If you watch the news, it’s easy to believe that we’re all constantly at great risk of dying in some sort of disaster. Yes, there are a lot of threats out there, but most of us shouldn’t waste a lot of time worrying about them. There are, however, some people whose job it is to worry about and prepare for the worst. Public Safety Risk Management is a seemingly impossible task, but someone has to do it. Our local, state, and federal governments need to be prepared to deal with all kinds of things–some you could never even dream of if you spent your whole life trying. Digital Sandbox is a McLean, VA based company that helps these professionals by providing “them with the tools they need to mitigate the catastrophic and disruptive threats that can impact them.” Most of these tools are in the form of software, and they are based on strategies and “analytical frameworks essential to effective management, analysis, and assessment of terrorism, natural hazard, and technological accident risk.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
analytics,
data,
Internships,
research,
research and development,
risk management,
safety,
security,
software development,
Virginia
A little known fact about me is that I earned “The Speed Limit” as a nickname during my Senior year of high school. It wasn’t because I drove slowly; it was because I somehow managed to lose 55 pounds between the end of Junior year and the beginning of Senior year. I still don’t know how it happened–I wasn’t even trying to lose weight–but it did (I’ve since gained much of it back, but part of that is because I don’t have the body of a scrawny 17-year old anymore). Apparently, there’s some mysterious weight loss secret out there that I used, but don’t know about. Unfortunately, weight loss isn’t usually that easy, and for most people it’s a huge struggle. I’m a big proponent of “the slow-carb diet” and other methods from Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body
, but it’s all about finding what works for you. For many it’s Weight Watchers. The New York, NY based company was started in Queens during the early 1960s by Jean Nidetch who “began inviting friends into her Queens home once a week to discuss how best to lose weight.” Now more than a million people across the world go to Weight Watchers meetings every week.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
copywriting,
fitness,
health care,
Internships,
marketing,
New York,
research,
unpaid,
writing
We’re right in the thick of finals season. A few of you lucky ones are already done with them and may even be back at home already, while most of you are probably studying up a storm. It’s certainly a stressful time, and it often leads to bad decisions of the cheating/plagiarism variety. It definitely seems that plagiarism is a bigger problem now than it was in the past, but I think that it has more to do with advances in technology than an overall decline in student morals. When you had to hand write a paper or type it on a typewriter, copying someone was almost as annoying as writing your own paper. Now copy and paste makes it way too easy. Luckily, technology is catching up. iParadigms is an Oakland, CA (I swear I’m not trying to make this Oakland only, it’s just what I’ve been finding lately) based company that has been developing software to fight plagiarism since 1996. It started with some UC Berkeley researchers who had built internal tools “to monitor the recycling of research papers in their large, undergraduate classes.” From there a company was born.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
data,
design,
education,
human resources,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
research,
software development,
user experience,
web development
Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you to all of the Moms out there, especially mine. Since Mother’s Day always falls on a Sunday, I always try to find a non-profit to feature that is at least tangentially connected to motherhood. In past year’s we’ve taken a look at Baby’s First Home, Family Health and Birth Center, and Crittenton Women’s Union (they often seem to have a lot of positions open). Today we’re going to look at the Center for Environmental Health based in Oakland, CA. Their name doesn’t quite fit in with the other three that I mentioned, but you’ll see how they fit in to the theme in a second. The Center for Environmental Health is a non-profit that “is working to eliminate the threat that chemicals pose to children, families, and communities.” They’re also the home of the MOMS (Making Our Milk Safe) Project, which is a group that has the mission of “protecting the health of our babies by eliminating the growing threat of toxic chemicals and industrial pollutants in human breast milk.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advocacy,
California,
environmental,
holiday,
Internships,
New York,
non-profit,
program development,
public health,
research,
unpaid
Sponsored Internship from my good friend Jason Seiden: Ajax Social Media is looking for an intern to assist with marketing. We train LinkedIn on how to use LinkedIn. No kidding. We are taking on one marketing intern this summer to help plan and execute live events in San Antonio, Dallas, and Chicago, including an upcoming book launch, and to assist with our new webinar series. To apply, DM @seiden with a link to your blog, FBook page, LinkedIn profile, or whatever other link you think is most relevant. (Hint: it’s probably not your resume.)
