Intern Archive

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Faith-Justice Summer Internships

– February 10, 2012Posted in: Formerly Featured Events

Praxis Spiral

This is a general application created by the CCSJ in order to gage interest and determine the proper placement for the three summer internships supported by the office. The three internships: NETWORK, Columban Center, and Interfaith Worker Justice have their own specific applications which will have to be completed and sent to the respective organization following interviews and acceptance by the CCSJ. These internships are unpaid and will require some personal costs or fundraising. Because you may incur some costs, the CCSJ will attempt to assist with some financial assistance. Applying to more than one internship is permitted. However, know that the CCSJ will determine placements based on qualifications, interest, applicant pool, and financial considerations. Preference will be given to students able to serve on the CCSJ Ignatian Advocacy Team next year.

If you would like to apply for one of these internships, please download the application and return it to the CCSJ (Harper 2067) on February 17, 2012 by 4:00p.m.  You will need to sign up for an interview (February 20th) when you hand in your application. 

NETWORK Catholic Social Justice Lobby:

NETWORK is a Catholic lobby group focused on organizing and educating for a nation and world rooted in justice.  They do this by advocating on issues such as peacemaking, comprehensive immigration reform, housing, poverty, federal budget priorities, trade and hunger.  As an intern, you will be giving back to the community by advocating for federal legislation that has the potential to improve millions of lives. You will also gain valuable advocacy skills to serve you in your volunteer work or help position you for a future job in advocacy.  This internship will be between an 8 and 10 week commitment in Washington D.C. and will begin at your choice of start date.

Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach:

Represent Columban missionaries who work with and serve the poor around the world.  Through advocacy, solidarity, and education the CCAO is dedicated to raising the peace, social justice and ecology concerns of others.  As an intern, you will be monitoring assigned issues, researching countries and pertinent legislation, as well as attending working group meetings and Congressional hearings, briefings and seminars.  You will also meet with Congressional staffers to present Columban advocacy priorities and write letters to decision makers concerning Columban priorities.  This internship will begin June 4th and conclude July 27th and is located in either Washington D.C. or Bellevue, Nebraska.

Interfaith Worker Justice:

Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is a network of people of faith that calls upon religious values in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially workers in low-wage jobs.  As an intern, you’ll be placed at local unions, interfaith committees or workers’ centers across the country, where the responsibilities may include outreach to the religious community on labor issues to involve them in local and national campaigns, and organizing workers who want a voice in their jobs.  IWJ has affiliate networks in 17 cities throughout the US and requests can be made to IWJ in regards to placement.  This internship will begin June 11th and will conclude August 8th.   Please see this link for the placements (http://www.iwj.org/template/page.cfm?id=181).  You could choose to live at home if your near a worker center or be sent to another city.

To read about students’ past experiences with these summer internships, please go here.

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CCSJ Weekly Update: Jan. 27 – Feb. 2

– January 27, 2012Posted in: Weekly Update

Featured Events:
CCSJ Soup Luncheon and Auction
The Creighton Center for Service and Justice’s annual Soup Luncheon and Auction will be on Friday, February 3rd from 11:00am-1:30pm. The oral auction will be from 12:15-12:45 conducted by Creighton celebrity auctioneers. Join us in our new location, the Skutt Student Center Ballroom for soup, bread, and desserts.

You can reserve a table for 10 from 12:00pm-1:00pm for $100. With a table you get all-you-care-to-eat soup, bread, and drinks, an assortment of desserts, and the personal service of one of our lovely students. Contact Wendy Maliszewski at 402-280-1290 or wendymal@creighton.edu by January 27th to reserve your table (Cash, Credit, Check, and Journal Transfers).

Auction items include: “Suite” view at Century Link Center for Men’s basketball, dinner with CU Celebrities including Fr. Lannon, a condo for a week in New Hampshire, stained glass pieces, sports tickets, restaurant gift certificates, and much more!

