The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health welcomes interns from colleges around the country, and recruits three times a year for Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons. The internship program is a great educational experience for anyone interested in sex education, non-profit development, library science, and/or connecting with an amazing, diverse community of sex-positive people from all walks of life.
NOTE: The CSPH is not currently accepting applications for internships, but you are welcome to send an email of inquiry to info@thecsph.org to put your name on our contact list. We can then notify you when the next round of applications starts and the new forms are made available on the website! The information below was for our Spring 2012 Internship cycle.
We encourage individuals to bring new ideas to the table and to arrive with a strong interest in collaboration. If you are looking to become an intern, please fill out and submit the application form along with a copy of you resume and two brief writing samples (2-3 pages each). We will contact you with further details once we receive your application.
Internship Program Information
Technical Requirements:
- Regular Internet access
- A Gmail or GoogleApps account (or willingness to create one)
- A Skype account (or willingness to create one)
- Experience with GoogleDocs (or willingness to be trained in how to use them)
- A Facebook account (or willingness to create one)
Behavior/Performance Expectations:
- Work individually and in a group
- Attend meetings held twice a month
- Show up for shifts on time
- Complete assigned tasks in a timely manner
- Be willing to help out with unexpected projects that may arise
- Communicate effectively (verbally and in writing)
- Be comfortable around sexual content, books, media, and other materials
Time Commitment:
- For Spring and Fall internships, the position requires 10-15 hours a week
- For Summer internships, the position requires 20 hours a week
- Telecommuting is possible for most of the positions unless otherwise noted
- Local interns are expected to spend at least 7 hours in the CSPH itself every week (this counts toward the general time requirement)
Benefits of Internship:
This internship is unpaid, but the perks are many. Becoming an intern at The CSPH gives you access to a wonderful resource center and the vast network of its Founder and Director, Megan Andelloux — a certified and accredited sex educator and sexologist.
This position also provides opportunities for continuing education as Ms. Andelloux regularly brings in trainers and speakers from the field of sexuality to meet with the interns. These either provide specific guidance and presentations, or just talk about their experiences in the field and address concerns and questions people may have.
Interns are part of a fabulous team of individuals who believe in social justice and the power of sexual freedom, knowledge, and hard work. Each intern has important responsibilities and is accountable to the rest of the team and staff; this is not a “fetch me coffee and make copies” internship! Aside from the great professional opportunities and the fabulous group of people involved, becoming an intern also has additional benefits, such as free products, lowered registration at select conferences, and the insider scoop on new developments in the field.
Internship Positions:
(SOME ARE FILLED FOR THE NEXT CYCLE, SO PLEASE INQUIRE OR NOTE YOUR PREFERENCES IN YOUR APPLICATION)
There are various delineated intern positions, though all the interns work closely together and there is an emphasis on teamwork and cross-pollination.
Programming Intern: This position is NOT available for telecommuting, as the person must be able to connect directly with the staff and sometimes travel around RI (a car is not a requirement, though!). This individual will help with event-planning and organization to keep regular and special events running smoothly. They will also collaborate with the rest of the intern team (namely the Communications Intern as well as the Social Media and Web-Development Intern) to publicize programming. If you are the type of person that gets stuff done and is always planning events, this might be the position for you!
Research Interns: Due to the amount of calls for reports and research that the CSPH receives, we are looking for at least two research interns this season. If you are someone that loves finding information, digging for buried treasure in libraries, and scouring the internet for valuable nuggets, this may be the position for you. Sometimes gathering the information is fairly easy and just involves going online for a few hours, but other times it requires more depth and skill. Currently, we have a few different projects in the works and would love people passionate about helping with them on the research and documentation end.
Communications Intern: Someone with a love of words and language is excellent for this position, as it requires an individual whose strengths are copyediting, writing, and disseminating information. This person will write press releases (overseen by the Director and/or staff), copyedit CSPH materials, write pamphlets, and send out the monthly newsletter (if no volunteers are available to do the latter). There is also room for getting involved in writing articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals, which is especially important for folks hoping to go into academia!
Resources Intern: If you have a knack for organization, coordination, and the collection of resources, this might be the internship for you. The individual in this position coordinates the reviews team, writes reviews themselves (for books, sex toys, conferences, and/or films), and sends them along to the Social Media intern so the can go on the site. They also contact prominent educators for the Hump Day Heroes section of the CSPH site and collect resources, teaching tools, CSPH use.
Graphics Intern: This person must have a sharp eye for design and composition, as they will be responsible for creating The CSPH’s advertising, educational, and promotional materials. Working closely together with the Communications intern, this individual will help create informational pamphlets and other awesome goodies. Skill with web-design is also a plus. If you care about making things look great and want to further develop your graphic design skills, consider this position!
Social Media and Web-Development Intern: We need a web-savvy individual who may already be a mastermind at social media or is willing to get their hands dirty learning how to do so. This person is in charge of keeping our website updated and running smoothly, which usually entails posting reviews/ resources and monitoring/fixing broken links. They also manage the social media presence and curate a constant stream of content through all our channels (YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Finally, they also watch for online mentions of CSPH and update our History section accordingly (with press info).
