Opportunities

Internships

Internships allow students the opportunity to engage in a project related to the causes and resolution of conflict and /or social justice. The Peace and Justice Studies Program encourages students to do internships in the summer and during the academic year in order to develop skills and knowledge of social activism. This year the program will offer two scholarships for students' summer projects. The scholarships are the Emily Greene Balch Internship and The Kathleen Dandy Gladstone Internship.  There are also many other summer internships available through Wellesley Career Education. The internships offer students the opportunity to work with a non-governmental organization. These internships are extremely helpful in allowing students to conceptualize a career in this field.

The Emily Greene Balch Class of 1950 Internship

The Peace and Justice Studies Program offers an annual summer internship with a $5,000 stipend for students to carry out a project which analyzes the ways in which injustice is linked to conflict, or encourages the study of the relationship between peace, justice, and social change. The internship is sponsored by the Class of 1950 and is available for either U.S. or international work. Previous stipends have been awarded for internships at environmental injustice organizations, a nonprofit program addressing childhood food insecurity in public schools, and many others. Students are expected to devote full-time to the internship for a period of 10 weeks.

The Kathleen Dandy Gladstone Internship in Climate Crisis Solutions

The Peace and Justice Studies Program will offer a summer internship in 2022 with a $5,000 stipend for a student project on the effects of climate change policy on historically under-served communities in the United States. The intern should work with a non-profit organization, governmental agency, or civil servant's office that promotes, advocates for, organizes around, or implements policies or technologies designed to reduce or draw down carbon emissions from the transportation, agriculture, industry, mining, energy, and forestry sectors of our economy.

Recipients of the internships are encouraged to share their experiences with the College community after their return either in lectures, writing, or through participation in the Ruhlman Conference. Consequently, underclass students are preferred, although seniors are also eligible.

 

Students apply through Workday. Please click here for application instructions. The Workday application cannot be saved so must be completed in one sitting. Please prepare the following materials and upload as PDF files via the centralized internship application. You will find a distinct application for each opportunity.

  • Resume
  • Proposal of the project (Statement of Intent)
  • Transcript (unofficial from Workday)

Questions? Contact, Catia Confortini (cconfort@wellesley.edu ), Nadya Hajj (nhajj@wellesley.edu ), or Wellesley Career Education (internships@wellesley.edu).

Volunteer Opportunities

There are a large number of opportunities available in the Boston area to do volunteer work related to peace and justice. There are many elsewhere for those who can travel in the summer or January. Notices about these opportunities are frequently mailed to the Program, so that a stop by the offices of Merry or Kazanjian will provide valuable information. In addition, other opportunities will be posted here as they become known to us.

Career Education also provides information on volunteer opportunities, including a community service calendar that lists opportunities monthly.

In addition to the volunteer opportunities listed at Career Education, The Peace Corps website also provides users with an extensive listing of volunteer opportunities in the Boston area.

Africa in Boston: Volunteer at the Somali Development Center in Boston
This will be the third year that Wellesley students will be volunteering at the Somali Development Center in Jamaica Plain (Boston). Usually students go in groups of at least two and they reserve and check out a community service vehicle to get there. There are three kinds of volunteering jobs available:

  1. Teach older Somali men and women English as a second language on weekday mornings (except Friday) from 10:00 - 12:00. This means, including travel, a commitment from 9:00 to 1:00 once a week. A pair of students (2) per morning has worked best.
  2. Help with homework and tutor young Somali children (and sometimes also a few middle school and high-school girls and boys) every weekday afternoon ( except Friday) from 3:00 - 6:00. This means, including travel, a commitment from 2:00 - 7:00 pm.
  3. On Saturday morning, members of al-Muslimat have gone in to the SDC to teach young Somali children Arabic.

There is also room for students who do NOT know Arabic to go in and tutor and teach. Students leave around 9:00 and come back at 1:00. The Somali Development Center (205 Green Street, Jamaica Plain) can be reached by public transport (especially commuter rail to Back Bay, then switch to Orange Line and get off at Green Street Station (direction Forest Hill), take a right and find Center in about 1000 meters. However, it has proven more efficient to go by car; vehicles are available from Career Education.

Contact persons: Professor Lidwien Kapteijns

American Red Cross
The American Red Cross offers compassion and humanitarian relief to people around the corner and around the world. Locally, the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay is New England's leading volunteer organization, serving 79 cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts, it represents the experts in Emergency Services, Health and Safety Training, and International Services.
Contact Vida Poole at (617) 375-0700, extension 280 or 1-800-564-1234, extension 280

Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
The Big Sister Association of Greater Boston helps girls realize their full potential by providing them with positive mentoring relationships with women.
161 Massachusetts Ave. Boston MA 02115, Phone: (617)236-8060

