Fall 2022-Spring 2023 Climate School Internships
Provided by Columbia Climate School Internship opportunities Work in various administrative, communication, and research roles on climate and sustainability-related projects during the Fall 2022-Spring 2023 semester. Current full-time Columbia and Barnard students (undergraduate, masters and Ph.D.) are eligible to apply.
Fall 2022-Spring 2023 internship positions include:
- Climate Education for All
- Columbia University Low Carbon Materials Social Media
- Imagining a Diverse Climate Future – Meetup Series and Public Sessions
- Wildfire Policy in the American West
- Building a circular community
Application:
Finish Apply online Until Tuesday, August 30 at 11:55pm. Although you can apply for multiple positions, you must submit a separate application for each position.
Contact Yana Zeltser (yz2321@columbia.edu) something wrong.
Full-time students at Columbia and Barnard are eligible to apply. Positions are funded at a rate of $21.50/hour for a maximum of 10 hours per week and a combined maximum of 240 hours for the fall and spring semesters from September through May. A decision will be made shortly after the deadline.
Students selected for positions are expected to participate in the Climate School Student Research Showcase in Spring 2023.
Internship job description:
Position: Climate Education for All
department: Teachers College Sustainable Future Center
Project Objectives: This project is part of the New York City Partnership for Sustainable Education. This research-practice partnership brings together teams from the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Sustainability and Columbia University Teachers College to better understand and ultimately improve how schools support New York City’s Sustainable Development Goals. This project seeks to understand differences between schools serving students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. To do this, we will analyze school-level data showing how sustainability coordinators are involved in climate change education and whether there is a correlation between this involvement and student numbers.
Expected task: Interns will support PIs in tasks related to data management, data analysis, and communications. More specifically, they will take the lead in preparing the dataset for analysis (merge, reconcile, clean, record), and the intern will participate in the analysis of the newly created database with the research team. Interns will also prepare memos and visualizations. PI will invite interns to contribute to the publication.
Required skills: Interns are required to demonstrate the following skills:
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel (eg: vlookup function, charts);
- Working knowledge of statistics (descriptive, inferential, multivariate);
- Working knowledge of Stata (loop and coding experience preferred);
- excellent writing skills;
- Ability to work independently and in teams;
- Familiarity with visualization tools is a plus.
Location: Columbia University Low Carbon Materials Social Media
department: GSAPP Natural Materials Laboratory
Project Objectives: The project aims to advance low-carbon materials activity at Columbia University and beyond. Intern will write articles for the Natural Materials Lab website, post content to social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and plan and execute events, all at the intersection of low carbon, natural and non-toxic building materials and construction technology.
Expected task: As part of the program, interns will be tasked with developing strategies, writing and managing activities. Specific tasks include updating news on the lab’s website, writing short essays, convening scholars from Columbia University focused on the physical world and its life cycle, arranging speaker consortia, and managing podcast recordings.
Required skills: This position requires excellent organizational and communication skills, as well as experience in blogging and/or social media content development. Visual graphics, including Adobe software suite. Experience and passion for designing and curating art is a big plus.
Location: Imagining a Diverse Climate Future – Meetup Series and Public Sessions
department: Earth Network Project
Project Objectives: Imagining a diverse climate future is at the heart of the Climate Imagine Network community-building program. There are two components: a co-created dinner series to build trust in the fall semester, leading to a public-facing interdisciplinary event in the spring that imagines a different climate future. The project aims to (1) build trust and community among diverse communities in Columbia and community affiliates who come together to share meals they cooked together during the fall semester to co-create a public-facing conference on the use of creativity Tools to imagine a different climate future.
Expected task: Assist in selecting a diverse (race, gender, Columbia affiliation, career stage) team of attendees at fall semester dinners as the backbone for planning spring events; liaise with venues and assist with meal planning; attend and take notes at all fall semester gatherings and action items; assist in co-creation of the spring semester session.
Required skills: An IDCF intern should be: a self-employed entrepreneur who is willing to take the initiative; a creative and lateral thinker with experience and interest in creative industries and event planning across diversity; a passionate communicator who is able to engage with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds Build connections, including non-academic and non-student audiences; tech-savvy planner, familiar with social media and strong time management skills.
Location: Wildfire Policy in the American West
department: Columbia University Sustainability Undergraduate Program
Project Objectives: The project will identify types of policies and initiatives, assess their effectiveness in reducing risk to communities, and track funding pathways to determine funding availability for effective policies. It will include recommendations for policy development and budgeting to effectively reduce wildfire risk in communities. The results will help answer the question: Which policies are most effective in reducing community risk? How and to what extent are effective policies funded? The target audience for this report is federal and state policymakers, land management agencies, and local elected officials.
Expected task: Interns will play an integral role in three management tasks that are critical to the success of the project. The first is to take the lead in organizing literature reviews, including compiling, reading and summarizing more than 200 scientific papers. Second, they’ll find and count state and federal agency appropriations and other budget spreadsheets to identify wildfire-related funding patterns. Third, they will help develop and publish all aspects of the final report, including managing contacts with the media and local elected officials.
Required skills: Interns should have some experience (work, live or travel) in the western United States and understand the complexities associated with public land management and wildfire risk. Additionally, interns must possess top-notch writing skills, including some background in editing and citation management.
Location: Building a circular community
department: Barnard College, Campus Sustainability and Climate Action
Project Objectives: Built on Barnard’s foundation Circular Campus Initiative, Circular Communities will create a holistic systems-based framework designed to reduce emissions, waste and costs, transform consumption patterns, increase accessibility and affordability for students and residents, and support the transition to a just, sustainable economy. Our goal is to enable our campus and the Harlem/Morningside community to engage in reuse practices that increase access to high-quality goods while reducing overconsumption. We want to make visible, scaled and expanded the circular habits that already exist around us and are necessary as we transition to a just and sustainable future.
Expected task: Interns will be responsible for interacting with the community. The time it takes to build personal connections is critical to our successful efforts to build a resilient, circular community. Tasks include:
- Recruitment: Find community partners and work towards joining the organization and its members;
- Communications: Forms, social media, creation of online resources, creation of infographics on various aspects of circular communities, including general education (i.e., what circular communities are and why they matter) and communicating impact findings;
- Technical Support: Set up access and training for participants on Rheaply, our online peer-to-peer exchange platform.
Required skills: Interested in circular and fair economies; Ability to communicate clearly; Ability to work collaboratively, creatively and independently; Motivation to work effectively is a must. All other skills can be taught. Useful skills include event planning, social media, forms/figures and in-person outreach, the ability to connect quickly with others, and database management. Graphic design skills (Adobe Spark, Indesign, Photoshop or equivalent) are a plus.
