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, Filed Under: Internship

Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice – Summer 21

Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice

The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice is now accepting applications for the Summer 2021 Barbara Harlow Internship in Human Rights and Social Justice. This internship, which offers a modest stipend, is only open to BDP students. Our summer 2021 internships will be remote. Applications will be due by midnight on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

The Barbara Harlow Internship 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. Read more about Harlow and about the internship here.

Harlow interns bring excitement and expanded capabilities to the Rapoport Center and play an important role, supporting various initiatives depending on their background, interest, and the needs of the Center. For Summer 2021, we are particularly interested in interns who can help support the Rapoport Center’s brand new Pop-Up Institute “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality.” The institute itself will run from the end of May and into June and will require important project-related follow-up in its aftermath throughout the summer. It will focus 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.

Summer 2021 projects may include the following:

  • Help to plan, organize, and support the Rapoport Center’s brand new Pop-Up Institute “Beyond the Future of Work: New Paradigms for Addressing Global Inequality.” Related tasks include developing and maintaining the project website, curating and organizing public-facing digital material for the project, and other project-related follow-up.
  • Work on the publication of the Center’s Annual Review by writing and editing articles, designing layout, and working extensively with the software program InDesign
  • Engage in human rights research and writing
  • Expand the Center’s social media outreach
  • Serve as liaison to UT undergraduate community (through the Human Rights Student Advisory Council) 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

Additional Information & Expectations

Our summer 2021 internships will be remote. Selected interns should be available at least 20 hours per week during the summer. Though the internship is similar to the Rapoport Center’s standard undergraduate internship, the Harlow internship 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 (see below).
  • 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.)

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: Midnight, Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Contact: Rapoport Center Assistant Director Sarah Eliason at seliason@law.utexas.edu.

, Filed Under: Internship

Equal Justice Center Internship – Summer 21

Workers’ Rights Undergraduate Internship

Organization Profile: Equal Justice Center (EJC) is a non-profit public interest law firm and employment justice organization, which empowers low-wage workers to achieve workplace justice regardless of their immigration status. We provide legal representation that enables workers recover unpaid wages and combat other basic injustices they encounter in the workplace. We work for systemic reforms that strengthen employment rights and expand access to the justice system for all working people. We have internship positions available for the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters in our Austin office. Internships will run concurrently with the beginning and end of the student’s semester.

Intake/Outreach Position

Qualifications: Spanish Fluency Preferred

Time commitment: 10 hours per week.

Job Description:

  • Conducts detailed in-person and telephonic interviews with workers who are seeking legal assistance
  • Assist staff attorneys to analyze the workers’ legal needs and available remedies
  • Create and maintain up to date case information in our online management system
  • Assist in our community outreach and education efforts by distributing literature on jobsites, business and community events.

Learning opportunities: Interns are not required but are invited to attend an intensive crash course, alongside UT Law clinic students, to learn the basics of the substantive law and practice methods employed by EJC. The internship will also provide substantial onthe-job training in subjects including workers’ rights, labor and employment law, contract law, litigation practice, and public interest advocacy.

Academic credit: Academic credit toward your major is likely available, please inquire with your college/university requirements.

Cycle Deadlines: Applications are accepted on a rolling admission basis, but we recommend you consider the following deadlines:

  • Summer: April 1st

Contact: If you are interested in this position, please apply using this online form. For questions, you can find our contact information on our website.

, Filed Under: Internship

Internship Available with the Wye River Group – Spring 21

Wye River Group Overview

Wye River Group is a nonpartisan, not for profit entity, which serves as catalyst to raise awareness and broaden perspectives to enable cross stakeholder engagement. The organization tackles challenging public policy issues such as water and health and health care.

Based in Washington DC WRG and its sister organization GKEN.org (Global Knowledge Exchange Network) create an intellectual exchange of fresh ideas in a neutral environment, employing a dynamic process that works to stay ahead of emerging trends. We identify and advance approaches that build on the value of consensus and public private partnerships.

The strength of this work rests on the active engagement of a cross-section of stakeholders committed to advancing common goals. The unique, inclusive process employed in reaching agreement on issues helps ensure its long term viability in the public policy arena and in the marketplace.