The average Internet user probably knows next to nothing about the Domain Name System or DNS. It’s a system that is mostly behind the scenes, even though it is absolutely essential to how the Internet works. When you type in www.onedayoneinternship.com, your host checks its records (which are constantly updated) for an entry corresponding to the domain name. If it’s up to date and working properly, it will resolve the domain name to the Internet Protocol address 98.158.181.7 (every device connected to the Internet has an IP address). From there the request will get passed on to my name server, and you will be directed to the proper site (since www.onedayonejob.com is hosted on the same server). Not many people realize how important a good DNS server is. If your ISP doesn’t update their DNS list often, you may not be able to access a site that moves to a new server. You might also get redirected to an annoying page filled with ads when you type in an invalid domain name. Or you might be using a slow DNS server that takes forever to connect you to the right server. OpenDNS is a company that solves all of these problems and more. They are based in San Francisco, CA, and they are “the leading provider of free security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
data,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
online marketing,
public relations,
research,
sales,
software development,
web development,
writing
One of my favorite daily activities during college was doing the crossword puzzle in The Cornell Daily Sun. It was a nice diversion during lunch (or an especially boring class). One of the best things that you can do while working on a crossword puzzle is to get one of the large horizontal words in the middle of the puzzle. These words are often 32 or 33 across, which is where 33Across got their name. They’re a company that “uses social graph data to dramatically improve online marketing” and “unlock the puzzle of social connections.” In other words, they have built a platform that targets advertising to people whose online connections already use the products or services that are being advertised. 33Across is based in New York, NY, and they have another major office in Sunnyvale, CA. Social advertising really is a lot like 33 across on a crossword puzzle–it’s really tough to solve, but when you do it opens a world of opportunities.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advertising,
business development,
California,
Internships,
market research,
marketing,
New York,
online marketing,
operations,
product development,
research,
software development,
web development
I was a senior in high school on September 11, 2001. We were told what had happened during our morning announcements period, and a few of who had free periods after went to the beach across the street from our school’s campus. We knew that on a clear day you could usually see the Twin Towers from there, but all we could see was a plume of smoke. We listened on the radio and heard reports of the towers falling and rumors of other attacks in the works. I was deeply affected by what happened that day, and since then I have been waiting for our country to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. Yesterday, a group of NAVY SEALs did just that under the command of the Central Intelligence Agency, which is based in Washington, DC but operates all over the world. I am extremely grateful to all of those who were involved–especially for those who risked their lives to make us safer. It’s a reminder of how important it is for our government agencies to have top talent working for them. WIthout great people working at the CIA and in our armed forces, bin Laden would still be at large.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
analyst,
cartography,
defense,
engineering,
finance,
government,
graphic design,
information technology,
intelligence,
interactive media,
international,
Internships,
law,
library,
Logistics,
medicine,
military,
nationwide,
paid,
photography,
product development,
publishing,
research,
science,
security,
software development,
Washington DC,
web development
Yesterday I was too busy talking about candy to mention that it was Earth Day. Luckily, a good friend reminded me that I should probably cover an environmentally minded non-profit today. I did a quick search, and came across the Washington Wilderness Coalition. They’re based in Seattle, WA, and they aim to “to preserve and restore wild areas in Washington State through citizen empowerment, support for grassroots community groups, advocacy and public education.” That’s something that I can get behind since I’ve enjoyed Washington State’s wilderness. In 2007 I spent a day fly fishing the Klickitat River. I didn’t catch anything but one tiny rainbow trout/steelhead, but I got to enjoy the scenery and spot some cool wildlife. It’s just the kind of place that Washington Wilderness Coalition aims to protect, and it’s definitely worth protecting.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advocacy,
conservation,
environmental,
green,
holiday,
Internships,
non-profit,
research,
unpaid,
Washington
