Volunteers & Interns

Volunteers

NHD simply wouldn’t exist without the donated labor of volunteers. This is true at every level, from regional to national. There simply are too many tasks throughout the program year for the paid staff to manage on their own. In addition to the volunteer tasks needed at the contests, described more fully in the Affiliate Contest section, volunteers can play a vital role at other times.

• If trained well, volunteers can contribute to or even lead workshops for teachers and/or students. This is a great opportunity for former teachers who still want to stay connected to the program. 

• Volunteers with experience in judging or research can provide feedback on national qualifier projects to improve projects before nationals. 

• Volunteers can gather project examples from the previous program year that can be placed on your website for students, teachers, and even judges to see. 

• Volunteers, especially those who want to work in groups, can assumable mailings or prep materials for contests, such as assembling packets, folding t-shirts, or counting buttons, 

• They can recruit judges and help you review judges' completed evaluations. 

The core principle to remember about volunteers is that they are self-motivated individuals interested enough in your program to give their time, expertise, and sometimes even their own money. Why would they do that?  It’s a good idea to get to know your volunteers and discover why they are helping you and what they get from it. And most importantly, you must thank them often. The old adage that you can’t thank people enough is absolutely true. Thank them verbally, send them written letters or cards, acknowledge them publicly, and create awards for them.

Internships

An internship should be a meaningful learning opportunity and a way to build skill sets and develop networks. Interns should get more out of their experience than you do, which means they will need supervision and nurturing. While they likely won’t refuse to make photocopies and stuff envelopes, they probably prefer to be given a specific project they can call their own. Or, if you truly need them to stuff envelopes, be clear about that upfront.

Paid vs. Unpaid Internships

Interns deserve to be paid, which could mean housing instead of wages or a stipend. A paid internship is more accessible to a more diverse pool of candidates. 

Recruitment

To recruit interns, first consider your needs and have a task list or project in mind. Ask the university history department chair if you need someone to develop a guide to local research repositories. If you need help figuring out how to get your message out to schools, ask the education department or the faculty in the history department who work with pre-service social studies teachers. Maybe you want someone from a communications department to comb through years of contest photos for promotional materials or create posts for several months' worth of social media. 

Consider how many hours might be sufficient once you have a project in mind. Anything over 200 might be unrealistic unless spread over an entire year. You’ll be more likely to get an undergraduate or graduate student for 10-15 hours per week for one semester.

Is there Available College Credit?

If working with a college or university, explore the option of providing course credit for the intern. If such a thing is not available currently, it will give you and your university partner a goal toward which to work. Perhaps you might jointly develop a 3-credit course that involves an internship component. Recognize, though, that you’ll need to provide an evaluation in addition to the regular supervision required with any intern.

Affiliate Samples

Learn more about how other Affiliate programs have used internships in the past!