The following list represents some of the micro-internship placement opportunities for spring 2025.  This list will be updated throughout the fall semester.  Student applicants can not apply for a specific placement.

Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Ohio

 Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio is seeking a personable, passionate, and detail-oriented individual to join BGCNEO’s marketing team as a Community Engagement Intern for Spring 2025.

This individual will play an important role in the planning and implementation of General Club Support volunteer recruitment for summer 2025 and will help to develop a volunteer recruitment strategy for local colleges and universities for Fall 2025. If time allows, this individual will also help to gather and organize a wish list of Club needs for community in-kind support. The wish list project will require data collection from all 33 BGCNEO Club sites and organizing that data into a clear menu of needs.

All projects will require coordination with BGCNEO administrative team members, Club Directors and interested volunteers. The ideal candidate has an interest in community development and volunteer management.

A majority of the project deliverables can be completed remotely. However, the individual may be asked to attend volunteer recruitment events on behalf of BGCNEO. Access to reliable transportation is required.

CASA of Cuyahoga County (Court Appointed Special Advocates)

 Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) provide volunteer advocacy for children in foster care. They work closely with the Juvenile Court in Cuyahoga County to ensure that children are heard, seen, and engaged while in the foster care system. 

This intern would work closely with staff to do community outreach and recruitment activities to engage more volunteers to work with children in foster care. As an organization they recruit, train, and supervise these volunteers. 

The intern will also have the opportunity to learn more about child advocacy, dependency, fundraising, special events, etc.. Ideally for someone interested in social work, sociology, psychology, teaching, or a related field.

City of Cleveland – Mayor’s Office of Sustainability

 

Under administrative direction, the Communications Intern will support the City of Cleveland’s Climate Action Plan updating process for both the community-focused Cleveland Climate Action Plan (CAP) and the city-operations Municipal Action Plan (MAP). The intern will contribute to the development of public-facing communication strategies and educational materials aimed at raising awareness about climate change, local environmental impacts, and the City’s climate action priorities.

The intern will support key deliverables through content creation, social media outreach, website updates, and community engagement efforts. While also assisting in the communication of complex climate issues to the public in clear and accessible ways.

Examples of Duties

  •       Communications Admin Support:
  1.       Assist in establishing an annual comprehensive communication strategy for the updated CAP and MAP.
  2.       Collaborate with the sustainability team to develop content that effectively explains the City’s climate priorities and actions.
  •       Support updates to www.sustainablecleveland.org and the City’s Sustainability page: The communications intern will support updates to our websites hosted on NationBuilder and Drupal as requested, the intern can expect to complete these tasks:
  1.       Support the creation of a webpage dedicated to the climate action plans
  2.       Update pages such as https://www.sustainablecleveland.org/climateactionupdate
  3.       Assist with minor tasks related to the website rebrand/update
  •       Content design and scheduling: Support content and material designs using Canva and/or Adobe Suite.
  1.       Assist in researching and developing content for the monthly newsletter (MailChimp & LinkedIn)
  2.       Creation and scheduling of social media posts related to various sustainability topics and climate priorities – (using Canva & Hootsuite)
  •       Perform other communications job-related duties as required.

Cleveland Institute of Art

Interns for the Cleveland Institute of Art will engage in the following:

  • Supporting the development of student resources (digital and print) related to career and professional development
  • Sharing job postings on CIA’s career management platform, College Central Network (CCN)
  • Completing administrative tasks in preparation for the bi-annual career fair, including:
    • Professional correspondence with employers to ensure job postings are published
    • Maintaining records of payment submissions for registration
    • Assisting with on-site event coordination (set-up and tear-down)

Cleveland International Film Festival

The intern will assist CIFF’s Education Director in programs designed for our partnership with Tri-C’s Mandel Youth Humanities Academy and Mandel Scholars Academy. The program includes three sessions with the cohort focused on learning film analysis and selection criteria; the selection of a film for MYHA and MSA’s community partnership; and working with the filmmaker(s) on developing a humanities-focused program for audiences at CIFF49. 

