Job Openings
Maryland Sierra Club is seeking a dynamic, collaborative, and equity-focused Communications Associate to advance the Maryland Chapter's work. See more information and how to apply at the link.
Maryland Sierra Club also has an opening for a Temporary Field Organizer, see more information and how to apply at the link.
For job opportunities with the national Sierra Club, please check this link.
Internships
At this time, we have paused our traditional in-person internship program.
However, right now, you could help address the huge need and opportunity for volunteers of many varying ages, talents, and backgrounds to step up to take on important roles and tasks, small and large, for every aspect of running the club.
To meet people virtually and to learn about what they are working on and what you might like to do, please fill out this survey and someone will get back to you shortly. Join a team, jump into working on an issue you particularly care about, learn about the needs and offer to take on a task, become a Sierra Club volunteer activist leader. Work on climate change, zero waste, natural places, equitable transit, and other campaigns with Sierra Club leaders.
The Sierra Club Maryland Chapter is organized into local volunteer-led democratically-elected Groups that plan and carry out activities specific to their needs and interests and come together at the state level through representative democracy. You are welcome to sign up to participate in your local Group and state Chapter events. We welcome the time and energy you can contribute to help win on environmental preservation issues and campaigns locally and at the state and national level.
Calendar of events www.sierraclub.org/maryland/calendar
Local Group contacts www.sierraclub.org/maryland/local-groups
Issues and Campaigns http://sierraclub.org/maryland/conservation
We look forward to meeting you virtually and to your participation!
See previous program details below for reference. Check back in Fall of 2021 for updates.
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Previous Program Details
2020 Student Leadership Program (virtual)
For Summer 2020 due to the pandemic, traditional internships were not offered, but a successful online volunteer leadership program for students was piloted with five participants.
The Fall Volunteer Leadership Program was begun with six students and ran through December 2020.
Internships
The Maryland Sierra Club traditional internship program includes spring, summer, winter, fall season internships. The program is on pause but may resume in Fall 2021.
You might have noticed our awesome interns setting up meetings, taking notes, organizing phone banks, posting blogs, outreaching at events, leading stewardship work days, and getting people out on hikes and paddles to learn about conservation issues.
Our interns become part of the office team and are essential to accomplishing many of the chapter's conservation goals. Working side by side with staff and lead volunteers, interns get the opportunity to see how a grassroots non-profit works, gain valuable real world experience, and become the next generation of activist leaders.
Meet our current and past interns!
Winter and Spring 2021 Interns
Fall 2020 interns
See below for:
1. Brief Summaries of Internships
The Maryland Sierra Club offers many internship and volunteer opportunities. Conveniently located on Route 1, students can take advantage of the diverse openings in office management, administration, web design, environmental advocacy, environmental news reporting, politics, communications, marketing, outdoor education, advertising, publications, and research. There is a wide range of hours available from as few as 6 hours per week to 35 hours per week.
Check out individual internship descriptions below for more details on the great opportunites we offer here at the Maryland Chapter!
Administrative Assistant/Chapter Coordinator
Assist in the daily running of the office, volunteer coordination, support of chapter executive committee and groups, campaigns, educational outreach, fundraising, events, and training programs. Improve coordination and functioning of Sierra Club committees and groups with the state chapter to accomplish conservation and organizational goals. Train and assist volunteer leadership to access club resources. Responsibilities may include organizing, filing, data-entry, phone calls, taking messages, handling mail, maintaining office systems, web updates, attending, taking notes, reporting on or representing the club at meetings and events, event planning.
Beyond Gas Organizing
Learn about the threats posed by fracked gas infrastructure development in Maryland, and help make a difference. Help educate our members and the public about the health and environmental impacts of gas, put on public events, support local and state initiatives to restrict the expansion of gas infrastructure in Maryland. Assist with preparing campaign materials, recruit volunteers, and assist with outreach and messaging, and more.
Communications
Support the campaigns and activities through online and offline communications. The position will help develop and achieve goals to expand our audience on social media and promote our events and activities over a range of communications outlets, including Facebook and Twitter, email, website, print newsletters, and more. The intern will get the chance to learn about and contribute to all of our communications tools. Works with multiple staff and volunteer leaders and is supervised by Sierra Club MD Chapter Coordinator or Chapter Director.
Conservation Outings
Promote integration of conservation campaign goals with the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter outings program. Learn about conservation issues important to Sierra Club groups. Work with campaigns to plan relevant outings, coordinate with leaders to hold outings, and bring in local issue experts to talk about the conservation aspects and nature. Become familiar with online tools for outreach and information tracking and train Sierra Club leaders to use these tools. Support communication within the outings committee. Collect write-ups from outings leaders for website and newsletter. Attend outings, distribute conservation materials. Complete training to become an Outings leader, and co-lead two outings.
Energy
Work inside the state’s Beyond Coal Campaign, helping to move our campaign goals forward through volunteer engagement and recruitment, research, and campaign strategy development and implementation. Assist in policy research and clean energy campaign strategy and implementation. Draft compelling content for email alerts, newsletters, blogs, and more. Compile research on local and state-level clean energy and efficiency programs. Assist in compiling weekly reports on campaign accomplishments for Sierra Club senior staff. Help create campaign collateral such as fact sheets, flyers, or other materials.
