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2023 VOLUNTEER Summer Student Internship Opportunities with Ten Strands

Last Updated February 2023

https://tenstrands.org/

HOST ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW

Ten Strands is a California–based nonprofit established in 2012. Our mission is to build and strengthen the partnerships and strategies that will bring environmental literacy to all of California’s K–12 public school students. We operate with a small, diverse, and nimble staff and strategic partners throughout the state. Ten Strands utilizes the largest and most diverse institution in California—the public school system—to impact 58 county offices of education, more than 1,000 school districts, approximately 10,000 individual schools, over 300,000 teachers, and 5.8 million children.

Ten Strands focuses on three strategic pillars: 1) advocacy, 2) building the capacity of school districts/county offices of education to advance environmental literacy planning, and 3) strengthening the network of environmental education stakeholders. Underlying each of these specific pillars is Ten Strands’ deep commitment to decision-making through the lenses of equity, inclusion, and cultural relevance. We value our partnerships with and the contributions made by community-based partners to enrich the education experience of all students.

Ten Strands hosts student interns from a variety of schools and organizations. Using an approach of mutual aid we prepare projects and opportunities for students to grow, and for our organization to progress our on our programmatic and project goals and outcomes. There are an assortment of projects that interns can participate in at our organization, with examples included below.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Ten Strands summer interns can work on a variety of different projects that are described below:

  • Data Projects: Ten Strands works on a number of data and metric related projects, and are able to put together entry-level and intermediate data related internships that include gathering data from a variety of sources, organizing and cleaning the data in google sheets, and analysis with visualizations and reasoning. An example data project that students can contribute to is the Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in CA’s TK-12 Schools.
  • Research and Synthesis Projects: Ten Strands works on a number of research and synthesis style projects that are focused on conducting research regarding funding, technology, policy, frameworks, and innovations for environmental and climate action in TK-12 schools. Interns will be responsible for researching credible sources, and synthesizing information to be used by a variety of audiences in a variety of formats (briefs, infographic, presentations, videos, etc.)
  • Youth Engagement Programs: Ten Strands is working on developing ongoing youth engagement efforts such as a changemaker webinar series, communities of practice for environmental and climate youth leaders, and knowledge to action leadership programs. We work with interns to develop programmatic offerings, as well as design and conduct outreach for the program. This internship can involve a number of different skill sets such as curriculum development, workshop facilitation, outreach materials design and dissemination, etc.

 LOCATION AND DATES

Ten Strands has a lot of flexibility in how we set-up internship with students, and can use any of the following structures as part of the internship:

  • Length of Time: 6-10 Weeks
  • Part-Time or Full-Time: We are flexible and students can do 4-8 hours per day
  • This internship is REMOTE, but may also have opportunities for 1-2 hybrid (in-person) connections in the California Bay Area if desired.
  • Students are required to have access to a laptop device to complete this internship.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Student interns/volunteers will have experiences that:

  • will not displace a regular employee, does not fill a vacant position, and does not relieve an employee of assigned duties;
  • derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern/volunteer;
  • do not entitle them to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
  • student interns/volunteers will not be entitled to wages paid out by Ten Strands for the time spent in service.