The Earth Institute is offering undergraduate, graduate and PhD students with opportunities to intern in various departments and research centers in a variety of administration, communications, and research roles. Interns work on a variety of sustainability-focused projects across the Earth Institute. These projects provide interns with hands-on workplace experience, allowing them to grow professionally while the Earth Institute centers benefit from their meaningful contributions.
Summer 2022 positions include:
- A Web-based Dashboard for a Microbial Observatory
- Post-disaster Economic and Housing Recovery in the COVID-19 Context
- Vulnerable Coastal Ecosystems and Communities
- Project Management: Urban Wildlife Information Network in NYC
- The Efficacy of Wildfire Policy in the American West
- Climate Impacts on Conservation, Development and Urban Issues
- Resilient Coastal Communities Project
Complete the online application by May 9 at 11:30pm ET. While you may apply for more than one position, you must submit separate applications for each.
All internships are funded at a rate of $21 per hour (a maximum of 260 hours) for the summer.
Students who are selected for a position will be expected to participate in the Earth Institute Student Research Showcase in spring 2023.
Contact David Morales-Miranda (dmiranda@ei.columbia.edu) with questions.
1. A Web-based Dashboard for a Microbial Observatory
Department: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: The intern will co-design a web-based tool for data visualization and display with the PI and his colleagues from Kotzebue, Alaska. The intern will develop the HTML code required and will participate in Zoom conversations with members of the community in Kotzebue to get feedback on the design and implementation of the website.
Skills Required: The intern should be conversant in HTML programming and the skills to develop web pages.
NOTE: this internship will only be funded for 120 hours over the summer.
2. Post-disaster Economic and Housing Recovery in the COVID-19 Context
Department: National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: Assist in the development of training curricula for instructor-lead and online trainings on housing and economic recovery as well as mass sheltering and pandemic planning and assist in the preparation of a federal grant proposal based on a request. The intern will also proof and update training materials, including presentations and guides and assist in the analysis of evaluation data for instructor-led and online trainings.
Skills Required: The intern should have strong organizational skills and excellent written and oral communication skills. Experience with R or Tableau a plus. The intern should have experience with grant writing and some familiarity with emergency management, including FEMA laws and regulations and FEMA/SBA/HUD disaster relief programs.
3. Vulnerable Coastal Ecosystems and Communities
Department: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: The intern will help improve understanding on how human activities, policy regulation and episodic events impact biogeochemical and ecological processes in vulnerable coastal systems. The intern will develop web content/social media content relevant to this project including blogs and essays relevant to project findings. The intern will also interview project participants, collaborators and stakeholders and assist with the development of short videos / recordings explaining measurement protocols.
Skills Required: The intern should possess critical thinking and problem-solving skills and a strong background and interest in environmental sciences. Experience with various social media and communication platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram).
4. Project Management: Urban Wildlife Information Network in NYC
Department: Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology
Student Desired: Undergraduate
Anticipated tasks: The intern will manage a project to explore patterns of wildlife occurrence across an urbanization gradient using camera traps (in partnership with the Urban Wildlife Information Network). The intern will coordinate logistics for UWIN project, which may involve one or more of the following: i) research permit applications, ii) fieldwork scheduling and general logistics, iii) maintaining communications with UWIN partners. The intern will also engage with high school students involved in the project, including planning events, meetings and providing general administrative support
Skills Required: The student will need to be proficient in MS Word and Excel. Needs experience in web design and producing social media content and a strong communication and writing ability.
5. The Efficacy of Wildfire Policy in the American West
Department: Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: The student will conduct in-depth internet research to inventory existing wildfire policies across the American West. For each policy, the intern will coordinate and schedule interviews and will manage interview transcripts, funding data, and policy information through spreadsheets. The intern will also conduct a literature review of existing wildfire policy research, building a library and summarizing key findings for each article.
Skills Required: The intern should have some familiarity with wildfire policy and/or the American West and be comfortable using spreadsheets to track policies, names, dates, and financial figures. Experience using Zotero (or willingness to learn) for citation management). Experience conducting literature reviews, primarily through library search and drafting short summaries of key articles.
6. Climate Impacts on Conservation, Development and Urban Issues
Department: Center for Climate Systems Research
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: The intern will manage and coordinate the production of the Urban Climate Change Research Network’s (UCCRN) Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities. Set up and manage webinars and publicize events in newsletters, climate websites to support climate impacts webinars. The intern will also contact, communicate, and set up meetings for author teams working on UCCRN Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities and will manage and track project activities and progress for conservation and development projects on adaptation.
Skills Required: The student needs to possess attention to detail, effective communication, strong organizational skills and proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
7. Resilient Coastal Communities Project
Department: Center for Sustainable Urban Development
Student Desired: Undergraduate/Graduate/PhD
Anticipated Tasks: The intern will work with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance to explore how to make coastal resiliency planning more equitable and inclusive. The intern will support work with students and educators from under-represented communities who will join this project over the summer as part of the NSF “Connecting Climate to Communities.” The intern will help organize a fall talk series over the summer (i.e., suggest people to invite, get confirmations etc.).
Skills Required: The student must possess excellent communication, organizational, and people skills and an interest/knowledge of coastal resilience, planning and environmental justice. Spanish language a plus.
