INTERN
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Interns play an important role at ECHO. They bring experience, leadership skills, and enthusiasm to support our mission to educate and delight our visitors about the Ecology, Culture, History and Opportunities for Stewardship in the Lake Champlain Basin.
ECHO is proud to be an equal opportunity employer who fosters an environment that embraces diversity. We are committed to assembling a diverse and well trained group of volunteers and interns. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.
While at ECHO, interns gain hands-on experience to build relevant job skills, craft a competitive resume, and further their individual and/or career goals. Interns receive training in their area of focus, work closely with a staff mentor and work both independently and collaboratively on projects in support of ECHO’s mission.
ECHO provides a variety of internships throughout the academic year and during the summer. These internships are in the following departments: Education, Animal Care, Events and Guest Service, Marketing/Social Media, Graphic Communications, Development and Information Technology.
Time Commitment & Application Dates
Fall Semester: September-December (Accepting applications June 1st.)
Spring Semester: January-April (Accepting applications September 1st.)
Summer: June-August (Accepting applications January 1st.)
Please read specific intern descriptions for additional information.
Compensation
Interns will be eligible for the following:
- Departmental training and mentoring
- Independent project work
- Development of workplace and leadership skills
- Team building experiences
- The potential for college credit or hourly wage. Please read specific intern descriptions for more information.
- Participation in special programs and/or organizational events
Steps to apply for an Intern position at ECHO:
- Read position descriptions and choose one that interests you
- Fill out our online application
- Interview with appropriate department
- Attend ECHO Orientation and Intern Training
- Complete background check
Interested?
Complete our online application today!
Questions? Contact:
Phoebe Townsend, Staff Resource Manager
802.864.1848 ext. 116
volunteer@echovermont.org
Internship Opportunities
Animal Care
Guest Services/Events
Development
Communications/Design
Education
Information Technology
Animal Care Internship
Reports to: Environmental Exhibit Specialist/Director of Animal Care and FacilitiesCompensation: College Credit (This is an unpaid internship)
Description: This internship is specifically for students who wish to earn academic credit from their college/institution for their time at ECHO. Animal Care Academic Interns assist and support staff in a professional, state of the art animal care environment, as is provided in Association of Zoo and Aquarium accredited institutions throughout the US, for native fish and reptiles, as well as native and exotic amphibians. After initial hands-on training, Interns will be required to accomplish husbandry tasks independently and must complete assigned individual project work. Responsibilities include but not limited to: feeding animals, cleaning animal enclosures, medicating animals, creating and installing naturalistic habitats, animal handling, animal collecting, record keeping, researching natural history and captive husbandry.
Animal Care Academic Interns arrange for internship credit with their college/institution. Any requirements (paperwork, contracts) must be presented before start of internship to ensure Intern and ECHO staff can and will meet all requirements.
Qualifications: Three months prior experience as volunteer or intern in professional animal care facility. Applicants should be enthusiastic, detail-oriented, reliable, and willing to get wet and/or dirty! Occasional heavy lifting (up to 60 pounds) may be required. Majors in animal science, wildlife biology, pre-vet, aquaculture, environmental science, or related fields preferred. Desire to continue learning about the sustainability challenges facing the Lake Champlain Basin and the way individual actions can affect change.
Time Commitment: Internships require a full semester or summer commitment. Fall (September-December) Spring (January-April) Summer (May-August). Fifteen week commitment with a minimum of 12-15 hours a week.
Guest Services & Events Internship
Reports to: Director of Guest Service/Event ManagersCompensation: College Credit
Description: Guest Service/Event Interns will assist at our front desk, in our gift shop and help with some events at ECHO. Interns will get a complete understanding of our front of the house operations including daily admission sales, gift shop sales and merchandise, group check in and event management. Interns will be able to develop customer service and hospitality skills, work with point of sale computer programs, and assist with event execution.
