PiCCA Climate Resilience Field Internship
We are hiring a team of climate resilience field interns to support a social science field research project in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada region during summer 2025. The Pinyon Community Climate Action Project (PiCCA) is a collaborative, community-based project to improve understanding of community needs and values for forest stewardship and the impacts of climate change on residents in the Sierra Nevada. Our work is part of an interdisciplinary applied research initiative to improve the social-ecological resilience of forests to climate change through social science, policy and planning, and environmental science in California.
Field interns will engage with community members daily throughout the region. In particular, interns will be working with local Tribal Nations to help collect social research data through interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys. Field interns will also be responsible for processing and cleaning social research data. This includes correcting interview and focus group transcripts and coding these data. Additional project activities include assisting with the development of a community-led policy report and Community Needs and Values assessment, staffing community focus groups, and attending project-related meetings. Additional qualitative research tasks may be assigned.
Field interns will need to be based in the Eastern Sierra for the duration of July – shared housing will be provided at Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Before and after the fieldwork period (June and August), work will be hybrid at Stanford’s campus.
Note that most of the summer fieldwork will be done at high elevation (SNARL is 7,000 feet above sea level), so prior experience at high altitude is recommended.
Hourly pay rate is based on experience, and crew members will work five 8-hour days each week. The internship will run from June 16 to September 5, 2025 (specific start and end dates negotiable, but candidates must be available for fieldwork in the month of July). Applicants must have a valid United States driver’s license and a clean driving record.
How to Apply: Submit your application through this form. If selected to move forward in the hiring process, applicants will be asked to provide 2-3 references, and will be subject to a driver’s license check. The priority application deadline is February 5th, 2025. However, we’ll continue accepting applications until March 15th, 2025.
Contact Information: If you have any questions regarding the application process or about the PiCCA project please contact Emma Sage at emmsage@stanford.edu.
- Engage with community members daily throughout the Eastern Sierra region
- Aid with data processing and analysis for publication of results from social scientific studies and policy analysis activities.
- Assist with qualitative data collecttion
- Additional qualitative research tasks as assigned
- Working with local Tribal Nations to help collect social research data through interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys
Preference will be given to applicants with a background in the social sciences, climate adaptation, environmental policy and planning, natural resource management, or a related field. Previous experience with coursework, environmental planning organizations, or community-based organizations is desirable, but not required.
