SpaceShare Internship Program
Are you impatient to make a difference in the world? How would you feel
if your work helped get people out of their single occupancy cars and into
their communities? Are you ready for real, creative work: our internships
are not about making photocopies; you will have real responsibilities on
a project that might not happen without you. Protect the planet,
gain valuable work experience, stretch your resume.
Internship applications are being accepted now.
Printable internship
flyers
are listed here. Paid work is listed under Partners.
Contents:
Internship Titles
Internship Descriptions
Is this a fit for you?
Application Process
Paid possibilities
International Applicants
Marketing Outreach [Ecology & Urban Affairs, Public Relations & Marketing; 2
people total.]
Focused on contacting potential users of the SpaceShare systems. Our ideal is to find
a transportation student to focus on city planning, and a sales and marketing
enthusiast to focus directly on event organizers. This may involve both directly contacting
the organizers of large events, and other organizations that can contact those events for us
such as city planning departments or visitors bureaus, as well as allied environmental
organizations. Knowledge and enthusiasm about urban planning are key for the urban
affairs intern; people skills are key for both roles, it is important that you believe in the
mission of transforming transportation options and that you can express this enthusiasm in
a phone call.
Organizing and Volunteer Coordination
Help create and sustain a membership organization alongside the "office"
of SpaceShare.
Spring, summer festival coordinator.
Help coordinate exhibits at events in your area.
Coordinate volunteers, interns, and the tasks they are doing. Edit
and help write the monthly Newsletter. Build enthusiasm among volunteers, stay in regular contact with them, and thank volunteers
regularly. You'll get to experience many of the responsibilities of
an executive director on a smaller scale.
Organizing: Peace Activism Option.
Do you believe that many people would like to do more for peace but can’t find the
right community and tools to inspire them? We want to build networking tools so that
people attending peace marches can make the connections they need. We intend to do the
programming work pro bono, but need an organizer & activist to help us design the system
and coordinate with activist groups. This might be the best internship for an undergraduate
short on business-world experience. You should be familiar with the consensus method
and affinity group organizing methods, able to keep your own politics quiet so that you can
work with Liberals & Radicals, Anarchists, & Communists, Conservatives who support
Bush but are unsure about the war, etc, We want them all to encourage carpooling, and all
(or most) to be accessible on our system.
Grant Writing and Nonprofit Development.
On hold: this is too complex to be a normal internship. Help guide the volunteer organization from a loose assemblage to a legal 501c3, and
develop a grants and donors program.
Grant & Development Option: Carpooling for Religious
Institutions.
[This would be very complex for an internship at this time. It's a large project that -- unlike the other internships -- no one on staff is focused on.] We would like someone to explore carpooling for religious institutions. We would
develop a package of tools for each religion with large houses of worship, so that members
could set up flexible carpools both for weekly services and special holidays. Your role
would be to search for funding to pay for the web application, then work on outreach and
education. An organizer at each house of worship would be able to sign in and quickly set
up a system for their location. This would be best as a long-term project; perfect for a
theology student near the end of their studies, the right person could search for grants as an
intern then join our staff when they are successful. We would be happy to see our
programs used as a vector for other environmental education.
Web, Arts & Graphic Design
Help design our SpaceShare websystems, our homepage, perhaps a new logo, t-shirts
and banners. Any combination of these skills and interests: on-line design, off-line graphics,
enthusiasm about user interfaces, team management. Coordinate volunteers helping you
with these projects. Since the core staff have not been deeply focused on design and graphics, this is a
perfect opportunity to jump into a role of responsibility based on your skills, and get your
work seen.
Web Development
Help us build a community website in Drupal, or develop perl technologies
for parsing online calendars into our database.
For all roles:
There will be some overlap, everyone will help others brainstorm & proofread, and
everyone is encouraged to participate when we exhibit. (Perk: we expect to be
sharing free
tickets to concerts and conferences where we exhibit.)
- We dream big. Our vision statement defines the goals of our
organization.
- We're starting small and practical. Although we do some advocacy and inspiring especially at festivals, we're more about doing the work ourselves than asking others to do it.
- We treat our interns well, with a high degree of responsibility and
respect. If you want to be bossed around and sent to make photocopies, SpaceShare
isn't for you. If you need to be micromanaged, SpaceShare isn't for you.
Ready to do your share to change the world? Join us!
- These are student internships: we are not able to pay you, but will do our best
to fit these internships into your field of learning. Internships
can be adjusted to fit your semester.
- Working with SpaceShare is a
great way to make contacts in your field. Volunteers & interns sometimes do get
perks, such as free tickets to events. If we succeed, we will be hiring in the future.
- We are informal but serious. We expect people to be able to work effectively
without being molded to a dress code, and to dress appropriately when in contact
with clients without being told. We largely telecommute: it is key that you be able to
work without direct supervision, and to ask for help or guidance any time you need
it.
- Interns and volunteers needs are taken seriously. In return,
we hope you will put
your best efforts into SpaceShare's environmental mission, to make it your own,
and to let us know what you hope to get out of it. We hope you'll take
opportunities to grow, to learn new skills, and be better prepared for your next
adventures.
Please include the following information, either by phone or writing
(paper free, of course) to info at spaceshare.com.
We will ask for a written version later if you call.
What can you contribute to SpaceShare?
Don't be afraid to make suggestions or composites of the above internships.
What are you looking for from us?
Hopefully the
environmental mission excites us all, but what do you want to get out of this:
experience in
particular skills, a resume, a letter of recommendation for graduate school, a portfolio seen
by tens of thousands, contacts in your field? It is our hope that all our interns,
partners and employees will be very happy to have been part of SpaceShare.
Questions & New Ideas Welcome!
We receive many applications from outside the US that correspond more to
an entry level position than an [unpaid] internship as we use the term. Please recognize
that we are not in a position to pay air fare, navigate visas or
guarantee pay beyond what is described on the
partnership page.
We have had a smaller scale international
internship work successfully through telecommuting,
and are open to applications from potential interns who wish to join our office in
San Francisco if they indicate that the above challenges can be
surmounted.
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