If time allows, the intern will also assist the Education Director with developing study guides for CIFF49’s FilmSlam program. Study guides include discussion questions and learning activities customized to each short film.

Food Strong

 Food Strong is in the process of acquiring a 3-acre farm on Superior at east 67th street, which houses a massive old church, a farm house, 5-car garage, and large farm. Their goal is to  strategically engage the community through the entire process of restoration and future utilization to ensure buy-in and reflection of the goals/needs of the neighborhood. They are looking for an intern to coordinate these engagement activities. Food Strong seeks to work WITH not FOR communities, and this will be a vital step in making this endeavor a success.

The Intern will:

  1.  Perform an audit and create a map of the neighborhood, local business, organizations, etc.
  2.  Reach out to various organizations and neighbors.
  3.  Implement a community-wide survey to gauge goals, needs, resources, and interests of the neighborhood.
  4.  Plan and assist in leading a series of 2-3 focus groups with these organizational stakeholders and individuals to gather vital feedback and buy-in for the process.
  5.  Compile all information and data gained through the process to adjust our overall site business plan and strategy to reflect this input, and formulate a plan for consistent community engagement (such as the formation of a committee) into the future.

Global Cleveland

 The Student Intern will play a key role in designing and implementing a career mentorship program that connects international students with professionals in their fields of academic or career interest. This internship is ideal for a motivated student with strong organizational and communication skills, and who is passionate about enhancing career opportunities for international students. The intern will work closely with our team and partners to develop a structured mentorship program that facilitates meaningful connections between students and industry professionals.

  •      Research best practices for mentorship programs, particularly those focused on international students or diverse populations.
  •       Collaborate with local universities, employers, and community organizations to identify potential mentors and students.
  •       Design a structured program framework, including mentor/mentee matching criteria, timelines, and communication protocols.
  •      Develop marketing materials and outreach strategies to attract both mentors and international student participants.
  •      Coordinate and manage program events, such as mentorship orientation sessions and networking activities.
  •      Monitor and evaluate program effectiveness, gathering feedback from participants to inform continuous improvement.
  •     Provide regular updates and reports on program progress to the team and stakeholders.

Ideastream Public Media

 

The internship project for Ideastream is researching, writing and producing a weekly list of things to do in Northeast Ohio for ideastream.org and social media audiences. There is also an opportunity to pitch and produce additional arts and culture content for digital, radio and television audiences. The intern will learn how to use Ideastream’s content-management system, attend editorial meetings with arts producers and reporters and develop multi platform skills.

Lake Erie Ink

Lake Erie Ink has two major events that take place in March and April, both of which would benefit from the support and involvement of a micro internship participant. One is the Kids’ Comic Con, a weekend long, multi session event that engages 175 youth in the world of comics and ‘zines and graphic narrative. The other is a signature fundraising event, that is an all ages, literacy day of play:  Giant Bananagrams! 

Interns for each of these would assist with planning, marketing, promotion, and day of event management. These are both great ways to connect and support in a very hands on way with a small nonprofit.

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MoCa)

 The moCa is in dialogue with a leading global technology firm to support the creation of an online archive of moCa’s history through the lens of art experiences and temporary exhibitions, rather than objects (since we do not collect). Our goal is to create a platform that can be integrated with other non-collecting art museums in the Midwest, that share a similar history, legacy, and impact in their cities. 

moCa is  looking for an intern to support some of this historical material’s aggregation, organization, and summation. This will include:

  • Mining content in their special collection at Kelvin Smith Library, 
  • Organizing content (identifying digital assets and making recommendations for physical assets that need to be digitized), 
  • Writing summaries of key moments/exhibitions/programs/projects.

Project LIFT Services

 

Project LIFT currently has two significant initiatives, suicide prevention and restorative justice, that they are expanding across Cuyahoga County. One major task is assisting with developing a suicide prevention survey, obtaining the survey results, and synthesizing the results to help inform our suicide prevention strategy. The second task is assistance with compliance and operations, which would include evaluating programs, interventions, and services to client to support improve engagement in mental health support services, including restorative justice. The intern would receive training and be assigned to work with a staff person to co-create the deliverables. Project LIFT will see the intern as an integral thought collaborator, who can help identify blind spots and ask critical questions to improve efficiency and positive outcomes.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum

 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is thrilled to welcome interns from Case Western Reserve University for an exciting and action-packed micro-internship. They  will be creating, building and installing a brand-new featured exhibition in Spring 2025.

