Office of Sustainability Internships
The Office of Sustainability is excited to host a cohort of five student interns for the 2023-2024 academic year. These internships are a unique opportunity for students to develop valuable professional experience and skills in the sustainability field during their time at UMD. These interns will play a critical role in connecting students, staff, and faculty with campus sustainability resources and encouraging the campus community to take action towards a more sustainable future.
The application for these positions have closed.
2023-2024 Positions: (Application Now Closed)
Position: Outreach Bike and Events Intern
Description: With great excitement, the Office of Sustainability (OS) has recently launched its new SustainableUMD Outreach Bike. The SustainableUMD Outreach Bike aims to serve as an iconic, creative, visible, and tangible representation of sustainability for our campus community. With the help of the Outreach Bike and Events Intern, we hope the bike can spark conversations about university and global sustainability goals and bring together the campus community to rebuild partnerships and reinvigorate the SustainableUMD Network. Going beyond traditional tabling, this new resource helps OS expand its outreach to include new, relevant sustainability issues and demonstrations on topics such as solar power and sustainable transportation.
The Outreach Bike and Events Intern will help create fun activities and demonstrations to attract campus members to the bike and to boost engagement with students, staff, and faculty. In addition, the intern will support scheduling the bike at large campus events (such as EarthFest and UMD Farmers Market) and identify new opportunities to incorporate the bike. The Outreach Bike and Events Intern will play a key role in building excitement around sustainability and making sustainability visible, accessible, and exciting to more students on campus.
Position: Green Chapter Intern
Description: The Green Chapter intern plays a critical run in running, maintaining, and improving the Green Chapter program and incorporating sustainability into all facets of Greek life. This intern will work with the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life Sustainability Graduate Assistant to co-run the Green Chapter program. The intern will organize and facilitate semesterly training sessions for Sustainability Chairs, lead bi-weekly Chair meetings, and support chapters in completing Green Chapter certification. The Green Chapter intern will also support other Greek Life sustainability initiatives including composting, council-level sustainability policies, and more. This intern will help increase participation in Greek sustainability initiatives and contribute ideas for new, impactful opportunities and initiatives.
Position: Residential Engagement Intern
Description: This intern will gain valuable experience in community-based sustainability education while also transforming the residential experience of thousands of students who call the UMD campus home. The intern will work closely with the Department of Resident Life Coordinator for Sustainability Programs who focuses on sustainability initiatives for over 12,500 residential students. By working closely with this staff member, the intern would support the engagement of students in sustainability programs and the development of a thriving sustainable community within the residence halls.
Position: Staff Sustainability Intern
Description: The Office of Sustainability is at a point of transition with its Green Office program and staff sustainability engagement. The current Staff Engagement Intern is conducting research to benchmark UMD’s staff engagement programs against other universities. Office of Sustainability staff plan to use this research to rethink and reshape UMD’s staff sustainability engagement for the 2023-2024 year and beyond. In summer 2023, the Office of Sustainability will create a concrete program for connecting staff on campus to existing sustainability programs and to provide new, engaging, and exciting staff opportunities in sustainability. The Staff Engagement Intern will play a key role in supporting this transition and establishing programs in 2023-2024. Specific intern responsibilities will be decided over the summer. It is critical that this intern is excited to work with staff.
Position: Communications Intern
Description: A Communications Intern is needed to enhance the Office of Sustainability’s digital presence and promote campus sustainability efforts. We are looking for someone with a creative eye, someone that is comfortable being the student face and voice of @SustainableUMD. Responsibilities include developing content for campus sustainability social media platforms, as well as our website and newsletters. Examples of potential projects include: documenting campus sustainability news and events through written summaries, photographing new projects and events, maintaining the Office of Sustainability’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. The communications intern is expected to collaborate with other office interns including but not limited to the Outreach Bike Events Intern and the Staff Engagement Intern. The Communications Intern will help the Office of Sustainability with general outreach at campus events and perform other duties as assigned.
These internship positions were made possible by the University Sustainability Fund.