A semester of rewarding experience to gain grassroots organizing skills while working to commit our campuses to reduce single-use plastic pollution.

The Arizona PIRG Campus Action Internship and Volunteer program is designed for college students who are passionate about political engagement and looking to increase their experience in political organizing and strategy. This program provides interns with opportunities to build their leadership skills, political engagement, and interest in advocacy careers. Interns and volunteers will work remotely on one of our campaigns including phasing out single use plastics, turning out the youth vote, making higher education more affordable, and more! Students taking part in digital learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic can still apply and be considered for the position.

Internship Program Details

Our approach requires each intern not only to develop expertise in campaign strategy, but also to become skilled in organizing and the political process. As an intern you will work side by side with campus organizers working with students in Arizona.

The Campaigns:

• Break Free From Plastics: Interns will raise awareness and grassroots support from our campus community to leverage support for passing campus policy to eliminate single-use plastics. Interns will work to raise the voices of their peers, faculty, and media to show support for action.
• Hunger & Homelessness: Interns will address food and housing insecurity on and off campus by working with campus and community partners and organizing service projects, fundraising drives, educational awareness initiatives, and institutional changes.
• New Voters Project: Interns will work on the Arizona PIRG campaign to pass policy on campus that makes voting easier for everyone, especially students, by expanding vote my mail opportunities, on-campus voting, and other resources. Additionally, we will work to set our campuses up for the primaries and general elections in 2022.

Responsibilities for interns will include:

• Organizing political support. Arizona PIRG interns will help to broaden the constituency for our campaign, assist in building, organizing, and managing a coalition of groups that are interested in our campaigns.
• Devising an effective strategy to implement civic engagement plans on college campuses. Interns will work to craft effective tactics for the campus to use to increase participation on campus at all levels and set goals to win the campaigns.
• Media outreach. Arizona PIRG interns work to get our issues and opinions covered by the media, through news releases, “op-eds,” online webinars, and more.
• Attending a weekly skills workshop taught and led by Arizona PIRG Campus Organizers.
• Volunteers are welcome to assist in any of these responsibilities, given the interests of the individual

Examples of potential skills workshops:

• Digital campaigning- Voices for 100% Renewable Energy and stories of support from students and faculty
• Working with the media –Generating media coverage on the need to transition away from fossil fuels
• Running a meeting-From getting the right people in the “room/zoom” to facilitating a productive meeting
• Building diverse and effective coalitions and mobilizing student leaders
• Developing winning campaign strategies and tactics
• Public Speaking –in forums varying from virtual classrooms to town halls and press conferences
• Using social media to educate and mobilize

Internship Requirements:

• 10-15 hours per week
• A commitment to making a difference on issue based campaign work
• Strong organizational abilities
• The ability to engage others, whether one-on-one or in a group
• The ability to think strategically
• Strong writing and communication skills

Internships are available for undergraduate and graduate students from any major. Previous campaign and/or advocacy experience is a plus.

By providing my contact information, I am consenting to have the Student PIRGs, and their affiliates contact me with information about this and future campaigns.