Zilkha Center Internships

Group of people sharing a meal on the envi center porch
2021 summer interns & guests sharing a community meal

The Zilkha Center hires paid student interns during the academic year and the summer to work on campus sustainability projects. Our internship program engages students in the vital work of sustainability on campus while teaching students how to navigate institutional change. We seek to pursue diversity, equity and inclusion both in how we run our program and in how engage with environmental issues.

Summer interns work 35-40 hours per week, and engage in discussions, local field trips, work days, and community meals. Academic interns work 5-10 hours per week and receive trainings on campus sustainability. All interns are paired with a Zilkha Center staff member for weekly mentoring and project support. Click here to learn about our current intern cohort.

Internship applications are currently closed. Please sign up for the Zilkha Center newsletter and follow us on social media to learn when internship openings are posted.

Below is a sampling of the internships we have offered in the past:

  • During the academic year, interns work about 5-10 hours per week. They may work on research projects, on supporting programs and initiatives of the Center, or on initiatives of their own design. Current projects include conducting a life cycle analysis of different water bottles to inform the Zilkha Center's purchasing choices, creating a zero waste events guide, and designing a sustainability dashboard.

    These internships are usually action oriented and change depending on the ever-changing research and work needs of the Zilkha Center. Positions open at the beginning of the fall semester. On occasion there are openings for winter or spring only internships, which are hired for in late fall.

  • The ZC hires interns with specific job descriptions to work full-time for 8 weeks while living on campus during the summer, from mid-June to early-August. Summer internships also include programming such as field trips, group work days, workshops, community meals, and more.

    Projects have included designing interpretive indoor and outdoor signage for the Envi Center, working with Athletics to find local and sustainable food options for teams’ road trips, working with WOC to make the WOOLF menu include more sustainable and local food, and designing a workshop on Intersectional Environmentalism. Applications typically open in early February.

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