Internships 

Becoming a Planet Indonesia Intern

Are you ready to advance your career, apply what you have learned to support communities and an organization at the intersection of human rights, wellbeing and environmental sustainability?

Our Professional Development Internship Program is designed for interns to gain experience that is relevant to their future career goals while bringing valuable skills and ideas that help our organization grow and develop. Unlike other pay-to-volunteer schemes, we focus on delivering genuine value with mentorship, individually designed hands-on projects catered to the needs of the organization and an intern’s unique skills, and opportunities to network with professionals. It is not a one-size-fits all program so please read on and see if it is right for you. We accept only a few candidates each year.

Objective:

The overarching goal of our program is for interns to gain experience that is relevant to their future career goals while bringing valuable skills and ideas that help our organization grow and develop. Our program is designed to be a two-way street. We rely on interns to help us with a number of tasks, and through this process, we help interns gain skills and knowledge that they can bring back to their universities, institutions, and workplaces.

Roles:

We place a heavy emphasis on project design. In other words, all interns are expected to come to our organization with previously developed proposals, plans, and projects they will implement during their time here. Our program is heavily focused on developing the capacity of our full-time Indonesian staff and analyzing data we have collected over the years to support program development. We expect interns to submit proposals, guides, and plans for workshops they will hold with staff in their proposals and applications. In the past, interns have worked to develop objective trees, stakeholder analysis, and logical frameworks for each program.

Funding:

All interns are required to secure a small amount of their own funding to support themselves during the intership. This can be a $2000 travel grant from a local university or donor to a $25,000 1-year-long Fulbright research grant.

Why do we do this? This helps us ensure dedicated applicants. By requiring each intern to secure some amount of funding we are ensuring that interns are going through an application process of their own at their home universities, institutions, or organizations. This further demonstrates our emphasis that interns are here to work on projects, build capacity, and contribute to the overall impact of our organization. With that said we are happy to work with interns to help them find funding and develop programs. You are not expected to pay Planet Indonesia for any aspect of the internship.

Places to start looking for funding are: The American Institute for Indonesian Studies, American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, National Geographic Young Explorer's Grants, US Indo Foundation.

For more assistance contact: josephine@planetindonesia.org.

Topics: 

We do accept interns who work on a variety of topics. From training our staff on the use of social media, to generating biodiversity databases in our agroforestry plots, to helping us map global stakeholders, writing scientific papers for publication, videography, interns do it all. Interns, before contacting our organization, should read through our website to familiarize themselves with our approach, projects, and impacts.

Expertise:

In almost all cases interns are currently in a master's program or have a degree of higher education. We do not require this but we rarely accept interns who have not finished their bachelor's degrees. With that said, we do realize the value of undergraduate projects and the impact they may have on our organization. We encourage you, if you have a project or an idea, to contact our organization. We are open to collaboration but want to make it clear we have limited spots [at most 2 at a time]. Our philosophy is we would rather have a few interns working on very strategic projects and objectives than many interns who feel unused or ineffective. We want interns to feel they have gained valuable skills that are useful for their careers.

Time:

Unless an intern has previous experience in Indonesia they are required to stay at our organization for a minimum of 10 weeks. Why? We find it takes at least 1 month to get oriented, adjust, and get settled into our organization. For applicants who have previous experience in Indonesia the time commitment may be less (e.g. they have experience with Indonesian culture and/or can speak Bahasa Indonesia).

Costs:

In Indonesia (and most of the world) volunteer programs are simply ways for non-profits to leverage fundraising. It is not uncommon to see orangutan conservation volunteer programs in Borneo that charge upwards of $1000-$1500 a month. We don't do that and will never do that. Interns in some cases, will be required to pay a few small fees associated with accommodation rentals and visa costs. In most cases, interns are unpaid (but see section Funding).

Research:

The topic of research is sensitive in Indonesia and requires a long application process through the government. Moreover, there are many restrictions on how much research an NGO can do in Indonesia. However, we are allowed to generate data that helps us evaluate and design our programs. With that said, we are well-connected with local Universities and the Department of Research and Technology in Indonesia. One of the requirements to do research in Indonesia is every foreigner must have a written letter of support from a local counterpart (usually a professor in Indonesia). We can help researchers make contacts with professors who work with our organization. Please contact us for more information.

Interns Not Volunteers:

We like to call our dedicated group of international helpers interns and not volunteers. As previously stated interns come to our organization with a developed set of goals, projects, workshops, and objectives. The word volunteer occasionally carries a lackluster stigma for international, vacation development programs. We don't agree with this global trend, and we don't want to follow it. We want our interns to feel useful and feel proud of their work at our organization. Interns should leave our organization feeling like they directly contributed to the economic development and conservation of the world around them.

Language:

We do highly encourage interns to participate in an Indonesian language program prior to arrival. There are many located in Indonesia that are quite effective. However, with that said nearly all of our Indonesian staff know and communicate in English. Many of our staff have participated in well-known international fellowships in places such as Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and Canada. Therefore, the ability to speak Bahasa Indonesia is not a make-or-break deal for interns.