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone but an oil executive who isn’t excited at the prospect of electric cars. Yet, the only ones that I’ve seen on the road are from Tesla Motors, and those are few and far between. The problem is two-fold. First, the technology is just getting to the point where it’s actually reasonable to have an electric car as your everyday automobile. Second, the infrastructure for charging electric cars away from home is nearly non-existent. Better Place is a Palo Alto, CA based company that is working to change this. They “build and operate the infrastructure and systems to optimize energy access and use” for electric vehicles, so that they can achieve their mission of “accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation.” They have a long road ahead of them, but they’ve already made a big impact.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
automotive,
California,
cars,
energy,
green,
Internships,
marketing,
product development,
product management,
research,
strategy,
sustainability,
training,
transportation
Children are by definition immature. They can be confusing, frustrating, and annoying for adults, but nobody should ever be surprised when children act like… children. But when is it something more? Psychiatric and learning disorder issues can be particularly hard to diagnose in kids. Yet identifying and treating such issues as early as possible is essential to ensuring that a child can live a full and happy life. The Child Mind Institute is a New York, NY based non-profit that “is devoted to transforming mental health care for the world’s children to enable them to reach their full potential.” By focusing on finding new ways to identify and treat childhood psychiatric and learning disorders, the Child Mind Institute is helping those who are least equipped to help themselves.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
advocacy,
analyst,
blogging,
data,
health care,
journalism,
medicine,
mental health,
New York,
non-profit,
psychiatry,
psychology,
research,
social media,
social work,
writing
I love Opening Day! (Check out all of our baseball related internships.) It’s like Christmas in April…or late March (I really don’t like having the season start before April Fool’s Day). I try to watch as many Yankees games as I possibly can, so today represents a big change in my daily routine. When I first moved to Chicago, I had to rely on the MLB At Bat app on my iPhone to listen to games. Then I got DirecTV with MLB Extra Innings so that I could watch all of the games in HD. Now I’m using MLB.tv for viewing games on my phone, laptop, and television through an AppleTV (I’ve already watched quite a few spring training games). However, nothing beats watching my favorite team in person. Unfortunately, when the Yankees come to Chicago to play the Cubs at Wrigley this year, I’m going to be out of town. But last year when they came to play the White Sox, getting tickets through StubHub was a cinch. The San Francisco, CA based company is an eBay subsidiary, and they enable people to buy and sell tickets to all sorts of events–from baseball to rock concerts.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
analyst,
baseball,
business development,
California,
customer service,
engineering,
events,
holiday,
Internships,
marketing,
paid,
project management,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
research,
software development,
sports,
web development
I’m a fly fisherman, so I occasionally get frustrated with living in downtown Chicago. There just aren’t many opportunities to go fishing without a decent drive, and winter seems to last forever (it’s supposed to be spring now, and it’s not). To get through the coldest months I’ll often visit fishing stores, look at websites, and read through catalogs. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get me through the winter. Cabela’s is a company that gets a lot of people through the winter. The company is based in Sidney, NE, and they’re the “largest mail-order, retail and Internet outdoor outfitter in the world.” It all started in 1961 with a tiny classified ad that Dick Cabela placed in a newspaper because he wanted to sell some fishing flies that he purchased while visiting Chicago for a furniture show (since Nebraska is even less of a fly fishing destination than Chicago is). Despite a lackluster response to the original ad, Dick Cabela kept trying. The company grew organically, and now Cabela’s is dominating three major retail channels. The truly amazing part of the story is that Cabela’s has been able to maintain their commitment to customer service throughout all of the growth. I’m not a big customer (I try to support local shops), but I have quite a few friends who are extremely loyal Cabela’s customers because of the quality of products and service.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
analyst,
apparel,
banking,
compliance,
conservation,
customer service,
e-commerce,
human resources,
Internships,
inventory control,
marketing,
merchandising,
Nebraska,
operations,
outdoors,
planning,
product development,
product management,
research,
retail,
social media,
sports,
strategy