The Curatorial division is made up of three parts – Curators, Collections, Exhibits and this micro-internship will have experience in each of the areas, working towards the goal of opening their new blockbuster exhibit.

At the end of the internship, the intern(s) will be invited to attend the VIP Exhibit Opening Event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, to celebrate their work.

Curate

  •       Research – Work with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Curators, as they dig deep into the stories behind the artifacts. Research will be done on instruments, costumes, documents and other important artifacts going into the exhibit.
  •       Writing – The Curators will share writing opportunities, for text and label copy to be included in the featured exhibit.

Collections

  •       Artifact Handling Training – You will receive artifact handling training from their professional Collections team, based on museum standards.
  •       Accession & Condition Report Artifacts – Work with the Collections team to process artifacts as they arrive at the museum.

Exhibits

  •       Artifact Preparation – Interns will observe how to make museum-quality artifact mounts and work with the exhibitions team to prepare artifacts before they are installed in the exhibit.
  •       Artifact Installation – Work with the exhibits team to install casework, graphics, artifacts and more in the new featured exhibit.

Special Exhibit Opening Events

  •       Marketing & Communications – Intern(s) will assist curators in preparation for local, regional and national media interviews leading up to the exhibit opening. They can also observe the media interviews taking place and can shadow the museum’s marketing and communications team, as they prepare for the exhibition opening event.
  •       VIP Exhibit Opening Party – Intern(s) will be special guests as the exhibit opening event to see their work celebrated.

Upcycle Parts Shop

The Sustainability Champion is the entry point for thousands of donors, customers and volunteers into our organization through our popular and vibrant retail shop. This position is responsible for conducting retail sales through a point of sale system, creating meaningful customer experiences in our retail shop, supporting donations processing and maintaining a welcoming and well merchandised retail shop and donation space. Like all positions at Upcycle Parts Shop, this position requires regular, good communication, and collaboration with colleagues.

The Cleveland Engineering Society

 

The micro intern or project intern will assist the Director of Marketing, Events, and Membership, along with the Executive Committee, and Board of Directors with the operational responsibilities of the organization. The project intern will support assignments and tasks related to marketing, social media, and events.  

(job responsibilities will include, but are not limited to the following)

  •       Becoming proficient with operating Squarespace to develop/edit content, general website content maintenance, etc. 
  •       Learning the custom CRM/Membership portal to support operation and maintenance.
  •       Engaging with members and general inquiries to assist with membership sign up, invoicing, navigation, and more. Respond to website form submissions and email inquiries.
  •       Learning and becoming proficient with Constant Contact email marketing platform and assists with mass email communications related to the conference.
  •       Attending website planning meetings and managing meeting notes and follow-up communications.
  •       Updating and posting social media and website content. Content creation and copywriting.

In regards to our spring conference the intern’s responsibilities would include:

  •       Becoming proficient with operating the event registration platform to develop content, extract data, run reports, etc. 
  •       Engaging with members and attendees to assist with registration, invoicing, navigation, and more. Respond to email inquiries.

The Cleveland Orchestra

 The focus of this internship will involve researching and contributing to the growing database of community organizations and groups in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. The intern will analyze existing partner lists and identify opportunities to expand our reach to underrepresented communities. The resulting database will be instrumental in informing future collaborations, free ticketing initiatives, and targeted marketing campaigns for diverse community-centric programming for the 2025-26 Cleveland Orchestra season. As needed/ availability allows, the intern will be invited to support EdCE programs including work with in-school learning, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and Education & Family concerts, gaining valuable hands-on experience in arts education and engagement. Over the course of this internship, this student will contribute to the Orchestra’s mission of increasing access to the arts, while gaining valuable arts administration experience.

The Cleveland Observer

The Cleveland Observer is looking for interns in the positions of Journalist/Content Creator, Fund Development, Marketing, and Graphic Design. 

