5 weeks of rewarding experience to gain grassroots organizing skills with professional organizers.

The Student PIRGs Summer Internship program is designed for college students who are looking to increase their experience in political organizing and strategy. This 5 week long program provides interns with opportunities to build their leadership skills, political engagement, and interest in advocacy careers. Interns will work remotely on a variety of different campaigns and take part in weekly tactical workshops to develop their skills.

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 the professional organizing staff of The Student PIRGs.

The Campaign:

• New Voter Project: All interns will work on the Student PIRGs’ priority campaign to help students register to vote for the 2020 Elections. On Election Day, young people will be the largest and most diverse group of potential voters, with distinct values and ideas. The Student PIRGs is gearing up to run a massive non-partisan voter registration effort from Coast to Coast. This summer interns will work to wire campus communities to be ready for GOTV.

Responsibilities will include:

• Organizing political support. Student 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 increasing the youth vote.
• Devising an effective strategy to implement civic engagement plans on college campuses. Interns will work to craft effective tactics for the campus to use in the fall to increase voter participation and work to hit goals each week that elevate the status of our campaign work.
• Media outreach. Student 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. Each week interns will be taught grassroots campaigning skills from our professional staff, some of whom have worked in student organizing for over 30 years.

The list of skills workshops include:

• Digital campaigning- How to mobilize student voters in the time of COVID-19
• Working with the media –Generating media coverage on the youth vote
• 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

For Students on a Semester Schedule:

• We will run two 5 week long summer internship sessions.
  • Session I: May 26th- June 26th
  • Session II: June 29th- July 31st

For Students on a Quarter Schedule:

• June 26th – July 31st

Requirements:

10 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 in law, political science, public policy, sociology or environmental studies, but students in any area of study may apply. 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.