Overview

The Marine Conservation Communications Intern will assist Global Marine Program staff in communicating in support of marine field programs and special coral conservation projects across 16 countries.

• Social Media Strategy
  • Develop a social media strategy and calendar for a leading coral reef conservation technology platform created by WCS, WWF, and SparkGeo.
  • Develop a social media strategy and calendar for communicating about WCS’s coral reef conservation work.
  • Responsibilities include familiarizing yourself with our coral reef conservation work and voice to enable you to channel our brand personality through social media.
• Landing Page Development
  • Work with global staff and country staff to write, design, and implement a brand-new landing page on wcs.org for one of WCS’s international marine conservation programs.
  • Responsibilities include reading scientific and programmatic documents to distill simple, clear written and visual messages that summarize country conservation work.
• Special communications project
  • Assess current coral reef conservation communications and identify an opportunity to design and pitch a special project to address a current gap.

Your Growth Opportunities:

As the marine conservation communications intern, you will learn how to succinctly and clearly distill scientific information into clear, accessible language to inspire conservation action. You will create a social media plan from start to finish, will help to write and develop a new landing page on wcs.org, and will work with world-class conservationists from around the globe. In addition to the primary projects outlined in the internship description, the intern will also be able to pitch and execute a special project of their own design to contribute to WCS’s marine conservation communication efforts.

Additional opportunities as part of the Coral Reef Conservation team may be available contributing to policy,

Qualification Requirements

Qualifications:

• Passion for conservation.
• Current communications or similar majoring student at the Bachelor’s level, Junior/third year or Senior/fourth year.
• Ability to work independently or collaboratively with a diverse team of partners across many time zones.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills.
• Knowledge of Microsoft suite, Google Drive, and Slack. Graphic design ability in the Adobe Suite a plus.
• Able to work at a computer for 3 days per week.

About WCS and Our Coral Reef Conservation Program:

WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City.

For more than 70 years WCS has been underwater studying coral reefs. Today there is a global crisis for coral reefs facing pressures from climate change, pollution, unsustainable tourism, and destructive fishing. From Kenya to Belize, Mozambique to Cuba, WCS is conserving reef biodiversity hotspots and supporting communities who depend on reefs to survive. We currently work across 16 countries to protect coral reefs and ensure that they can continue to provide for the people and species that rely on them.

Our Values: We are working to secure the future of the world’s reefs in some of the most bioculturally important regions in the world – who we are and how we work matters.

• Science. Our work is driven by science. We blend cutting-edge research approaches with the deep and enduring science and knowledge of Indigenous cultures, rural communities, and local partners who have been working to protect and steward coral reefs for much longer than we have.
• Inclusiveness. We demonstrate respect for all people in the work we undertake on behalf of WCS. We seek out and listen to the ideas, perspectives, and advice of others and those whose knowledge, experience, and frame are different from ours. In all that we do, we work to uphold and embody the values and principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice and engage all cultures with integrity and deference to the sovereign right to self-determination.
• Collaborative Leadership. We aim to serve as conveners and collaborative leaders that catalyze replication and scaling of innovative approaches to delivering conservation benefits.
• Scaled Impact. We move beyond vision and aspiration to implement boots-on-the-ground conservation actions that protect coral reefs. Our projects are designed with an eye to replicability, scalability, and designing innovative approaches that deliver durable conservation impact across regions and globally.