Post-Grad Volunteer Tostadas Dinner
All students who are thinking about the next steps after graduation are invited to the Post-Grad Volunteer Tostadas Dinner on Wednesday, February 8. This event allows students to hear about experiences of former volunteers from domestic and international programs including: JVC, JVI, Rostro de Christo, Cap Corps, and Mercy Volunteer Corps. This event, including tostadas, is free, but the CCSJ needs an accurate count for food. Please RSVP to Sydney Stulock at sydneystulock@creighton.edu, or by calling 402-280-1290. RSVPs must be in by 3 pm on Monday, February 6. The dinner will take place from 5:30-6:30pm in the Creighton Center for Service and Justice, Harper 2067.

Events this week:
Omaha Seed Share
Film- AbUSed: The Postville Raid
Registration for Summer Hiking Retreats Open
Volunteers Needed: Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program
Reflections on Human Suffering
CCSJ Soup Luncheon and Auction

Events More than One Week Away:
Love a Mountain: Mountaintop Removal Awareness
Georgetown Summer Internship Applications
Post-Grad Volunteer Tostadas Dinner

Saturday, January 28
 Omaha Seed Share
This event is part of a national effort to encourage growing gardens and healthy living. The Omaha Seed Share is open to anyone who wants to grow their own food in the Omaha metro. Meet and visit with other local gardeners, sharing their excess seeds. This event will be held from 1-3:00 pm at the Douglas County Extension Office, 8015 W. Center Road. For more information, please contact Patty Falcone at patty.falcone@douglascounty-ne.gov.

Sunday, January 29
 Film- AbUSed: The Postville Raid
Packinghouse workers and the town of Postville, Iowa survived the most brutal, most expensive, and largest immigration raid in the history of the United States. This 2011 documentary reveals detention conditions, deportation impacts to families and local economy, and response by lawyers, teachers, and the local Iowa faith community. The documentary will be shown promptly at 6:00 and will be preceded by an optional potluck dinner at 5:30. This event will be held at the Second Unitarian Church of Omaha, just south of 120th and Center.

Monday, January 30
 Registration for Summer Hiking Retreats Open
Religious of the Sacred Heart are offering hiking retreats this summer in the Black Hills of South Dakota or the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The Black Hills retreat will take place from July 23-August 1; the White Mountains retreat will take place August 20-26. Each trip includes daily hikes and time for private prayer and shared reflections. For more information, or to register, please contact Sr. Diane Roche, RSCJ at droche@rscj.org or (504) 388-8026.

Tuesday, January 31
 Volunteers Needed: Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program
The Juvenile Justice Mentoring program is designed to help youth lay a foundation upon which they can build toward success in every aspect of life. Mentors are needed to form one-on-one relationships with youth 10-18 years old, which may take place within a detention center, treatment facility, or group home and continue as youth transition into the community. The mentor and youth meet once a week for 1-2 hours, with a one year commitment. If you are interested in learning more about mentoring, visit www.releaseministries.org, or contact Marcus Brown at (402) 455-0808.

Thursday, February 2
 Reflections on Human Suffering
This lecture is titled “Is Suffering Emancipatory?: Marxist Reflections on Human Suffering” and will be given by Amy Wendling of the Department of Philosophy. Join this interdisciplinary series regarding explanations for human misery in Today’s world. This event is co-sponsored by the Theology Department and the Kenefick Chair in the Humanities, and will be held from 7-8:30 pm in Harper Center room 3028.

Friday, February 3
 CCSJ Soup Luncheon and Auction
The Creighton Center for Service and Justice’s annual Soup Luncheon and Auction will be on Friday, February 3rd from 11:00am-1:30pm. The oral auction will be from 12:15-12:45 conducted by Creighton celebrity auctioneers. Join us in our new location, the Skutt Student Center Ballroom for soup, bread, and desserts.