There’s no doubt that our country and world are better off because of the work of philanthropists. It’s especially impressive to watch what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are doing with their billions of dollars through the Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, philanthropists, like money, don’t grow on trees. Since waiting for generous people to get rich could take a while, it’s a lot easier to try convincing people who are already rich to be more generous. That’s exactly what The Giving Back Fund, which is based in Los Angeles, CA, does. They are a non-profit organization that envisions “a society in which becoming a successful philanthropist is as valued and desirable a goal as success in athletics, business, entertainment, or any other field.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advocacy,
development,
finance,
Internships,
non-profit,
philanthropy,
research,
web development
I’m in St. Louis for the weekend, mostly to watch my girlfriend’s little sister’s volleyball tournament, but I’m looking for other cool things to do since it’s my first time here. Yesterday I got to visit the Saint Louis Zoo, which is fantastic. (And I promise I didn’t act like this kid.) I got to see monkeys, giraffes, zebras, lions, penguins, gorillas, elephants, somali wild asses, and a whole range of other animals that I’d never even heard of before. I even got to see the mountain nyala that makes an appearance in the zoo’s logo. I was really impressed with the Saint Louis Zoo—it has a wonderful layout and an amazing collection of animals. The best part, though, was that we got to see feeding time for the grizzly bears. It may sound barbaric, but it was nothing of the sort. We watched as two of the laziest bears that I’ve ever seen would catch oranges in their mouths and then suck out the meat while leaving behind the rind. What made the experience even better was that it was free. Saint Louis Zoo is a “free zoo,” so all you have to pay for is parking.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
animals,
biology,
botany,
conservation,
development,
education,
gardening,
horticulture,
Internships,
member services,
Missouri,
natural science,
non-profit,
research,
science,
zoology
Because I started my business without any post-graduation work experience, I’ve had to rely on free resources to learn the tricks of the trade. Sites like Hacker News, SEOmoz, Mixergy have been unbelievably valuable to me. But you can only get so much for free. Fortune 500 companies budget millions and millions of dollars to ensure that their leadership teams are well informed and well advised. One place that 80% of Fortune 500 companies go for advice is The Corporate Executive Board. They are an Arlington, VA based company that helps “senior executives at the world’s leading organizations… and their teams with actionable insights, analytic tools, and advisory support to quickly and confidently focus efforts on what they need to know, and do, next.” The Corporate Executive Board spun off from The Advisory Board Company (they focus only on healthcare and higher education) in the late 90’s, and that was later followed up with an initial public offering.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
account management,
all employers,
analyst,
Arizona,
Australia,
business development,
California,
Canada,
communications,
community management,
compliance,
consulting,
customer service,
data,
design,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
India,
information technology,
Internships,
law,
market research,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
member services,
Minnesota,
New York,
paid,
quantitative,
research,
sales,
Singapore,
software development,
strategy,
training,
united kingdom,
Virginia,
Washington DC,
web development
The Washington Media Scholars Program is an exciting case competition run by a wonderful non-profit. If you enter, you’ll have a chance at a scholarship, a trip to DC, networking opportunities, and even extra credit for a class. Find out how to enter here.
I really hope that I get to travel to Asia at some point in my life, especially Japan. I think it would be fascinating to experience a society that is quite similar to the United States in terms of its economy and technology, yet so different culturally. When I think about it, I’m amazed at how far America’s relationship with Asian countries has come over the past 70 or so years. We’ve gone from wars with Japan, Korea, and Vietnam to economic battles with Japan and China. Now our economy is deeply intertwined with that of China, and the fight against Communism is nearly forgotten. Even though our country’s relationships with Asian countries have changed over the years, it’s still extremely important that we work to understand them better. That’s what the National Bureau of Asian Research is all about. They’re a Seattle, WA based non-profit organization that “conducts advanced independent research on strategic, political, economic, globalization, health, and energy issues affecting U.S. relations with Asia.” They were founded in 1989 when the landscape was quite different from what it is today, but their mission is just as relevant.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
foreign relations,
health care,
international,
international affairs,
Internships,
non-profit,
paid,
policy,
public health,
public policy,
research,
Washington,
Washington DC
The Washington Media Scholars Program is an exciting case competition run by a wonderful non-profit. If you enter, you’ll have a chance at a scholarship, a trip to DC, networking opportunities, and even extra credit for a class. Find out how to enter here.
