Values around internships:

As an anti-capitalist organization, MTN’s values are often at odds with the expectations of unpaid work placed on college and graduate students as part of their degree-seeking process. We believe these expectations further a number of systemic issues within the nonprofit sector around equitable pay and career access for marginalized communities. That said, we also understand that many post-secondary institutions actively discourage, or prohibit students from being compensated while completing internships and fieldwork required for their degrees.

To balance this, we do give preference to applicants with funded internships. This doesn’t constitute the majority of our interns though. In selecting our interns we try and focus not only on who is most qualified to work with our organization, but we look for applicants for whom working with MTN would make a substantial difference in their career and education. We like to bet on people for whom working with us represents their “big break” and doesn’t simply pad another line of an already impressive resume.

With all interns we believe in fully incorporating you into our staff for the duration of your program. Our interns don’t fetch coffee or simply take notes at meetings, they are given the opportunity to actively engage in our work. We are especially interested in interns with specific learning goals in mind, or professional skill sets they want to explore and grow. We are invested in your education and long term career. We have offered enthusiastic letters of recommendation to most of our former interns, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in and around the fields of human services, fundraising, and communications.

Required Skills to be a intern at MTN:

• Fluency in transgender terminology and community dialogue. You don’t need to know everything, but “cisgender” and comfortable usage of singular they pronouns can’t be new ideas to you.

• Access to a computer during your regular working hours.

• Be enrolled in a post-secondary learning program, such as college or graduate school, and be able to use this internship for credit towards completion of that program.

• Have a demonstrated connection to the State of Maine, the people who live here, it’s learning institutions, or be a member of an indigenous community that has ever or continues to claim the territory encompassing Maine.

• Passion for social justice, community building, gender liberation, and helping people.

• Committed to continued learning and growth as part of a personal and introspective process of engaging in anti-oppressive work, most especially as it relates to racism, transphobia, ableism, and ageism.

• Willingness to engage daily with challenging issues related to trauma, sexual/domestic violence, suicide, mental health challenges, discrimination, sex work/survival sex, homelessness, family rejection, and poverty as they impact our constituency in specific and material ways.

Internship Opportunities:

We offer several internship opportunities for various academic programs, including:

Communications and Social Media Intern: 1-2 semesters, part time

Our communications and social media internships are ideal for students studying communications, marketing, business, or social science students seeking experience in the the nonprofit sector. Duties generally include supporting the creation of our outreach content calendar which balances community news, our advocacy goals, and public education, and working on educational digital content. Some upcoming projects include: creation of an allies guide, an aging resource center, and a database of trans-friendly businesses. Graphic Design projects may also be substituted for web design projects for interns who prefer this work.

Communication and social media interns are primarily supervised by and work with our communications and development director, with frequent work with our executive director.

Project Internships: 1 semester part time, summer part to full time (depending on project size)

Ideal for social science, public health, arts and humanities students, our project internships allow highly motivated students to compete a singular, substantial project of interest to Maine’s transgender community. A history student might complete an oral history project in response to a policy change. A public health student might design educational resources regarding transgender cancer disparities. An arts student might coordinate a community art project and performance.

Prospective project interns are strongly encouraged to submit a project idea along with their application. It does not need to be fully fleshed out (we would honestly prefer it not be so we can help you tailor it to our community). However, for students interested in history, sociology, or archival studies in particular, we have a number of projects we would love support on, and a specific project idea is not necessary.

Project interns are supervised by various members of our staff depending on who we believe has the most relevant experience to oversee your work.

Social Work Interns: part to full time, 2 semesters

MaineTransNet gladly provides social work field experience opportunities for first year MSW students, and BSW students. At this time, we do not offer second year field experiences, or clinical experiences.

Our social work interns have the opportunity to engage in our unique combination of community based, peer focused programs with transgender people and those who love them. This field work experience is ideal for students considering focusing on serving LGBTQ+ clients, working in fields related to crisis response, trauma, or intimate partner violence, or in mezzo or macro level social practice.

Social Work interns are intentionally exposed to a variety of program settings and duties within the organization. Social work interns are expected to complete our support group facilitator training within their first semester, and should expect to participate in group settings consisted with their identities. Additionally, social work interns may receive training in sexual assault or domestic violence advocacy required for work at DV/SA centers across Maine.

Social work interns generally assist with volunteer management—skills around development and recruitment of volunteers and using a relationship community organizing model are strongly emphasized. Interns may complete projects related to volunteer management or support. Recent examples include a skills guide for supporting people in crisis, a housing referral guide, and a pilot program for community health workers.

Social Work interns are supervised by our Sexual Assault Program Coordinator, Maya Williams, who holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of New England School of Social Work. However, social work interns should expect to be highly integrated into the work life of the full organization, and to work under the additional supervision of other staff members depending on their project load and areas of interest.

In selecting social work interns, MTN gives preference to applicants planning to provide mental health services to transgender clients.

To Apply:

Send cover letter or letter of interest, and resume to our executive director Quinn Gormley, at info@mainetransnet.org. Please indicate the timeframe (semesters, part/full time) and internship program you are applying for as well as a brief description of your reasons for seeking an internship with MTN, your professional goals, and a description of the project you are working on if relevant.