HAMILTON, Ohio — For students at regional and community colleges, it’s not always the typical college experience. But for students at Miami University’s regional campuses, they’re making sure they still get hands-on experiences. 

For Kiah Morris, that internship is a reality at the Miami Valley Ballet Theatre. Morris put her artistic talents to good use by helping create costumes for the most recent show of Beauty and the Beast.

The junior is majoring in community art and artistic art and this internship was required through her program and gave her a hands-on experience.

“I have that crafty side in me, so just realizing I could make costume pieces and things like that, I knew it was going to be great," Morris said.

Morris was involved in theater in high school.

“It honestly filled me with joy because I just remembered my theatre days and I’ve been itching to get back into that," she said.

Now it’s opening up new possibilities.

“You get a lot of experience through internships and you just get to make a lot of great connections," Morris said. "I think that was the biggest thing for me. I didn’t realize how many amazing connections I was going to make.”

She made her connections through weekly walks around downtown Hamilton.

Michelle Davis, the artistic director at the theatre, took Morris around Hamilton to introduce her to other business owners.

“I thought it was important for her to understand as a director of a non-profit that it’s a really important part of your job to make those community connections," Davis said.

Davis, a Miami grad, participated in the program for the first time but says it won’t be her last.

“It’s hard to get people to just do whatever you need them to do," Davis said. "And it’s hard sometimes as the director to delegate things because I know exactly how they need to be done. And I think because she had a history in theatre and also had that artistic background, she also really understood what we needed.”