Here are just some of the many volunteers and interns, both past and present, with which International Rivers has had the privilege of working. See more photos of our interns and volunteers hard at work (and play!) and learn about how you can join in on the action.
Intern Profiles
Lilian Alves, Amazon Program Intern 2010
Lilian Alves (Amazon Program Assistant, 2010)
Lilian came to International Rivers through Mount Holyoke College's Miller Worley Center for the Environment Internship program. Lilian supported the campaign against the construction of the Belo Monte project during the summer of 2010. According to Lilian, "During my 10-week experience, I learned different aspects of campaigning – such as structuring, strategizing and fundraising. Being part of that process made my experience even richer, and the friendliness and support of the International Rivers' staff contributed a lot for me to feel part of the team. My projects focused mostly on general assistance to the campaign against Belo Monte, financial research and a fact sheet about Energy Alternatives in Brazil, in order to provide other options to the construction of hydroelectric dams. I was able to explore subjects that I haven't studied before as well as put in practice some of the skills and knowledge that I have been cultivating at Mt. Holyoke."
Tendai Chitewere, Africa Intern 1997, with Lori Pottinger
Tendai Chitewere (Africa researcher, 1997)
Tendai was the summer Africa Intern in 1997 and still stays in touch while she teaches across the bay at San Francisco State University. Tendai was a year into her Ph.D. program in anthropology and found International Rivers "a perfect match' for learning how to apply her academic work to solving real problems.
Currently, Tendai defines herself as a political ecologist and is interested in the social and environmental impacts of greening in the United States. As an assistant professor in the Liberal Studies Program at SF State, she says, "I have used Silenced Rivers as a textbook for my students, and the friendships I made while an intern remain rewarding to this day."
Sinan Chu (CDM researcher)
Sinan began interning for the Climate team in the summer of 2009, while studying at Syracuse University in New York and D.C. His projects include researching CDM hydropower plants in China and producing a weekly CDM hydro update that activists use worldwide. His bilingual skills in Mandarin and English have also made him an invaluable contributor to the China team.
Jill at UCSF Greenfest 2010
Jill Eisenberg (Communications expert, 2010)
Jill was the 2010 Communications Intern, working on communications and social media projects. She began her internship in January, after searching for an organization that would allow her to combine the theory and practice of water rights, environmental justice, and resource management. According to Jill, "International Rivers has enabled me both to study the history of the global and community-based environmental justice movements more deeply than in school and to participate in the day-to-day operations of an activist NGO." She looks forward to a career in the non-profit sector, but before then, she will be traveling to Taiwan at the end of 2010 to pursue a Fulbright Scholarship.
Linda-Estelí Mendéz (GIS analyst, 2011)
Linda manages the Africa dams database, and in particular, is using her mad GIS skills to upgrade the map of all known African dams (proposed or under construction) to Google Earth. Before joining International Rivers, she completed an honors research project on land and water reform processes in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Linda has an MS in International Land and Water Management from
Wageningen (WUR), The Netherlands, and an MS in Tropical
Agricultural Systems from Montpellier SupAgro/Institut des Régions
Chaudes (IRC), France. Her work and studies have also taken her to Honduras and Senegal.
Staff and Intern Kayak Trip, 1999, including Sarah Minick (second from right)
Sarah Minick (River revival expert, 1999)
Sarah began her relationship with International Rivers as an Intern for the River Revival program in 1999. At the time, Sarah was an undergrad at Stanford University. After she graduated, she went on to UC Berkeley, where she studied Community Planning with Marcia McNally. Ten years after her internship, International Rivers was thrilled when Sarah joined our Board of Directors. In her spare time, Sarah also works as a Stormwater Planner for the city of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
Brooke Peterson (Mekong researcher, 2009)
Brooke Peterson first heard about International Rivers' fight against destructive dams and the impacts of dams on ecosystems in class. She joined as a Mekong Intern in the summer of 2009 and works in Bangkok researching the linkages between Mekong River fish and regional food security. Her research will eventually serve as the background necessary to storyboard, script and shoot a documentary on the Mekong with a number of our Mekong River partners.
Only three weeks into the internship, Brooke says that she has already discovered the satisfaction of working on present-day issues about which she is passionate. "It has been especially valuable for me," she continues, "to learn about the many diverse livelihoods that rivers provide and the many, often overlooked, dependencies of urban populations on rivers."
Martina Plaza (Day of Action coordinator, 2010)
Martina was the 2010 International Day of Action intern. She describes one experience she recently had while attending a campaigns meeting: "I was stunned in my first staff meeting where another employee in Africa was able to join us through a video chat. It was then that I realized the kind of work International Rivers does is completely doable, as impossible as it may sound to outsiders. Prior to working here I couldn't imagine how such a local organization could reach all around the world to help people – International Rivers has helped me see that all it takes is the desire to help and willingness to take action for others who might not have the resources [with which] we have been blessed." International Rivers and our partners welcome Martina to the movement!
Kate with Don Poncho, Temaca activist
Kate Ross (Rivers for Life and Day of Action coordinator, 2010-11)
Kate Ross joined the Rivers for Life 3 team in June 2010 and made herself immediately indispensable in organizing the meeting in Mexico. Whether it was assisting international delegates with housing or making last minute travel arrangements, Kate handled it all with a broad smile and complete competence. In her own words, "The meeting was an inspiring, exhilarating and exhausting experience. It was such an honor to meet face to face everyone I knew so well by name, to be inspired by their stories, their struggles and their expertise, and above all to experience this in a town as beautiful as Temacapulín. Thank you to everyone who made Rivers for Life 3 so special. Ríos para la vida, no para la muerte!"
