
Do you look at the labels on all of the food that you buy? Not only the nutritional facts but also the ingredients? If you answered yes, then you’re probably a health conscious consumer, or maybe you have a specific food allergy. Well what about the stuff that’s in your food that isn’t on the ingredients label? No mater what kind of drugs they pump into the cow that your hamburger is coming from, it’s always just going to be labeled beef. How about that bottle of water that you’re drinking from right now? It’s just water, or is it? A salmon from Lake Ontario is still just salmon, even if it’s full of PCBs (at least you can’t buy those in the grocery store). There’s a lot of stuff in our food and water that we don’t know about, which is why Washington, DC based Food & Water Watch exists. They’re “a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food.” Continue reading about Food & Water Watch…

Newspapers are dying. If you’re a college student, there’s a good chance that the only newspaper that you ever read a physical copy of is your campus’ daily. When you graduate, you probably won’t subscribe to a newspaper. Everything is moving online, and the industry is suffering financially because of it. With all of this change, there’s also a lot of opportunity. Interning in a traditional newsroom can offer some amazing learning opportunities, but the future is working in an interactive newsroom. Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is the digital arm of The Washington Post (and we think that it may eventually be the only arm). WPNI consists of WashingtonPost.com, Newsweek.com, Slate, BudgetTravel.com, Girlfriends Getaways, Sprig, The Root, The Big Money, Loudoun, and Ad Specs and they are looking for a ridiculous number of interns. Continue reading about Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive…

Have you ever served jury duty? It kind of sucks, right? Although a lot of people will never be fond of forced service, most people would be much more willing to serve on a jury if the entire process wasn’t so onerous. What about people who actually go through the judicial process? They’re probably not too fond of the system either, but may that’s because half of the parties involved in cases always lose. Whatever your view on the judicial process is, I think that we can all agree that there is a lot of room for improvement. That’s what the The Fund for Modern Courts is all about. They’re a “a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice in New York.” Continue reading about The Fund for Modern Courts…

Since diplomacy is “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states” according to Wikipedia, one would assume that a diplomat is a representative of a group or state. Independent Diplomat is a non-profit organization that is trying to live outside that definition. Their mission is to provide the knowledge and experience of long time diplomats to countries that are disadvantaged or marginalized to the point that they don’t have the resources to effectively practice diplomacy. Started by a former British diplomat, Independent Diplomat has worked with nations that include Somaliland, Western Sahara, Kosovo, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to prevent and resolve conflict. They’re kind of like management consultants for diplomacy. Continue reading about Independent Diplomat…

A lot of people and organizations think that they know what it takes to keep kids out of trouble. They’ll go on and on about how this or that is the way to keep kids from becoming criminals. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a non-profit organization that takes “a hard-nosed look at research on what keeps kids from becoming criminals and put that information in the hands of policy-makers and the public.” They base their action on facts, not feelings, so that they can do the most to make our streets safer and the lives of our youth more meaningful. Continue reading about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids…

Carbon is everywhere - in trees, air, diamonds, your body, yet it typically seems pretty harmless. For the most part carbon isn’t something that you lock up under the kitchen sink to keep away from the baby, although breathing carbon monoxide will kill you, and there is the fear that we may be using carbon monoxide to cook ourselves. No matter what you believe about “global climate change,” you have to recognize that attempts to limit carbon emissions are going to become a big business concern. That means that businesses of all sizes are either going to have to invest a lot of their own resources in trading in carbon markets, or they’re going to have to outsource. If they’re going to outsource, Point Carbon is the place to go. They provide “independent news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets” based on the information they get from their “experts in international and regional climate policy, mathematical and economic modelling, forecasting methodologies, risk management and market reporting.” If you’re interested in energy policy or markets, there couldn’t be a better place to intern than Point Carbon. Continue reading about Point Carbon…

