2018 Michigan Political Internship

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Internship Responsibilities
In this internship, you will directly assist candidates running for public office that the Sierra Club has endorsed. The Sierra Club has an extremely rigorous endorsement process and focuses on the most competitive races with the best environmentally-minded candidates. In this internship, we will train you on the basic skills of campaign organizing, educate you about environmental issues impacted by politics, and then deploy you to be part of a candidate’s campaign for somewhere between one to five months (depending on your schedule). Potential responsibilities include helping organize fundraisers for a candidate, coordinating voter contact, organizing phone banks, recruiting Sierra Club members to volunteer for a candidate, canvassing, coordinating press conferences and press releases for a candidate, helping with a candidate’s earned media strategy, running social media accounts for a candidate, policy or campaign research, performing data entry and office work.

Qualifications
The ideal applicant will have an interest in politics, knowledge or interest in environmental issues, be proficient in Microsoft Office applications, and have experience with google drive, facebook, twitter, blogs, and email. Applicants must be able to communicate effectively, take direction on projects, work independently, be flexible, and be prepared for a fun and fast-paced campaign environment.

Logistics
Internship positions are available in 2018 for summer (May-August) and fall (September-November) semesters, and are able to be shortened or extended as needed. This internship is unpaid but comes with a $50 or $100 gift card to Meijer upon completion of the internship in order to diffuse food/gas costs, and can earn you class credit (you will need to work this out with your academic advisor). The internship is coordinated through our Lansing office but you will be deployed to work for a campaign that will likely not be in Lansing. Internship training is required and takes place in May and September. Internships can be arranged for between 10 to 40 hours per week with flexible scheduling.

To apply, send your resume to Mike Berkowitz at mike.berkowitz@sierraclub.org, with a brief (one-two paragraphs) statement describing your interest in this internship.

Results
People who participate in this Political Internship often go on to achieve professional and academic success. After interning, multiple interns have become lawyers, social workers, political campaign managers, Sierra Club employees, staffers for other non-profit organizations, elected officials, and professors. Many former interns also achieve leadership roles within the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter such as Political Committee Representatives, Legislative Committee Representatives, Citizen Lobbyists, and campaign leaders.