Our success depends on maintaining our position as neutral catalyst skilled at creating an environment of trust and in setting the stage for dialogue involving diverse interests within an ‘apolitical’ philosophical framework.

For more information, please visit wrgh.org.

Texas Alliance on Health Internship

The Texas Alliance for Health Care was created as a resource to lawmakers in anticipation of changes in the Affordable Care Act. We are a diversified group of stakeholders from private and public sectors representing hospitals, health plans, philanthropy, community clinics, providers, business, and public health. Our goal is to provide well thought out research that will inform and offer guidance as to the impact of proposed changes in the finance and delivery of health care in Texas.

We are seeking an intern to support our current project Texas Advisory on Public Health Infrastructure. The intern(s)  will support our roll out of op eds and monitoring legislative committee and chamber discussions on three topics; interoperability of health-related data, use of Universal Patient Identifiers, and E-Passports  during the upcoming 2021 legislative session.

Texas Advisory on Public Health Infrastructure is using the process described below to manage the creation of a set of consensus recommendations and principles initially delivered to lawmakers in November 2020.

Our objective is to provide Texas leadership with thoughtful recommendations for addressing unexpected public health crisis. We want to ensure our state policies and practices are optimally informed and that we have in place the necessary tools for addressing the three R’s: our readiness to respond, our response itself and our recovery tools.

We have selected three areas within public health to focus on: workforce, surveillance, and public health infrastructure.  These are suggested areas and we welcome your ideas.

The project is currently underway and will be ongoing  through June 2021. You will report directly to Jon Comola, Founder of WRG. Communication will be remote through conference calls and internet. This is a non-paid position.

Supporting front line workers with real time peer to peer facilitated coaching Internship

We propose to vet and pilot the creation of an app to support front line workers. Interns would experience how to build public policy support and how to test the application of sourcing front lines to real time digital support. The internship will run through the summer of 2021.

We see too many front-line workers from health care workers, to fire and police, suffering in silence. They have some of the highest suicide rates, they burnout and live with poor mental health as a  result of their stress.

We propose to support these populations with real time peer to peer support with a professional facilitator to address their emotional and psychological needs.

Many front-line workers are not comfortable using their organizations Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for fear of retribution or stigma. This leaves them very few options to receive the support they need.

We propose the creation of a wide array of tools that are delivered through a digital platform (an app).  While this idea is not new, existing platforms are associated with employers or payers and have not successfully engaged the target audience. improve lives.

The app would be available to anyone who wants to use it. It will be anonymous using avatars, completely independent from the employer an insurance company The app will be funded independent of the employer insurance companies, be available 24/7, scalable, and accessible anywhere anytime via your telephone.

We have conducted hours of due diligence research and interviewed dozens of experts in order to harness their experience and help us successfully construct a digital platform delivered through an app.

We propose to initially pilot the use of the app with Kaiser Permanente. We will target a cohort of their population and tailor the apps services to their level of sophistication. We will offer participants peer to peer facilitated discussions with options from online group chat rooms, individual messaging or referrals for those that need a higher order of intervention. They will have access to a wide array of proven tips, tools delivered digitally.

This app will provide a robust platform accessible to individual front line workers from health care to law enforcement. Individuals would access the app when they need a mechanism to de-stress, interrupt anxious thoughts or outright panic, make sense of their situation or calm their fears. (Picture your trusted friend in your pocket, ready to listen without judgment and available to advise when you want advice)

The conversations on this app will be anonymous, so the design should be one that communicates a calming, compassionate, and trusted feeling. This could be reassuring the user about the anonymity of the platform on loading screens or using templated hand drawn avatars for profiles.

We are all too familiar with burnout, suicide and the mental stress that confronts front line workers and it’s time to create something that meets them where they are and gets the care they badly need.

The project is currently underway and will be ongoing  through August 2021. You will report directly to Jon Comola, Founder of WRG. Communication will be remote through conference calls and internet.

If interested in any of the positions listed above, please contact Jon Comola, Founder of WRG, by email at jrcomola@wrgh.org.