Internships in Federal History

Internships in federal history offices are numerous and diverse, and offer the student an invaluable educational experience. Students can gain hands–on experience with historical materials, learn critical professional skills and the workings of history offices, and build professional contacts. Interns can make valuable contributions to a program, and often these opportunities lead to permanent positions. In addition, some programs offer research grants and scholarships. Several federal offices are highlighted below with program and application information, and additional listings will be added in the future. Also, see recent issues of The Federalist and the newsletter of the Society for History in the Federal Government, for additional explanations of these programs. Administrators can send information on their programs for inclusion to Benjamin Guterman.

Agencies and Offices

Marine Corps History Division

http://www.history.usmc.mil

Program Goal: To provide undergraduate students with practical work experience and the acquisition of research skills.

Intern duties: The Division welcomes applications from college students interested in working in historical and museum activities. Interns receive a stipend of $50 per day for daily expenses, provided by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

Internship may lead to a published monograph, catalog, finding aid, or published article in Division quarterly newsletter Fortitudine.

Work location: Work is done at Marine Corps History Division, Building 3079, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia. There may be requirements to use research facilities and collections elsewhere in the Washington, DC, area. Service should be at least half a day per week, preferably a full day or more.

Application requirements:

Contact: For information and application, write to:

Marine Corps History Division
Attn: Coordinator, Grants and Fellowships
3079 Moreell Avenue
Quantico, Virginia 22134
703–432–4877

Related program options: Research grants and master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation fellowships

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

http://www.archives.gov/careers/
http://www.archives.gov/careers/internships/index.html

Work locations: The National Archives offers an extensive range of internships. These opportunities are predominately in the Washington, DC, area but are also at the 12 Presidential libraries and the regional archives, nationwide.

College Park, MD, and Washington, DC

Additional units offering internships:

Presidential Library Internships
Office of Presidential Libraries, College Park, MD: education and grants researcher, public awareness assistant, web site developer.

Contact:
Washington, DC, Area Internships
Student Intern Program
Phone: 301–837–1872
Email: Internships@nara.gov

Regional Archives, Nationwide

Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP)
The National Archives Career Intern Program recruits exceptional applicants for two-year internships at the GS–5, 7, and 9 levels. Upon successful completion of the term, the applicant can be converted to career or career–conditional employment without further competition. Appointments can be to non–sensitive, non–critical sensitive, or critical sensitive positions.

Application requirements:

National Park Service (NPS)

http://www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/internships/index.htm

Below are only a few of the many opportunities available at the National Park Service.

Heritage Education Services
This office has periodic opportunity for a credit/not paid student internship. The internship provides an excellent opportunity to learn about cultural heritage tourism and heritage education and how to develop web–based promotional products to market historic places as destinations and as tools for learning. The intern will assist in preparing and posting NPS Discover Our Shared Heritage travel itineraries and/or Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plans on the NPS web site. He or she will work with a variety of organizations and professionals in partnership with the NPS to prepare travel itineraries and lesson plans: developing content, editing, and carrying out work to post itineraries and/or lesson plans on the Web. To apply, please email a resume to Carol Shull, Chief, Heritage Education Services, National Park Service, or call 202–354–2234 for more information.

Summer Jobs With HABS/HAER/HALS
The Heritage Documentation Programs (Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey) offer summer internships involving documenting historic sites and structures of architectural, landscape and technological significance throughout the country. Duties involve on–site field work and preparation of measured and interpretive drawings and written historical reports for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Projects last 12 weeks, beginning in May/June. Salaries range from approximately $6,000 to $11,000 for the summer, depending on job responsibility, locality of the project, and level of experience.
Applications are normally due by early February. Application forms and detailed information can be found at our web site. View examples of HDP documentation on the Library of Congress web site.

Contact:
Judy Davis, Summer Program Administrator
Heritage Documentation Programs Division
1201 Eye Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202–354–2135
Email: HDP_Summer_Program_Admin@nps.gov

National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE)
Operated jointly with the National Council for Preservation Education, the Internship Training Program places students in National Park Service cultural programs headquarters and field offices and in units of the park system with historic preservation and cultural resource management responsibilities. Internships are available to undergraduate and graduates students in historic preservation programs and related disciplines.

Applications: The application deadline for summer internships is in early February. Visit http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/hpit_p.htm for more information or write to address below:

Internship Training Program
Heritage Preservation Services, National Park Service
1201 Eye St. NW, 2255
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: Guy Lapsley at 202–354–2025
Fax: 202–371–1616
Email: nps_hps-info@nps.gov

Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program
The Cultural Resources Diversity Internship Program provides a career exploration opportunity for diverse undergraduate and graduate students in historic preservation/cultural resources work. The program places interns with National Park Service park units and administrative offices, other federal agencies, state historic preservation offices, local governments, and private organizations. Intern sponsors provide work experiences that assist interns with building their resumes in this field. In 2007, 16 Diversity Interns visited Washington, DC, in August to attend the annual Career Workshop, where they visited and spoke with professionals from several government museums and institutions. Both undergraduate and graduate students can participate in 10-week, paid internships during May/June through August.

Applications: The deadline is in March. Visit our web site for more information.

