Are you looking for opportunities to put your academic research and writing skills into practice? Are you looking for meaningful work experience from the convenient location of BGSU’s campus? Would you like to do it for course credit? Then consider applying to be an intern for BGSU’s own interdisciplinary, public humanities center. You can get valuable experience with event planning, marketing and public relations, graphic design, research and curricular development, and more.
The Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS) seeks to connect academic research to the wider community through public engagement activities. ICS helps faculty to develop, communicate, and disseminate their scholarly and creative work to constituencies across campus and throughout the region. With our public events and outreach efforts, we bring issues of vital national and global importance to Northwest Ohio, and, in turn, bring community knowledge back into the university.
We are looking for motivated, team-oriented problem solvers with excellent communication skills. ICS interns work approximately 10 hours per week in the ICS offices in East Hall. ICS internships are offered in the following tracks:
Social Media and Publicity
• Develop and implement a social media plan and assess its success
• Develop publicity strategies and manage day-to-day promotions of ICS events and programs
• Learn about accessibility standards and implement programs and processes in ICS promotional materials and on the ICS website
Graphic Design
• Design professional-looking posters, flyers, emails, and digital screens to advertise upcoming events
• Design outward-facing promotional materials such as brochures, logos, swag, etc.
• Design, update, and edit presentation templates (including for accessibility) for ICS public events and workshops
Public Relations
• Draft text for emails, press releases, invitation letters, posters, flyers, and other essential documents to communicate with our audiences
• Draft podcast scripts and speaker introductions
• Research and work with media outlets for event promotion
Research & Curriculum Development
• Research, annotate, and summarize journalism and scholarly articles, and curate curriculum guides for general audiences
• Create course outreach lists to promote events and curriculum guides, and draft course outreach materials to go to faculty
• Research backgrounds of speakers and assist in drafting podcast scripts, panel questions, and more
Project Management
• Learn project management and “traffic” skills to maintain steady workflows in a professional setting
• Assist in planning, scheduling, and publicizing public lectures, workshops, community engagement activities, and other high-impact special events across Wood and Lucas Counties
• Develop and implement office organizational plans and standards for archiving past events and activities
Media Production
• Shoot and edit photographs and videos of events
• Storyboard, create, and edit promotional videos
• Transcribe, caption, and publish video files to meet accessibility standards
Podcast Research & Production:
• Do content-based editing of podcast recordings
• Manage process of having audio files transcribed to meet accessibility standards
• Upload episodes, transcriptions, and summaries to host sites
• Promote the podcast via social media
ELIGIBILITY AND APPLICATION PROCESS
Depending on their program of study (and in consultation with their major advisor), ICS interns are eligible to register for up to three credit hours. With the approval of the ICS Director, students may be able to continue interning for a second semester. If they would prefer to do the internship without course credit, students may sign up for COOP 050, and the internship will still appear on their transcript.
Interns must have basic Microsoft Office skills; familiarity with Adobe Suite is desirable.
Please familiarize yourself with ICS before applying by reviewing our website: www.bgsu.edu/ics.
Please submit the following application materials to ics@bgsu.edu:
- Resumé
• Include the names and contact information for two or more references (at least one of them should be a BGSU faculty member) who can speak to your academic qualifications and/or work experience - Cover Letter, including:
• Your name
• Your major and year at BGSU
• Why you are interested in being an intern with ICS
• Indicate which internship track(s) (listed above) you are interested in applying for.
• List any additional skills and interests that might be well suited to the internship (for example: accessibility, data analysis, audio production, the sky is the limit!)
• Relevant previous coursework, work experience, internship(s), volunteerism, or research experience
Application deadline for Fall internships is March 27th. Review of applications will begin immediately, with interviews to follow. Questions should be emailed to ICS Director, Dr. Jolie Sheffer at jsheffe@bgsu.edu.