National Congress Of American Indians Offers Internships and Fellowships Opportunities to Young Leaders

NCAI offers NCAI Internships: Serve Your People, Secure Your future. This internship offers young leaders from throughout Indian country to be on the front lines of legislative action and policy development from within the oldest, largest and most representative organization of tribal governments. Below are options to choose from:

Students enrolled in institutions of higher learning are invited to apply for semester or summer-long internships (for which most institutions will offer college credit), with one to two applications selected for each term;

Applicants with a college degree or equivalent experience are invited to apply for eleven-month fellowships (for which a stipend and benefits will be available through the Youth Leadership Endowment), beginning the first week of September each year, with two to three applicants selected to serve annually.

All interns and fellows will be selected through an application and interview process.

The NCAI intern and fellowship program will include legislative, development, administrative, and grassroots outreach elements. Each intern or fellow will participate in one of the legislative issue teams, and will be considered full-time members of the NCAI staff for the duration of their appointment. Responsibilities may include the following:

Advocacy – Attending committee hearings and meetings of coalitions and interest groups that work on topics related to NCAI priorities; tracking legislation of concern to tribal nations; communicating with congressional offices under the direction of NCAI Governmental Affairs staff; contacting NCAI member tribes and supporters when key legislative activity arises; responding to general information inquiries as requested; participating in staff meetings and discussions; preparing legislative updates; and additional duties to support NCAI’s work.

Research – Studying background material, keeping up on current developments in assigned areas; reading government documents, committee reports, non-governmental organizations’ materials, and relevant articles; maintaining current issues files; surveying information, opinions, and attitudes of various sources via telephone or correspondence; and occasional library research.

Writing – preparing drafts of articles for print and electronic publications and other background documents in the assigned areas of work; and correspondence as needed.

Applications are being accepted now for semester internships beginning in January 2004, and for eleven-month fellowships beginning in September 2004. For more information or to request an internship application, please contact Aura Kanegis ( akanegis@ncai.org) at NCAI, (202) 466-7767.

NCAI challenges Tribes and individuals to contribute to the NCAI Youth Leadership Endowment, which will be used to provide ongoing support for the intern and fellowship program. Tribes may opt to directly sponsor an intern or fellow through a direct arrangement with the NCAI.