Qualifications: We are seeking a person with good written and verbal communications skills, a customer service background, a pleasant telephone manner, a bubbly personality and a flexible schedule. Computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Office and familiarity with using database applications are desired. Hours vary and some evening work is necessary. Some heavy lifting may be required. Interns seeking careers in hospitality, customer service, or non-profit-specific positions will find the most direct benefit from this Internship.
Time Commitment: Internships are a semester commitment. Fall (September-December) Spring (January-April) Summer (May-August) Fifteen week commitment with a minimum of 15-20 hours a week. Must be able to work weekends and some evenings.
Development Internship
Reports to: Development & Communications StaffCompensation: College Credit
Description:ECHO’s Development Internship offers a challenging and highly rewarding experience for anyone considering a career in communications, fundraising or non-profit management. Interns work with ECHO’s development staff to broaden community understanding of ECHO’s charitable mission, particularly via non-traditional and multi-media platforms; evaluate and build understanding of ECHO’s Open Door community access program; and provide outreach support to ECHO’s donor and member constituents.
Responsibilities may include:
- Assist with creating outreach material to existing donors/members.
- Support mission marketing and fundraising efforts via direct mail and e-mail.
- Work with Open Door program partners to increase availability to underserved communities.
- Assist with the planning and execution of recognition and fundraising events.
- Support community outreach efforts including in-kind giving program.
- Support departmental record keeping and database management.
- Additional duties as assigned
- Strong communication skills
- Experience with or desire to learn about non-profit business
- Experience with or desire to learn interactive/social web platforms and databases
- Ability to synthesize quantitative and qualitative information to draw informed conclusions
- Desire to continue learning about the sustainability challenges facing the Lake Champlain Basin and the way individual actions can affect change
Design & Communications Internship
Reports to: Brand Curator & Multimedia DesignerCompensation: College Credit
Description: ECHO’s communications & design intern will help tell the story of this incredible non-profit science center dedicated to the ecology, culture, history, and opportunity for stewardship in the Lake Champlain Basin. With a growing social media audience and endless ways to communicate, the role is exciting and allows students to enhance the skills they have and create a portfolio to get the job they want.
Responsibilities may include:
- Assisting Brand Curator/Designer with design projects such as marketing materials, flyers, advertisements, social media graphics, logos, exhibit signage within ECHO brand standards
- Representing ECHO’s brand by creating unique, thoughtful content using various media such as photography, videography, writing
- Sharing with social media followers up-to-date information and engaging content
- Analyzing social media performance and finding new creative ways to take the brand forward
- Planning and documenting ECHO events (some nights and weekends may be required)
- Design & Typography classes/skills
- Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign(Knowledge of Premiere & editing skills a plus)
- Photography
- Writing
- Videography
- Understanding of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc)
- Using PC computer
- A passion for museums, science education, early childhood learning, animals, and the environment and a desire to manage the brand
Clean Water Communications Internship
Reports to: Voices for the Lake Project ManagerCompensation: $11/hr
Description: We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to help propel a culture of clean water by cultivating and supporting the Vermont Clean Water Network - a growing network of 65+ organization network dedicated to creating a culture of clean water.
Responsibilities may include:
- Coordinate Network meetings
- Manage network online communication, including Wix website, social media and Google Groups
- Identify and plan shared learning opportunities, such as webinars
- Ability to analyze and solve problems
- Ability to create, compose, and edit written materials
- Ability to understand and follow specific instructions and procedures
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community
- Word processing and data entry skills
- Proven ability to multitask and prioritize workload independently in a fast-paced environment
- Demonstration of attention to detail and task oriented
- Confidence to interact with conference attendees, presenters, vendors, external clients and all levels of management
- Interest and understanding of ECHO’s stewardship mission
Public Programs Education Internship, Summer
Reports to: Education DepartmentCompensation: $12.50/hr
Description: ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is located at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, on Vermont’s Burlington Waterfront. ECHO features 70 live species, more than 100 interactive experiences, changing and permanent exhibits, and seasonal events and festivals. We provide undergraduate and graduate students opportunity to gain practical experience with formal and informal teaching opportunities with visitors of all ages. ECHO’s Summer Education Internship offers a challenging and highly rewarding experience for anyone considering a career in informal science education. This is a fast paced environment which requires both team and independent work, the ability to work with visitors of various backgrounds and ages, and a passion for our mission.
