Climate Action Virtual/Remote Internship

Seaside Sustainability Intern Job Descriptions and Responsibilities

SEA: Sustainability | Education | Action

What is Seaside?: Seaside Sustainability is a nationally recognized, award-winning 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to community engagement, public education, and environmental conservation. Seaside aims to be a leader in environmental and STEM educational programs and recognition initiatives. We help by promoting public awareness about the importance of environmental health, providing resources to develop problem-solving skills, and offering chances to get engaged as part of a community that takes action. We organize our work and initiatives around these 4 key areas: plastic mitigation, marine citizen science, sustainability education, and solar energy adoption within residential and commercial areas .

Why Intern at Seaside?: We strive to create an internship program that is hands-down one of the best in the world.  We have more than 50 interns active year-round helping to build and nurture a relationship with local land and seascapes. Seaside’s program allows you to explore a myriad of internship opportunities within (list departments here), and (last one here). You can apply for the program and start at any time within the school year or during the summer break. We are always looking for part-time interns in high school, college, and post-grad to work on a diverse and challenging array of projects and initiatives. We are accepting applications for unpaid internships via the (XYZ website). Based on your schedule and the projects your assigned team is working on, you can offer to pitch in on any day of the week at practically any time of day.  Our local interns work in person at our main location in Gloucester, but we offer those located internationally opportunities to help us remotely and encourage you to apply. 

Mission: Seaside Sustainability's mission is to preserve and protect the world's oceans, rivers, wetlands, and estuaries by motivating citizens to evaluate the critical issues facing the water environment, educating the public on best practices for sustainability, and providing guidance for taking effective action. Among our most important areas of focus are the elimination of consumer plastics and the creation of educational programs for students of all ages. By partnering with diverse stakeholders, including educational institutions, environmental groups, and other organizations across the public and private sectors, Seaside Sustainability is building an informed citizenry to address the sustainability of water-based ecosystems in communities around the world.

Vision Statement: Seaside’s programs and initiatives encourage community members of all ages to build and nurture a relationship with local land and seascapes. We believe that environmental challenges can be overcome by instilling ethical and social responsibility into our existence. We address these challenges by illuminating the heavy costs of environmental degradation by providing resources to develop skills, solutions, and community involvement.

What Interns Do at Seaside Sustainability: Our interns are not limited to just one role; we encourage each intern to explore a variety of roles and responsibilities while enrolled in our program so they can learn a variety of skills across multiple departments. Our interns exit our program having made a real and meaningful difference to our organization and to our collective mission. Come make a difference with us! Here’s a list of typical things our interns do here to help: https://www.seasidesustainability.org/intern-details. 

Market Research Weekly Work: In order to fulfill our mission, we need to communicate with educators who are passionate about sustainability. To meet our weekly goals of outreach to these educators, all interns must spend no more than 2-hours a week collecting this critical and game-changing information. When you are researching these educators, you are literally selecting the people who will be changing the lives of their students by taking part in our programs. This role is one of the most important parts of working here at Seaside.  You will gain so many valuable skills, such as how to be a more effective researcher and remain organized while playing a pivotal role in expanding the size and scale of Seaside. As Interns join Seaside’s leadership, they take on increasing responsibilities and are not required to do weekly information collection.

Course Credit: Students may receive course credit for this internship. Staff will work with the intern’s school/advisor to achieve desired learning outcomes and complete all necessary paperwork.

Requirements: Seaside Sustainability requires interns to work at least 15 hours per week.  

President’s Volunteer Service Award: Seaside Sustainability is now certified to give the “President’s Volunteer Service Award” to eligible interns. This award was created to “recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too.” This is an outstanding achievement to put on your resume!  What are the requirements for this award?

1. Must be a citizen of the United States or a lawful permanent resident
2. All hours must be completed within a 12-month period to be counted towards the final total
3. All hours must be tracked in Seaside’s weekly shift report to be counted

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: Seaside recognizes that environmental issues are human issues, and therefore everyone has a right to be a part of the solution. Seaside is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment that welcomes all participants irrespective of their gender, race, sexuality, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, or socioeconomic status. Our internship program's demographics directly reflect the composition of our national outreach, while the composition of our board more reflects the local composition of our communities. We acknowledge that Environmental Issues disproportionately affect low-income communities, minority communities, and communities of color. We are actively seeking to ensure that our environmental work, projects, and programs are crafted in a way that reflects and aids in combating the plight of minorities, people of color, economically challenged, and other disadvantaged individuals. 

General Skills Needed:

• Passionate and dedicated to making a difference in the environment
• Good virtual communication skills                       
• Comfortable working in teams 
• Good time management skills
• Willingness to learn and work outside of their comfort zone 
• Basic knowledge of communication technology (G-Suite, Zoom, Email) 
• Leadership skills

Management Roles

Department Managers (DM): Seaside Sustainability’s rapid growth requires the organization to look for enthusiastic students who wish to take their passion for the environment to the next level. To promote this, Seaside will provide department managers with a professionally guided internship that assists with intern management strategies and supports their aspirations for career development. DMs take the lead on more than 20 Seaside projects ranging from 2-10 team members working virtually. Being a DM is truly a win-win situation: the environment benefits, interns benefit, and DMs gain invaluable experience. We are actively seeking to recruit college students, graduate students, and those with leadership experience to fulfill the role of DM. Interns at Seaside Sustainability may be promoted to the position of a DM by exemplifying the characteristics of a model intern. Skills Needed: project development, task delegation, superior organizational and communication skills.

Management Fellows: Similar to the DM position described above, a fellow exemplifies organization, leadership, and communication skills and has the opportunity to lead a team of 3-10 interns throughout their internship. This position is more demanding and requires someone with the ability to check emails and make phone calls outside of their regular working hours. The duties of this position include: helping to onboard new interns, reporting to the Executive Director and other team fellows, and lastly, ensuring intern and project success. Skills Needed: project development, task delegation, superior organizational and communication skills.

Intern Directors: Seaside Sustainability’s internship program has been growing steadily since its creation and now has the capacity to offer another management position to exceptional interns: the intern director role. Intern directors host fellow meetings twice a week, where fellows come together, represent their teams, and update each other on their projects. They also help develop and enforce new Seaside-wide plans concerning interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. Additionally, intern directors make sure teams are running smoothly and may meet with advisors to discuss team needs.

Advisors: Seaside Sustainability’s Community Advisory Team members work directly with our Executive Director, Eric Magers, and work alongside board members, intern directors, management fellows, other community advisors and a large cadre of interns organized in teams to advance the organization’s goals further. Common advisor duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to: leading the implementation of new management and organizational processes and procedures across the program, delegating tasks to appropriate team members, working closely with the Human Resources team to manage and oversee recruitment for future internship sessions, and collecting and analyzing feedback from interns throughout the program to gauge satisfaction and success. 

Skills Needed: Good communication with people of all walks of life, leadership skills, experience coordinating groups of people, and a strong desire to facilitate a positive, hands-on internship experience.

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Make Sure To Follow Seaside on Social Media!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seasusinc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seasusinc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/seasusinc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDqPZWdPIQG37aaSC7NShOg

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seaside-sustainability-inc/

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4lfTZpbv0ELrkU2po8SRfo

And remember to check out our partner organization National STEM Honor Society www.nstem.org, for another excellent internship opportunity!