Internship Opportunities

Volunteer with Historic Seattle!

ADVOCACY Internship Opportunities

Historic Seattle offers learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students seeking practical experience in the areas of historic preservation, history, public policy, and economics. We seek students interested in pursuing the following topics for unpaid internships.

Land Use History: Tracking private and public land use development over time is crucial to understanding how historic sites are protected or neglected in any community. Land use internships would focus on:

Tracking changes in property sale values of designated landmarks and adjacent parcels.
Analysis of County Assessor appraisal practices at both designated and eligible historic sites.
Examination of the socio-economic impacts of landmark districts within neighborhoods.

Public Policy: Historic Seattle’s advocacy actions and positions on policy issues require substantial research and analysis of the precedents and potential impacts of governmental decision-making. Policy internships would focus on specific ordinances and policies currently in use or being considered, or on general issues that connect a number of separate rulings into a cohesive policy. Examples of potential policy topics include:

The role of historic preservation within the creation of affordable housing in Seattle.
An analysis of public versus private funding for historic preservation in Seattle, and trends for such funding over time.
The evolution of local landmarks programs, controls, and incentives, and how these measure up against other programs around the country

Economics: The economic piece of historic preservation is a significant element of effective preservation advocacy. Potential internships related to the economics of historic preservation may focus on topics such as:

The impact of preservation financial incentives on residential and commercial historic sites.
Historic preservation as a heritage tourism marketing tool for businesses in historic areas.
Analysis of the economic impacts of historic building codes.

Profiles of Past Interns