Job Description
Intern for NOAA’s Climate Program Office (CPO) Communications, Education, and Engagement (CEE) Division
NOAA’s Climate Program Office(CPO) manages competitive research programs in which NOAA funds foundational climate science, assessments, decision-support research, outreach, education, and capacity-building activities. CPO’s work is designed to advance our understanding of Earth’s climate system and prediction across timescales, provide timely and authoritative climate data and information for a Climate-Ready Nation, and to foster the application of this knowledge in risk management and adaptation efforts to help Americans plan and respond.
CPO’s Communications, Education, and Engagement (CEE) Division is the largest team in the federal government dedicated to climate communication, education, and engagement. CEE serves five priority groups.
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CEE offers tools, authoritative information, and expertise to help U.S. communities and businesses build resilience to climate-related hazards.
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CEE writes web stories and develops fact sheets and presentations for people who want to understand climate-related issues for policy decisions including leaders in NOAA, the White House, and Congress.
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CEE offers resources for people seeking climate data for research and development and those who want to know more about past, present, and projected climate conditions and climate science.
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CEE works with NOAA Public Relations to write press releases for people who report on climate in public media.
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CEE’s goal is to foster a climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and makes informed decisions.
The CEE Division is seeking a paid, part-time intern (20 hours per week) with a flexible start date around early June 2024 to support the duties outlined below. We are looking for candidates who can commit to at least a six-month internship. One year is ideal.
Students at any college or university can apply.
Duties
● Support for CPO communications staff in writing and receiving “Hot Item” submissionsand editing and compiling them for the weekly CPO Hot Items Report, our internal newsletter.
o A “Hot Item” is a short written notice from a program in the Climate Program Office describing a new accepted/published scientific research paper, forthcoming event,or other upcoming or recent activityof importance hosted/led/featuring/or funded by CPO.
o Hot Items are circulated to an internal NOAA audience.
o The text of a Hot Item is converted from scientific and technical jargonto plain language wherever possible.
● Communications with Climate Program Office program managers to ensure timely and accurate Hot Item contributions.
● Support for communications staff in writing Climate Program Office web stories (for CPO website) based on Hot Items.
● Provide research support for communications staff.
● Other administrative duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications
● Master’s degree student or high-performing undergraduate student in good academic standing, pursuing a degree in natural sciences or science journalism/communication. Priority given to journalism or communications students.
● Strong written and verbal communications skills and ability to translate technical jargon into plain language
● Acute attention to detail
Desired Qualifications
● Knowledge of, interest in NOAA
● Knowledge of, interest in science and climate pubic policy
● Knowledge of, interest in climate communications
● Publications experience at college or high school level (literary magazine, yearbook, environmental policy magazine, science blog, school newspaper, political magazine, or scientific journal)
To Apply:
Submit resume with select course experiences, and two writing samples that indicate skill conveying technical or climate scientific information to a lay audience. Ideally, the writing samples should discuss an article from a scientific journal such as Nature or Science.
E-mail your application to John Coggin and Amber Liggett, john.coggin@noaa.govand amber.j.liggett@noaa.gov
Applications considered on a rolling basis until April 1, 2024 deadline. Note: students at any college or university can apply.