Poverty Public Policy Interships in New Orleans
January 29, 2014 12:23 PM   Subscribe

Where should a grad student in public policy (with a focus on poverty) intern in New Orleans this summer? What organizations do related work? What internships are there?

I'm an MPP student at a well-respected school in DC, and my program requires students to complete an internship between their first and second years (it's a two-year program). Since I'm in DC most of the year, I figure that I can intern here sometime in the next couple semesters -- but I'd prefer not to settle here permanently, and definitely not right after I graduate. New Orleans has long been on my short list of places where I'd like to settle down, and I thought this summer would be a fantastic opportunity to get a feel for the place, and hopefully start preparing to move/work there once I have my degree (in Spring 2015).

HUD is my #1 choice currently, and I'd absolutely love to intern (and later work) for them -- the problem is that it's the *only* organization on my list right now. I know there are other organizations and opportunities out there! I'm open to advocacy groups and non-profits, consulting firms, municipal/state/federal government -- pretty much anyplace that you think might be a good fit.

Other criteria:

-- My areas of interest within poverty policy are: incarceration, low-wage labor, entitlements, housing/urban planning. Even though the issues are very much related, I'm not especially interested in education or child care. (So, I'm more interested in the HUD side of things and less in the HHS side of things.)

-- I'm much better with words than with data. My program has forced me to develop quant skills, so I'm not a total loss when it comes to data analysis, but that isn't generally where my interests and talents lie. (My undergrad degree is in creative writing and English lit, if that gives you more of an idea of what I'm good at and know how to do).

-- I'm more focused on policy development or operations than outreach.

-- If all goes well, I'd like to settle in New Orleans after graduation, so I'm hoping to intern at an organization where there's lots of room to grow (ideally, not just in terms of having a shot at a job offer after the internship, but with room to eventually work toward promotion within the organization as well).

-- I'd much prefer that the internship be paid. Obviously, some money in my pocket would be nice, but the primary reason is that I think unpaid internships create a dynamic that is so different from the dynamic between employee/employer that an unpaid internship wouldn't give me enough of a taste of what working for the organization (or even in the field as it exists in New Orleans) is actually like.
posted by rue72 to Work & Money (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You might want to contact Tulane's Murphy Institute.
posted by Runes at 12:39 PM on January 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Would Neighborhood Housing Services fit your criteria?
posted by radioamy at 12:39 PM on January 29, 2014


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