<p>What kind of summer internships or work opportunities are avaliable for a college first year who is interested in public interest law/nonprofit organizations? I am particularly interested in working with low-income communities, disadvantaged minorities, or recent immigrants. </p>
<p>Any suggestions on how to go about finding a good internship that is hands on (lots of field work)?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>your college should have a career office that can advise you--that would be my first step. if you want to stay in the area where you go to school, if your college has a community service office, you might want to go there and ask them for suggestions--they probably have ties with lots of places in the community. </p>
<p>you can also search on websites like idealist or charity navigator for lists of nonprofits, or look on websites of law schools (a lot of them have public interest offices and list where their students have interned in the past) then check out the websites of the organizations themselves. </p>
<p>you should be aware that many legal organizations only want law students as interns. While some will take college students, you will be somewhat limited in what you are able to do. It might be better to work with a nonprofit that does something else (a summer camp? a food pantry?) where you get more day-to-day contact with the type of clients you might one day serve. The listening skills and cultural competence that you gain will be really helpful--you'll pick up the legal stuff once you get to law school.</p>
<p>When you interview with places, ask about the specific tasks you'll be assigned to and see if your future supervisor will detail what a "typical day on the job" will be like for you. </p>
<p>from a public-interest law student, Good luck! the world needs more of us.</p>
<p>What I found between my junior and senior years of college was that most relevant places wanted law students for summer positions, even if they'd take undergrads during the year. I ended up interning for a non-profit that didn't do any legal work of its own, but that was very closely related to the field of my interests. I told them that I was especially interested in anything law-related and they sent a lot of specially-geared tasks my way: case write-ups, legal summaries, legal research, and so forth. I ended up honing valuable skills much moreso than I had initially expected.</p>
<p>The nice thing about my experience was that I was able to do a LOT of cool stuff that was relevant, if not directly related, to my goals, rather than working somewhere that was more law-oriented, but had me counting paperclips all summer. I'm sure there's a happy medium, but you might be hard-pressed to find it as a freshman. I certainly wish you luck, but don't hesitate to broaden your search a bit!</p>
<p>One more tip is to start off with an internship search engine like MonsterTrak, but also to do your own searching and emailing. Lots of public-interest places will very gladly accept volunteers, but don't specifically advertise for interns. One downside to this is that the positions will more than likely be totally unpaid (but plenty of internships would be, as well). An upside is that you won't have a list of "intern duties" to perform, but can likely achieve greater responsibility and freedom, and can perhaps tailor the job a bit to your legal interests.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM if you want more specifics. Good luck!</p>
<p>ETA: Sorry for the overlap with pieces of Stacy's post...it wasn't there when I started my reply :-)</p>
<p>I have interned during the school year and past summers at NGOs specifically for domestic violence victims. I work in the legal department of the NGO as a Legal Advocate which means I actually work in the courthouse. I help women file temporary restraining orders and advise them about the legal procedures. I learn a lot about how cases are decided and how to make effective and persuasive cases on behalf of the clients. You should definitely look at NGOs concerned with your interests--immigration, low-income communities and see if they have a legal department.</p>
<p>During the summer, I usually apply for internships/volunteer opportunities at Legal Aid clinics which help low-income clients, offices of the county public defender and also district attorney. There are lots of opportunities, but as a first year, a legal aid volunteer position may be your best bet. Good luck!</p>
<p>I got a great paid public interest internship through my school. I did policy research related to immigration in conjunction with ESL instruction. Your school may have a similar program. Where do you go?</p>
<p>In general, it seems like it usually isn't hard to get an unpaid public interest intermship, since non-profits benefit from the volunteer work. It can be more difficult to find paid ones though, especially coming out of your first year of college. I found several good paid internships when I went through this process over the past couple of summers though, and I can share them with you if you are interested.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the helpful advice. All of you have done really interesting things; I'd be lucky to take part in anything similar. </p>
<p>I found that there are many, many legal clinics nearby. I will be contacting them ASAP.</p>
<p>For others who are in my position, I found this site to be helpful: lawhelp.org</p>
<p>Studenthere: Immigration policy research and ESL instruction sounds very interesting. I go to a top-3 liberal arts college--I will drop by my school's career center.</p>