a rolling basis to schedule a 20-30 minute informal interview with the Oral History Programs Manager, sometime between March 28 – May 8. The interview is primarily designed for us to get a sense of how you would show up as a participant in this Zoom-based program. Try not to stress about it!

The initial review of applications will be guided by this rubric, but it is not the end-all, be-all for selecting the cohort. The cohort will be selected based on a holistic review of each applicant in the context of the applicant pool.

We will notify all applicants of the selected cohort in mid-May. A few individuals will be placed on the waitlist in the event that any of the selected applicants are unable to participate. 

The program runs for 11 weeks, plus one break week in early July. 

We estimate a 3–5 hour/week time commitment from each program participant. This breaks down into one 2-hour Zoom session per week, and 1–3 hours of listening, journaling, and reading exercises. While these assignments are not strictly required, they are strongly recommended in order to get the most out of the program.

Note: Participants must attend at least 7 out of 11 weeks to receive their stipend. While this means that up to 4 absences are allowed, we strongly encourage participants to attend as many weeks as they can to get the most out of the program.

In the 11-week Summer Training, you will learn how to: 

1. Connect your lived experiences and collective genius to the practices and ethics of oral history.
   • Situate oral history practice within the legacy of public housing in Chicago.
   • Understand the role of relationships, identities, and power in oral/narrative history.
   • Consider who they are as oral historians, given their identities, lived experiences, and values. 
2. Learn the foundational skills needed to conduct your first oral history interview.
   • Key oral history skills include deep listening, follow-up questions, checking for continuous consent, and building collaborative authority with the narrator.
3. Care for, preserve, and envision creative usage of oral history interviews.
   • Transfer, back up, and manage digital files.
   • Understand the versatility of oral history methods, ethics, and values for historical, creative, and organizing projects. 

You will learn the most if you are able to put in the 3–5 hours of work per week, including attending every session and engaging with the learning exercises between sessions. 

After graduating the Summer Training, you will have the opportunity to continue your oral history education with the museum through our Beauty Turner Academy Apprenticeship series. 

Yes! We’re especially interested in working with people who have meaningful connections to public housing. 

If you do not get selected for the program this year, you will have priority for future cohorts of the Beauty Turner Academy. You can reach out to the Oral History Programs Manager at  [email protected] for other options for staying involved before summer 2026.

There is no educational requirement for applying to and participating in the Beauty Turner Academy. The program staff are mindful about making our curriculum accessible to those with limited access to traditional educational pathways.

That being said, participating in the program will require critical thinking, responsibility, writing, and reading skills that are developed in high school and beyond. Thus, we recommend that participants be at least 16 years old with some high school education. 

If you are younger than 16 or have a unique educational background, but are still interested in participating, please reach out to the Oral History Programs Manager at [email protected] to discuss your experiences. 

You do not need any audio equipment to participate. Ideally you already have access to a computer to attend the virtual sessions. If you do not have regular access to a computer but would still like to participate in the program, please mention this in the final question of your application and we will brainstorm solutions together. This will not affect the cohort selection.

Each participant will receive a professional audio starter kit shortly before the program begins. Participants who attend at least 7 out of 11 weeks will also receive a $1000 stipend, disbursed in two parts at the ends of July and August. 

Participants who meet the attendance requirement will also receive a Beauty Turner Academy certificate after the end of the program and will be eligible to continue their training with Beauty Turner Academy Apprenticeships, starting in the fall.

Use the same application linked at the top. Check the box in the final question asking if you are a return applicant. If we have further questions related to being a return applicant, be in touch with the Oral History Programs Manager at [email protected].