{"id":4473,"date":"2026-05-18T12:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/copa\/?st-import=14e355767d0605b916258ae64c6ae384"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:14:51","slug":"copa-students-join-joffrey-ballet-school-summer-internship-program-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/2026\/05\/18\/copa-students-join-joffrey-ballet-school-summer-internship-program-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"CoPA Students Join Joffrey Ballet School Summer Internship Program in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past four years, roughly ten students from Chapman\u2019s College of Performing Arts (CoPA) participated in Joffrey Ballet School\u2019s summer internship program. The nationally recognized Joffrey Ballet School offers intership positions in both administration and residence life, giving participants real-world exposure to the operations of a renowned dance training institution. Students in the internship also get to experience living in New York City, one of the most vibrant and diverse hubs for the performing arts in the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This internship is extremely popular with CoPA students, for good reason. The program continues to receive praise from students who have participated in the past, encouraging others to pursue the opportunity. Previous Joffrey intern and Chapman senior Ethan Tram (BFA Dance Performance \u201826, Minor in Business Administration) says he was inspired to pursue the internship after his friends continually shared about the amazing time they had at Joffrey Ballet.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Students also say Joffrey Ballet does a great job of fostering closeness among its interns. Senior Emily Fick (BFA Dance Performance, BS Business Finance, \u201826) says, \u201cCommunity is one of my biggest values, and I definitely saw that in New York.\u201d In addition, multiple CoPA students participate in Joffrey\u2019s internship program each summer, creating a familiar community that helps guide the transition from Orange County to New York City. Junior Courtney Chiu (BA Dance, BS Business Finance \u201827) affirms this: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing I had other Chapman students there was super helpful… Chapman has encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone, and I definitely stepped outside of my comfort zone in this internship.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Chapman Dancers Mandy Fang (’26), Emily Fick (’26), and Courtney Chiu (’25)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only did Chapman prepare them to step outside of their comfort zones, but interns also felt ready to rise to the occasion when dealing with obstacles. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very affirming of Chapman\u2019s training as a dancer and human. They really prepare you to be professional in environments, and be a smart, curious dancer,\u201d Emily shares. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The curiosity CoPA instills in students also lends itself to adaptability. \u201cBeing adaptable in this job [is] something you definitely have to have the mindset for, which I felt really prepared for,\u201d Courtney says about juggling many different tasks throughout the day as a Resident Advisor intern. Thanks to the skillset that CoPA equips its students with, Ethan says that Joffrey Ballet finds Chapman interns to be well-prepared for their roles: \u201cGoing into the internship without having met them yet, there was already an expectation and idea of what we work like. Like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re a Chapman student, you\u2019re gonna be great.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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After the internship ends, students return to school with new skills and perspectives that support their Chapman education. Courtney shares that her role with Joffrey Ballet \u2013 cultivating connection in a new place, with people she had never met before \u2013 required vulnerability. Stepping into leadership roles as an upperclassman, she\u2019s felt prepared to excel in positions that require similar courage. \u201cI\u2019ve jumped on a lot of opportunities here\u2026and it\u2019s all the mindset of allowing myself to be vulnerable.\u201d In Ethan\u2019s experience, the Joffrey Ballet internship further developed an interest that his Chapman education had first sparked: \u201c[Before college,] I had never really been interested in theatre, but [I] got to Chapman and we take theatre dance classes, and we have professors that have been on Broadway, and that pushes us to explore that. And it was great to be in New York and actually get a taste of what that world looks like.\u201d Now, Ethan says, \u201cdancing on Broadway is a career path that I definitely would love to take at some point.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chapman Alumna Peyton Winsett ’25 at Joffrey Ballet<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The diverse range of takeaways students have from the program demonstrates the remarkable value of pursuing internships during one\u2019s time at Chapman. Programs like the Joffrey Ballet give students many opportunities to further apply the skills they\u2019ve learned at CoPA and to learn new tools to engage more deeply with their education.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Students gain real-world arts administration experience while shaping future goals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5361,"featured_media":4474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,365,10,45,48,44],"tags":[273,264,493,494,495,496,497],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-dance","category-copa-career-news","category-copa-news","category-dance","category-general-student-news","category-student-news-dance","tag-copa","tag-dance","tag-dance-department","tag-dance-students","tag-internship","tag-joffrey-ballet","tag-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4521,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions\/4521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}