Chicago Children's Museum offers many exciting internship opportunities. Our internships enable you to gain valuable experience in your preferred area by working with a supervisor who has extensive knowledge in their field. Although internships are unpaid, interns enjoy working a part-time schedule of 15 - 20 hours per week in a friendly, open and relaxed atmosphere. For more information, email us.
Sarah Gritsonis
Volunteer and Intern Resources Coordinator
700 E. Grand Ave., Suite 127
Chicago, IL 60611
Fax: (312) 527-9082
Phone: (312) 464-7652
To apply for one of the internships below, click here.
Petite Chefs Intern
Petite Chefs is a cooking program for children and their caregivers. It is facilitated in collaboration with chefs from the Washburne Culinary Institute. The goal of Petite Chefs is to teach families how to create a healthy snack in hopes that they will recreate it at home. The Petite Chefs Intern will assist in the coordination of Petite Chefs led in July and August at the museum and will complete a summative evaluation of Petite Chefs. In addition, the Intern will facilitate a range of health and wellness activities, organize materials, brainstorm ideas, and work alongside museum staff on a number of programs throughout the summer.
Requirements: Interest in cooking and nutrition, strong interpersonal skills, creative, proven ability to organize projects, evaluation experience, excellent written and verbal communication skills, experience working with children and families, team player, knowledge of computer systems (word processing, desktop publishing)
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Public Relations Intern
The Public Relations Intern will work on a variety of projects, including efforts for CCM’s Education, Development and Exhibits departments. Projects will also include general CCM marketing and promotional efforts. Responsibilities include: research; writing press materials, including news releases, media advisories and fact sheets; media pitching; project coordination; social media content creation, management and monitoring.
Requirements: Excellent written, verbal and electronic skills. Strong interpersonal skills, creative, self-directed and comfortable with process and change. Mature, extremely organized with good judgment and willingness to show initiative. Juniors, seniors or recent graduates, preferred but not required.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Arts and Culture Community Art Display Intern
The Intern’s primary responsibility will be working with Arts and Culture and Exhibit staff to tell the story of two large projects at Chicago Children's Museum: a large collaborative art display celebrating the museum’s 30th birthday, and a collaboration between Chicago’s arts institutions. The intern will assist in many aspects of this project including: photographing, organizing, cataloging and creating a database of artwork, preparing the physical artwork, and creating a companion documentation piece.
Requirements: Graphic design experience, strong organizational skills, documentation/photography experience, strong communication skills (written and verbal), creativity, flexibility, self-direction, imagination, patience
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Arts and Culture Maker Month Intern
The interns’ primary responsibility will be working with Education staff to manage, coordinate and evaluate Maker Month, a month-long exploration of creative professionals, hobbyists and children, in August 2012. The intern will also work closely with Arts and Culture staff researching, implementing and documenting Kraft Artabounds Studio family programs, which serve our general visitors. Interns will work closely with Arts Learning staff to prepare and lead art activities for family workshops. Additional responsibilities will be determined by intern’s experience and may include planning and facilitating arts based special events, off-site programming or increased responsibility in documentation of programs and cataloguing of artwork.
Requirements: Education experience with elementary-aged children, preschoolers and toddlers, Knowledge of and experience with diverse art forms, Ability to communicate with and lead groups of people, documentation/photography experience, organization, creativity, flexibility, self-direction, imagination, patience.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Science Giants Evaluation Intern
The Intern’s main focus will be the partnership between Chicago Children's Museum and Project Exploration. Project Exploration works to ensure communities traditionally overlooked by science—particularly minority youth and girls—have access to personalized experiences with science and scientists. The Science Giants program trains high school students to serve as volunteers to the public through our Dinosaur Expedition exhibit and interactive science programming and enables them to fulfill service learning hours that are a requirement toward graduation. The Intern will lead this partnership and correspondence between both organizations by: organizing, preparing and coordinating the Science Giants training tailored to CCM in month leading up to launch, overseeing the program and maintain volunteer schedules and hours in July and August, and completing an evaluation of the partnership including observation, collection of data and full measurement of the impact of the program.