 Journalist/Content Creator

Overview: This project-based position may be filled by one individual or a team, depending on the range of expertise required to effectively cover all content channels, including written, audio, and video platforms. The ideal candidate(s) will have a passion for community-focused journalism and the versatility to work across multiple media channels.

Responsibilities:

Content Creation Across Platforms: Produce high-quality written, audio, and video content to engage diverse audiences across various channels.

Research and Data Gathering: Conduct comprehensive research and collect data to support accurate, well-rounded news stories.

Interviewing and Investigative Reporting: Identify and interview key individuals, investigate story leads, and craft informative narratives based on reliable sources.

Story Assembly and Editing: Curate, proofread, and edit news content for distribution on multiple platforms, ensuring readability and audience engagement.

Graphic Design and Layout: Design visually compelling layouts and graphics to enhance the storytelling experience and capture readers’ interest.

Community-Focused Content Sourcing: Gather content from community, institutional, and business sources to inform and benefit the community at large.

Fund Development

Position Overview: This internship offers a valuable opportunity to gain hands-on experience in nonprofit fundraising, donor relations, and development strategies. Under the guidance of the Director of Development, the intern will assist with various tasks that support our mission, helping to expand their impact and sustain their programs.

Marketing Representative Intern

The Cleveland Observer is looking for an enthusiastic and proactive Marketing Representative Intern to assist with strategic marketing initiatives that aim to increase product awareness, drive sales, and enhance brand loyalty. This internship offers hands-on experience in campaign planning, market analysis, and lead generation, providing valuable insights into real-world marketing and sales strategies. Under the mentorship of experienced marketing professionals, the intern will play a key role in supporting their marketing efforts.

 Graphic Design/Print Layout Intern

 The internship in Graphic Design/Print Layout provides hands-on experience in designing and formatting high-quality visual materials for print and digital media. The ideal candidate will support their design team in creating visually appealing layouts, assisting in branding projects, and preparing files for print production, while gaining valuable insight into the field of graphic design and print layout.



The Hope Center: Building Hope in the City

An intern at the Hope Center would be involved and given tasks related to the different service functions we offer to the refugee and immigrant population like Adult Education, Tutoring, & Job/Employment.

  1. Adult Education: Helping ESL teachers in the classroom as an assistant, working 1-1 with students, admin tasks like attendance tracking or registrations.
  2. Tutoring: Helping with our evening tutoring program for students age K-9th grade who come from a variety of countries and language backgrounds. Duties would include planning and leading small group lessons, planning and leading indoor group games, as well as working with students one-on-one to assist with homework or reading.
  3. Jobs/ Employment: Planning and facilitating the first ever Hope Center Job Fair, working with the Career Development manager to identify job candidates’ skills, talents, and general interests, Building and Polishing candidate resumes, engaging with and inviting local businesses to be present at the fair.

The Mezzanine Fund

The Mezzanine Fund intern will be a key team member during the fund’s early stages of growth. This internship provides an opportunity to engage in digital content creation, social media management, and marketing efforts. The intern will contribute to building The Mezzanine Fund’s public presence and brand awareness, focusing on creative content and communication strategies.

The Music Settlement

 BOP STOP at The Music Settlement is Cleveland’s premier listening room and jazz venue. Originally a privately owned venue, The Music Settlement reopened as a non-profit venue in 2014, and the audience and level of music hosted has grown over the past 10 years. BOP STOP is  now at a point where growing further awareness of the venue is necessary to continue building on the work we have done over the last decade. 

The Music Settlement is interested in finding an intern who can help them create and initiate a marketing strategy specific to the BOP STOP’s needs with the goal of growing their audience. Currently, The Music Settlement primarily advertises events through their email list and social media accounts. 

The CWRU intern would be tasked with analyzing our current marketing and finding paths forward to improve the local, city-wide, and regional reach and build awareness of our brand and offerings to better fulfill our mission to be a center for inspiration and creation. This may include strategizing best uses of their resources, creating  templates for The Music Settlement to use going forward, and making suggestions for areas of improvement within budget limitations.  

