Archives for November 2021

November 11, 2021, Filed Under: Internship

The Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights & Social Justice – Spring 2022

The Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights & Social Justice honors the life and work of Barbara Harlow (1948-2017), who was the Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature at the University of Texas. She was a committed colleague, friend, and mentor to countless students, activists, and intellectuals. As a collaboration between the Rapoport Center and the Bridging Disciplines Programs (BDP), the internship aims to introduce BDP students to Harlow’s scholarship and activism, and to encourage them to imagine future trajectories for her work.

This internship is chosen to honor Barbara Harlow because it was largely through her efforts that the Rapoport Center and the BDP partnered to create the Human Rights & Social Justice BDP certificate in 2009. Harlow chaired the faculty panel for the certificate from its inception until 2017. While the internship is open to all BDP students, regardless of which certificate they are pursuing, it is meant for students who are working on issues of social justice.

Barbara Harlow’s intellectual praxis crossed continents and encompassed diverse agendas: resistance, translation, political engagement and solidarity, human rights, and pedagogy. She contributed greatly to the University of Texas at Austin, not only through the English department, the Rapoport Center, and the BDP, but through several area studies programs and centers, including African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Studies. To learn more about her life and work, please visit the Rapoport Center’s tribute page and the website for our 2017 conference, Barbara Harlow: The Sequel.

Fall, spring, and summer internships are available for undergraduates who are interested in:

Working on human rights and social justice research and advocacy projects
Learning how an academic center functions
Engaging in human rights scholarship
Gaining practical experience
Collaborating with faculty, staff, and students

The internship is made possible by seed money that Harlow gifted to the Rapoport Center and the BDP. Though the internship is similar to the Rapoport Center’s standard undergraduate internship, it offers a higher stipend and requires three additional components:

In the cover letter, students should reflect (in one paragraph) on how Harlow’s scholarship and activism might influence their work with the Rapoport Center and their pursuit of human rights and social justice more broadly.
During the internship, each recipient will write a piece for our Human Rights Commentary page, which either engages directly with Harlow’s work or uses her work as a lens through which to engage critically with a topic.
After the internship, each recipient will create a poster to reflect on the internship, taking into account Harlow’s impact on their experience, and present it at the Annual BDP poster session in April. (Fall and Summer interns will submit at the end of their respective term, and then present in April.)

Interns play an important role at the Rapoport Center and support various initiatives depending on their background, interest, and the needs of the Center. Primary duties include:

Assisting with research and advocacy projects
Supporting the coordination and publicity of events and programs
Expanding the Center’s social media outreach
Providing administrative support for Center programs
Contributing written work for press releases, website, and Annual Review publications
Serving as liaison to UT undergraduate community and helping develop Center’s undergraduate outreach
Writing and editing articles, designing layout, and working extensively with the software program InDesign for the Center’s Annual Review publication
Assisting Co-Directors, Assistant Director, Postdoctoral Fellow, Human Rights Scholars, graduate students, and affiliated faculty with other projects and tasks as assigned

Selected interns should be available at least 10 hours per week during the semester, and 20 hours per week during the summer. Depending on funding, between one and three internships will be offered per year. Students who are not selected for the Barbara Harlow Internship may be considered for our standard undergraduate internship.

We are pleased to honor Harlow’s legacy in this way, and we look forward to continuing our support of undergraduate students in her name. Please scroll down for application information.

Former Recipients

Summer 2021: Angelina Ramirez

Spring 2021: Sanika Nayak

Summer 2020: Jacob Blas

Spring 2020: Bianca (Nieves) Vázquez

Fall 2019: Carol-Armelle Ze-Noah

Spring 2019: Carlos Pinon

Fall 2018: Christina Cho

Summer 2018: Mehdia Mrabet

Spring 2018: Xavier Durham

Read Xavier’s Human Rights Commentary, titled “Marielle Franco and the Brazilian Necropolis: Assassination and After Lives”

Please note: This internship is only open to BDP students. If you are not a BDP student, please consider our standard undergraduate internship.

Application

The internship will begin on January 18, 2022 and will run until the end of the Spring 2022 semester.

Preferred Qualifications & Interests

For Spring 2022, we are particularly interested in interns who can help us with continued project-related follow-up to our 2021 Pop-Up Institute, “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality.” The project focuses on exploring pressing questions around the future of work addressing diverse themes such as care work, essential work, automation, and the global dimensions of worker precarity.

Projects may include the following:

Maintaining the website for the Rapoport Center’s Pop-Up Institute “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality,” and other project-related follow-up.
Engage in human rights research and writing
Expand the Center’s social media outreach
Serve as liaison to UT undergraduate community and help develop Center’s undergraduate outreach

Required Qualifications

Commitment to working on issues of human rights and justice
Excellent writing and editing ability
Individual initiative and flexibility
Strong organizational and time management skills
Professional demeanor

The following qualifications may be preferred in some candidates:

Priority:

Website development experience (including the curation and organization of public-facing digital material)
Demonstrated expertise with videography, podcasts, and/or webisode production
Demonstrated expertise with publication and graphic design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite)
Demonstrated interest in themes such as care work, essential work, automation, and the global dimensions of worker precarity

Also:

Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese
Experience with scholarly research and editing
Journalism experience

How to Apply

Qualified students should submit the following items through our online application system.

