What is the Sierra
Club?
The Sierra Club's members and supporters are
more than 2.4 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together
to protect our communities and the planet. Founded in 1892, the Club is
America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental
organization. Our mission is to: (1) Explore, enjoy, and protect the wild
places of the earth; (2) Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s
ecosystems and resources; (3) Educate and enlist humanity to protect and
restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and (4) Use all
lawful means to carry out these objectives.
Internship
Responsibilities
In this internship, you will directly assist candidates running for public
office that the Sierra Club has endorsed. The Sierra Club has an extremely
rigorous endorsement process and focuses on the most competitive races with the
best environmentally-minded candidates. In this internship, we will train you
on the basic skills of campaign organizing, educate you about environmental
issues impacted by politics, and then deploy you to be part of a candidate’s
campaign for two to three months. Potential responsibilities include helping
organize fundraisers for a candidate, coordinating voter contact, organizing
phone banks, recruiting Sierra Club members to volunteer for a candidate,
canvassing, coordinating press conferences and press releases for a candidate,
helping with a candidate’s earned media strategy, running social media accounts
for a candidate, policy or campaign research, performing data entry and office
work.
Qualifications
The ideal applicant will have an interest in politics, knowledge or interest in
environmental issues, be proficient in Microsoft Office applications,
and have experience with google drive, facebook, twitter, blogs, and email.
Applicants must be able to communicate effectively, take direction on projects,
work independently, be flexible, and be prepared for a fun and fast-paced
campaign environment.
Logistics
Internship positions are available in 2016 for the fall semester (September-November).
This internship is unpaid but comes with a small stipend and can earn you class
credit (you will need to work this out with your academic advisor). The
internship is coordinated through our Lansing office but you will be deployed
to work for a campaign that is somewhere close to where you are located. Interns
must be available to attend a full-day training on Saturday, September 10th.
Internships can be arranged for between 5 to 40 hours per week with flexible
scheduling.
To apply, send your resume to Mike Berkowitz at mike.berkowitz@sierraclub.org,
with a brief (one-two paragraphs) statement describing your interest in this
internship. The application deadline is Monday, September 5th.
Results
People who participate in this Political Internship often go on to achieve
professional and academic success. After interning, multiple interns have
become lawyers, social workers, political campaign managers, Sierra Club
employees, staffers for other non-profit organizations, elected officials, and
professors. Many former interns also achieve leadership roles within the Sierra
Club Michigan Chapter such as Political Committee Representatives, Legislative
Committee Representatives, Citizen Lobbyists, and campaign leaders.