Cancer sucks. We’ve all dealt with the pain it causes at some point. But things are getting better. We’re constantly making progress towards more effective cancer treatments, and a big reason for this is that we’re starting to treat different types of cancer as individual diseases. This means that organizations focused on specific cancers are becoming increasingly important. Take for example the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation based in Boston, MA. They’re a non-profit that aims “to discover a cure for carcinoid and related neuroendocrine tumors” while also working “to eliminate the suffering of patients, families, and caregivers affected by neuroendocrine tumors.” The Caring for Carcinoid Foundation is extremely research focused, which is why they direct “100% of all individual donations to fund breakthrough scientific research of carcinoid and related neuroendocrine tumors.” They’ve already awarded more than $6 million in research grants, and that number is going to keep on growing.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
communications,
health care,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
medicine,
non-profit,
research,
unpaid
The Washington Media Scholars Program runs a case competition for college students every year. Participating can get you a scholarship, a trip to DC, networking opportunities, and even extra credit for a class. Learn more here.
Everything that I know about aerodynamics I learned from MythBusters. Ok, that’s not completely true–AP Physics taught me a little bit too, but MythBusters does a remarkable job of explaining how different objects (from bullets to cars) react to the drag forces of air and water. Today I found a company that puts MythBusters to shame, at least when it comes to aerodynamics (but definitely not when it comes to explosions). Their name is Exa, and they’re a Burlington, MA based company that “develops, markets, and supports simulation software for the fluids engineering marketplace along with a full suite of engineering consulting services.” They typically work with companies in the “automotive, aerospace, architectural, environmental, electronic, and heavy equipment industries,” so I’m sure that you can imagine what kind of cool projects they’ve been involved with. Think optimizing the USA 4-man bobsled that won the Olympic Gold Medal or providing simulations for a Discovery Channel TV show called Ultimate Car Build-Off (ok, it’s not MythBusters).
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
aerospace,
automotive,
California,
cars,
design,
engineering,
Germany,
Internships,
Massachusetts,
math,
Michigan,
paid,
physics,
product development,
research,
science,
software development
Interested in the intersection of media and public policy? Then you have to check out the Washington Media Scholars Program.
It’d be pretty cool to have your home turned into a museum. Not only would it mean that you lived in a pretty sweet place, but it would also mean that you made enough of a mark on history for people to actually want to learn about your life. There’s no better example of someone worth learning about than Thomas Jefferson. Not only did he write the Declaration of Independence, but he was also the third president and founder of the University of Virginia. It’s no surprise that he ended up on both the two dollar bill and the nickel. Anyway, many might expect Jefferson’s Monticello to be run by the government, but it’s actually managed by a non-profit organization called the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in Charlottesville, VA. They’ve been maintaining Monticello and 2,500 of its 5,000 acres for nearly 90 years with a dual mission of education and preservation, which is a great service to our country and its history.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
accounting,
communications,
design,
education,
events,
graphic design,
history,
information technology,
library,
living history,
marketing,
member services,
museum,
non-profit,
paid,
public relations,
research,
retail,
sales,
Virginia
Washington Media Scholars Foundation is our sponsor this week. They have an awesome case competition for students interested in Media careers. You can win a $3,000 scholarship, so find out more here.
Tracking people down isn’t all that hard anymore. If you want to find someone, there’s a really good chance that a simple Google search will give you a good enough lead to find some contact information. You should know all about this if you’re going about your internship search properly. If you haven’t tracked down someone at a company that you want to intern for and offered to buy him or her lunch, then what are you wasting your time doing? You should be able to get by with free tools, but sometimes you need something a little more powerful. ZoomInfo is a Waltham, MA based company that offers “continuously updated, multi-sourced, highly relevant business information and unrivalled tools to quickly pinpoint contacts and accelerate success.” ZoomInfo’s database “spans five million businesses and 50 million employees,” so if you’re looking for a company or a person, there’s a good chance that they have info on them.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
business development,
data,
engineering,
information technology,
Internships,
marketing,
Massachusetts,
online marketing,
paid,
research,
sales,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
web development
