Sierra Club Summer Fellowship

The GW Career Services Council, in collaboration with the Office of Sustainability and Military and Veteran Services, has established the Charles and Deborah Frank Fellowship, generously supported by alumnus Charles Frank, B.A., CCAS 1974. This fellowship endows a summer position within the Sierra Club's Military Outdoors (SCMO) program. SCMO is dedicated to ensuring that military members, veterans, and their families have access to the beauty of nature by advocating for programs and policies that remove barriers hindering their outdoor experiences.

The Summer Fellow will play a vital role in supporting the SCMO Campaign and collaborating with its ten chapters across the United States, as well as an emerging coalition, to develop a sustainable partnership resource. This resource aims to enhance the capacity of SCMO's initiatives, enabling them to better serve veteran communities by facilitating access to outdoor experiences and fostering a deeper connection with nature.

Sierra Club Fellowship Application

Job Title: Sierra Club Fellow

Location: Must be located in the United States. Type of work will depend on where in the US the fellow is located.

Compensation: $5000.00

Requirements

Be a GW student (U or G) enrolled full-time or part-time during the application period.
Special consideration for:
- Veteran of or actively serving in the US Armed Forces.
- Dependent family member of a veteran or a member of the US military
- Non-military affiliated rising senior with a sustainability minor, or public policy, international affairs or other related majors.

Description of Duties

Support the advancement of the Sierra Club’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice.
Complete an internal audit of Sierra Club Military Outdoor chapter best practices around partnership engagement and development.
Conduct research on best practices in partnership development.
Create a partnership engagement and development resource (toolkit, one pager, etc) grounded in academic theory and chapter insight.
Utilize developed resource in recruitment of new SCMO coalition partners.
Final Deliverable: Partnership Development resource and public webinar hosted with SCMO team support.

Skills and Experience

Prior experience in public policy or research is not required.

Essential skills and experience: demonstrated history of relational skills and ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, analytical skills, effective written and oral communication skills, highly motivated individual with a passion for bettering the experiences of military community, strong time and project management skills.

Additional skills and experience that are helpful: knowledge of issues affecting the veteran and military community that concern them nationally and locally, community building and organizing, introductory research methods.

Skills and experience that members will gain from this position: general understanding and knowledge of the legislative and political process, experience with meeting facilitation and popular education training, effective strategies for base building.

General Timeline of Fellowship

June 3-14, 2024: Sierra Club and Sierra Club Military Outdoors Onboarding

June 17-18: SCMO Staff Retreat
- Location: TBD in SE (likely Atlanta or Western North Carolina)
- Purpose: Campaign Planning / Refresh & Team Outing (1 1/2 days)

June 24 - July 3, 2024: Project Preparation and Individual Outing

June 24-28: Project Design
July 1-3: Individual Outing (fellow's choice)

July 8 - August 2, 2024: Project Implementation and Media Engagement

July 8-9: Project Proposal Draft
July 15-26: Work on Project
July 29 - August 2: Media Engagement
- Purpose: Highlight fellow, GW Fellowship, and Sierra Club Military Outdoors impact

August 5-30, 2024: Professional Development, Outdoors Engagement, and Culminating Event

August 5-9: Professional Development & Networking
August 12-16: Outdoors for All & Conservation Team Engagement
August 19-23: Work on Project
August 26-30: Culminating Event (L & D presentation with SC & industry leadership)

September 2-6, 2024: Offboarding & Farewell

Apply for Sierra Club Fellowship 2024

If you have questions, or if you would like more information about this opportunity, please contact Marva Gumbs Jennings at [email protected].