NRDC is seeking an unpaid law or public health graduate school intern to work with NRDC’s Healthy People and Thriving Communities Program, Urban Water Management and Environmental Justice teams, in our Chicago office during the summer of 2019. Community-level engagement is a critical component of this internship. The intern must receive academic credit for the work, and a small stipend is available to help with travel and transit costs; the intern is expected to work between 20 and 35 hours per week for 8 to 10 weeks, depending on the intern’s school’s requirements for credit. We will also consider candidates who have access to external sources of funding, with certain minimums that apply. NRDC will work with successful candidates to complete any paperwork necessary to help secure available credit or funding.
- assist with reviewing and analyzing data related to the topics of urban flooding, industrial stormwater, and/or water affordability;
- conduct research on how and why the issues of water quality, flooding and/or water affordability differentially impact low-income communities and communities of color in the Midwest and nationally;
- help NRDC build relationships with frontline communities in the Midwest and elsewhere around these water issues;
- support local, state and federal policy and legal advocacy to clean-up sources of pollution in Chicago impacting environmental justice communities and incentivize clean, sustainable economic development, with a goal of creating model approaches that can be adapted and used by other communities.
Required:
- ability to read and digest dense regulatory/legal materials
- comfort around people of many different backgrounds
- comfort with public speaking/presentations
- comfort with data, spreadsheets, and quantitative methods
- ability to draft clear, concise and compelling written materials for a range of audiences
Preferred
- familiarity with public health principles and modes of analysis
- familiarity with water systems
- familiarity with regulations, laws, and/or utility proceedings
- familiarity with public finance
- Spanish language capabilities, ideally fluency