Southeastern Climate & Culture Intern

The Climate & Culture Interns will help to guide and accelerate our work to raise awareness of the specific, personal ways in which climate change is directly impacting communities – especially communities of color and economically marginalized communities, both of whom are too often overlooked in the climate conversation -- in the Southeastern United States.
 

This summer, The Wilderness Society is pushing hard to inspire Americans to care about climate change. The Climate & Culture Internship will be a part of that work, helping the Southeastern Office use traditional and social media to elevate the stories of communities impacted by climate right here in the Southeast.
The Climate & Culture Intern will work collaboratively under the guidance of two Stanback-funded master’s students from Duke University (a total of four interns, collectively), with their work emerging from or based in the climate landscapes and climate-impacted communities where TWS has a strong community presence.
 

The primary role of the Climate & Culture Interns will be to serve as student climate journalists, writing on behalf of marginalized communities and places that are on the forefront of the climate crisis. They will be required to research and draft short and longform pieces for classic print and social media, and to produce materials that meet the performance standards of TWS. The Interns will also coordinate with the marketing & communications team, as well as the Climate Plan for Public Lands team at TWS in order to align story production with photographic needs and the broader external affairs climate plan.
Because this work will be contextualized within the diverse cultural communities of North Carolina, it will also require the interns to possess or acquire in-depth, nuanced knowledge about the unique cultures + places of North Carolina, with a particular focus on:   

· The Appalachian Mountains & Appalachian Mountain/Holler Cultures
· The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (NC)
· The Monacan Indian Nation (VA)
· African-American Farmers in the Piedmont/Sandhills regions (NC/SC)
· The Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation & the African-American Communities to whom they are closely tied (NC)
· The Great Dismal Swamp & its associated Native American (Nansemond Indian Nation; Meherrin Tribe), African-American, Early Colonial, and maroon cultures (NC/VA)

Expected Project Deliverables: The Culture & Climate interns will produce four (4) culture & climate stories, to be published in either local or national media outlets, as the final product of this internship.
 

Skills Required:
We’re seeking two motivated students who are strong researcher/writers to help us with telling climate stories in a way that will have a direct and intentional impact on state and national policy in the United States. Applicants should be:
- Self-motivated, with a strong sense of nonpartisanship and journalistic ethics
- Experienced in writing for varied and broad audiences
- Keenly interested in wilderness/wildlands preservation & its relationship to indigenous and minority cultures in the U.S. and abroad
- Able to multi-task well, rapidly analyze new developments, and apply critical thought to linkages between wildlands protection and other sectors

Skills Student Will Gain During Internship: This Internship is a great opportunity for a student interested in science communication to gain new skills in writing, editing, management, and marketing.
 

As an organization, we aspire to be inclusive in the work that we do, and in the kind of organization we are. Internally, this means working as a team that listens to different points of view, recognizes the contributions of every employee and empowers each employee to bring their whole selves to work every day. Externally, this means ensuring that public lands are inclusive and welcoming, so that our shared wildlands can help people and nature to thrive. We are committed to equity throughout our work, which we define as our commitment to realizing the promise of our public lands and ensuring that all can share in their universal benefits.
 

To learn more about our commitment, please see http://wilderness.org/our-commitment-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-wilderness-society