Sierra Club Fall Internship Opportunities

The Maryland Sierra Club offers many internship and volunteer opportunities. Conveniently located on Route 1, students can take advantage of the diverse openings in office management, administration, web design, environmental advocacy, environmental news reporting, politics, communications, marketing, outdoor education, advertising, publications, and research.

Our interns become part of the office team and are essential to accomplishing many of the chapter's conservation goals. Working side by side with staff and lead volunteers, interns get the opportunity to see how a grassroots non-profit works, gain valuable real world experience, and become the next generation of activist leaders.

For information or to arrange internships please call or send a resume, cover letter, and a two-page writing sample to internships@mdsierra.org. Please have your name in each document title and cc: maryland.chapter@sierraclub.org.

Below you will find brief descriptions, Sierra Club's goals and policies, and how to receive credit for an internship.

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Administrator: Responsibilities: Help to organize and streamline filing, database, and office systems. On a weekly schedule answer phones, pass on messages and respond to inquiries at the office. Prepare "how to" information sheets for office activities. Attend meetings to take notes, and make reports. Attend festivals and events, help organize, greet, outreach to support Campaigns. Phone bank to organize and generate turnout for meetings. Write a brief summary of experience in the office and critique of organizational systems.

Chapter Coordinator (Administrative): Assist volunteer leadership to access club resources; integrate internal Sierra Club committees and groups with the state chapter to accomplish conservation and organizational goals. Assist in daily running of office and volunteer coordination to support educational outreach, campaigns, trainings, fundraising and programs.  Responsibilities may include organizing, filing, databases, phone calls, taking messages, maintaining office systems, web updates, attending meetings, taking notes, web postings, reporting on, attending, organizing and representing the club at events, supporting executive and other internal Sierra Club committees, and statewide Sierra Club groups.

Water Protection: Learn about water pollution and water quality issues, help organize communities in support of clean water policies; help defeat polluters, assist with preparing campaign materials, recruit volunteers, assist with outreach, and messaging, and attend water protection meetings;

Energy: Learn about energy issues and help organize communities on the effects of coal-fired power plants and the benefits to clean renewable resources like offshore wind. Assist with preparing campaign materials, press conferences, recruit volunteers, assist with outreach, and attend meetings.

Stewardship Outings / Invasive Plant Removal: Invasive species are the biggest threat to biodiversity on the planet after habitat loss. Sierra Club works with statewide invasive plant removal project leaders. Responsibilities include coordinating and promoting participation at invasive plant removal sites, working with site leaders, informing volunteers of information on requirements and hazards, coordinating carpools, and distributing education sheets to participants. Internship is primarily field based.

Conservation Outings: Promote integration of conservation campaign goals with and strengthen Sierra Club Maryland Chapter outings program. Assist Outings Chair in promoting Sierra Club Outings Program.  Learn about conservation issues important to Sierra Club groups. Coordinate and set up outings in support of chapter conservation campaigns and issues. Contact outings leaders to hold outings and bring in local issue experts to talk about the conservation aspects and nature.  Become familiar with online tools for outreach and information tracking and train Sierra Club leaders to use these tools. Support communications amongst the outings committee. Collect write-ups from outings leaders for website & newsletter. Distribute conservation materials at and attend Sierra Club outings. Complete training to become a Sierra Club outings leader and co-lead two Sierra Club outings.

Political: Work with and assist the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter political committee in efforts to elect candidates to office who will protect the environment. Tasks may include researching and producing scorecards for candidates holding office and green voter guides, setting up candidate interviews, distribution and evaluation of candidate questionnaires, supporting Maryland Chapter political committee communications, organizing candidates forums, outreach efforts to support candidates including creating and distributing campaign materials such as flyers, brochures and email alerts.

Maryland General Assembly Legislation:

(Winter and Spring Semesters)  Influence, track and prepare analysis of legislation, attend hearings, prepare alerts, distribute fact sheets to legislators and the public, write and deliver testimony to legislative committees, arrange constituent meetings with legislators. Generate support for pro-environmental bills through such means as phone calls to Sierra club members and letters to the editor. Write updates for the Maryland Sierra Club website and newsletters. This internship may require access to a car.

Website, Media & Communications: Assist the Maryland Chapter or one of the local Sierra Club Groups to design and improve web pages. Solicit and edit materials and post newsletters and alerts. Create insightful blog posts on national and local environmental issues, events and opinions. Train volunteers to post to events and meetings calendars. Update contact information, databases, and fax files to improve the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter's press outreach systems. Participate in weekly Sierra Club phone banks in an effort to inform our membership and community base. Create press releases concerning the Sierra Club's stance on certain issues. Support campaigns with media releases and public service announcements. Collect media coverage of local Sierra Club activities.

www.maryland.sierraclub.org

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To Arrange Credit

It is a great time to intern with the Sierra Club. We have internships summer, spring, fall, and winter. Students can arrange to receive school credit by contacting a professor to sponsor them in a department suitable to the internship. An agreement is arranged between the student, professor, and the Sierra Club as to what the internship will consist of. This may include a certain number of hours, a task or set of tasks, a journal or paper to be written, or completion of some other finished product, and a schedule of meetings with the Sierra Club person directing your internship. Generally 1 credit is equivalent to 45 hours, 2 credit hours to 90 hours, 3 credits to 135 hours, etc. Internships may be somewhat tailored to specific situations and individual needs.

For information or to arrange internships please send a resume, cover letter, and writing sample to internships@mdsierra.org  and CC maryland.chapter@sierraclub.org.

Please have your name in each document title (eg Jane Doe Resume)

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What is the Sierra Club?

"Everybody Needs Beauty As Well As Bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

~ Sierra Club Founder John Muir

1912 Mission Statement

The Sierra Club's purpose is to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth, to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources, to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment, and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives. We support the right to a clean and healthful environment for all people, including native people, the rights to democracy, to participate, to equal protection, to know, to sustainable environmental benefits, to equity, and to generational equity. We support an end to pollution. We support the precautionary principle that polluters should bear the burden of proof that their activities are safe. Safeguards should be put in place when there is threat of serious or irreversible damage.

The Sierra Club Works to protect the environment through legislative and grassroots efforts. The Sierra Club is unique among environmental organizations because grassroots volunteers run it. Almost all the work that is done is accomplished by dedicated volunteers rather than paid staff. This makes the Sierra Club one of the most effective environmental organizations in the country.

The Sierra Club Encourages People to get out into nature to promote appreciation of the natural environment. You may be interested in helping lead or attend stewardship outings, stream cleanups, invasive plant removals, or hikes, biking or canoe trips in areas that need protection. In the office there's plenty of work to do including data entry, computer work, member outreach, phone calls, news clippings, media work, mailings and organizing. Around the state you can attend hearings, meetings, trainings and events, lobby your public officials, table at festivals, or participate in petition drives. In the eight groups in Maryland and with the Student Sierra Coalition, there are various leadership and committee positions available and niches for a variety of special skills or expertise.

Sierra Club Members are working on critical environmental issues all around the state. Please call the office to let us know where you are located, what kind of work you may be interested in doing, or to sign yourself into the office volunteer schedule. There are some exciting times ahead!