Applications for Institute’s upcoming Junior Intern Program coming due

Applications for USC Shoah Foundation’s upcoming William P. Lauder Junior Intern Program are due next week.

Southern California students in the seventh grade and above are welcome to apply to the highly competitive internship program, which provides a dynamic learning opportunity for young people who will engage with testimonies from survivors and witnesses of genocide.

Students should submit a personal letter of interest and a letter of reference from an educator with their applications. If accepted, they will learn about what it means to be a responsible participant in civil society as they develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to believe they have a role in creating positive change in their own lives and communities.

Making a home of the Institute’s office at the University of Southern California, students will have the opportunity to engage with Visual History Archive testimonies and take home lessons about the different types of memory – personal, collective and cultural – that lend themselves to remembering genocide events, as well as lessons on deepening digital literacy and communication skills.

Applicants must be from Southern California. Those who live outside the area can apply for the program that will take place next summer.

All eight meetings of the William P. Lauder Junior Interns will take place on the university’s campus, the first on Sunday, October 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The program will continue through May, giving interns the opportunity to visit, either physically or virtually, museums and authentic sites, and contribute to the work of the institute through their own research. Interns will be expected to craft and deliver presentations on their work, interact with Institute staff on their monthly visits and work with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures with the interpersonal communication skills they’ll have been taught throughout the program.

Former interns write that they felt that the program had empowered them unlike anything else.

“I think that everybody wants to make a difference, but it can seem like an overwhelming task,” one former intern wrote. “If I had not been a part of this program, I likely would not have taken the initiative on my own to help my community. After completing it, I have definitely gained the confidence necessary to provoke change in my community.”

Others appreciated the opportunities afforded them by the program – like a trip to Poland to meet with Holocaust survivors.

“This was something that will stay with me for the rest of my life,” one intern said. “I got to really learn the personal experiences of people who survived the Holocaust,” another wrote, “more than what people teach in school.”

The application cycle closes 5 p.m. PST on October 8, 2018. The institute will send notices of status to applicants by Oct. 15.