Student Educational Employment Program (SEEP)

  1. Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP)
    Job opportunities under this component offer temporary employment. Employment can be, but does not always have to be, related to your academic field of study. Employment can range from summer jobs to positions that can last for as long as you are a student.
  2. Student Career Experience Program (SCEP)
    This component offers you valuable work experience directly related to your academic field of study. It provides formal periods of work and study while you are attending school. It requires a commitment by you, your school, and the employing Federal agency. You may be eligible for permanent employment under this component after successfully completing your education and meeting specific work requirements.

Program Features Under Both Components

Visit the SEEP Web site here.

Naval Historical Center (NHC)

http://www.history.navy.mil

The Naval Historical Center offers interns to U.S. and non–U.S. citizen applicants for a minimum of 120 hours. For the latter, we assist successful applicants with the J–1 visa application process as a participant in the Department of State’s Visitor Exchange Program. Information about the program and the application form maybe found at our web site. The point of contact is:

Edward M. Furgol
Curator
National Museum of the United States Navy
Naval Historical Center
805 Kidder Breese Street SE
Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5060
Phone: 202–433–6901
Fax: 202–433–8200
Email: edward.furgol@navy.mil.

In order to avoid delay, applications can be sent electronically or by overnight mail.

Office of Historian, U.S. House of Representatives

Program Goal: The Office of the Historian seeks to preserve and present the history of the House of Representatives. For periods of one to three months, the Office welcomes college-level students of history and political science to work with historians and other professional staff in a temporary unpaid capacity. Working with the student’s academic advisors, course credit is sometimes available. The internship opportunity gives the student excellent on–the–job training and experiences in a nonpartisan office, and it provides a service to the Office in pursuit of its mission to serve the House, its Members, Committees, and staff, the media, and the general public.

Intern duties: Based on a mutually agreeable work schedule, the intern will assist in the day–to–day office operations, significant historical research, and other projects as assigned.

Work location: B-56 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC, 20515

Application requirements:

  1. Personal letter of introduction that describes why you are interested in an internship with the Office of the Historian and if you have any particular areas of interest
  2. The dates of your availability, your likely office schedule, and if you are seeking academic credit
  3. Resume that includes your relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as relevant course work
  4. Two references, one personal and one professional (academic)
  5. Brief (2 pages) writing sample.

Contact: Applications should be sent via facsimile or email to:

Michael Cronin
Office Director/Certified Archivist
B-56 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC, 20515
Phone: 202–226–5525
Fax: 202–226–2931
Email: Michael.Cronin@mail.house.gov

NASA History Office

http://history.nasa.gov/interncall.htm

Program Goal: The NASA History Program was started shortly after the Agency itself was established over 40 years ago. The NASA History Office serves two key functions: widely disseminating aerospace information and helping NASA managers to understand and learn from past successes and failures. Thus, the office has both internal and external audiences. For more information on the program, see our web site.

Intern duties: The NASA History Division sponsors internships for undergraduate and graduate students year–round. The Division prefers that students work at least 20 hours per week in order to build program knowledge and become productive quickly. The program works closely with the student’s college or university to arrange for academic credit when possible.

Related interests are helpful. Students should have:

The Division is flexible in selecting and assigning specific projects for the prospective intern. Some typical projects include handling a wide variety of information requests, editing historical manuscripts, doing research and writing biographical sketches, updating as well as creating a variety of Web pages, photo identification and captioning, and archival arrangement, description, and preservation tasks.

Work location:
NASA Headquarters
300 E Street S.W. (between 3rd and 4th Streets)
Washington, DC

Application requirements: The History program cannot always offer stipends, but students can apply for funding through the national network of state space grant consortia, their home educational institutions, or other corporate or nonprofit sources. Students will need to exercise initiative to find out about the different application criteria, procedures, and deadlines from these various organizations. Students who are U.S. citizens are preferred.

To apply, send us your:

Send materials to:
Steve Garber
Fax: 202–358–2866
Email: stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov

U.S. Army Center of Military History

http://www.history.army.mil

The U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) does not have a formal internship program, but hires interns under the Federal Career Intern Program as well as employ students on a seasonal basis. The Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) provides students with employment on a full– or part–time basis for a period not to exceed one year while enrolled in an educational institution. The internship is renewable for a long as the student is enrolled. During the summer of 2008, the Center’s interns worked in the library and archives.

Program Goal: To assist the Center’s staff in the performance of their duties while providing students with an opportunity to obtain firsthand experience as working historians in the federal history program.

Intern duties: Interns perform a variety of duties such as processing and cataloguing manuscripts; archivally preserving fragile items; conducting historical research and writing; sorting, organizing, and filing reference materials; and responding to a variety of inquiries for information.

Work location: Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

Application requirements: Students can be hired on a by–name basis without having to formally apply for an internship position by way of a job announcement. The student must provide a resume and official school transcript or a statement from the school verifying current enrollment. Students are hired at up to a GS–4 level (YB–1 pay band under NSPS).

Web site: Information about the Center of Military History can be found at http://www.history.army.mil/cmh–pg

Contact: The Center’s Administrative Officer is:
Ms. Shuntel Richard
Phone: 202–685–2712
Email:shuntel.richard@hqda.army.mil