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, Filed Under: Internship

Project Vote Smart Internships

Project Vote Smart, a national non-profit and non-partisan political research and voter education organization, is currently accepting applications for its summer and fall internship programs located in Austin, Texas.  The organization, founded by a politically diverse group of leaders including former presidents Carter and Ford, provides information to the public regarding all aspects of political candidates and elected government officials.  By making this information freely available, Project Vote Smart aims to better prepare citizens to defend themselves from the political hype and misrepresentations that are characteristic of modern-day political campaigns.

Interns in our Austin office, located at the University of Texas at Austin’s Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, will work primarily on our legislative research program, covering legislation and key votes from all fifty states and Congress.  Daily tasks may include tracking local media sources and reports, compiling legislative voting records, summarizing and translating significant pieces of legislation into language the average voter can understand, and other duties as needed.  All interns perform substantive and meaningful work, and will never be asked to answer phones or make coffee.

Interns gain familiarity reading and interpreting actual legislation, and acquire valuable experience for those considering law school or working in any policy-related field.  Through their daily work, interns in our legislative research department are exposed to the important issues facing their state and the country, as well as the solutions being proposed by policymakers.  We are more than happy to work with students’ university departments in order to help them receive academic credit for their internship experience when possible.

Qualifications Description:

Required:

·         Excellent written communication skills

·         Strong desire to learn more about politics, policy, and the legislative process

·         Enthusiasm for Project  Vote Smart’s mission

·         Ability to remain nonpartisan

·         Ability to commit to at least 10 hours per week for the entire semester

 Preferred:

·         Research experience

·         Prior knowledge of the legislative process

 Applications will be accepted from all students regardless of academic major or educational institution. 

Application Instructions:

Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis.  To apply, send a resume and cover letter to the Internship Coordinator at ProjectVoteSmart@austin.utexas.edu.

, Filed Under: Internship

The Mickey Leland Environmental Internship Program

College students can learn about environmental issues and gain professional experience through a paid, full-time summer internship, either at the TCEQ or in the private sector.

You must meet all internship requirements to be eligible to participate.

  • Mickey Leland logo like us on FacebookYou must be an undergraduate student and have completed at least 60 semester hours at the end of the spring 2016 semester or be a current graduate student enrollee. This internship program is open to BOTH undergraduate AND graduate students.
  • You must be enrolled full time during the current spring semester and have a minimum academic grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale at the time of application.
  • You must be eligible to work in the United States.
  • You should be enrolled in environmental or other science-related disciplines including, but not limited to, the following:
    • biology
    • chemistry
    • geology
    • engineering
    • public health
    • public administration

Students pursuing the following majors are also encouraged to apply:

  • finance
  • accounting
  • business
  • computer science
  • law
  • communications
  • criminal justice

How Do I Apply?

First, submit an online application form. Applications accepted January 1, 2016 – March 11, 2016. It’s important that you submit your online application first before submitting any supporting documents.

Next, submit all of the following supporting documentation (may be submitted separately or together):

  • a professor’s letter of recommendation; only submit ONE letter of recommendation
  • current official academic transcript to include courses in progress current spring semester. A scanned and legible copy of official transcript may be submitted by student. Official transcript sealed and sent directly by university is also acceptable, but not required. Unofficial copy of transcript does not meet program requirements and will not be accepted.
  • verification of current spring semester enrollment (required if transcript does not list courses in progress current spring semester)E-mail documentation to: internship@tceq.texas.gov
    OR
    Mail documentation to:
    Mickey Leland Internship Program, MC 116
    Human Resources and Staff Services Division
    Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
    PO Box 13087
    Austin, TX 78711-3087

NOTE: Complete application packages (online application and all supporting documents) received by the March 11, 2016 deadline have the best opportunity for review and consideration by sponsors/managers.

Incomplete application packages (for example, missing the online application or related documents) may not be considered.

, 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