Areas of Interest:

Below are a few areas and fields interns may work in:

• Program Evaluation

• Agroforestry and climate smart-agricultural techniques

• Global stakeholder mapping

• Communications, video, photography, social and traditional media

• Biodiversity monitoring

• English lessons

• Art preservation (particularly related to textiles and weaving)

• Global market access and carbon banking

• Grant writing and development

• Donor relations

• Reforestation and agroforestry

• Veterinary medicine (related to avian species)

• Business pathways and sustainable development

• Fundraising events and development

Meet Our Past Interns

Audrey Straw, Summer 2024
George Washington University

I am currently a masters candidate at George Washington University studying International Development Studies with a concentration in inclusive development. I am particularly interested in program design and implementation that is inclusive to women, indigenous peoples, and minorities. I got my B.A. at the University of Massachusetts Boston, majoring in International Relations and minoring in theater, public policy, and anthropology. In the summer of 2022, I was selected as a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow for Princeton University’s Junior Summer Institute, where I learned more about the policy-making cycle and was first introduced to R. I also previously interned for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and worked as the advocacy assistant for the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts. I currently work at the DACOR-Bacon House, an organization for foreign affairs professionals to meet in Washington, DC, as the program assistant.

At Planet Indonesia, I served as the Financial Inclusion Intern. In this position, I used R coding to analyze the savings and loan data collected from the communities and drafted an article on the relationship between financial inclusion activities and conservation outcomes, looking specifically at the different pathways that may connect the two variables. I am grateful for how welcoming the staff at Planet Indonesia has been and for all of the advice and assistance Paul, Adam, and Putri have given me while working on my project during this internship. This was an amazing first experience both living outside of the country and working for an organization doing international development work. 

The highlight of this internship was getting to go to Kubu Raya to talk to community leaders who were working within the community governance bodies. Learning about how the programs I was reading about for the paper are being implemented provided a human face to these topics. The trip helped to deepen my understanding of what the lives of the fishers and farmers are really like. In addition, eating the fresh fruits and food people gave us was an amazing culinary experience. I am also grateful for how the trip deepened my friendships with members of the YPI team. 

Coming into this internship, most of my academic work has been focused on the human aspect of development, particularly focused on health and economics. Conservation and environmental work has largely been on the periphery of my studies. This internship helped to demonstrate to me the connection between conservation and the other aspects of development. They are not separate sectors, but rather intimately connected, particularly at the local level. During the last year of my master’s degree, I will be working on a capstone project with three of my peers on women’s health among minority or refugee communities. This internship has led me to consider how conservation might be connected to this issue. 

Sunho Kim, Summer 2024
George Washington university

My name is Sunho Kim. I’m a recent graduate from George Washington University with a major in International Relations. My graduate study focused on democracy and governance in a development context. I’m interested in contextualizing the ideas of democracy in governance and how it impacts individuals’ lives. When applying for this internship at Planet Indonesia, I was very much inspired by PI’s commitment to supporting local communities on the basis of a community-led governance model. Care for the lives, human and non-human, in nature conservation, was something that resonated with me, and I wanted to learn on the ground how this important idea is translated into practice. 

I worked on analyzing and enhancing PI’s governance assessment framework through conducting thorough literature reviews and field research from the areas where PI’s project is being implemented. I had a chance to visit one of the sites, Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and it was such an eye-opening experience. We visited the houses of the members of the Governance Body and had interviews with them. The stories each member told us expanded not only my understanding of how PUMK works but also how members work collaboratively and overcome struggles together. Governance in nature conservation is not just about natural resource management but working together as a member of the community. Listening to what they have gained from working with PI and what they look for in the future was an invaluable experience as a person who just started to work in the field of development. I really appreciated them for sharing their stories as well as being thankful for PI giving me this opportunity to learn PI’s work on the ground. 

I learned so much about how humans and nature are interconnected, especially for those of who interact with nature directly on a daily basis. Thus, being a part of nature conservation efforts is very much the same as being a part of efforts for the betterment of our lives. 

 Rachel Tan, Summer 2016
yale-nus college, singapore

I’m currently studying at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, the first liberal arts school in my country. I came to Planet Indonesia at the end of my freshman year after being inspired by an environmental studies class I took one semester, and was excited at the opportunities offered by Planet Indonesia to go into the field and interact really closely with locals and nature. This internship has also furthered my interest in majoring in Environmental Studies in college. 

My previous internship was as a journalist with The Straits Times, a Singapore-based newspaper. I brought the skills I learned there to Pontianak to help Planet Indonesia make videos to document their projects in Indonesia, and also worked on communications and branding with the organisation. 

Pontianak is a vibrant city and the diversity of cultures here allows for different languages, types of food and races to mix with ease. The food here (especially seafood!) is great - street food is delicious. I’ve met very warm and welcoming people during my stay here, and have even made friends with people. Hopefully, I’ll be able to return here in the future and see how Planet Indonesia has grown and spread its programs across (and maybe even beyond) West Kalimantan!

 Interested in applying?

After reading this and if you feel like our program is a good fit for you, there are few steps to take:

1. Read all of our website and our latest stories to familiarize yourself with our programs

2. E-mail our Director adam.miller@planetindonesia.org, Country Director novia.sagita@planetindonesia.org and Development Officer josephine@planetindonesia.org introducing yourself and include:

   • CV

   • A 1-page project description (what would you like to do at our organization)

   • A 1-page personal statement highlighting relevant experience and how the internship will benefit your future career goals

   • If funding has been previously secured (if not list at least 2 possible potential donors for your project and application plans)

3. If it looks like a fit we will then e-mail you an application

4. Submit your application and wait for a response from us (usually 2-4 weeks)

Again, we can provide places to look for funding and advice on supporting materials.

Final Note

If you have questions concerning this program, please contact our organization. We are open to developing projects together with interns and can give interested participants specific areas our organization is currently seeking. We are so thankful for our dedicated group of interns and for the valuable skills, they bring to our organization. We look forward to hearing from you.