Internship opportunities in Oakland

Annually the IRC Oakland hosts highly experiential internships that demand intuitive, motivated and professional candidates.

The Oakland office offers a variety of unpaid internship opportunities throughout the year. Our office is a fast-paced environment that is successful due to both the personal initiative of individual staff members and the team-like mentality of the entire organization. The ideal intern candidate will be able to complete their daily responsibilities and problem solve with minimal supervision and provides support as needed to the overall team. Interns work alongside staff to provide direct services. All leave their internship with transferable skills that can help launch a career within the nonprofit sector.

Commitment:

All Internships require 15 – 30 hours per week for a minimum of 6 months, with the exception of the Summer Internship (July through September; 30 hours weekly). Two to three full days in the office are preferred, but we can work around school schedules. Candidates with fluency in a foreign language are strongly encouraged to apply. All interns are required to complete a project during their internship, if upon reviewing the various internship opportunities, there's a constraint on the time commitment and/or requirement for completing a project, please consider a volunteer opportunity.

Position Descriptions:

Access and Legal Rights: For individuals with strong interpersonal and communication skills. Preferred proficiency in Spanish.

• Reception and Placement
  • Refugee Resettlement: For individuals who can commit full days (2-3/week) and have the ability to drive. Preferred familiarity in Arabic, Dari, Farsi, French, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil or Tigrinya.
  • Housing Intern:Helping Families that are home insecure 
• Economic Empowerment
  • Economic Empowerment: For individuals with work experience and skills are resume and cover letter writing. Preferred familiarity with Arabic, Dari or Spanish.
  • Community ESL Intern 
• Health and Wellness
  • General Health and Wellness
• Anti-Trafficking
  • Anti-Trafficking Intern 
• Immigration
  • Immigration Intern 
• Community Engagement
  • Community Engagement & In-Kind Donations Intern 
  • Social Media Intern
• New Roots
  • New Roots - Garden Program: For individuals with experience directly related to food security, gardening and working with youth. Preferred familiarity with Amharic, Nepali, Spanish or Tigrinya.
  • Youth and Garden Programs Intern
• Career Pathways
  • Professional Mentorship Volunteer

Internship Process:

1. Review our current internship positions.
2. Complete an online application, please attach a resume and cover letter. 
3. After submitting your application, you may be contacted for a screening interview if you are a top candidate.
4. Complete and clear a background check.
5. If selected, you will be contacted with information about next steps.

Additional Things To Note:

Cover letters must include:

1) a clear explanation of how one specific internship is related to and supports your educational and/or career goals

2) projected start and end dates

3) the number of hours, days and times you are available per week.

Applicants whose cover letters do not include these items will not be considered. After you have submitted your application, you may be contacted by the Volunteer Coordinator for a screening interview if you are a top candidate. We regret that due to high volume, we cannot interview every applicant.

Interns must go through a background check. All internships are unpaid.

If you have additional questions, email Mallissa Watts at [email protected].