You can reserve a table for 10 from 12:00pm-1:00pm for $100. With a table you get all-you-care-to-eat soup, bread, and drinks, an assortment of desserts, and the personal service of one of our lovely students. Contact Wendy Maliszewski at 402-280-1290 or wendymal@creighton.edu by January 27th to reserve your table (Cash, Credit, Check, and Journal Transfers).

Auction items include: “Suite” view at Century Link Center for Men’s basketball, dinner with CU Celebrities including Fr. Lannon, a condo for a week in New Hampshire, stained glass pieces, sports tickets, restaurant gift certificates, and much more!

Upcoming Events:
Love a Mountain: Mountaintop Removal Awareness
(Monday, February 6)
Larry Gibson, A Keeper of Mountains, will be speaking at 7pm on Monday, February 6th in the Harper Center Auditorium. Larry has lived in West Virginia all his life and has been an activist against the coal industry for more than 20 years. He has been threatened, shot at, and arrested for his views and actions against powerful coal companies. He is an internationally known voice who has been named one of CNN’s Heroes, has appeared on ABCs 20/20, appeared before the UN, and has spoken to thousands of community church and university groups across the country. For more information, please check out the facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/315641868474130.

 Georgetown Summer Internship Applications
(Tuesday, February 7)
Are you a student looking for a Summer Internship? The Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service at Georgetown University has an academic internship program focused on the nonprofit sector, and is accepting applications for summer 2012. The priority deadline for admission and scholarships is Tuesday, February 7, with a final deadline on March 7. For more information, or to start an application, please visit www.DCinternships.org/IPVS.

 Post-Grad Volunteer Tostadas Dinner
(Wednesday, February 8)
All students who are thinking about the next steps after graduation are invited to the Post-Grad Volunteer Tostadas Dinner on Wednesday, February 8. This event allows students to hear about experiences of former volunteers from domestic and international programs including: JVC, JVI, Rostro de Christo, Cap Corps, and Mercy Volunteer Corps. This event, including tostadas, is free, but the CCSJ needs an accurate count for food. Please RSVP to Sydney Stulock at sydneystulock@creighton.edu, or by calling 402-280-1290. RSVPs must be in by 3 pm on Monday, February 6. The dinner will take place from 5:30-6:30pm in the Creighton Center for Service and Justice, Harper 2067.

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Diving in the Depths of the Ocean While Walking on Jello

– September 2, 2011Posted in: Justice & Advocacy Blog

By Carissa Smith

This past year has been a whirlwind of experiences for me. Last fall semester I got my feet wet in advocacy working with the CCSJ Advocacy team and being President of our NAACP chapter.  Then I left my post at Creighton to answer my call to go to the Dominican Republic for the semester. After spending a semester away from home I decided to go away again and accept an internship in Washington DC with the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach for the summer (an opportunity that I got through the CCSJ). Through these various experiences I’ve come to really learn the importance of the praxis spiral especially when it comes to advocacy work.

When I left for the Dominican Republic I was more uncertain about my convictions and about my worldview than I ever had been at that point in my life. I realized that a liberal education really meant walking on jello because whatever I stood on was no longer solid and was subject to change the next day depending on what new discovery I had in class. The only thing I was firm about was the fact that the world was a messed up place. I was very aware of many of the problems of the world and felt pretty convinced that we all had a responsibility in fixing it in whatever capacity we are able.  However, my goal that semester was to challenge myself on the very fundamentals that underlie those principles and even the study of the social problems and their solutions of which I became aware.  And that’s exactly what happened! That semester the more I learned and the more I saw the more I realized that I didn’t really know anything at all. As I worked to challenge myself I was also much challenged by my peers, my teachers and by all the people of the Dominican Republic that I encountered. What I took away the most from my experience in the DR was that extremists and fundamentalists are one of the world’s enslavers and biggest fallacies, thus embracing an attitude of balance, openness and understanding is the way to truly love one’s neighbors and enemies.

