Interns & Volunteers

Intern Information

The Indiana Writers Center supports, inspires, connects Indiana writers of all ages, backgrounds, and reaches out to underserved audiences whose voices are rarely heard. Classes and workshops taught by published writers are designed to help writers of all levels, build the skills they need to meet their personal writing goals and to experience the healing, empowering, and joyful benefits that engaging in the creative process brings.

We partner with three community partners serving students in underserved communities in greater Indianapolis and present “Building a Rainbow,” a creative nonfiction (memoir) writing program for youth. We typically meet with each site for 7-9 total sessions. Exact dates and times TBA. Most sites begin the second week of June and culminate the 3^rd or final week of July.

Interns will be assigned to one or two sites or duties depending on the need. Interns are expected to be at their assigned site or duty for every required session. Some interns will serve as writing mentors for our students, sharing their own stories and helping students tell theirs. Some interns will assist with the design and editing of a website that will hold the narrative stories, imagery, and videos. Some interns will assist with preparing and editing of public relations documents and social media posts. Some interns will assist with design and editing of video narratives.

Undergraduate or graduate students may apply for summer internships. We seek students in the following program areas of study:

English or creative writing
English education
Public Relations
Visual communications and Media Design or other media related fields
Journalism

If your application is accepted for consideration, you will be required to participate in a group interview in Mid-March, a half-day training session, and periodic debriefing sessions throughout the summer. Most of these will take place at the Indiana Writers Center.

You will be working directly with the Education Outreach Director, the Program Assistant, the IWC Writer-in-Residence, Indiana Writers Center instructors, and volunteers, as well as editors and designers who work with our Indie press, INwords Publications.

Interns are paid. Look for applications on this site in Mid March. If you have questions, contact the Education Outreach Director at the Center, Dr. Darolyn “Lyn” Jones, ljones2@bsu.edu.

Volunteer Information

You may choose your site or sites. We ask our volunteers to sit in small groups with our students and encourage, mentor, and facilitate their writing of the assigned memoir prompt. The instructors and interns will assist you with anything you need at the sites. You do not have to commit to every session. We welcome you to volunteer for as many sessions as you can.

We are also very interested in volunteers who can take professional photos or video of our students and organization at its important work so if this is your skill set, we’d love to have you on board!

Our past volunteers have returned year after year because they become attached to our young writers and love to see them and their writing grow and develop. Our summer culminating project is the publication of the public memoir anthologies titled, I Remember: Indianapolis Youth Write about Their Lives.

Your role is to serve as a writing mentor with students, sharing your own stories, and helping them tell theirs. The culminating project will be the publication of our 7^th in a series of public memoir anthologies titled, I Remember: Indianapolis Youth Write about Their Lives.

You will be working directly with the Indiana Writers Center’s instructors, the Education Outreach Director, the university student interns, and other volunteers.

If you are interested, email the Outreach Director, Dr. Darolyn “Lyn” Jones at ljones2@bsu.edu.