UT Shield

Environment & Sustainability

, Filed Under: Internship

Institute for Policy Studies 2016 Summer Next Leaders Paid Internship Program

Calling all emerging change-makers!

The Institute for Policy Studies seeks dedicated young folks hungry for systemic transformation to join our Next Leaders Summer Program. Let’s be clear– this isn’t your typical summer internship. The world crisis in governance, economic stability, and ethical guidance demands that we do our best to prepare to secure and sustain a more just, green, and peaceful future starting, well, yesterday. The Next Leaders Program aims to compel action by sharpening young voices and new ideas through training in public scholarship, a term we define as the connection between policy research and grassroots activism. Team up with us for this 10 week program, and you can forget fetching coffee and filing folders!

THE EXPERIENCE

Our program is broken into 3 parts:

  1. Workshop and Events Series – We’ve prepared a curriculum of weekly workshops and events geared toward the following:
    • Building community within your cohort
    • Sparking inter-generational dialogue to brainstorm around new pressure points in the policy world
    • Sharing skills needed to become a successful public scholar
    • Providing a crash course on the frameworks, history, and current events of the progressive movement and policy sphere
  2. Mentorship – Each participant will get hands-on experience by working on one of our projects and will receive individualized mentorship and training from one of our IPS public scholars. Participants will be selected to work on an internship in one of the following focus areas:
  3. Coalition Lab – A centerpiece of our definition of public scholarship is that we work on ideas with movement allies. Through our Coalition Lab you’ll not only get plugged into the larger progressive network, but you’ll also be exposed to best practices of coalition building, grassroots activism, and organizing.

COMPENSATION AND ACADEMIC CREDIT

While we’re excited about the training experience we’re offering, we also know that you can’t pay for groceries with experience; therefore, we offer an hourly wage of $11.50 for 30 hours weekly to offset the cost of working with IPS while you help us build the future of the progressive movement.

IPS firmly believes that financial barriers shouldn’t exclude people from internship opportunities, and we are grateful to our donors who have made it possible to ensure this internship is paid. However, we strongly encourage applicants to find resources through their schools and other scholarships. Many schools offer assistance for summer internship programs, and we ask that all applicants explore those options first in order to allow us to accept a greater number of interns that do not have access to those resources.

Interns may also receive academic credit, and IPS is happy to assist interns in filling out any requisite forms to help with the credit process.

WHEN TO APPLY, IMPORTANT DATES, AND INTERNSHIP TERM

Summer 2016 Application Deadline: March 31, 2016

April 5-15, 2016 Applicants will be contacted for interviews and notified of acceptance to the program during this time. Due to the high volume of applications, only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.
June 6, 2016 Internship begins
August 11, 2016 Internship ends

Interns are expected to be available Monday-Thursday (30 hours per week). Please state your availability on your application. While we can offer some flexibility around the start date for students in the quarter system, we want to plan our workshop series with the highest level of attendance possible.

HOW TO APPLY

Our ideal applicants will be interested in exploring lasting careers in social justice, will be conversational and persuasive writers, and have a deep belief in intersectional, equitable solutions. Although we are not explicitly limiting our applicant pool, we believe that rising Juniors, Seniors, recent graduates, and first year master’s students will gain the most out of this program.

Part 1:  Please fill out the application form. You are welcome to apply for up to two internship positions (descriptions listed in depth below).

Part 2:  When you’ve submitted your form, please send your resume and a 2-page writing sampleto nextleaders@ips-dc.org with “Next Leaders Application 2016” in the subject line. For your writing sample, we say, go wild! This can be a blog piece, an essay excerpt, a letter to the editor for a newspaper, an article in your school’s newspaper, etc.  (If you’re applying for the Visual Communication/Design internship, please also include samples of your graphic design work.)

Feel free to provide a couple sentences of context if you’re excerpting your selection from a larger piece. The important thing is for us to get a sense of something you’re passionate about…oh, and, we’d love to see if you can string a sentence together too

, Filed Under: Employment Opportunity, Internship

Paid Student position at the Environmental Defense Fund

Office Assistant, Cuba Oceans Program Environmental Defense Fund

Location: Austin, TX
Term: February – May 2016
Hours: 100 hr. flexible week to week Pay: $9.00/hr
Position Description:

EDF’s Cuba Oceans Program is looking for a part time Office Assistant to support the Manager in weekly administrative work. The office assistant would work a total of 100 hrs. over the Spring semester with flexible hours depending on work load and availability with a maximum of 10 hrs. in 1 week. This is an opportunity for a student interested in marine conservation and U.S.-Cuba relations on the environment to learn about EDF’s work and provide administrative support.