Essential Duties:
- Conduct interactive educational experiences for visitors on the museum floor
- Conduct educational presentations for large audiences of museum guests
- Interact informally with visitors to facilitate engagement with exhibits
- Set up and clean up exhibits and activities throughout the day
- Coordinate volunteer interpreters and high school interns on a daily basis
- Work with an advisor on ECHO-related educational projects
- Work with intern team to develop new hands-on programming for museum floor
- Work with ECHO Public Programs staff to carry out special events and festival days
Time Commitment:
- June through late August ( Orientation: June 1)
- 9:00 am to 6:00 pm (with 30 minute break, 4 days per week (Sun-Wed or Wed-Sat)
- Additional hours may be necessary during high volume weeks
Application Deadline: Saturday, March 31, 2018
Early Childhood Education Internship, Fall/Spring
Reports to: Youth Programs ManagerCompensation: College Credit
Description:This internship provides undergraduate and graduate students opportunity to gain practical experience with formal and informal teaching opportunities with young visitors ages 0-6 and their caregivers. ECHO’s Early Childhood Education Internship offers a challenging and highly rewarding experience for anyone considering a career in early education. This is a high paced environment which requires both team and independent work; the ability to work with visitors of various backgrounds and ages, and an interest in the Ecology, Culture, History, and Opportunity for stewardship in the Basin.
Essential Duties:
- Assist lead instructors with ECHO’s Early Learning Readiness Program on Tuesday and/or Thursday mornings 8:30am -11:30am
- Develop and conduct preschool STEM related activities for visitors in ECHO’s early learning exhibit space
- Interact informally with visitors to facilitate engagement with exhibits
- Set up and clean up exhibits and activities throughout the day
- Work with an advisor on ECHO-related early childhood educational projects
- Understaning of early childhood development.
- Experience working with young children.
- Experience working independently and in diverse teams.
- Self motivated to complete projects in a timely fasion.
- Flexiblity and adaptability to complete a wide variety of tasks, including light cleaning.
- Eagerness to engage young children in daily activities or crafts.
- Three month commitment for Fall or Spring Semester
- Participation in an evening ECHO Orientation Training and Education Department Training
- 8:30 am to 11:30 am, on Tuesday and/or Thursdays plus additional hours to complete 12-15 hours per week. Scheduled based on your candidate availability.
Information Technology Internship
Reports to: Information Technology Systems ManagerDescription: Assist the IT Coordinator in providing support to Staff and Volunteers, maintaining servers, wired and wireless networking hardware, and VoIP PBX phone system. ECHO's IT infrastructure is a unique blend of a typical small corporate network, retail environment, and unique technology based exhibits. You'll work with IBM and Cisco equipment, VMWare ESXi virtualization, and a mix of Windows and GNU/Linux network operating systems. Projects may involve documenting existing infrastructure, researching, planning, and deploying new technologies, and auditing network policies. This is an exciting opportunity to gain practical experience in many diverse areas of Information Technology, with an institution making a significant difference in the quality of life in the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond.
Qualifications: We are looking for students who are responsible, detail-oriented, and able to work independently and as part of a team. Ideal candidates will have good communication skills and the ability to explain technology to non-technical staff. Experience in computer networking, information security, and computer science majors a plus. Desire to continue learning about the sustainability challenges facing the Lake Champlain Basin and the way individual actions can affect change.
Spring/Fall
Compensation: College CreditTime Commitment: Internships are a semester commitment. Fifteen week commitment with a minimum of 12-15 hours a week. The ideal candidate for this internship would be available for both fall and spring semesters.
Summer
Compensation: Hourly wage of $11.00Time Commitment: 12 Week, 32 hours/week paid internship from Mid May - Mid August. Typical schedule consists of 4 days a week, 8 hours a day.
