Summer Internship & Volunteer Opportunities

Stir crazy in your office cube? Reassessing your career path post-layoff? Searching for something that you can't encounter on a college walk? Take the scenic route and spend some time at The Asian American Writers' Workshop. Contribute a few hours a week, meet new friends and learn about Asian American literature and arts non-profit management.

The Asian American Writers' Workshop is always looking for a number of motivated and dedicated volunteers and interns to join our staff. Since the Workshop encompasses numerous aspects of literature, the opportunities and positions for our volunteers range from literary programming to youth organizing to general office administration and grantwriting. Our volunteers can receive a number of benefits including Workshop membership, free enrollment in a writing workshop class, and more! The Workshop is currently looking for people to assist with public programs, work with youth, development and general administrative tasks. We are always in need of individuals with extensive computer experience, including HTML, Quark, Photoshop, Filemaker, and familiarity with MAC OS, background or interest in literature or non-profit organization. Here's an idea of tasks you can take part in:

• Design & Web
  We are looking for someone to help update the website on a weekly basis, including updates on events, workshops, and any other Workshop news, as well as assistance with larger graphic design projects, such as fliers, brochures and logo design. HTML and basic design experience required; proficiency with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator preferred.

• Development & Membership
  We are looking for someone to help organize our database. This would include data entry via Filemaker and Excel and organizing and updating our Constant Contact email subscription system. We also need help with writing grants, maintaining our grants calendar, researching prospects, and processing solicitations. Previous grantwriting experience is preferred.

• Marketing & Publicity
  We are looking for someone to help draft and copy edit various promotional and press materials, including our calendar and weekly newsletter, and to work with staff on outlining various promotional strategies. Writing sample and prior copy editing experience required.

• Events
  Our offbeat public readings are staffed by committed volunteers. Get a behind the scenes look at what it takes to create New York City's premiere Asian American literary centers. This is largely an evening commitment.

• Programming
  From gentrification to oral history across generations, we have several unique initiatives coming up this year. Volunteers are needed to help administer these programs, publicize them in their respective communities, and translate text from Korean and/or Chinese into English.

• General Handiwork Help
  We've moved into our new home in the Flower District and need help from those who know how to work power tools. This includes everything from installing shelves for the nation's premiere Asian American Reading Room to mounting a mirror above our new marbled sink. A few hours of your time will help establish our new space.

Interns

• Our summer internship cycle lasts from June 1 - August 31, 2011.
• Interns are required to work a minimum of 24 hours/week and help staff two events per month.
• Interns will receive a one-time stipend of $500 and participate in a monthly career talk lunch with writers, agents, and editors affiliated with the Workshop.

To apply: If interested, please fill out the application form here then email a resume to desk@aaww.org with the subject "Summer Internship Application" by noon on Friday, April 29, 2011. We will accept four interns this season. Interviews will take place the week of May 9, 2011.

Volunteers

• Resumes for volunteers are accepted on a rolling basis and can be sent to desk@aaww.org.

Seeking Open City intern!

The AAWW is seeking an undergraduate or graduate student studying urban design, community development, Asian American Studies, architecture, and/or urban or metropolitan studies to be the project intern for an exciting blogging, interviewing, and writing project about New York City called OPEN CITY: Blogging Urban Change.

Open City is an interdisciplinary neighborhood blog and community project. Five commissioned writers, called Organizing Fellows, are working with community organizations and neighborhood folks in Manhattan’s Chinatown/Lower East Side (LES), Flushing, Queens, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn to collect oral histories and interviews, offer commentary about gentrification, neighborhood change, and produce new creative work around these themes. AAWW hopes that this project provides a model for community and research-based cultural work, one that seeks to creatively bring together the world of new media and blogging with local, place-based activism and the everyday life of neighborhoods.

Responsibilities might include: on-the-spot translation during neighborhood walks or interviews; conducting research tasks including digitally mapping neighborhood demographics over time; translating documents and meeting minutes; attending and summarizing community board or other events related to neighborhood development

Required:

• Ability to work 6-8 hours per week from late January 2011-May 2011
• Fluency in an Asian language, particularly: Hindi/Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese, Fujianese. Knowledge of Spanish is also a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in urban studies. Familiarity with mapping programs, web design, blogging (wordpress), and GIS helpful.

Perks:

• AAWW can arrange academic or community service credit from your educational institution!
• Be part of a community of Asian American writers and urbanists!
• Get to know New York City neighborhoods and issues!

To learn more about OPEN CITY, visit our blog here. If you have questions about the project, email Lena Sze, OPEN CITY Project Director, at lsze@aaww.org