Heyday, Editorial Internship, Summer 2025
Every summer, The Bill Lane Center for the American West offers many opportunities for Stanford undergraduates (including graduating seniors and co-terms) to work with organizations throughout the West. Through these internships, students can explore careers in natural history, conservation, land use, museum curation, resource management, energy and more.
All internships are full-time for nine to ten weeks during the summer. They are fully funded by the Lane Center with stipends ranging from $7,500 to $10,000.
The Lane Center has placed hundreds of interns in positions across the West since 2005. It has developed strong relationships with host organizations and works hard to ensure interns have successful and enriching experiences.
For more information about the internship program, please visit the FAQs page, or email Education Manager Corinne Thomas.
Details about the previous student interns and their placements can be found here.
Student reflections about the internship experience can be found by visiting the Out West student blog and the Lane Center Instagram channel.
Stipend Information:
The Bill Lane Center will provide a base stipend of $7,500 with additional funding for student financial aid and location, if applicable, up to $10,000. The stipend is provided to cover living expenses and, if applicable, part of the summer earnings expectation of the Office of Financial Aid.
The stipend is not intended to be, and is not, a paid, hourly wage. An internship is an educational and experiential learning opportunity intended for the student to apply their academics and gain real-world experience.
Description of the Organization and the Internship:
Heyday is an independent, nonprofit publisher founded in 1974 in Berkeley, California. Heyday promotes civic engagement and social justice, celebrates nature’s beauty, supports California Indian cultural renewal, and explores the state’s rich history, culture, and influence. Heyday works to realize the California dream of equity and enfranchisement.
The intern can expect to participate in all stages of the editorial process, as well as the work of evaluating projects Heyday is considering for publication. The intern will be invited to all staff meetings and events with invited speakers, and will have the opportunity to conduct informational interviews with staff members across all departments. By the internship's end, the intern should have a strong working knowledge of book publishing, the nonprofit world, and the current landscape of cultural institutions in the West.
Internship Work Environment:
This internship is hybrid with at least 2 days in the Heyday office per week, with the in-office schedule being negotiable as the intern's circumstances require. The ratio is 80–90% office, 10–20% field (book events, visits to partner institutions).
The intern will be working directly with the supervisor. The intern will also have two secondary supervisors
who will collaborate with the intern on editorial projects.
At the beginning of the internship, the supervisor will provide a rough list of projects the intern will work on,
with tasks broken down by week. Depending on the workload and the intern's interests, the supervisor will
add to this list over the course of the internship. The supervisor, Managing Editor Emmerich Anklam (2013 Lane Center intern!), will check in with the intern each day on these projects. The supervisor will also connect the intern with Marthine Satris, Acquisitions Editor and Terria Smith, Director of the Berkeley Roundhouse (the secondary supervisors), who will assign additional projects to round out the intern's editorial education.
Day-to-day work will take place in close collaboration with Heyday's editorial staff, with regular
communication in person and over email or Slack. The intern will spend part of a typical day reading
manuscripts or book proposals in various stages of development, and providing in-depth feedback. Each
week includes one or two larger meetings with staff over Zoom, and may include small in-person meetings
with authors or Heyday community members. The Heyday office is a modern, book-filled space with an
open-office plan and multiple meeting spaces. Heyday observes a standard office workday—Monday to
Friday, approximately 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Heyday's Roundhouse program (which focuses on Native California cultures) has a dedicated intern, usually
a recent college grad. The Roundhouse internship ends around the beginning of summer, but the Bill Lane
Center intern and the Roundhouse intern may have some overlap.
Location: Berkeley, California
No housing is provided.
No car is necessary.
- Read and report on book proposals, and participate in all staff and editorial department meetings, including in discussions of potential book projects
- Provide detailed feedback on book projects during the editing stage, and participate in meetings with current and prospective Heyday authors
- Assist Heyday's managing editor with outreach to international publishers regarding potential translations of Heyday books
- Collaborate with Heyday's editorial staff on a capstone editing project (specific project to be decided at the start of the internship)
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The opportunities are full-time (40 hours a week) for 9-10 consecutive weeks during the summer.
Specific start and end dates can be coordinated directly with the supervisor.
All undergraduates of any year, including graduating seniors, are eligible. Graduating seniors are eligible only if they are graduating in spring quarter. Students who have already graduated, e.g., fall or winter quarter of this academic year are not eligible.
For more application advice, please visit the BLC’s FAQs page.
Please note:
- Students are not permitted to engage in another full-time internship, job, or volunteer opportunity (whether funded by Stanford or otherwise) during this full-time, summer internship.
- Student athletes should confirm the impact of any awarded stipend on their athletic eligibility by contacting the Compliance Services Office prior to committing to an internship.
- New Stipend Policy per the U.S. Department of Education: A stipend is considered a resource and it may have an impact on a student’s financial aid. To comply with US Department of Education regulations, student payments, awards, prizes, and gifts that are made available to the student because they are a Stanford student, must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. The Financial Aid Office is responsible for the disbursement of stipend funds to undergraduates. For more information, please visit the Financial Aid Office's webpage about the student stipend policy.
Application Guidelines for this Internship:
Students majoring in English, History, Native American Studies, or Communication may be especially
interested in this internship, but students from all majors and class years are welcome to apply.
Required Skills:
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Superb written and verbal communication skills
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Ability to manage and prioritize several projects at the same time
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Resourcefulness and initiative
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Demonstrated interest in the publishing industry, literary culture in the American West, the art of bookmaking, and current events in the book world
- Eclectic, engaged, and expansive reading taste
Desired Skills:
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Experience writing or editing for publications (websites, magazines, newspapers) with a general nonspecialist readership
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Experience writing reviews of published books
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Experience with Microsoft Word
Selection of applicants:
Complete applications are screened and finalists are contacted for an interview with staff from The Bill Lane Center for the American West. The top candidates for the position are forwarded to the organization for direct interviews with their potential supervisors and other staff.
Host organizations will then notify the Lane Center of their preferred candidate and that applicant will receive an internship offer from the Bill Lane Center by email.
The applicant is expected to respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to the offer or the offer will be rescinded.
Once an applicant accepts an offer, they should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and withdraw their candidacy from those other opportunities.