Invasive Plant Removal/Stewardship
Invasive species are the biggest threat to biodiversity on the planet after habitat loss. Learn about, participate in, outreach to build participation in, and enhance local alien invasive plant removal projects with the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter. Learn to identify native and invasive plants. Remove invasive species with your own two hands. Become part of Maryland Stewardship team. Three quarters time is spent outdoors in the field engaging in physical activity. 7 - 15 hrs/wk
Check out some of these blogs written by stewardship interns.
Invasive Plant Removal/Coordinator
In addition to above, manage volunteer recruitment and promote invasive plant removal program.Work with site leaders to update locations around the state. Sign up volunteers for trips giving appropriate information on requirements and hazards. Meet carpools, distribute education sheets to participants. Work towards becoming a Sierra Club outings leader. Half to two thirds time is spent outdoors in the field.
Maryland General Assembly Legislation (Offered ONLY during winter break and spring semesters)
Influence, track and prepare analysis of legislation, attend hearings, prepare alerts, distribute fact sheets to legislators and the public, write and deliver testimony to legislative committees, arrange constituent meetings with legislators. Generate support for pro-environmental bills through such means as phone calls to Sierrans and letters to the editor. Assist with lobby nights. Participate in Legislative committee meetings. Write updates for the Maryland Sierra Club website and newsletters. This internship may require access to a car.
Political
Work with and assist the Sierra Club Maryland chapter political committee in efforts to elect candidates to office who will protect the environment. The political intern will support our political effort from start to finish, including: examining candidates records and positions; helping develop candidate questionnaires; schedule and support candidate interviews; produce green voting guides to support people in voting pro-environment; help organize public education events and candidate forums; recruit volunteers for voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts.
Transportation
Work with the Sierra Club Transportation Campaign to transform our transportation sector into a clean, equitable, regional 21st century system. Advocate for policies to push more public transportation, walkable/bikeable development, and electric vehicles. The Transportation intern will assist in research on local policies and technical developments in the transportation sector. They will also engage in campaign strategy, volunteer outreach and coordination, maintaining an online/social media presence for the campaign, writing weekly updates and blog posts, and will participate in committee meetings.
Jamboree/Event Coordinator
Assist the Jamboree committee to host a successful event encouraging a collaborative process to spread out the workload and fulfill chapter and staff goals. The Maryland Chapter Jamboree is a statewide fun, educational and social gathering which showcases the Maryland Sierra Club, builds bonds, mixes old and new members, brings a range of inter-generational ages, and families together, and generates new leaders. Agenda typically includes speakers, workshops, outings, auctions, live music, campfire, drumming, games, awards, and ceremonies. Food, program, and logistics are organized by hands on volunteer leadership and staff. Attendance ranges from 100-200.
2.How To Arrange College Credit
This is a good time to consider interning with the Sierra Club Maryland Chapter. We have internships during the semesters and breaks. We do not at this time have stipends available. Students arrange to receive school credit by contacting a professor to sponsor them in a department suitable to the internship. An agreement is arranged between the student, professor, and Sierra Club as to the nature of the internship. This may include a certain number of hours, a task or set of tasks, a journal and/or a paper to be written, or completion of a finished product, and a schedule of meetings with the Sierra Club person who's directing your internship. Generally 1 credit hour = 45 hours, 2=90, 3 = 135. Internships can be somewhat tailored to your situation.
3. What Is the Sierra Club?
"Everybody Needs Beauty As Well As Bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike." -- Sierra Club Founder John Muir, 1912.
MISSION STATEMENT: The Sierra Club's purpose is to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; to practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; and to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives. We support the right to a clean and healthful environment for all people including for native people -- the rights to democracy, to participate, to equal protection, to know, to sustainable environmental benefits, to equity, and to generational equity. We support an end to pollution. We support the precautionary principle -- polluters should bear the burden of proof that their activities are safe. Safeguards should be put in place when there is threat of serious or irreversible damage.
THE SIERRA CLUB WORKS to protect the environment through legislative and grassroots efforts. The Sierra Club is unique among environmental organizations because it is run by grassroots volunteers. Almost all the work that is done is accomplished by dedicated volunteers rather than paid staff. This makes the Sierra Club one of the most effective environmental organizations in the country.
THE SIERRA CLUB ENCOURAGES PEOPLE to get out into nature and promotes appreciation of the natural environment. You may be interested in helping lead or attend stream cleanups, invasive plant removals, or hikes in areas that need protection. In the office there's plenty of work to do including data entry, computer work, member outreach, phones, news clippings, media work, mailings and organizing. Around the state you can attend hearings, meetings, and demonstrations, speak with your public officials, staff our table at festivals, or 
participate in petition drives. In the local Groups in Maryland and with the Student Sierra Coalition, there are various leadership and committee positions available and niches for a variety of special skills or expertise.
Sierrans are working on critical environmental issues all around the state. Please call the office to let us know where you are located, what kind of work you may be interested in doing, or to sign yourself into the office volunteer schedule. There are some exciting times ahead!
4. How to Apply
For information or to arrange internships:
1. Send the following materials to internships[@]mdsierra.org and cc: maryland.chapter[@]sierraclub.org
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- Resume
- Cover Letter
- Writing Sample
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Please include your name in each document title
2. Fill out the internship application survey at http://goo.gl/forms/330RyTrwiL
All internship applications and inquiries must go through internships[@]mdsierra.org.
We hope to hear from you soon!
There is currently no physical office open due to Covid-19
Main telephone: 301-277-7111
Postal address: PO Box 278 Riverdale, MD 20738