Commercial Alert Digital Rights Advocacy Internship

Commercial Alert, a division of Public Citizen, is seeking new interns for the Summer 2019 academic session.  Public Citizen is a national, non-partisan, public interest group with more than 500,000 members and activists. Commercial Alert’s mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.

The Commercial Alert division is leading an exciting new project to advocate for federal privacy and digital rights legislation that centers consumer protections and civil rights. We will use public pressure, effective press and social media strategies, and advocacy on Capitol Hill to win legislation that puts the public interest before Big Tech’s profits.

We are looking for an amazing new intern to join us to both support and learn from this project. The Commercial Alert advocacy internship is designed to provide a better understanding of the role of public interest activism within the legislative and administrative process, in addition to an understanding of how to win issue campaigns and mobilize the public.

Responsibilities:

• Assist Commercial Alert’s campaign coordinator with duties including: developing reports, fact sheets and other educational and lobbying materials; supporting social and traditional media plans; and coalition building.
• Provide research support on pending legislative issues and monitor the news for breaking stories related to digital rights and online privacy.
• Provide a wide range of administrative support including copying, faxing, deliveries, errands to Capitol Hill, and other tasks as assigned.

Requirements:

Knowledge: Basic knowledge of public policy issues and the legislative process.
Skills: Excellent research, analytical thinking, oral and written communication, and organizational skills.
Qualities: Conscientious, accurate, and tenacious. Strong commitment to public interest work.  Willingness to assist with all aspects of issue advocacy work. A preference will be given to applicants seeking academic credit for this internship placement.

To Apply:

Public Citizen offers both unpaid internships (course credit can be arranged) and a small number of paid internships ($15 an hour).

If you are applying for a paid internship, please also include an essay outlining why you want to intern at Public Citizen and any other information about you that you wish to have considered, including your need for financial support (500 words or less). If you have completed the FAFSA, please also submit a copy of your Student Aid Report (SAR).

Submit cover letter, resume, and writing sample as attachments to Kristen Strader, campaign coordinator for Commercial Alert (kstrader@citizen.org) with the subject line “CA-Advocacy Summer Internship.” No phone calls please.