We welcome students currently studying in various disciplines including, but not limited to the following: Global Peace and Security, Computer Science, Global Studies, International Relations, History, Sociology, Communications, Graphic Design, and Music. Creativity and initiative are appreciated, as are a good sense of humor and positive outlook.

Interns receive $2,500 for a 10-week period. All internships are in Santa Barbara, California. The application deadline is April 1, 2005. Applications are available online at http://www.wagingpeace.org/youth or by contacting Michael Coffey, Director of Youth Programs, at mcoffey@napf.org or (805) 965-3443. If you’re in the Santa Barbara area in March, consider scheduling a visit.


BACKGROUND

Unlike the coming-of-age experiences that are painstakingly familiar to Americans in their 40’s and older – including duck-and-cover drills, mushroom clouds from atmospheric testing, and the Cuban Missile Crisis – nuclear threats have little resonance beyond historical trivia with today’s teens and twenty-somethings. New generations of Americans have grown up in a much different era after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which signified the end of the Cold War and, in many peoples’ minds, the end of the nuclear threat. The newer generations of Americans today are more culturally diverse, more active in their local communities, and have more access than ever before to news from distant parts of the world. Threats to global security today have a much different face, but the threats posed by nuclear weapons remain enormous and daunting challenges.

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has more than twenty-years of success working with influential national and international organizations and individuals and, most uniquely, a record of inspiring a new generation of peace leaders to carry on into the future. The Foundation’s youth programs seek to personalize the nuclear issue, promoting a vision of compassion and personal responsibility, offering a fresh perspective on US foreign policy, and providing opportunities for the development of practical leadership skills. We believe that, in order to make the issue salient with today’s youth, a meaningful and healthy approach to confronting the threats posed by nuclear weapons must emphasize ties between nuclear weapons and other social and environmental justice issues. In so doing, the Foundation promotes civic engagement, encourages nonviolence as an effective tool for social change, addresses the disparity between military and social service expenditures, and fosters international law and institutions just to name a few.