Cover letter
State why you are interested in the position; demonstrate basic knowledge of our programs and activities. Reflect (in one paragraph) on how Barbara Harlow’s scholarship and activism might influence your work with the Rapoport Center and your pursuit of human rights and social justice more broadly.
CV/Resume
Indicate any relevant skills and foreign language proficiency
Transcript
Unofficial is acceptable; an official copy can be mailed or emailed if needed, to arrive by the application due date
List of three references
At least two must be UT faculty; include name, title, and contact information; full letters not required
Writing sample
3-5 pages; does not need to relate directly to human rights, although that is preferable

Deadline

November 19, 2021

Contact

Contact Rapoport Center Administrative Associate at sabrina.barton@austin.utexas.edu

November 11, 2021, Filed Under: Internship

Internships with The The Salvation Army, Austin Area Command – Spring 2022

About The Salvation Army – Austin Area Command

The Salvation Army is the largest provider of emergency shelter in Central Texas. Inspired by our Christian mission, we do so much to lift those in crisis in our community. True to our motto of Doing The Most Good, we annually we serve over 10,000 Central Texans. Each year we provide over 100,000 nights in shelter, relief for disaster victims, addition rehabilitation, clothing, meals, holiday support, ~$2 million on direct client assistance, and case manage hundreds from crisis to stability and self-sufficiency.

Area Command is the administrative headquarters for our two-county operation in Central Texas. Supporting our three area shelters and Williamson County Service Center, we are a dynamic leadership team responsible for fundraising/development, communications, volunteers, Human Resources, IT, and finance.

Role Description

Interns: Development (Fundraising) / Events / Communications / Volunteers

Assist our energetic, highly-motivated, and very successful development team of nine professionals with various fundraising, volunteer, event and communication projects. Will include hands-on experience of assigned projects including strategic planning, logistics, execution, and evaluation. Interns will have assigned deliverables and accountability to project leaders, and will be able to show results via end-of-term portfolio. Leaders are willing to write reference/performance letters and complete internship-for-college-course-credit paperwork.

10 – 12 hours per week, flexible from Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, may include minimal hours worked remotely and/or offsite. Office is located at 4700 Manor Road. Casual, nice office attire required. Reliable, personal transportation is recommended but not required.

In addition to regular office hours, each internship includes attendance at:

Two-hour orientation the week of January 24 (mutually determined date and time)
Three-hour shift in support of Doing The Most Good Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency either
- (1) the evening of February 9 (pack up, move in, set up) from 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.
- OR
- (2) February 10 (registration, event execution, clean up) from 7:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Four-hour shift at our fundraising event at TopGolf on May 13 from 4:30 – 8:30 p.m.
4 three-hour shifts at our family shelters with volunteers and children – flexible, will include evening and weekend options.

Must pass a background check before the January 24 start date and complete our “Safe from Harm” online course by February 4.

Applications due December 8. Please include an updated resume including work, volunteer, and leadership experience, relevant skills and coursework, and overall GPA. Please also include a thoughtful cover letter stating what you hope to get out of an internship at The Salvation Army and specifically with the development staff. Incomplete applications and/or generic cover letters will not be considered.

Selections announced by December 15; start date is the week of January 24. Internship pay is $10/hour as a part time employee of The Salvation Army with an estimate of 200 hours over the course of the four months.

Specific opportunities: Interns will be involved in various tasks across one or more disciplines listed below. Please note: actual job assignments and projects may shift based on current team priorities and/or other interns’ interests, skills, and expertise.

Communications: Assist with media relations and writing projects including blog posts, social media posts, and press releases. Assist with videography – client and stakeholder interviews including storyboarding, filming and editing; master calendaring of communication projects; graphic design support and skill acquisition. Assist with researching and archiving external communications including all media articles, social media posts, media mentions as well as social media statistics and analytics.

Fundraising: Assist with donor relations: writing projects, donor research, scheduling of donor meetings, writing and mailing donation acknowledgement letters and thank you notes, answering donor phone and email inquiries. Assist with foundation and corporate funder research, grant proposal and report writing, editing and submissions. Assist with late winter thank you project of board members reaching out to major donors as well as springtime fundraising appeals. Learn basic gift processing, database updates, and donor interaction/communication entries.

Volunteers: Assist with promoting volunteer opportunities, setting up shifts online, helping volunteers sign up for shifts. Assist with shifts at family shelters including craft projects, story time, gardening, outdoor sports (i.e. basketball), etc. Help with birthday celebrations for the children in our shelters and special activities. Work closely with shelter case workers to ensure clients in shelter receive special project items/donations.

Events: Assist with the planning and day of execution of Doing the Most Good Breakfast 2022, Swing FORE Austin at TopGolf 2022, and other 2022 events. Assist with Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary events if requested and school schedule allows. Event tasks could include graphic design and wording of various event collateral pieces (invitations, email reminders, event program and PPT presentation), assisting with guest registration and donor relations, help with run of show and “on stage” activities, interface with vendors and collaborative partners for streamlined, guest-centric experience. Assist with the planning and execution of board meetings and other outward facing activities.

For more information, and to apply, please visit our posting on Handshake.