Requirements: Interest or background in education or science/paleontology, strong interpersonal skills, the ability to work independently, creative, proven ability to organize projects, evaluation experience, excellent written and verbal communication skills, experience working with children and families, team player. (must be available Wednesday – Saturday mornings)
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Diversity Initiatives Intern
Chicago Children’s Museum is committed to diversity and the belief that every family has the right to play and learn together without fear, discomfort, or shame. The Diversity Initiatives Intern will work with several different museum initiatives to support further development, focusing specifically on the All Families Matter and Play For All initiatives. All Families Matter is CCM’s initiative to actively engage and support the LGBTQ community of Chicago and Play For All is CCM’s initiative to make the museum more accessible and inclusive by engaging and welcoming individuals with disabilities. Projects include: work with All Families Matter team to support the continued development of the initiative, work with Play For All team to help build further engagement and awareness in the community and among museum partners, work with supervisor to review CCM’s Diversity Position Paper and identify action steps within the paper, research peer institutions and compare diversity best practices across the museum and cultural institution field.
Requirements: Passion for diversity and inclusion, Microsoft office proficiency, ability to multi-task and respond to a rapidly changing environment, must be able to interface with multiple departments and staff, determination, commitment and ownership of work, strong organizational skills, sharp attention to detail, excellent communication skills, oral and written, and self-directed and self-motivated.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Early Learning Internship
The Early Learning Intern will participate in designing, prototyping, facilitating and evaluating Early Learning drop-in programs at CCM. In addition, the intern will facilitate programs and document visitor experiences in the Early Learning Studio, Pritzker Playspace.
Requirements: Available some nights and weekends depending on program needs, dynamic facilitation ability and passionate approach to working with children and caregivers, knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice, regular attendance and active program participation, able to lift 20 lbs.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Student & Educator Programs Marketing Intern
The Student & Educator (SEP) Marketing Intern will work closely with the Director of Student & Educator Programs and SEP, Community Connections, and Marketing teams to assist with marketing-related projects and activities for the department. The SEP Marketing Intern will be responsible for reviewing existing market initiatives, researching targeted communities and audiences, revising and/or developing new marketing tools and initiatives, and assisting with the plan to execute these initiatives.
Requirements: Interest in marketing, research, interest in museums and informal educational intuitions, interest in play and young children, flexibility and ability to work independently, seeing a project through from start to finish, experience compiling data, experience with Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, and Publisher, strong written and verbal communication skills, self-starter.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Special Events Intern
The Special Events intern will work closely with CCM’s Development Team with all areas of planning of the annual Be a Kid Again Gala. Responsibilities include soliciting, researching, coordinating and overseeing the event’s Silent Auction as well as other project development and leading up to the event. Intern must be available to work at Be a Kid Again Gala on Saturday, November 3, 2012.
Requirements: Strong interpersonal skills, proven ability to organize projects and events, excellent written and verbal communication skills, knowledge of computer systems essential (word processing, desktop publishing, database management), attention to detail, the ability to work independently, prioritize multiple projects and work effectively under pressure.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Community Connections Intern
The Community Connections Intern will work closely with our Community Connections Team and be responsible for: researching targeted communities and audiences to support CCM’s goals for community engagement, developing and implementing strategies to promote and engage partners through CCM’s access programs, developing and implementing new marketing tools and strategies for subsidized programs, and refining community partner databases.
Requirements: Interest in working with low-income and diverse communities, interest in researching community engagement and impact, comfortable communicating with partners, experience and/or interest in developing community relationships, experience and/or interest in educational programming and developing community relationships, excellent communication skills and the ability to work independently.
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Health Fair Intern
The Health and Wellness intern will work closely with the Community Programs Manager and the Community Connections team to review and research health and wellness initiatives as relates to museum, revise and/or develop events/activities, and assist with the plan to execute these events/activities. This intern will support planning of the “Annual Health Fair” on July 26, 2012, a Health and Wellness evening during Kraft Free Family Night at CCM. All planning must fit in within the larger goals and objectives of the CC department and must support existing community partnerships.
Requirements: Experience and/or interest working w/diverse populations, Research, Strong Communication Skills (oral and written), Program Planning and Event Management
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
Health & Wellness Intern
The Health and Wellness intern will work closely with the Community Programs Manager and the Community Connections team to review and research health and wellness initiatives as relates to museum, revise and/or develop events/activities, and assist w/the plan to execute these events/activities. This intern will support planning of the “Come to the Table” event on June 28, 2012, a Health and Wellness evening during Kraft Free Family Night at CCM. All planning must fit in w/the larger goals and objectives of the CC department and must support existing community partnerships.
Requirements: Experience and/or interest working w/diverse populations, Research, Strong Communication Skills (oral and written), Program Planning and Event Management
Internship Term: May/June – August/September 2012
Application Deadline: May 31, 2012
