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Cornell University

Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies

LACS Global Summer Internships

Application Deadline: February 28, 2024
Application Timeframe: Spring
Ecuador Crossroads

Details

Global summer internships from Latin American and Caribbean Studies broaden your academic studies by giving you real-world experience and a chance to learn from and conduct research with experts and organizations based in Ecuador.

Join us in summer 2024 for an in-person experience in Ecuador! Ranging from six to eight weeks, these opportunities connect you with LACS nonprofit partners across the country.

Eligibility

To apply, you must be:

  • A rising sophomore, junior, or senior at Cornell.
  • In good standing academically with a cumulative 3.0 GPA minimum and have no unresolved disciplinary charges or sanctions.
  • Enrolled in an undergraduate degree program at the time of the internship.

Global Development Summer Experience Grant (SEG) awardees are eligible and encouraged to apply for LACS summer internships. Please note: Global Development Fellows must do an eight-week internship. 

Ecuador Internships

Groups of people having a discussion

Host Organization: Pa'Arriba Foundation

Pa’Arriba Foundation is a nonprofit whose primary purpose is to identify and implement innovative prevention and treatment methodologies, community-based support interventions, and networked solutions that reduce violence in the home, school, and society at large that can be replicated at a large scale and across geographical boundaries.

Communications Intern

This internship will focus on generating a communication plan and relevant content for the English-language social networks of Pa'Arriba Foundation to show its work in Ecuador on issues of gender-based violence and human rights.

  • As an intern, you will develop a medium-term communication plan and communication material. The final product will be a dissemination and awareness campaign on the importance of community-based tools for stopping the pandemic of violence battering the country. It will support broader communication and fundraising campaigns to be implemented in Spanish by the foundation in the first half of the year.

Preferred Interests and Skills

Graphic design and excellent communication skills in both oral and written English and Spanish are needed. Experience in content development, digital marketing management, and awareness-raising and fundraising campaigns is valuable.

Interest and/or knowledge in human rights, cultural transformation, violence against women and other vulnerable groups.

Portrait

Host Organization: The Yakum Foundation

Yakum is an Amazonian NGO working in 20 Cofan, Siekopai, Shuar, and Kichwa communities across the Amazonian region of Ecuador. This unique region has an extremely high bio and cultural diversity that Yakum is focused on protecting while restoring food sovereignty, regenerating lost forests, and strengthening Indigenous culture.

Mapping Training with Youth in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Collaborate with Yakum's institutional development team while working in the Ecuadorian Amazon this summer! As an intern, you will:

  • Review existing sets of maps and assist in improving the format of the maps, including standard legends, colors, orientation, and more.
  • Train a select group of Siekopai ethnic group youths who are helping with mapping the community’s territory.
  • Post on the website and various social media about work results. 
  • Create a set of mappings for Yakum and its communities to use in the future. 

Preferred Interests and Skills

Knowledge of GPS, experience with developing maps from GPS coordinates, skills in the use of mapping programs (ArcGIS, MapInfo Pro, or other GIS mapping software) is preferred. You should also have an interest in or experience with training others in mapping techniques, an interest in international development career;

An intermediate to high level of oral and written Spanish is needed.

Requirements

Students must be able to commit to working full time for the duration of the internship. Interns are not permitted to hold other full-time jobs. Selected interns must participate fully in April pre-departure trainings and post-internship sessions, as well as complete any required reflections and evaluations.

    Funding

    All Einaudi Center summer interns receive a stipend of at least $3,000 for airfare, transportation, and living expenses. A portion of the stipend may be paid directly to the local host to support living arrangements.

    LACS internships are partly funded by an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) grant from the U.S. Department of Education, with additional support from the Einhorn Center, Jeffery & Martha Kohn International Study Fund, and alumni donors.

    How to Apply

    Submit your application by February 28, 2024, and select one or more of the LACS internships as your top three choices.

    View the full list of Einaudi Global Summer Internships offered this year.

    Apply

    Additional Information

    Funding Type

    • Internship

    Role

    • Student

    Program

    Latin American and Caribbean Studies