Internship Opportunities

The application period closes on November 28th 2025.

Planned start dates: February 2nd, 2026

Duration and hours: 3 months, 15 hours per week

Internship Type: Remote, Nonprofit, unpaid volunteer opportunity

Intern's expenses: This is a remote internship. For the three-month internship, the selected intern will receive a one-time stipend payment of $500.00 dollars to assist in covering expenses such as phone, electricity, internet, office materials, and other internship-related expenses

Cultural Survival will accommodate the intern’s academic commitments and will provide opportunities for a monthly mentorship session within this department.

Overview

Cultural Survival's internship program creates mentorship, learning, and development opportunities for individuals interested in the non-profit sphere, particularly in the vital work performed by Cultural Survival toward advancing and defending Indigenous People’s rights, lands, languages, and cultures. This initiative is one of the paths by which we demonstrate our social commitment to academic development and the awarding of meaningful learning opportunities.

Communications Intern

Manager / Mentor: Senior Communications Manager, Agnes Portalewska

About the internship

We are looking for an avid researcher and writer, a self-driven, resourceful, and analytical person with a strong interest in non-profit general communication work and learning about Indigenous Peoples’ rights, their activism, traditions, and conditions.

The interns will be working with the Senior Communications Manager and coordinating with other staff members, e.g. managers and coordinators (when writing spotlights), the selected intern will support the general administration and production of our publications, such as the Quarterly magazine, monthly e-newsletters, reports, social media content, and website posts.

Interns applying to this department must have outstanding writing skills and be comfortable interviewing sources. They should be adept Internet and journal researchers who pay particular attention to detail and are able to read extensive amounts of information and present clear and concise summaries. Interns must be independent, self-motivated, and reliable.

Fluency in English is required. Spanish is highly desired and other languages might also be considered.

Key learning objectives:

Enhance proficiency in conducting research, sourcing interviews, and composing polished news articles, press releases, and blog posts addressing a spectrum of Indigenous issues professionally.
Acquire skills in amplifying Indigenous perspectives and narratives through diverse media channels within our organization.
Cultivate a deep understanding and awareness of the prevailing conditions within Indigenous Peoples' movements globally.
Engage actively with various Indigenous communities to gain insights into the ongoing challenges that shape their experiences.
Develop adeptness in navigating and collaborating within a culturally diverse, globally dispersed, and remote work setting, fostering a positive and impactful global footprint.

Key tasks:

Conduct in-depth research and interviews with Indigenous leaders to produce compelling content for publication in our award-winning magazine, Cultural Survival Quarterly, and/or our website, which boasts approximately 2 million annual visitors. Craft engaging news articles that highlight the perspectives and experiences of Indigenous communities.
Create a diverse range of written content encompassing feature articles, interview transcriptions, concise news summaries, spotlights on Cultural Survival grant partners, resource compilations, blog posts, and additional content formats as needed.
Interns are encouraged to propose research topics aligned with their specific interests for potential project assignments.
Collaborate in researching, drafting, and generating content tailored for our social media platforms.

Community Media Intern

Manager / Mentor: Nati Garcia, Capacity Building Program Manager

Focus of the project: Content creation to support the amplification of Indigenous Media grant projects, along with administrative support in organizing and maintaining the database, files, reports, and radio products.

The Community Media program works with collectives and communities that exercise their right to communicate through the implementation of their own indigenous community media, which they use to amplify indigenous voices about topics that are important to their communities. Indigenous communicators produce the programming contents, strengthening the capacity to reclaim their rights as indigenous peoples and giving them access to essential information transmitted in indigenous languages. This secures that the information is understood and preserves their culture.

The selected candidate will report to the Capacity Building Program Manager and collaborate with other Community Media team members. The duration of this internship is three months.

The person selected for this internship shall know about community media and should also have strong research skills and excellent written and oral communication skills, proficient in using Internet tools and office software. The intern must feel comfortable reviewing projects, organizing the program’s databases, and reviewing reports. Experience in multimedia applications such as Canva, Photoshop, or video editing is also desirable.

We prefer someone self-motivated, creative, and analytical, with a strong interest in learning about indigenous peoples’ rights, their activism, traditions, conditions, and cultures.

It is essential that the candidate can pay close attention to details, read and analyze information and communicate with different indigenous community media, as requested.

For this internship, we prefer someone proficient in Spanish and English; however, this is not required. Every application will be reviewed. Being proficient in an indigenous language is preferred but not required.

Key Learning Objectives:

Understand the diverse experiences indigenous peoples encounter in their struggles exercising their right to communication.
Learn about other forms of indigenous communications that surge from the field.
Deepen your understanding of the importance of indigenous community media in the field and the international sphere.
Strengthen your communication, research, analysis, and writing skills and abilities, as well as your ability to support community media.
Improve your professional skills and strengthen your perspective on this global fight by interacting with our diverse and multicultural staff and our partners.

Essential tasks:

Learn to review and analyze reports and other documents related to community media projects.
Provide support with updating the databases of the Community Media Program to keep all project information up to date.
Provide administrative support to the Community Media Program.
Support the team in amplifying grant project outcomes in a visually engaging way.
Create graphic designs for publication on grant partners’ projects.
Edit audiovisual production materials to strengthen quality and engagement.

How to apply?

To be considered for this internship opportunity, the candidate’s application must include:

A cover letter: Detailing your interest in this internship and how you specifically meet the criteria we are looking for.
Resume

If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply, please send an email to: hr@culturalsurvival.org

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WNYW