Trasatlantica Poetry and Scholarship

Trasatlantica. Poetry and Scholarship wants to become a bridge between poetry production and consumption in Cleveland, the US, Latin America, and the Iberian Península. There are 468,000 Spanish speakers in Ohio and 38.3 million in the US. Trasatlantica aspires to be one of the vortexes of the cultural triangle formed by the US, Latin America, and Europe around the Spanish language to address the Hispanic presence and importance in our society and its connections with the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. Trasatlantica aims to transform Cleveland into an essential Spanish creativity production and consumption center. Their goal is to promote the Hispanic/LatinX culture through our journal and other related activities. Our organization will offer artists a space for publishing and spreading their creative works and put them in a transatlantic dialogue with other under-representative minority poets nationally and internationally. In 2025, they will keep developing their capacity and infrastructure-building work, such as creating local outreach, fundraising capacity, organizing events, and launching the following issues of their journal, among many other steps to consolidate our presence and work in the Hispanic cultural community in the United States.

They are already planning a series of events, including:

-In March, they will hold a three-day festival intertwining Hispanic poetry, cinema, and theater and will invite local and international writers, playwrights, scholars, and actors to present their work to their community. 

-In April, to celebrate Poetry Month, they will organize an online International Poetry reading, inviting Hispanic poets from Cleveland, the USA, Spain, and Latin America. They will offer bilingual readings: if the original work is in Spanish, students from Case Western Reserve University will work on translating the poems into English and read them. And vice-versa: if originally in English, the readings will be in Spanish. 

-From January to April they will start work to launch the second issue of our journal in June. 

The interns  will work with us in these three main projects: 

  • Organization and logistics for our Hispanic Poetry, Cinema and Theater event: interns will work to invite the community, to coordinate efforts with different entities (public spaces like the Cleveland main library, theater like LatinUS, and the Cinemateque) to make sure all the logistics are in place for this event. They will make sure that the invitees have all the paperwork they need for participating, and that time, dates and places are secured. They will create the flyers and invitations for the community, and will engage with the invitees to guarantee that our schedule is fit. 
  • They will invite poets for the online poetry festival, could moderate the festival and read some of the English translations of the poems. They will make sure the poets have all the information and paperwork needed (if any) and that Trasatlantica has all the poems to be read on time, and the readers for the English version, scheduled, notified, and have practiced.
  • Interns will collaborate in updating the website, publishing new content, managing social media, revising the submissions, sending them to the blind readers, and receiving feedback. 

Zygote Press

In Spring 2025, Zygote Press will partner with Case Western Reserve University to offer a 9-week session of the afterschool program for teens, Pressing Matters, which will focus on the history of Black printmakers in Cleveland and how they fostered today’s thriving art scene. Using the history of printmaking to combine public problem solving and public creation, the program will dovetail with the historic exhibition of “Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community,” at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), opening March 2025. The show focuses on the prints of Karamus artists in the late 1930s and 40s. Printmaking played a vital role in Karamu’s mission, given the inherent democracy, practical accessibility, and affordability of the print medium. Pressing Matters will introduce students to linocut, the primary medium of Karamu Artists. The program will culminate in a public demonstration and discussion of the history of relief printmaking at CMA, in conjunction with the exhibition. Taking place over just the Spring 2025 semester, Pressing Matters will introduce student participants to the printmaking technique of linocut-the primary medium of the Karamu Artists and one of the easiest and cheapest methods of fine art print. Pressing Matters will be directed by Zygote’s Community Relations Manager Sequoia Bostick with supervision by Jackie Feldman, Zygote Press Executive Director, and with guest sessions led by Erin Benay and Cleveland-based writer and editor Kortney Morrow. Although centered on the history of printmaking at Karamu House – while also delving into other topics in arts, humanities, civics, and activism – the themes of the program will be topical and relevant for students. In the final week of the program, students will engage in a public demonstration and discussion of the history of relief printmaking. The Pressing Matters intern will work alongside Sequoia Bostick and Jackie Feldman to assist with the planning and delivery of programmatic components, sourcing didactic materials, communicating with students and parents, and coordinating field trip logistics.