Competitive Internships of Interest to Spanish Community Service Learning Students

by Ann Abbott

Thanks to Annissa Zak, I want to share three competitive internships that I think would be of interest to my Spanish community service learning students. I´ll just leave them here in a list, but I hope you will scroll through my blog to see posts in which I help students think about the connections between their Spanish CSL work and professional positions.

1. The Humanities in Action Fellowship in Europe 

The objective of the Humanity in Action Fellowship programs is to facilitate a collective exploration of the social and political roots of discrimination, as well as to provide a forum where potential solutions to some of today's most challenging issues can be considered and discussed. The programs are also intended to instill a responsibility among Humanity in Action Fellows to recognize and address the need to protect minorities and promote human rights—in their own communities and around the world. Click here to see their timeline.

2. The White House Internship Program 

The website describes the program like this: "This select group of young men and women from across the country dedicate their time, talents, energy, and service to better the White House, the community, and the nation. These committed citizens become a part of the White House team. The assignments given to an intern on any given day could include conducting research, managing incoming inquiries, attending meetings, writing memos, and staffing events."

You can work in a variety of departments listed here. Students who have worked with me on bilingual social media marketing would be great in the Office of Digital Strategy. Honestly, students' language skills and experience working in Spanish-speaking immigrant communities would be an asset in all the departments. Just make sure you make that connection explicit in your application and mention the work you did in the community and the contextualization and policy analysis we did during class. Could you imagine how lucky the Domestic Policy Department would be to have someone on their Immigration team who has had a Spanish CSL experience? Play it up in your application because our politicians need young people who see immigration and immigrants through their connections to real people, not just "theoretical scenarios."

3. The United States Holocaust Museum Internship

Although we don't deal directly with the Holocaust in our Spanish CSL courses, we do discuss the dehumanization of immigrants and the criminalization of immigration. Those are key components in the systematic process of scapegoating that can lead to hate crimes and other abuses. If those things are allowed to continue and the scale increases, that is the process that leads to mass murder. Take a look at this internship to see if it aligns with your interests and passions.