Boston Cares
Boston Cares maintains partnerships with over 100 nonprofit agencies in the Greater Boston area, and in so doing offers a broad selection of volunteer opportunities to its membership. In the course of one week, Boston Cares volunteers feed the hungry, tutor teens and adults, plant and harvest food for soup kitchens and shelters, package meals for people living with HIV/AIDS, build homes for low-income families, visit the elderly, spruce-up parks and much more.
PMB 200, 167 Milk Street Boston, MA 02109, Phone: (617) 263-CARE

Citizen Schools
Citizen Schools is revolutionizing how children spend their out-of-school time- through fun, challenging, hands-on "apprenticeships" that unite volunteer Citizen Teachers and small groups of children, ages 9 to 14. Children come away with a deep understanding of the subject and with practical skills they can use for life.
Contact: Amy Amatangelo, Volunteer Coordinator, at 617-695-2300 x121

Dana Farber Cancer Institute
The mission of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is to provide expert, compassionate care to children and adults with cancer while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of cancer and related diseases. As an affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a Comprehensive Cancer Center designated by the National Cancer Institute, the Institute also provides training for new generations of physicians and scientists, designs programs that promote public health, particularly among high-risk and underserved populations, and disseminates innovative patient therapies and scientific discoveries target communities across the United States, and throughout the world.

The Environmental Federation of New England
The Environmental Federation of New England is a coalition of 35 organizations working to protect and preserve New Englands natural resources and public health. The Federation was established in 1992 to foster environmental philanthropy through public education, the Internet, and workplace giving. The membership of the Federation consists of 35 environmental non-profit organizations dedicated to a wide variety of issues from clean water and air to preserving open space, promoting clean energy, strengthening environmental education, and providing safe, enjoyable outdoor recreation.

The Greater Boston Food Bank
Serving as a nonprofit clearinghouse for food donated by the private sector to help those who are hungry, The Food Bank is New England's largest hunger relief program. The Food Bank annually distributes 13 million pounds of food, for a total wholesale value of over $16 million. The food is distributed to a network of more than 900 member feeding programs (including soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters) throughout the nine counties in eastern Massachusetts. Through its network of member feeding programs, The Food Bank helps to feed 465,000 meals each month. The Food Bank serves approximately 72 percent of those in need in Massachusetts.
Contact Wendy Clough at 617-427-5200, ext. 5030 or the volunteer hotline at 617-427-5200, ext. 7067

Idealist.org
Search for volunteer opportunities in your area.

The Junior League of Boston
The Junior League of Boston was established in 1907 by women interested in educating young women in the social and industrial problems of the city. Throughout the past 91 years, the JLB has grown in its membership and involvement in the community. Today, the Junior League's focus is the adolescent girl. The Junior League of Boston believes that every adolescent girl should have opportunities to develop her self-esteem and full potential. A majority of our community projects involve reaching out to this group.
JLB Headquarters 117 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02116, Phone: (617) 536-9640 Fax: (617) 536-6853

The JVS Refugee Employment Program
Since 1975, JVS has been providing comprehensive employment, educational, and skills training services to refugees in the Greater Boston area. More than 1,000 individuals are served annually, from many countries, including: the former Soviet Union, Bosnia, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Iran and Haiti.
Contact Muffy Lutzin at 617-426-6990, ext. 117.
Search volunteer opportunities at the JVS Employment Program

La Alianza Hispana
La Alianza Hispana (The Hispanic Alliance), founded in 1970, is a community based, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Latino self-determination, advocating for equal access to basic services, and combating the effects of poverty, discrimination and the stress of migration.
La Alianza Hispana, Inc. 409 Dudley Street Roxbury MA 02119 Phone: 617-427-7175 FAX: 617-442-2259

The Paraclete Center
The Paraclete Center is a new organization responding specifically and exclusively to the educational needs of South Boston's youth and families. The only activity that takes place in the Paraclete Center is learning, with a heavy emphasis on computer technology and family involvement. It relies exclusively on a volunteer teacher corps, who are provided room and board.
207 E Street South Boston, MA 02127, Phone/Fax: (617) 268-5552

Rosie's Place
In 1974, Kip Tiernan opened Rosie's Place, the first drop-in and emergency shelter for poor and homeless women in the country. Since then, Rosie's Place has evolved from simply providing shelter to offering solutions- from the immediate to the long-term. Rosie's Place offers guests a drop-in center, short-term as well as permanent housing, meals, and a multitude of on-site programs.
Rosie's Place 889 Harrison Avenue Boston, MA 02118, Phone: (617) 442-9322

Saint Francis House
Saint Francis House is a nonprofit, non-sectarian, comprehensive shelter with basic and emergency services, rehabilitative programs, job skills training and transitional housing for poor and homeless men and women in Boston, Massachusetts.
Contact the Volunteer Coordinator at (617) 654-1228

The Samaritans of Boston
The Samaritans of Boston is a non-denominational, not-for-profit volunteer organization dedicated to reducing the incidences of suicide by befriending individuals in crisis and educating the community about effective prevention techniques.
Phone: (617) 536-2460

Volunteer Match
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