After spending about two weeks at home with my family and friends I was swept away again to head to Washington, DC where I began my advocacy internship with the Columbans. This time I went with the only firm conviction that I didn’t know much of anything.  I remember the first congressional hearing that I attended (titled The US’s role in the World Bank and Multilateral Development Banks) I was astounded with the internalization of my surroundings. I just spent the last couple of months in places with people who are forgotten, or simply ignored, and at that moment I was in a room full of people in the place where the forgetting happens. The experiences and insights that I gained through my internship are immeasurable and something that I’m still trying to process. I know that I have garnered a better sense of compassion and desire to understand those with a different viewpoint than my own. I came to realize that the world is a lot more gray than black and white and that the gray area was as wide and deep as the ocean. More than anything else I have undoubtedly gained a more humbling desire to know and understand the world with the profundity of conviction which requires me to dive into the uncomfortable and overwhelming depths of the ocean. Scary!

In my journey in advocacy work this process has simply come with the territory and I can either sink or swim. I am already in the ocean surrounded by the good and the bad of the world and the opposing currents of thought and action that either work for or against it’s harmony.  I have learned that our responsibility to change social structures to change lives requires a questioning heart and mind with a deep understanding and awareness of the numerous currents that push and pull to shape the world that we know as well as one’s place in it. In other words, to ask oneself, “am I swimming for or against the currents of harmony!?” However, it must be accompanied with the intuition that the risk of not doing anything is worse than the fear of being wrong. In order to be promoters and workers of justice it is essential to first have an experience that is followed by a reflection with a multitude of questions (and a critical eye of oneself and others). Then we are able to act again and create more experiences in a more genuine and just manner that will be followed by more reflection and action. Advocacy doesn’t mean that you have the answer of how to fix the world just that you have the courage to act on the conviction that you can’t stand idly to watch it destroy itself. Although it is difficult to know exactly which current I am swimming (as only time will tell) I choose to swim rather than drown in my inaction.

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Local Volunteer Opportunities

– August 2, 2011Posted in: Local Community Service

Wanting to know how to volunteer in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area? The following is an alphabetical listing by category of Omaha/Council Bluffs agencies seeking volunteers. Please click on a category or agency to view more information about potential volunteer opportunities and to find the contact information for these agencies!

Adult Literacy

Child Care/Recreation

Clerical Work/Misc.

Developmental/Learning Disabilities

Domestic Abuse

Food Pantries/Family Outreach

Homelessness

Hospital/Health Care

Physical Labor

Senior Citizens

Social Justice/Community Outreach Education

Youth Tutoring/Mentoring

Amachi Mentoring Coalition Project
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Midlands
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands
Boy Scouts of America, Mid-America Council—Scoutreach Program
Children’s Square, USA
Child Saving Institute
Community Bike Project Omaha
Completely Kids (formerly Campfire USA)
Fontenelle Elementary School
Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa
Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska
Girls, Inc.
Hope Center for Kids
Jesuit Academy (formerly Jesuit Middle school)
Kids Can! Youth Programs
Lothrop Magnet Center
Lutheran Refugee Services & the International Center of the Heartland (Lutheran Family Services)
Omaha Street School
The Partnership For Our Kids – Goal Setting Program
The Partnership For Our Kids – Group Mentoring Program
TeamMates Mentoring Program
Urban League of Nebraska – Family Resource Center
United Methodist Ministries

Other

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Will Rutt on summer with Interfaith Worker Justice

– July 1, 2011Posted in: Past IFTJ Speeches

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Interfaith Worker Justice 2006

– June 18, 2011Posted in: Summer Experiences Blog

Rachael Hoffman Interned at Interfaith Worker Justice during the Summer of ’06

Interfaith Worker Justice (the non-profit that I’m working for this summer) was influential in this campaign (in rallying community and faith leaders to support the ordinance and call their aldermen/women) = I was at the finance committee yesterday where they voted in support of it! check out these photos of me on the job…

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