I don’t know about you, but in the relatively short time that I’ve been politically aware, I’ve become very skeptical of politicians. It seems that they spend most of their time begging for money - or fundraising as they like to call it - so that they can win their race and get the power to decide what to do with the money that we are forced to give them through taxes. I’m further confused by the fact that I can’t give a Senator money (read: bribe) to get a bill passed, but if I throw him a fundraiser and pay a lobbyist to “lobby” him to get a bill passed, it’s ok. If this bothers you too, an internship with MAPLight.org is a great way to do something about it. The MAP in MAPLight stands for Money And Politics. They provide a website that “brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics.” Continue reading about MAPLight.org…

John James Audubon loved painting birds. His seminal work, Birds of America, was a collection of 435 beautiful life-size prints. To this day, when you hear the name Audubon, you think of birds. Interestingly enough, John James Audubon had no direct involvement with the founding of the National Audubon Society. Audubon’s widow, Lucy, tutored a man named George Bird Grinnell and some of Audubon’s love of birds must have rubbed off, as Grinnell was one of the Audubon Society’s founders. To this day, the Audubon Society persists in its mission “to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.” The Audubon Society works to achieve this mission through a national network of community-based nature centers and chapters and scientific, educational, and advocacy programs. Continue reading about National Audubon Society…

Ok, we realize that today’s internships are going to sound a lot like yesterdays. While the Heritage Foundation identifies itself as a conservative thinktank, The Cato Institute considers itself more of a non-profit libertarian public policy research foundation. We usually wouldn’t repeat, but we were running down the list of Greg Mankiw approved internships, and Cato’s internship website blew us away. It’s fantastic. Their deadline for Fall internships is July 1, so we couldn’t even save them for next weekend if we wanted to. Continue reading about Cato Institute…

I’m kind of a nerd - I really like reading Economics blogs. So I was delighted to come a cross a a post about internships on Greg Mankiw’s Blog. He’s certainly one of my favorite Econ bloggers (and he’s a Harvard professor), so I value his internship recommendations quite highly. Unfortunately I came across his post when the deadlines had passed for Summer internships at many of the organizations he named. I made note of this, and now that we’re looking at Fall internships, I’ve decided to return to some of the ideas Dr. Mankiw shared. Today we’re going to look at The Heritage Foundation,
a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Continue reading about The Heritage Foundation…

When I was 6 years old, my Mom and Dad thought it would be a great idea to take the train to Florida. We had been to Florida quite a few times before to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but always flew from a New York airport. For some reason my parents decided that the train was the way to go this time. Instead of 6 hours door to door, it was a solid 2 days, but it was actually a lot of fun. The most memorable part was coming into Washington, DC at night and seeing all of the monuments lit up. It was also on that trip that I finally got the hang of reading. I haven’t taken a long train trip since, but I will be doing so this Summer on my way to Quebec for a fishing trip. Although a train is slower, it’s also more comfortable, less of a hassle, and a nice change of pace. That’s exactly what the National Association of Railroad Passengers thinks too, as they’re a non-profit organization that is pushing for “a modern, customer-focused national passenger train network that provides a travel choice Americans want.” Continue reading about National Association of Railroad Passengers…

Unlike college seniors who are looking for full time employment, interns-to-be don’t need to worry much about recession and other macroeconomic factors. Since internships are temporary and often meagerly paid, if paid at all, they don’t put the same kind of strains on companies that a permanent hire does. That means that you don’t need to worry about recession-proofing yourself yet; however, you may want to keep an eye to the future by considering an internship at a non-profit that takes many of its interns on full time. One example is the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, “a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare,” which has hired 50 of its interns permanently over the past 10 years. Continue reading about American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research…

Today we’ve found a number of internships for the academic minded soon-to-be-interns. If you’re fascinated by public policy or foreign relations and would like to work in a non-profit, you’ll definitely want to read on. The Brookings Institution is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. They conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, they provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American democracy; foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system. Continue reading about Brookings Institution…