Somaly Mam Internships & Jobs

   

JOBS

The Somaly Mam Foundation is currently seeking a full-time Executive Director. Please contact theBridgespan Group for more information.  

INTERNSHIPS

Somaly Mam Foundation is currently seeking interns based in our New York office. All positions are unpaid, and we ask for a commitment of at least 15-20 hours per week.

To apply, please send your resume, a cover letter, and a brief writing sample tointernships@somaly.org. Please include your name and the position that you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

For Spring internships, please apply by December 1. For Summer internships, please apply by May 1. For Fall internships, please apply by August 1. We consider applications on a rolling basis.

Cause Marketing Intership

Development Internship

Volunteer Coordinator Internship

So as I was looking at the Somaly Mam cite I looked up ways to get involved with the Somaly Mam foundation and other than giving donations there are internships and jobs you can get involved with. This would definitely be a future I could see for myself and many people in our class. Half the Sky has opened my eyes and I don't think I could forget about it even if I tried. I wish this documentary was shown in high school possibly our senior year. I think a lot of students would possibly consider helping the cause if they knew just how bad sex trafficking has become. It's a problem that can't be ignored once people are exposed to it. So I hope these internships are in my own future because I don't think I can watch this documentary and read the book and not do anything to help the cause. 

Women Laughing Alone With Salad

http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/

In my Adolescent Literature class, we were doing a mini lesson on media literacy and began discussing the blog "women laughing alone with salad," and how this particular advertising trend is hilarious. I'm pretty sure that most women do not break down laughing every time they take a bite of their salad, but apparently that's what we should be doing. Us women should be so happy about consuming this green, leafy salad.

Don't get me wrong- I can definitely have a great time eating salad. Eating a salad can be a great experience for me, especially when it has ripe tomatoes and good Italian dressing. But it's just another marketing ploy geared towards telling women that being healthy, and by extension skinny, is what will make you happy.

Why can't women eat some baby back ribs and laugh about it? Or a bacon cheeseburger? And why can't men laugh about eating salad? In my Adolescent Lit class, we decided to take pictures of our guy friends laughing alone with salad to counteract this advertising trend. If any of you or your guy friends want to take part in it, let me know!

Response to Gretchen's post about Victoria's Secret

This is awesome! I work at Victoria's Secret and often have to explain to people why I like working there because everyone knows what a feminist I am and people often question why I would work at a place that seems to exploit/ over sexualize women. I just tell people that I like helping women and making them feel sexy no matter what. Plus it's a fun job! Being a feminist doesn't mean we don't still want to be sexy, right? Now this is another reason to be happy to work for them! I think it's awesome that a company known for their provocative lingerie is still reminding women (and men) that NO means NO and just because a woman is wearing sexy stuff under her clothes does not mean that she wants to have sex; and just because someone doesn't want to have sex from time to time doesn't make her prude. We all have the right to say no (and yes) whenever we want. No one should ever be pressured, and a popular company reinforcing that is definitely a step in the right direction. Thanks for posting this!

World AIDS Day

So World AIDS Day was last Sat. Dec. 1st. For my internship at Planned Parenthood, I helped at an AIDS Day event at UB. We had a table of information, free condoms, and were signing people up for a new Planned Parenthood student group on UB's campus.

It was nice to see a different campus and talk about sexual health and answer questions that people had. I also love spreading the word about an awesome organization.

One thing that struck me was how many guys did't know about the services we had for men. Besides pap smears, pelvic exams, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, pre-natal care and birth contro/Plan B prescriptions for women, Planned Parenthood offers STD testing and treatment and cancer screenings for men. They also give free condoms to anyone who comes in. They will even give Emergency Contraception (Plan B) to guys if they ask for it. They also have an education program and some sites even offer counseling to people who want it. I also had some LGBT students asking what we could do for them, and I explained that the organization is non-judgmental and provides services for everyone, and they also do a lot of advocacy work for the LGBT community.

I figured I would share this info in case anyone ever needed their services! They are all confidential, don't need parental consent to go, don't need to be a US citizen, and their fees are based on an ability to pay, so a lot of college students get their services for free or really cheap. They're website is plannedparenthood.org if anyone wants to check it out! They're also always looking for interns and volunteers, which would be awesome for anyone declaring the Women's Studies major/minor.

Holiday Hotspot and Tumblers

So I think the Holiday Hotspot was successful. I saw a lot of people I knew, which is always good, and I was able to teach a few people how to make square knot bracelet. I also saw that, besides the other student union group’s winter solstice related holidays that were there, Women’s Student Union and the LGTB Student Union had tables. Both WSU and LGTBSU had booths relating to important events for both groups- WSU was raising awareness about sex trafficking and LGTBSU was raising awareness about the Stonewall Riots.

