National Conference of State Legislatures, Financial Services, Technology and Communications Internship, Summer 2024
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 summer 2023 cohort of 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 $9,500.
Description of the Organization and Internship Overview:
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)’s mission is to advance the effectiveness, independence and integrity of legislatures and to foster interstate cooperation and facilitate the exchange of information among legislatures. NCSL also represents legislatures in dealing with the federal government, especially in support of state sovereignty and state flexibility and protection from unfunded federal mandates and unwarranted federal preemption. In addition, NCSL is committed to improving the operations and management of state legislatures, and the effectiveness of legislators and legislative staff.
NCSL is located in Denver, Colorado.
The intern will join a small team of highly committed experts who work to provide the nation’s standard of nonpartisan election and redistricting research to all 7,000+ of the nation’s state legislators and 30,000+ legislative staff members.
The intern will join a small team of highly committed experts who work to provide the nation’s standard of nonpartisan research on financial services, consumer protection, alcohol sales and production, broadband and telecommunications, cybersecurity, data privacy, artificial intelligence, internet regulation and other technology issues to all 7,300+ of the nation’s state legislators and 30,000+ legislative staff members.
On this team, the intern will dive into collecting and monitoring data on legislative actions, state and federal programs; learn the value of non-partisanship in communicating with people all across the political spectrum; meet state legislators and other experts; and help plan events that bring together both Democrats and Republicans for conversations about politically charged topics.
The intern will prepare concise, accurate, and nonpartisan responses to legislative research requests. Responses may be oral or written and could include background/research, state examples, and legislative summaries and tables. The intern will collaborate with other team members and will update NCSL’s web resources accordingly.
The intern will be expected to write about one or more of these topics for NCSL’s website and online publications.
Internship Work Environment:
This will be an in-person internship with a schedule of four days in the office and one day remote.
The intern will work as part of the Financial Services, Technology and Communications (FTC) team. There will be opportunities to work directly with various members of the team, including the supervisor/mentor.
Some projects may consist of significant independent work, while others may be very collaborative.
Day-to-Day Work:
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Day-to-day work will focus on large-scale 50 state policy research projects focused on updating NCSL's online FTC resources.
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Day-to-day work will also involve researching and answering questions about specific policy topics NCSL receives from state legislators and staffers across the country.
- This work can involve brainstorming the design and contents of research reports and other work products with the team, conducting statutory research, and writing and editing summaries and reports.
Transportation:
It will be very helpful to have a car depending on where the intern finds housing.
Some interns have found housing within walking distance of NCSL's office, but the area is, unfortunately, not very accessible by public transit.
Housing is not provided.
- Research financial services, technology and communications policies using legal databases, state laws, and state constitutions.
- Summarize and track FTC-related state legislation.
- Write one to two articles about FTC’s topics for NCSL's online publications.
- Collaborate with other members of NCSL’s FTC team to answer research requests from legislators or legislative staff.
- Assist with the planning and coordination of in-person and virtual meetings for legislators and legislative staff.
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The opportunities are full-time (35-40 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.
Coterms are eligible to apply.
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:
Rising juniors or seniors are preferred, but this internship is open to students of all class years who may be interested in this opportunity.
All majors are encouraged to apply.
NCSL is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to developing a diverse, dynamic team and inclusive workplace.
Required Skills:
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Strong and clear written communication skills
- Collaboration skills
- Strong organizational and task management skills
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Interest in elections
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The ability to operate in a nonpartisan environment (awareness of one's own biases is a very necessary skill).
Desired Skills:
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Experience in elections, politics or legal/statutory research is preferred, but not required.
Selection of applicants:
Complete applications are screened and finalists are contacted for a first-round interview with staff from The Bill Lane Center for the American West.
The top candidates for the position are then forwarded to NCSL for second-round interviews with the supervisor and other staff.
NCSL will then notify the Lane Center of its 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 are required to 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.