Since Rivers for Life 3, Kate has also gone on to organize the 2011 International Day of Action for Rivers, which drew a record number of inspiring and creative actions. She is currently on staff and assists with programming and communications in a number of our campaign regions.
Alexandra Teixeira (Amazon researcher, 2009-2010)
Alexandra (or Alex) came to us after hearing Aviva Imhof speak to her UC Berkeley class on the Mekong dams. She worked with Aviva on the Belo Monte campaign in Brazil, collecting information about the costs of the project, mapping dams planned for the Amazon, researching the greenhouse gas emissions of Belo Monte, and supporting our Brazilian partners.
When asked what drew her to the Amazon work, she says, "I found the Amazon campaign particularly moving not only because I am Brazilian, but because I witnessed a series of 'development' projects pushed forward by [the] Brazilian government, which caused irreparable destruction, thousands of displacements, and left a long history of neglect." She hopes to continue working to defend te environment and indigenous communities' rights.
Shradha modeling our new t-shirt
Shradha Upadhayay (South Asia expert, 2008-2010)
Shradha interned in the South Asia program in 2008 and 2010, working with our South Asia campaigner and partners, as well as with Shripad Dharmadhikary, one of South Asia’s foremost water and energy experts to produce the Himalaya dams report, Mountains of Concrete.
Songqiao and Berklee at Moving Planet, Sept 24, 2011
Songqiao Yao (China program assistant, 2011)
Songqiao brings a diverse range of movement building experiences to the China program. As an intern, she monitored China's global dam building activities in the Chinese and foreign media, wrote for the World Rivers Bulletin and other publications, and managed International Rivers' Chinese online social media and website. Prior to her internship, Songqiao worked as an intern and adviser for the Asia team at the Global Fund for Women and helped Germanwatch organize the China-EU Civil Society Forum. Songqiao is a native Chinese from the estuary of the Yellow River. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in May 2011. She joined our staff in October 2011.
Feng Yun at Yosemite, US
Feng Yun (China communicator, 2008-2009)
Feng Yun began working with the China Global program in early 2008. Feng Yun was indispensible in assisting the China Global team in translating reports, news articles, webpages, and letters to important dam builders and financiers, as well as scouring Chinese websites for information on China's global dam-building industry. She says that what's been most valuable to her is seeing a variety of tools International Rivers uses in its campaigns.
Volunteer Profiles
Jocie Bartlett (International Rivers Ambassador)
Jocelyn Bartlett (Ambassador)
Jocie, our International Rivers Ambassador, began volunteering in 2009 and has been helping to make our events amazing ever since. Her enthusiasm and commitment also made her an invaluable member of the International Rivers team when she worked on the Home Depot campaign and the Africa program.
Jocie was originally drawn to International Rivers' work, which she describes as building networks within Africa, China, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia "to strengthen civil societies and faciliate the cultivation of agency within disempowered communities." She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Joshua Cohen (Guatemala partner)
Josh currently assists Monti Aguirre and her work on reparations for the dam-affected people of Guatemala. Josh learned about International Rivers while working as an international accompanier in northern Guatemala with the organization NISGUA (Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala). "We were accompanying communities resisting the construction of the Xalalá Dam, including one where International Rivers helped facilitate a workshop in 2009," he says. "Now that I am back in the US, I hope to stay involved in issues around land, water and indigenous rights, corporate accountability and the right for communities to define development for themselves in Central America."
Josh graduated from Goucher College with a degree in Peace Studies and History in 2007. He works at the Chez Panisse Foundation just up the street from us, and continues to volunteer with NISGUA as well.
Betsy Davis
Betsy Davis (Success stories synthesizer, 2009-2010)
Betsy volunteered from August 2009 to May 2010 on our Success timeline project, which was a bit hit ahead of our 25th anniversary party. Working on this project, says Betsy, allowed her "to look into the history of one branch of the environmental movement and how much power people can have when we speak up and put words into action." Betsy came to us from a small, rural town in North Dakota, where she discovered that her local community and its farmers was being negatively affected byt he Garrison Diversion project. She notes, "After reading part of Patrick's book, I finally understood the Garrison Diversion project...When I went home this summer, I checked out some of the canals. It's still unfinished and the canals go unused. Farmers have to go miles around the canals at times to get to some of their farmland that has been chopped through by the project. It's seen as a huge waste and it's still funded with people to maintain the canal system. It's closer to home than I ever thought it was."
Wil Dvorak (International Rivers' super volunteer)
William Dvorak (River revival editor, 2003-2009)
Wil Dvorak has volunteered with International Rivers since 2003, putting together the River Revival Bulletin. Wil became interested in conservation and water issues early after witnessing the pollution of the river in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Dvorak says his work on the River Revival Bulletin gives him hope for the future. "I'm the good-news guy most of the time!" he says with a grin. "Its focus on the positive restoration of water systems around the world is very uplifting and hopeful in a world full of negative environmental news."
Wil is a veteran volunteer and an indispensable part of International Rivers' work to keep rivers heathy.
Volunteer Translators
Our volunteer translators hail from all over the world. We would not be able to do what we do without their invaluable support and expertise.
