FEWscapes Science Communication Project Assistantship

Department Overview:

UW-Madison Division of Extension’s Natural Resources Institute works at the crossroads of communities, natural resources, and agriculture. The North Central Region Water Network branded program is a 12-state extension-led collaboration working to ensure safe and sufficient water supplies across the North Central Region and beyond.

Anticipated Start Date:

01/13/2025

Anticipated End Date (If Applicable):

June 30th, 2025 with possible extension into the summer of 2025

Remote Work Eligibility Detail:

All Remote

 

Anticipated Hours Per Week:

13-20

Schedule:

Flexible during business hours (8am to 5pm); hours outside of business hours are possible with supervisor agreement.

Salary/Wage Range/Lump Sum:

$26,506.00 per semester for 50% assistantship

Number of Positions:

1

Qualifications:

Employment will require a criminal background check.

Applicants must be full-time enrolled graduate students in good standing, making normal progress toward a graduate degree. Priority will be given to students who are studying science communication, journalism, environmental studies, or related fields.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

Ideal candidates will demonstrate the following:
• Strong writing skills, particularly in communicating complex information to non-technical audiences. Experience with journalistic style writing and writing for online platforms, such as websites and blogs, is ideal.
• Strong organization skills
• Detailed oriented, reliable, responsive
• Ability to work both independently and with a team
• Experience with Adobe Premier Pro or other video editing software would be ideal but is not required.

Position Summary/Job Duties:

This position will support communications and outreach projects for FEWscapes, an interdisciplinary research project focused on food, energy, water, and ecosystem security in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Responsibilities will include writing, editing, and project management for communications materials such as blog posts, research briefs, web pages, reports, or multimedia content, depending on project needs. Other duties may be assigned as time and interest allow. An ideal candidate would have knowledge and coursework in journalism, science communications, natural resources, and/or agriculture.

Cover letter, resume, writing sample, and references required. In your cover letter, please explain why you think you are a good fit for the position and how the position would help you advance your career goals. The writing sample must demonstrate the applicant’s ability to write for non-technical audiences; it can be an assignment completed for a course. Include your writing sample as a "Supporting Document."

Physical Demands:

N/A

Institutional Statements:

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

UW-Madison is an Equal Employment, Equal Access Employer committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background-people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: diversity.wisc.edu

Accommodation Statement:

If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request at the following website:https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/disability-accommodation-information-for-applicants/

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