Community Water Corps Intern Application Section
We are excited about your interest in our CoPe Community Water Corps Internship!
What is the Community Water Corps Internship about? This internship is open to undergraduate students and community members older than 18 years old, who want to make a difference in their communities. During this internship community members will team up with undergraduate students to work with members from our partnering communities (Princeville, Greenville, Aurora & Nags Head), ranging from town leaders to middle and high school students to identify and investigate local environmental issues of concern related to climate change. These issues will be specific to the community, but could include things like:
- documenting resident perspectives and stories around environmental change
- understanding whether places of value to the community are at risk from sea level rise
- evaluating options for creating green infrastructure (like rain gardens) for reducing flood risks
- investigating what sources contribute to pollution in community water ways
- and many more issues that may emerge while working within your community!
Required skills: You do not need to have a specialized science background for this internship! Your role will be to lead and organize the activities of a local community science group, including facilitating their connections to experts and resources at universities who can help them pursue research projects in their own community. You will receive training on how to work with community action groups as well as the types of tools and approaches that are available to support community-based research, such as water quality analysis for identifying polluted waters, sensors for monitoring the environment, GIS for mapping community data, policy analysis to understand the constraints on community decision making, and communications approaches to help your team share what they learn back to the broader community. Additional training will be provided on areas of special interest to your community group, and you will coordinate with disciplinary experts when the group needs more intensive skills.
Any science, engineering, social science or education major is appropriate for this internship, but we are looking for people with the following characteristics:
- strong interest and commitment to the environment and addressing climate change in NC
- a desire to make a difference by working with community members
- an ability to take a leadership role in diverse community and team settings
- interest in working with middle and high school students in a club-type of environment
As a Community Water Corps Intern, you will be continuing your work with your community partners throughout fall 2023 and spring 2024. Eligible student applicants must be enrolled in an undergraduate degree program.
Program Dates:
- April 7: Application deadline extended.
- April 3: Review of applications and selection of interns will begin; applicants should submit by this date to ensure that their application receives full consideration.
- In-person summer Community Water Corps student internship experience
- June 5 – August 11, 2023 (including 1-week initial training at ECU)
- Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 – continuation of internship.
Compensation: Each Community Water Corps intern will be paid at an hourly rate of $13 per hour. Interns are expected to work 30 hours a week during the summer and 10 hours during the fall and summer semesters.
Location: Initial intern training will take place on East Carolina University’s Main Campus. After the first week, interns will move into their summer housing in the community they will be working with in eastern NC (see map below). Commuting from Greenville (where ECU’s campus is located) to partnering communities may be an option.
map
Possible Internship County Locations
Pitt County
Dare County
Beaufort County
Edgecombe County
Hyde County
Your application will be reviewed based on the following criteria:
- Strong interest in and motivation to pursue community-based participatory research and environmental justice initiatives
- Enrolled in an undergraduate degree program
- Willingness to work in-person in a partnering eastern NC community during the summer
- Interest in continuing to work with partnering community during the following fall and spring semesters (funding and/or course credit would be provided)
- Completion of the application
- Ability to work 30 hours per week
- Commitment to not enroll in summer courses
- Commitment to participate in the initial 1-week training session on East Carolina University’s campus and potential additional trainings offered throughout the summer, as well as in regularly occurring research, professional development, and community outreach meetings
- Commitment to prepare a written report at the end of the program, to regularly document and reflect on project progress throughout the Summer, and to present at the Tar River Community Festival in fall 2023
- Independence and willingness to reside in a new community over the summer
- Commitment to building and maintaining appropriate relationships with K-12 community youth
Before you begin your application, please review the instructions carefully. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
- Successful applicants are expected to participate in all aspects of the internship as described in the application criteria. Please review the application criteria above.
- Prior to submitting an application, prospective applicants can contact our program coordinator, Tara van Niekerk, if they have specific questions about the internship.
- Carefully complete all of the information in the application link below and review your application before submitting it. We strongly recommend that you prepare your answers in word processing software and then copy and paste it into the form below so that you can easily save and review your responses prior to submitting them in the form. Please contact us if you would prefer to complete this application in a form that can be printed and returned by regular mail.