GRN is currently accepting applications for our spring 2010 internships! In the Gulf Region, students can earn college credit while working on some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the region! With help from dedicated people like you, we will hold corporations and government accountable for a healthy Gulf and continue to build the movement to defend the coast!See the internship descriptions at http://healthygulf.org/staff/jobs-internships.html.The Gulf Restoration Network is dedicated to holding those who threaten our way of life accountable for their decisions. Although we have experienced and hard working staff members, the Gulf Coast is a huge section of the country, with many issues facing it. That is why our interns and volunteers are so important. With only 10-15 hours a week contributed, interns effectively double or triple our capacity to reach out to the public, many times in areas we don’t have the resources to access. That work is crucial for holding decision makers feet to the fire.Over the course of this Fall, student interns and service learners have engaged thousands citizens around the Gulf Region in priority campaigns for the Gulf Restoration Network. Contributing hundreds of hours, interns and volunteers worked closely with issue staff on issues such as Saving Our Cypress; Gulf Fish Forever; No Coast, No Music; One Climate, One Coast, One Chance; Defend Our Wetlands, Defend Ourselves; and Defend Florida’s Coast; amongst others.These students learned grassroots organizing and advocacy skills, and put them good to use organizing home screenings of the documentary Paradise Faded, building partnerships with student groups to join in the 350.org International Day of Action, and getting more than 200 Voodoo Experience musicians to take action for Louisiana’s coast.To make sure we continue growing this movement, GRN is looking to recruit a new wave of volunteers and interns for the Spring of 2010. From unspoiled wetlands to beautiful beaches and cypress forests to the port of New Orleans, the Gulf is a unique and invaluable asset to the United States. Now is the time to take action to save it.Despite the contributions the region produces for the rest of the nation, such as the largest petro-chemical complex, the largest port by volume, 30% of U.S. energy, the second largest coffee port on the planet, 3 trillion dollars to the economy, and 50% of the nation’s wetlands, industry is allowed to treat the area as a dumping zone. These irresponsible, and often illegal, actions pollute our water, air, wreak havoc on our ecosystems, and degrade our quality of life. To add insult to injury, local, state, and even federal agencies often look the other way.Join the Students United for a Healthy Gulf network as an intern and help fight to defend the Gulf next semester. You’ll earn class credit, gain valuable skills for your future, and play a crucial role in protecting our region’s environment!Potential interns, and students in general, are encouraged to attend our Students United for A Healthy Gulf Leadership conference this January in New Orleans to meet with our staff to learn first hand the environmental problems facing the region and nation, learn many of the skills you will use throughout your internship, and meet great citizens from around the region who care about similar issues. Oh, and it’s FREE!To learn more about internships available check out this link: http://healthygulf.org/staff/jobs-internships.html.For more information, feel free to contact Collin Fox Thomas, Campus Organizer, at collin @healthygulf.org or call 504-525-1528 ext. 212, or Dan Favre at dan@healthygulf.org or 504-525-1528 ext. 209.Collin Fox Thomas is the GRN Campus Organizer.
