Written by Julia Kudrick
This semester, I am interning with a small, non-profit organization called Zer0 Debris. They are located out of Santa Monica, CA, but I am doing the internship remotely because of Covid-19. The environmental organization organizes beach clean-ups in California and around the world. They also do outreach on social media and their website to spread environmental health awareness and advertise their events. I am a media and marketing intern, so I work in this department. I help produce educational content and flyers/posters. The content will be used in videos and interviews created by Zer0 Debris. I have also created presentations for the fellow interns that are shared on the social media pages.
Some examples of educational content I’ve created range from themes like food insecurity to composting and green Halloween tips. While I don’t have photos of myself working on internship material because I am remote, here is an example of a few slides of a presentation I created to educate about what food justice is and what some solutions are.
Another project I did for this internship was creating a poster showing green tips for Halloween. This really made me think about the impact that this holiday has on the planet. From mass-produced costumes, excess packaging, and pumpkin and decoration waste, Halloween is very unsustainable. I researched and brainstormed ways to cut down the impacts of the holiday like using every part of your pumpkin for something down to the waste. Also, thrifting vintage costumes or reusing old ones in the house.
What I find interesting about this internship is just the fact that it is remote, so the pressure is on me as the intern to keep up with assignments and communicate with my supervisor and other interns. It is also lenient, and we are encouraged to work at our own pace and ask for more work if needed. I was surprised by the assignments I was given thinking they would be more relative to the general mission of the organization. But education is just as important as their beach clean-ups, and I enjoy helping to make educational content.
I recommend this internship to someone who needs a flexible position and enjoys working mostly alone and creating material for later use. There is not a lot of personal involvement or meetings among members so if you are looking for a more connected experience, this may not be of interest.
I enjoy working for this type of organization because I want to get a grasp of what smaller-scale non-profit work looks. The work that Zer0 Debris does and the planet they aspire to see is relevant to my passion and educational field of environmental science and policy. I also liked that they focus equally on environmental care and justice, because I believe that these are equally critical issues. I am partial to ocean health, so when I read that they host local and international beach clean-ups, I was intrigued and wanted to be a part of their organization. So far, I have enjoyed working with Zer0 Debris and I’m excited to see what the future brings with this organization.
