Sustainability Education Internship

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

Similar to Model UN or mock trial, our sustainability negotiation simulation puts participants into the role of hypothetical stakeholders to solve sustainability challenges. Participants will step into these roles to negotiate potential solutions to challenges involving issues like sustainable food and clean energy. The program aims to teach participants about the complexity of sustainability challenges and help participants to hone their own negotiation and communication skills. The program is a valuable introspective way of experiencing how decision-makers tackle such challenges. The target audience for the program is high school students but many other groups also regularly participate in the program.

The intern will be responsible for helping with our sustainability negotiation simulation programs by facilitating the negotiation for participants, helping disseminate the program to new partners, and developing new versions of the program.

This internship provides a great opportunity to build your own leadership and communication skills as you become an expert in our sustainable food and clean energy negotiation simulations and facilitate the negotiation with a variety of groups.

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INTERN REQUIREMENTS

• Attention to detail
• Available for up to 10 hours a week
• Ability to work remotely and sometimes in person in the NYC area
• Preferred: Interest in sustainability, particularly food or energy
• Preferred: Located in the NYC area

INTERN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Facilitating the negotiation simulation amongst participants
• Reaching out to new partners for the program (schools, community organizations)
• Reporting back to a member of our staff feedback you receive from participants
• Research sustainability challenges to develop new versions of the negotiation simulations
• Work with staff to develop new versions of the negotiation simulations

Candidates should be available between roughly September to end of December 2026 for perhaps an average of 7-10 hours per week.

This is a remote/virtual role.

ABOUT US:

Earth Day Initiative is a non-profit organization that promotes environmental action and awareness through annual Earth Day events, as well as year-round programs such as a sustainable food and clean energy education program and a green buildings publication. We aim to bring the spirit of the first Earth Day into the 21st Century.

Our annual events and year-round programs include partnerships with local businesses, national companies, and environmental organizations. We work with companies and organizations like Natural Resources Defense Council, Whole Foods, Rainforest Alliance, Environmental Defense Fund, Food & Water Watch, New York Botanical Garden, GrowNYC, the United Nations, the City of New York, and the New York Times. Past interns have gone on to work on the City of New York's recycling initiatives, landmark urban farming projects, and corporate responsibility at multinational corporations. Our recent events have included Al Gore, Robert Downey Jr, Bill Nye, Ian Somerhalder, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Broadway performers from Jagged Little Pill and Hamilton, climate scientists, sustainability experts, and activists like Alexandria Villasenor, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, and Jerome Foster II.

We are looking particularly for interns in the NYC area. The work done for this internship will be done largely remotely with some in-person work.