The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands

Sunnylands Center & Gardens is now hiring tour guide interns for the 2025-26 season, with a start date of July 28, 2025. We’re looking for enthusiastic, friendly, and dependable college and university students who are dedicated to learning and giving back to the community. For details, see the video below or visit https://lnkd.in/ehFQDTHW

Sunnylands Center & Gardens is now hiring tour guide interns for the 2025-26 season! We’re looking for enthusiastic, friendly, and dependable college and university students who are dedicated to learning and giving back to the community. This is a paid, part-time seasonal position in Rancho Mirage, California, with internship credit opportunities from participating colleges, universities, and majors. For more information and how to apply, please visit our website at https://lnkd.in/ehFQDTHW

NEW TOUR DATES ADDED! Historic House Tour tickets added for February 27 and 28. Tickets for the Open-Air Experience and Historic Walk are also available. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit https://lnkd.in/gWtv786u

Today, as we commemorate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in the United States, I’d like to share a short video filmed at a January 2019 Sunnylands gathering. These memories from Dr. King’s close friends and advisers never fail to inspire me. -- David Lane, president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands

On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Sunnylands hosted a naturalization ceremony in partnership with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Join us in congratulating the 50 applicants, who hail from the following 20 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. #newuscitizen #sunnylands #immigration #citizens

In Memoriam At the funeral of President Jimmy Carter in Washington D.C. today, Steven Ford read a eulogy on behalf of his late father, President Gerald Ford, who recounted the moment he and Carter forged what would become one of his “deepest and most enduring friendships.” “In the summer of 1981, the two of us found ourselves … aboard Air Force One bound for the funeral of the great peacemaker Anwar Sadat. There’s an old line to the effect that two presidents in a room is one too many. Frankly, I wondered how awkward that long flight might be to Cairo, and it was a long flight. But the return trip was not nearly long enough. For it was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics. We immediately decided to exercise one of the privileges of a former president, forgetting that either one of us had ever said harsh words about the other in the heat of battle. Then we got on to much more enjoyable subjects, discussing our families, our faith, and sharing our experiences in discovering that there is indeed life after the White House.” In this photo from the Sunnylands archive, Presidents Carter, Nixon, and Ford are shown aboard Air Force One on the trip to Cairo along with Leonore Annenberg, then chief of protocol for President Ronald Reagan. #carter #jimmycarter #airforceone #sunnylands #annenberg

One benefit of being a guide at Sunnylands is the summer internship opportunities we give then when we are closed for summer. In administration, we had 3 interns last summer. We asked them to talk about their experiences and our HR intern, Ramon Contreras, compiled the results: Ramon (HR): I learned about the recruitment process and creating policies. Although I learned a lot, there are other areas I would like to know more about, like leave of absences, workers’ compensation laws and the steps in that process. What I found surprising during my internship was the number of tasks that HR must accomplish. I also learned how important the HR department is to an organization for it to run smoothly. Lastly, the people who work together to create a good and stable HR department surprised me as well. Jude (IT): I got to learn about different aspects of our state-of-the-art security system.  I learned about different connections that we have and use around the property, such as the ethernet and fiber cables. One more skill I developed during my internship is cable management and how to clean up and reorganize and utilize better connections. There are things I want to learn more about, such as the different connections we use and the reasons why we should use fiber and ethernet in different situations. I want to learn more about the network servers we have around the property and what is the purpose they serve. I also want to learn about the Wi-Fi network and signal strength across the property. Things that surprised me during my internship was the learning management software project and how interesting it is to put together a training program. I was surprised that every building throughout the property was interconnected by fiber optic cable. I was also surprised to learn the process of registering new devices. Sophia (Finance): During my internship I learned to read and understand financial bills. I learned to understand the difference between accounts and their specific uses. I learned how a business functions and how large a role the Finance Department plays in helping it run smoothly. Throughout my internship I heard about audits. This piqued my interest in wanting to learn about audits, how they function and the purpose. The first thing that surprised me during my internship was the substantial number of accounts that the Finance Department uses, including the differences between them. The second surprise was the group of people that worked flawlessly together to create the Finance Department. I was surprised by the complexity to run an operation like Sunnylands. To cap off their experience, we enjoyed a celebratory lunch and competed in an escape room game (not that the interns wanted to escape from their summer assignments). And before you know it, we will be recruiting for our 2025 class of guides. A special shout out to Michaeleen Gallagher and Danielle Sombati who enhanced our guide and internship program and lead the efforts!

We're heading into the new year at Sunnylands with weekly wellness programs, new art workshops, and a special treat, a Family Day on Latin American art. https://lnkd.in/g4m-r4K5

Desert X returns to the Coachella Valley on March 8, but the first of the outdoor art exhibition's new works is now on display at Sunnylands.