• Internship Details
• Task Focus Areas
• How To Apply
  
  

Internship Details
* These positions are ten weeks long and have either a $100/week (20 hr./week) or $200/week (40 hr./week) stipend. 
* The start and stop dates are flexible, as are breaks, we only require a commitment of approximately ten weeks between mid January and late May. 
* These positions are 20 hr./week ($100) or 40 hr./week ($200) positions and will take place during normal business hours except where otherwise noted. 
* We are willing to be flexible in terms of time and stipend to meet academic requirements.
* The interns will work at our office in Columbus, OH.
* On a case-by-case basis, some work may be able to be done via telecommuting.

Our mission is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics. The bulk of our efforts go into organizing and supporting students and student groups who do not see theism as the source of morality or knowledge--this includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, rationalists and other non-theists.  We have over 130 affiliates in nine countries--the vast majority of our affiliates are in the U.S.

The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)(3) educational, non-profit, public charity.  We were founded in 2000 by students and recent students.  We are headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Task Focus Areas
There are three areas upon which we plan to have the interns focus.  Each intern may focus on one area, or multiple areas. 

Area 1 - PUBLIC RELATIONS
This area focuses on promoting public awareness of the Alliance, its affiliates, and the ideals we seek to advance.  This will be done through writing and distributing press releases, creating a press kit, helping to develop our electronic newsletter, working the blogosphere and social networking sites, and any other means that seem appropriate. 

Area 2 - WEB/DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
This area focuses on improving both the public website of the Alliance and on improving our internal database.  Most of this work will take place using HTML, PHP, Javascript, and MySQL.  Prior knowledge of these languages is not required, but is beneficial.  If you are interested in this area, please list all programming languages with which you are familiar in your answers to the screening questions. This area may also involve making other improvements to the way the Alliance uses technology.

Area 3- FUNDRAISING
This area will involve work with as many areas of SSA fundraising as possible.  This includes membership management, direct mail, foundations, and large donor cultivation.  It may also include working with our campus affiliates to seek funding from their universities and teaching student leaders how to fund raise. 

The internships may involve some work not directly related to these areas.  However, the majority of the time for the internships will be spent working on creative, professional projects under the direct supervision of senior staff.


How to Apply
Apply by sending an email including your name, address, email address and telephone number to hr@secularstudents.org.  Include your answers to the Screening Questions (below) and, if desired, your resume in the body of the email.  Please do not send attachments.

Applications must be submitted by December 15, 2009. 

Screening Questions

1. Why are you interested in this internship?

2. Are you interested in the 20 hr./week or 40 hr./week position?

3. In which of the three task focus areas are you interested?  Why?

4. When would you be available to put in your ten weeks?

5. What do you expect to get from the internship?

6. Where are you a student?

7. What are you studying?

8. When do you plan to graduate?

9. What is your college grade point average? Describe the scale your school uses if different from the standard 4.0 scale.

10. Will this internship fulfill an academic requirement for you?  If so, what conditions must the internship meet in order for it to qualify?

11. What are your long-term career goals? Do you plan to get further education? Are you interested in a career in the humanist/freethought movement? How does this internship fit into your long-term plans?

12. Can you prove that you are either a citizen of the United States, or a legal worker and permanent resident?

13. Have you been involved in some form of student activism? If so, briefly describe.

14. Are you willing to be publicly known as a supporter of SSA's cause? (The two most controversial elements of that cause being: 1. promoting respect and equal rights for atheists, agnostics, humanists and others that do not believe in a god AND 2. deep skepticism of the supernatural.)

15. Do you have any reservations about collaborating with people who are much older or younger than you, or are of a different ethnic group, sexual orientation, or philosophical or political belief?

16. What experience(s) from your activist/volunteer work do you expect to help you most for this internship? Why?

17. What experience(s) from your paid work experience do you expect to help you most for this internship? Why?

18. From what you know about the SSA, what do you like best?

19. From what do you know about the SSA, what would you most like to see improve?

20. With what, if any, student freethought or humanist organizations are you currently involved? How about off-campus organizations? Do you plan to become involved in any local student/adult organizations in the near future?

21. How did you learn about this position (Craigslist, Idealist, Facebook, Twitter, SSA website/newsletter, word of mouth)?

22. Please give the names and phone numbers of at least one work or activist reference, and one academic reference.

23. Please suggest three (or more) one hour-long blocks of time when you would be able to arrange a phone or in-person interview (weekends and evenings are okay, but not ideal).

24. Is there anything else you would like to make us aware of as we consider your application?