When we talk about energy efficiency, we often think about the environment. If we use less energy, we do less harm to the environment—but that’s only half the story. Energy efficiency is also essential to keeping our world’s economy growing. Nearly all economic activity requires some sort of energy input, and energy is quite obviously a limited resource. If we can find ways to use the energy that we have more efficiently, we can stimulate more economic growth. The Alliance to Save Energy is a non-profit organization that was started in response to the oil embargo of the 1970s. They saw how reliant our economy was on foreign oil, and they wanted to take action to decrease that reliance through conservation. The Washington, DC based organization obviously still has a long way to go, but they have a great track record of helping businesses and the environment at the same time.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
communications,
conservation,
development,
education,
energy,
environmental,
green,
Internships,
non-profit,
paid,
program development,
research,
sustainability,
Washington DC,
writing
Even though I’m an active participant in a number of social media communities, I realize that the whole thing can be a bit… self-congratulatory. There’s no better example of how self-involved social media users can get than sites that let them show off how influential they are. Yes, all of your online relationships can be boiled down into a simple numerical score—and you can use that score to show people how cool you are. It seem so pointless, but it’s not. Think about how Google works. They rank sites based on a mix of influence (incoming links) and relevance. The problem with that model is that the Internet is becoming less site focused and more people focused. That’s why Klout is a business worth keeping an eye on. They’re a San Francisco, CA based company that aims to “help every individual understand and leverage their influence.” I think that’s understating what they do—understanding and measuring people’s influence has quite a few different use cases.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
design,
Internships,
marketing,
research,
social media,
social networking,
software development,
user experience,
web development
The world of high finance is mind-bending. Billions and even trillions of dollars are being exchanged, yet no paper money is actually changing hands. It gets even crazier when you realize that real people are behind all of these transactions. They’re constantly making decisions that affect more money than you’ll probably accrue in your lifetime—and it’s not even their money (some of it might even be yours). When it comes to finance, research is crucial to sound decision making, and as technology has evolved, research has become more and more plentiful. FactSet Research Systems is a Norwalk, CT based company that provides investment analytics tools. As they put it, “FactSet enhances productivity of the global investment professional by providing superior workflow solutions.” It does this by consolidating “all the tools you need to monitor global markets, public and private companies, and equity and fixed income portfolios in a single, intuitive interface.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
Alabama,
analyst,
California,
communications,
Connecticut,
consulting,
data,
engineering,
finance,
human resources,
Illinois,
Internships,
investment,
law,
Massachusetts,
New Jersey,
New York,
paid,
product development,
research,
software development,
Texas,
training
The other day I read a fascinating article about a Canadian guy who figured out how to determine whether scratch-off lottery tickets would be winners… without scratching them off. He decided not to take advantage of his discovery, because he realized he made more money as a statistician then he would have made taking advantage of the flaw. When he tried to tell the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, they thought he was some crackpot and ignored him. Finally, he got their attention when he sent them 20 tickets with predictions of their outcomes—he was right on 19 out of 20 of them. The article mentioned the names of a few U.S. based companies that work in the scratch-off lottery games, and I instantly wondered whether they had any internship. One of those companies is Scientific Games, which is headquartered in New York, NY but appears to be operationally based in Alpharetta, GA. Lotteries in the U.S. are a $50 billion market, and Scientific Games is “the primary instant ticket provider for 8 of the top 10 U.S. lotteries.” It may not seem as though there is a lot of room for innovation in lottery games, but Scientific Games has consistently proved otherwise.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
behavioral science,
business development,
casino,
communications,
design,
finance,
game design,
Georgia,
graphic design,
information technology,
Internships,
lottery,
New York,
product development,
research,
sales,
science
In the history of human existence, there are few technological advances that have had as much of a positive effect on our species as the development of vaccines. The truly amazing thing about vaccines is how cost effective they are when it comes to improving the human condition. A single intervention can give an individual lifelong immunity from or resistance to a variety of diseases, and the marginal cost of a vaccine dose after development is often ridiculously low. One of the great vaccine triumphs in human history was Dr. Albert B. Sabin’s development of the oral live virus polio vaccine. He was a scientist who “dedicated his entire professional career to the elimination of human suffering though his groundbreaking medical advances” and “waged a tireless campaign against poverty and ignorance throughout his lifetime.” In 1993 he passed away, and the Sabin Vaccine Institute was founded in his honor. It is a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that is “dedicated to reducing needless human suffering from vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases through prevention and treatment.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advocacy,
communications,
development,
health care,
Internships,
medicine,
non-profit,
paid,
program development,