Tasks include:

  1. Creating and managing an excel database of contacts and partners
  2. Managing document library using an online platform
  3. Reviewing U.S.-Cuba news
  4. Organizing supplies and handling printing and mailings for trainings/ workshop events
  5. Other administrative duties dependent on needs and candidate’s skills and interests

Qualifications:

  •   Exceptional organizational skills
  •   Trustworthy and able to use guidance to work independently at times
  •   Able to work from EDF office or from home/campus when needed
  •   Proficiency in Spanish desired, but not required

    To apply please send resume and cover letter to Valerie Miller at vmiller@edf.org with “Office Assistant” and your name in the subject line.

 

Background Information: With world attention focused on both the environment and the economy, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is where policymakers and business leaders turn for win-win solutions. This leading green group, with programs from Boston to Beijing, has tripled in size over the past decade by focusing on strong science, uncommon partnerships and market-based approaches. You can be part of a vibrant workplace that welcomes diverse perspectives, talents and contributions, where innovation and a focus on results are a way of life.

EDF Oceans Program: The Oceans Program works to find constructive solutions to the most critical problems threatening the world’s marine environments. At the national, regional, and international levels, our team of scientists, attorneys and economists are working with fishermen to establish fair and sensible limits on their catch that will allow fisheries to recover. EDF’s Oceans Program works to improve the health of the oceans via innovative and durable solutions to today’s toughest fishery management challenges. Our Oceans Program has focused on fisheries in the waters of the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean and Europe and is beginning to implement its strategy to influence fisheries reform globally to ensure more fish in the water, more food on the plate, and more prosperous communities.

Cuba Oceans Program Description:

Since 2000, EDF has become a trusted partner and resource for Cuban policymakers, managers, scientists, fishermen, community leaders and NGOs. We have successfully worked with Cuban experts to protect Cuba’s coastal and marine resources, which are among the most vibrant in the Caribbean. When Cuba committed to establish a network of marine parks several years ago, EDF helped Cuban scientists identify priority habitat areas for protection; since then, Cuba has set a goal to protect 25% of its coastal waters. Our projects have also included developing strategies to implement new coastal laws and policies, supporting ecological and economic research in the Jardines de la Reina National Park, and assessing the feasibility of developing renewable ocean energy projects off the northern coast of Cuba.

Our current projects focus on improving fisheries management, implementing a national strategy for conserving shark populations that EDF helped design, and training scientists on tools for assessing and managing fish stocks when data is limited. Since 2013, EDF has been a partner in SOS Pesca, a community-based project to protect coral reefs, end overfishing and improve the livelihoods of residents along Cuba’s south coast. This past year, EDF also facilitated a dialogue between the U.S. and Cuba on protecting shared marine resources, which has resulted in an unprecedented agreement between NOAA and the Cuban National Center for Protected Areas to collaborate on the science and management of coral reef ecosystems. EDF also helped broker a broader U.S.-Cuba environmental agreement that will expand opportunities for sharing knowledge and technology between the two countries.

EDF is poised to expand on the foundation we have built in Cuba over the past 15 years and help ensure the country can preserve its extraordinary natural heritage and create new economic opportunities for coastal residents in the face of a changing climate and a more open society. We share a vision with our Cuban partners that Cuba can thrive, with resilient, productive and sustainable coastal ecosystems that support a growing economy and a more prosperous population.

, Filed Under: Internship

Spring Internships with Compost Pedallers

Marketing and Digital Communications Intern
Overview: With this marketing internship, you’ll gain experience working in a face-paced startup environment. You’ll be a member of a digital marketing team with autonomy over your projects and flexibility to bring original ideas to your work.

20 Hours/ week

Flexible work schedule

Unpaid with opportunities for advancement

Duties:

– Manage Compost Pedallers Twitter, facebook, and instagram accounts
– Assist with blog and email newsletter content creation
– Assist in the organization of email lists and the production of email campaigns
-Assist with press releases and media relations

Requirements:

– Experience managing social media accounts
– Strong writing skills
– Work well in a team AND have confidence taking responsibility over individual projects
– High energy and positive outlook with a can-do attitude
– Have a basic knowledge of composting and an interest in learning more
– Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit

Operations Intern: 

Internship Description:

The purpose of this internship is to help document and standardize the way we do things in order to make our team more effective and make our program more easily replicated. You will also be providing general support for the operations team to ensure successful compost collections.

Duties:
– Work with operations team to produce and update written instructions for various operational processes.
– Assist with route creation.
– Assist with data management.

Qualifications:
We are looking for a process-oriented, self-starter who is passionate, organized and good with numbers.
-Strong written and verbal communicative skills
-Strong analytical skills
-Passion for sustainability and making a difference.

Requirements:
-Must be currently enrolled in a university and working toward a degree
-Must have availability for 15-20 hours a week
-Must have reliable transportation and a computer

Apply here: