Call for Applications: Humanities EXCEL Fellowship with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 2024-2025

We encourage work-study and non-work-study students to apply. This role requires work authorization.

Application Deadline: October 13, 2024

The Humanities Division and The Humanities Institute are excited to announce an experiential learning opportunity for undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz to work with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.

The Humanities Experiential Career Exploration and Learning (EXCEL) Program connects Humanities majors and minors to organizations in the community for paid internships. In this cohort program, EXCEL Fellows gain practical experience and professional training while learning about positions outside of the university that build on their studies in the humanities. At the same time, community partner organizations benefit from students’ assistance and academic expertise. EXCEL Fellowships carry on the success of THI’s Public Fellows program, and they foster positive collaborations between the campus and community, demonstrating the value of a Humanities degree for a range of careers.

About the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Founded in 1904 by Laura Hecox, a lighthouse keeper and naturalist, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History’s mission is to connect people to nature and science to inspire stewardship of the natural world. Each year, the Museum serves 17,000+ visitors, 23,000+ public programs participants, and 6,000+ K-12 students. The Museum features a Santa Cruz shoreline to summit exhibit and first peoples exhibit in addition to rotating special exhibitions.

Through the Museum’s Education Program, we provide field trips, school programs, and science camps for K-12 students. We also provide educational workshops for teachers, including an annual Educators Workshop with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

The Museum’s Public Programs offers a regular lecture series featuring local scientists and naturalists, guided nature hikes, community projects, and science illustration workshops. The Museum’s Collections Department houses a vast collection ranging from fossils to natural history specimens to historic artifacts.

The Museum is working to increase public awareness about its public environmental projects across Santa Cruz County. These projects include:

• The Adopt-A-Park Pilkington Creek Restoration Project
• Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument Activities & Interpretive Project
• Neary Lagoon Interpretive Project and Educational Programs
• The Museum’s Outdoor Equity Program in Watsonville
• Campaign in collaboration with County Parks for new acquisition of fossils

Position Description: Public Environmental Humanities Intern

The SCMNH Public Environmental Humanities Internship provides you with opportunities to receive training at the intersection of Public Environmental Humanities and Communications. This internship will allow you to develop public-facing communications and marketing collateral for environmental public outreach activities and projects.

Over the next year, the Museum hopes to create a new information campaign centered on storytelling about our environmental public humanities projects across Santa Cruz County.

In this position, you would participate in programmatic activities and collect information and research related to these projects to tell these stories compellingly for the general public through the museum’s communication channels and local media.

What’s Great About This Position:

• You’ll learn how to develop environmental public humanities communication storytelling that synthesizes the Museum’s environmental education programs, community outreach, and interpretive projects for a broader audience.
• You will strengthen your ability to write research-based communications for a general audience.
• You will gain exposure to communications and marketing in museums, including developing brand awareness.
• You will learn how to translate research into praxis, communicating public environmental humanities for the broader community to connect the community to natural history and culture in ways that inspire stewardship of the natural world.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS

• Research, Reporting, & Participation in Project-Specific Activities (35%):
  • Research: research designated projects to develop subject-matter proficiency
  • Field Reporting: attend project-related activities to capture photographs, gather information, and interview project leads and participants.
  • Participate & Support Project-Specific Activities: attend project-specific activities as an observer and provide support to staff members facilitating activities.
  • Project-Related Meetings: attend meetings with manager and project leads to strategize and develop plans for communicating our work to a broader audience.
• Writing and Storytelling (30%):
  • Blog Posts: write specialized articles on connections between our postcard and photography collection and natural history
  • Sponsored Articles: write specialized articles for local media such as Hilltromper or Lookout Santa Cruz.
  • Other Storytelling: other writing and multimodal storytelling, including short newsletter blurbs
• Marketing & Communications (35%): develop collateral including flyers, invitations, slides, etc. related to the larger project you’re focused on
  • Social Media: create social media content that tells our stories
  • Collateral Development: develop marketing collateral related to project
  • Website Support: support team with creating WordPress web pages promoting the content created for specific projects.

Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• You are a declared major or minor in a department in the Humanities Division and are in good academic standing. If you are currently proposed, you can declare by the end of the academic year in June. [strict eligibility requirement]
• You have work authorization. [required]
• You are interested in the environmental humanities or sciences. You’re curious to learn about nature.
• You have proven strong writing skills, and you enjoy writing.
• You are competent with applications in Google Suite and Microsoft Suite (docs and spreadsheets)
• You are organized and have time management strategies that help you complete your coursework and meet other responsibilities on time.
• You are proactive when asking for help from professors or supervisors and turning assignments in.

Preferred Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

• You have experience storytelling for public audiences such as sharing your writing through publications, online journals, or other public channels.
• You have familiarity with and/or interest in learning about indigenous culture and indigenous-led environmental conservation
• You have experience engaging in storytelling via TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms

Internship Term: November 2024 – June 2025

Hours: 10 hours/week

Compensation: $20/hour

Location: This position works in person. The museum is located at 1305 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA 95062

• UCSC Humanities funds a ZipCar account so students can book vehicles to travel to work or required events in Santa Cruz County if needed.

Mentorship: You will report to the Development and Community Engagement Manager. The partner supervisor will delegate tasks and review your work, provide coaching, and help you understand what working in this field is like. You will meet to check in at least once per week.

Apply By Submitting

1. Your updated resume
2. A short cover letter (no more than one page) answering these questions: Why are you interested in this position? How does your academic expertise and skillset prepare you for this role? What are you hoping to gain from this opportunity?  
3. A writing sample: a blog post, published article, or social media post. No academic essays, please! You can also take a nature photo and write a caption or “post” that showcases your writing skills.

REVIEW these resume and cover letter resources to ensure you are a strong candidate!

• Address your cover letter to the Museum of Natural History team
• Applicants are encouraged to visit the museum!

Once the application window closes on Sunday, October 13th at 11:59pm, there will be an interview process with top candidates. This job is expected to start in early November.

APPLY NOW

Please contact the EXCEL Program coordinator, Kylie Rachwalski, at hum-experiential-learning@ucsc.edu with any questions.

The Mellon Foundation, The Helen and Will Webster Foundation, The Humanities Institute, and the UCSC Humanities Division generously support the Humanities EXCEL Program.