research,
Washington DC
When I was in high school, I got good grades, did community service work through my church, played baseball and basketball, and ran a fan website about my favorite rapper (it was a long time ago, and it was profitable). It may sound like a lot, but I can’t believe how much time I wasted. High schoolers are capable of a lot, and they need to be challenged. That’s exactly what the San Francisco, CA based Conrad Foundation does. They’re a non-profit organization that challenges “high school students to create innovative products using science, technology, and entrepreneurship to solve real-world, 21st century problems.” They do so through the Spirt of Innovation Awards, which is a competition put on in honor of Pete Conrad (whom the foundation is named after), the astronaut who commanded Apollo 12. Pete was expelled from a prestigious high school because he couldn’t read or spell. It turned out that he was dyslexic, and the headmaster at his new school was able to help him make the most of his genius. After high school he went to Princeton and the moon. Not bad for someone who couldn’t read or spell in high school.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
administrative,
aerospace,
California,
development,
education,
educationd,
energy,
entrepreneurship,
events,
green,
information technology,
innovation,
Internships,
non-profit,
operations,
paid,
research,
social entrepreneurship,
software development,
sustainability,
web development
Today marks the end of vacation for a lot of people. Tomorrow morning’s blaring alarm will mean back to work or back to school, and the great feeling of the New Year will start to wear off. I have a couple of days left, but I’m not too excited to go back to Chicago’s predicted 19-degree weather on Tuesday night. But what if going back to work or school meant returning to an island in the Bahamas? That would change some attitudes, which is why you should envy the teachers and students at The Island School on Cape Eleuthra. The Island School calls itself “a mind, body, and spirit journey that takes students away from traditional high school curriculum and invites them to confront authentic challenges” where “classes are designed to allow first-hand engagement with the people and environment of The Bahamas.” It’s most definitely not a vacation, but it’s education in a far more welcoming environment.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
Bahamas,
biology,
ecology,
education,
environmental,
history,
international,
Internships,
math,
non-profit,
paid,
research,
science,
teaching
Ten days ago we took a look at Rodale Institute, a non-profit that is “dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach.” We talked about how industrial farming has led to amazing boosts in productivity, but it’s also created a lot of problems. Marrone Bio Innovations is a Davis, CA based company that is taking a natural approach to one specific area of agriculture: pest control. They’re aiming to be “the world leader in natural product innovation” by making “natural, effective, safe, environmentally friendly products the mainstream future of pest management.” Usually you don’t hear organic and pesticide in the same sentence, but Marrone Bio Innovations’ business is predicated on bringing the two together.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
agriculture,
biology,
biotechnology,
botany,
California,
farming,
green,
Internships,
organic,
pest control,
plant science,
research,
sales,
science
You’d be amazed if you knew how much research went into every little thing that you buy, consume, watch, and wear. Many companies can predict exactly how you will respond to a given marketing message (and I’m not talking about Hunch), and if they can’t, they’ll find a way to find out. Market research has been around for a long time, but the Internet has really changed the way its done.
Now you can reach nearly any person or any group of people with a survey nearly instantly—and at an extremely low cost. The problem is that online surveys and polls can be plagued by low quality results (think about how tv news Internet polls get hijacked by online groups). We’ve seen some big social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook start moving into online market research, but there are some companies that have been doing it a lot longer. E-Poll Market Research is a perfect example. They’re a Los Angeles, CA based market research firm that has been around since 1997, and they’re experts at helping clients meet “extremely tight deadlines” and overcome “research challenges that demand non-traditional approaches.”
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
California,
data,
Internships,
market research,
marketing,
New York,
paid,
research,
sales
I’m not a big fan of museums unless they’re super-focused on a specific topic. I get kind of bored looking at random collections of stuff, but when a museum or an exhibit tells a story, then I get interested. I’m sure I’d be fascinated at any one of the “Sites of Conscience” that are in the network of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which is a New York City based non-profit organization that is “dedicated to helping historic sites inspire social consciousness and action.” The sites in the network are “specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies,” and there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with at least one of them. Remembering our history is essential to moving forward on human rights issues, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience ensures that our history is accessible and delivered in a compelling way.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
advocacy,
communication,
communications,
history,
human rights,
Internships,
museum,
New York,
non-profit,
program development,
research,
social media,
unpaid
