Spunk

You know that the economy is bad when you have a hard time finding quality unpaid internships. I'm been scouring treehugger.com, Indiana Career Services, High Country News, Orion Magazine, Idealist.org, and even put out a call over Facebook (which, incredibly, was my most successful search technique) with very little to show for it. The good news is that now I've know applied to about 5 openings and I have about 4 more to go.

I was having a difficult time for two reasons: 

(1) There are approximately two million environmental organizations and most of them are absolute basket cases. I'm sure their are very well intentioned and hard working people in each of them, but when they have a bad website and their name is something like "Friends of the Rainbows, Flowers and Trees for Harmonious Living in the North-Central Quadrangle of Oregon" it doesn't inspire confidence. There are also organizations that have seemingly legitimate granola-crunchy names like "The Pacific Legal Foundation," but are actually anti-environmental organizations (or, as they would want me to say, they promote a balanced approach to environmental protection). 

(2) Every intern stuffs envelopes, files papers and gets coffee- especially the unpaid variety. I'm astonishingly over-qualified for all of these tasks and I was starting to wonder just how much of a scam this whole interning thing was until I came up with a brilliant idea. 

Since I'm not getting paid for many of these internships anyway, why not contact a truly interesting organization and work with them to design something just for me? And that's exactly what I did yesterday. 

The mission of Western Resource Advocates is to protect the West's land, air, and water. They use lawyers, scientists, and economists to 1) advance clean energy to reduce pollution and global climate change 2) promote urban water conservation and river restoration; and 3) defend special public lands from energy development and unauthorized off-road vehicle travel. We collaborate with other conservation groups, hunters and fisherman, ranchers, American Indians, and others to ensure a sustainable future for the West. 

And a single tear ran down my face as I read it. 

They didn't have any internships posted, but what did I have to lose?

I sent them the following email:

Good people of Western Resource Advocates, I am very interested in interning at you organization and, while I know that you do not have any such position advertised, I hope I can convince you that I am an excellent candidate for the non-existent opening. 

Let me introduce myself. My name is Kate Logan. I am a masters of public affairs candidate at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. I graduated from Whitman College (a small, private liberal arts school in Walla Walla, Washington) in 2008 with a degree in Geology. I am professionally passionate about water allocation, western public lands, and extractive industries. Since starting graduate school, I have taken as many courses as possible specifically tailored to determining the cause and scope of environmental problems and finding the resources to solve them. I know that my core knowledge of economic markets, environmental law, statistics and earth sciences are important tools in tackling these issues. I have extensive experience writing for technical and non-technical audiences, including essays on topics such as BLM land management and water rights, and an undergraduate thesis in geology. As a graduate research assistant, I have further developed my ability to work independently on a wide range of topics.

I became aware of your organization after seeing an advertisement in High Country News several months for a Water Policy Analyst position. At the time, I softly cursed my career timing and wished I had 5 more years of professional experience so I could apply for this dream job. I consoled myself with the notion that in no time at all your organization would release a posting for summer interns. Unfortunately for me, no such opportunity has presented itself and, since I have nothing to lose, I decided it was time to take unilateral internship action. 

I do not expect to be paid for any work or reimbursed for travel expenses in this imaginary internship. As a life-long student, I am accustomed to paying for the privilege to work. I would, however, want to work on a project that is of use and substance to your organization. I do not want to act exclusively as the coffee girl or the copy machine mavin, although I know that some office work is part of every organization and I am willing to do my share. My resume is attached and I would be happy to discuss my qualifications further.

Thank you for your time. 

Sincerely,

Kate Logan

Less than 6 hours later I got an email back! Nothing is promised, but they like my "spunk" and might be able to work something out.

Now, back to homework!

Go Hoosiers!