Internship Details
- Internships are available for Fall, Spring, or Summer.
- Writing and researching topics in the field of sleep, complementary and alternative medicine, neurology, and restless legs syndrome.
- Internships include opportunities to work with leading experts in the field on assignments, revision of the Foundation’s library of educational materials, our advocacy outreach to increase awareness of RLS among policymakers, RLS survey, and blog posts for the Foundation’s Blog.
Dates: August 26 through November 15 for fall. January 25 through April 28 for spring.
Hours: 10 hours a week. Schedule is flexible; set deadlines for article submissions.
What You Get to Do: Interns work closely with editors on NightWalkers and eFriends as well as the RLS Foundation staff. Interns will help research, submit story ideas, and work on projects assigned for these publications and other Foundation materials including the RLS survey. A successful internship will result in several online bylines, published articles in NightWalkers, eFriends, and the Foundation’s Blog.
Internship Requirements:
- Professional attitude
- Strong writing and editing skills are a must
- Organized, self-starter, ability to meet deadlines, and strong interpersonal skillset
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Students working towards a Batchelor’s Degree in Pre-Med, Nursing, Biology, Chemistry, or Communications.
Compensation: Current internships are unpaid.
To Apply: Please email the following materials to the Executive Director, Karla Dzienkowski (karla@rls.org).
- Resume with a cover letter and two references. Cover letter explaining why you are a good fit for the RLS Foundation and what skills and talents you have that make you a standout candidate.
- Two writing sample (5-10 pages double spaced).
About the RLS Foundation
- Restless Legs Syndrome is a serious neurological disorder that affects up to 10% of the population, with 3% severely affected.
- The Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation is a §501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the millions of men, women, and children living with this devastating disease. Our goals are to conduct activities that promote awareness of the disease among the public and health care professional and to provide educational materials concerning research breakthroughs, available treatments, and personal stories, using both the broad reach of the web and the targeted power of authoritative printed materials. The Foundation is also active in seeking breakthrough treatments and cures for the disease; it sponsors the only research program devoted exclusively to those goals.
- Founded in 1992, the RLS Foundation is unique in its mission to serve the RLS community from a 100% patient-oriented perspective. Our members look to us for unbiased information on treatment modalities, including FDA-approved medications to relieve symptoms. They know and trust that their financial contributions help support our sponsorships to scientists engaged in basic and development research. Everything we do is directed toward providing information, support, and hope to everyone who has this disease.
- An independent Board of Directors composed of scientists, persons with RLS, businesspeople, and members with specialized skills (accounting, law, etc.) governs the Foundation. In addition, the Board has established an advisory group: The Scientific and Medical Advisory Board (SMAB). The SMAB ensures that the Foundation is aware of advances in both basic research and clinical knowledge.
- The Foundation maintains a website, a Facebook presence, a Twitter account, Instagram account, and publishes a quarterly members’ newsletter, NightWalkers, and monthly e-newsletter, eFriends.
- We take our mission of service to our members seriously. We fulfill that obligation in several ways, including responding to general medical questions in a column in NightWalkers and personally assisting members who call or write to us seeking information. Perhaps the most important direct service we provide is through our Support Groups. The Foundation has established a network of over 70 Support Groups in the United States and Canada. Led by dedicated trained volunteers, these Support Groups work at the local level to provide information to RLS sufferers, using Foundation materials.
- In addition to the Support Group Network, the Foundation relies upon a second network, a group we call our Quality Care Centers. Staffed by RLS experts with extensive experience treating individuals suffering from the disease, our Quality Care Centers are located at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Stanford in Palo Alto, The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Houston Methodist in Houston, Yale in New Haven, Massachusetts General in Boston, Emory in Atlanta, Vanderbilt in Nashville, Scripps in San Diego, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland in Switzerland and the Innsbruck Medical University in Austria.
- More information can be found on our website at https://www.rls.org/.