Citizens in action
Program offers student internships in government or NGOs
By Šárka Štěpániková
"You have an excellent educational background, but we can't accept you for this position because you don't have relevant work experience."
Many students hear this sentence when they apply for a job because it is not so easy to find relevant work experience. However, now there is Citizen in Action, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that organizes programs through which university students work as interns in government administration or with NGOs.
Citizen in Action grew out of the projects of the Center for Democracy and Free Enterprise (CDFE), another NGO whose goal is to strengthen the democratic process in the Czech Republic. Founded in November 2002, Citizen in Action is dedicated to principles that will be required for the next era of Czech non-profit work.
The group has two main goals:
--First, to support and sustain Czech NGOs through networking and skills training. In practice this means bringing other Czech NGOs together to organize public affairs seminars, lectures and discussions for Czech citizens. University students in their last year may apply to work as interns with regional NGOs. Applicants are required to know at least one foreign language and to have a general political overview. In return for their work, the interns get free food and accommodation as well as valuable work experience.
--The second goal of the Citizen in Action is to increase transparency and accountability by involving citizens in all aspects of government. That's why Citizen in Action, together with the Center for Democracy and Free Enterprise, organizes the Parliamentary Internship Program. This program places university students in eight-month internships on committees and commissions of both chambers of Czech Parliament.
Applicants must be Czech nationals. They must have excellent knowledge of English; a basic grasp of economics, law, political science or international relations; research, analytical and computer skills, and some working experience. Also useful are an outgoing and independent personality and the ability to work on various subjects outside of one's academic field.
The interns work for selected members of Parliament. Their research consists of gathering information on assigned topics and processing the material into short reports. Using such sources as the parliamentary library, the Parliamentary Institute and the EU information center, they work on the projects such as: the analysis of negative impacts on the armament industry conversion and the adjustment of the Czech Republic to the EU ecological standards.
The interns also participate in committees and commission meetings and in various projects organized by Citizen in Action. These actions have an educational and cognitive character and are designed to bring the interns together as well. In the past, the interns have visited embassies, had discussions with public policy experts and toured the Czech president's office.
[Editor's note: AAU students interested in Citizen in Action internships should see Tony Ozuna, humanities coordinator, Room 202.]
In the future, Citizen in Action seeks to expand the internship program to other parts of government administration. This, however, depends on the amount of funding the NGO is able to generate. "As a non-profit organization, we are dependent on grants of donors," explains the program manager, Radek Spicar. "After 1989 there were lots of donors in the Czech Republic, but as the country grew closer to the developed European countries, donors started to leave and the financial situation of NGOs got worse." Spicar said Citizen in Action will seek grants from the EU, but that there are many NGOs and limited money. "It will be tough fighting," he concluded.
-- Šárka Štěpaníková, an AAU humanities student, is an intern at Citizen in Action this semester. She can be reached at Sarka.Stepanikova@email.cz. This story appears this week in The Prague Post Foundation column.
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Last issue date: Dec. 12, 2003
