Friends of the Mississippi River is looking for a Fall 2010 Restoration and Education Intern to assist with a wide variety of hands-on habitat restoration and education events.

This internship offers a blend of indoor and outdoor, hands-on and project-oriented work. The intern will assist with various aspects of outdoor event and educational workshops and tours. Tasks include assisting with online outreach, assisting with preparation and helping at the events themselves with registration and hands-on assistance at clean-ups, invasive species removals, bird hikes, watershed-friendly gardening workshops, the Mississippi River Challenge and more. (See www.fmr.org/participate/events and “Past Events” for example activities.)

• An appreciation of the outdoors is essential, as well as a spirit of openness and appreciation for both the special places we work in and the people who take the time to tend to them, including both landowners and volunteers.
• Excellent language skills – written and verbal -- are a must.
• Organization and time-management skills required.
• Experience posting in various online forums preferred.
• A basic understanding (intuitive or academic) of psychology preferred.
• If you tend to run late, know that you will need to set your watch ahead.

• The student will receive an overview of FMR and their work, interact with supervisors each day on the job, and also have weekly check-ins to make sure goals are being met and to ensure that additional support is there when needed.
• The intern will have a regular cubicle in a professional but camaraderie-filled atmosphere, where they can both relax and learn to be their most productive.
• At each step along the way, we will offer ample support (including templates, contact lists, trainings at the beginning of each event) but also encourage creativity.
• Most interns become valued members of the FMR team, and also have the opportunity to get to know partner groups as the National Park Service, St. Paul Parks, the DNR and others.
• If it works for their schedule, we would love for the student to attend monthly staff meetings and/or the monthly staff lunches as well.

• This is an unpaid internship, however most students have been able to arrange academic credit and we are happy to help with needed documentation, etc.
• We require a minimum eight hours per week, typically two four-hour shifts in the office plus weeknight and/or weekend morning events. Event dates are set far in advance. We have never had a problem working with an intern’s paid-work schedules and understand the need to balance a job and studies while in school.

A car is not required but we do reimburse for mileage and provide parking. We can also reimburse for bus costs and are near several major bus stops in downtown St. Paul. The FMR office is located at 360 N. Robert St. in downtown St. Paul and events take place throughout the metro area.

If interested, please read further about our organization at www.fmr.org/about and follow the links to download and review our annual reports.

Also be sure to review:

• our primary volunteer event programs, the Gorge Stewards and Vermillion Stewards,
• the events calendar (including past events),
• and the overview of Dakota County Farmland and Natural Areas Program (this is the primary program you will be surveying landowners about).

Then, please send a few sentences about yourself and why this internship is a good fit for you to FMR Volunteer Coordinator sue rich at . You do not need to attach a formal cover letter (the email is fine) but please do attach a resume (PDF preferred), two writing samples (links to blogs or Webpages are okay, as are excerpts from academic papers; no more than 1,500 words per sample please) and two to three references with complete contact information.

This page will be updated when the internship has been filled.