For those of you who haven’t found them yet, I give you the Escher Girls tumbler and The Hawkeye Initiative tumbler. The first is a gallery of the impossible poses women are drawn in in comics and manga, and the second is a gallery of Hawkeye (of Avengers fame) in those impossible poses. I think both of these are great arguments for requiring some kind of anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology* class as part of art curriculum. Because some of those poses are physically impossible to do if you have bones and internal organs. Switching the poses male and female characters helps emphasize how women are sexualized in comics.

*The study of how humans and other living things move.



Make Your Familly Watch Half the Sky

Watching Half the Sky has being, almost paradoxically, bot heartbreaking and heartwarming. We see women and girls who are living in poverty, many who were raped and abused or who have escaped from sex slavery, often having been sold into it by their own parents. But at the same time, someone was helping them, giving them access to healthcare and education and at least trying to get them legal help. Seeing that things can be done, even with very little resources, makes me see that it’s not a hopeless situation. Seeing a father so supportive of his daughter’s education, even willing to take days off of work to attend parent teacher conferences was wonderful.

I am going to force my family to watch this over break, and you should too. Except maybe if you have young siblings, then you should just force your parents to watch it.

Victoria Secrets Consent Underwear

When I saw this the other week it really did brighten up my day. Victoria's Secret as you can see from the photo is on this new kick where instead of coming out with underwear that has  provocative sayings they are coming out with underwear that is reclaiming a woman's right to say NO! Honestly it's nice to see that a popular brand like Victoria Secret is promoting such an important cause. This seems like such a small step but it makes such a huge impact. Society is actually taking an interest in what woman have to say. It also establishes that saying NO doesn't mean you actually want to have sex. Its thought that women are not the ones who want sex typically. So they are expected to say no when a man proposes to have sex. Throughout the years this has been twisted into a sort of flirtation. Unfortunately when women say no to sex its usually misinterpreted as the woman actually wants to have sex they are just expected to say no to it at first. This is not the case a lot of times though. NO MEANS NO for a lot of women, and Victoria's Secret is trying to establish that with this new line of underwear. 

Journey

As the semester comes to a close it's hit me how much a class like this does for students. Everyone can say that we've learned a lot about issues that we might not have heard about if we didn't take Woman's Studies. For example, Somaly Mam and the sex trafficking that is happening all over the world. They talked about in the documentary how important education was to everyone, not only to the girls who suffered from sex trafficking. I knew this was true but I don't think I fully realized it till I was telling my friend all about Somaly's book. If it wasn't for Woman's Studies, I would have never been able to spread the word about the cause. My friend wants to help out just as much as we, as a class, do. I just created another supporter who in return  could tell others. People say that the only way to make a difference is to have money. I don't see that to be true at all. The more people who know about an issue the more people, as a whole, will try to do something about. Like its been said before countless time, good or bad press, at least their is still press.

In Novels and Tales

This week in my Novels and Tales class I had been responsible for giving a small presentation to the class called a contemporary body issue where I could share a recent newspaper article, or video etc. relating to the body, and connecting it to something we've read. Lately, i've been interested in everything Kevin Bales stands for. I entail his idea on Modern Slavery and how it has much to do with poverty and why there is a business behind it. I found a video of Kevin Bales speaking about modern slavery in a TED talk, and I presented a clip (8:30- 11:45) when he speaks about the mind-blowing price of slaves today and the price it takes to reintegrate these slaves back into society. I was able to directly relate this to the book Beloved when former African- American slave Paul D speaks of the discovery of his price. I explain how people are even more disposable now days then they were hundreds of years ago, which would result in many psychologically damaged people in the world similar to Paul D, when reflecting on their low value. I believe I was able to make my peers interested in checking out more on Kevin Bales, especially when mentioning how human trafficking is happening in not just places like Africa,and Southeastern Asia but in the U.S.

Kevin bales- How to Combat Modern Slavery

Spread the Word

I wanted to take this final blog to post about this movie 1/2 the sky and the Somaly Mam's book. These two things together have been a great source of inspiration to me. They have changed my view of the world and have shaped the way that my future, at least for a little while will be. I have been spreading the news left and right for people to read Somaly's book and will be giving gifts of the book to some people that I know. I want people to know about this. I think it is desperately important that the people should know so that people will want to change some of these situations in the world. I'm not sure that it will amount to anything but knowledge is power. I think that Somaly and her foundation are on the path to changing the world, one person at a time. I hope some of you are sharing this info too.