PCLP Outreach Media Internship | P18AS00289

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00289

The PCLP Outreach Media Internship (Funding Opportunity Number P18AS00289) is a National Park Service (NPS), Department of the Interior cooperative agreement focused on education and public-facing communication for two closely related preservation programs: Park Historic Structures and Park Cultural Landscapes. The work is centered in the Washington Administrative Services Office (WASO) environment and is designed to strengthen how the NPS organizes, preserves, and shares information about historic structures and cultural landscapes, both internally (for NPS staff) and externally (for the public and the preservation community). The opportunity emphasizes practical, hands-on experience in digital content creation, records and metadata management, accessibility compliance, and outreach strategy, with direct mentoring from program managers.

A major part of the internship involves improving NPS internal and external web content. On the internal side, the intern supports the Park Historic Structures Program Manager by enhancing an intranet site built in the InsideNPS Content Management System. This includes traveling to Washington, DC to work directly with the manager, gathering data and images about historic structures, and shaping that material into short, readable articles that highlight innovative preservation work happening across the NPS. On the external side, the intern helps sustain the Park Cultural Landscapes Program (PCLP) web presence by updating two public websites (nps.gov/pclp and nps.gov/culturallandscapes) and contributing to an active mix of social media channels, including Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter. Training is provided for the relevant NPS web publishing tools (including the nps.gov CMS), and the role is meant to build real-world competence in editorial workflow, digital publishing, and audience-focused communication in a historic preservation context.

Another core responsibility is strengthening the NPS reference and archival record for key preservation documents, specifically Historic Structure Reports (HSRs) and Cultural Landscape Reports (CLRs). The intern assists program managers with creating and improving Data Store/IRMA references by summarizing each report and entering structured metadata such as author names, publication dates, tables of contents, executive summaries, keywords, and visibility levels. This piece of the internship leans heavily toward cataloging, information organization, and records management practices, with training provided on the Data Store/IRMA system. The educational value is framed as exposure to archival methods and professional records workflows, including interaction with archivists and broad familiarity with the full HSR/CLR collection.

Accessibility and compliance work is also a significant component. The intern helps convert Park Historic Structures and Cultural Landscapes (PHSCL) PDF documents into Section 508-compliant formats so they can be used by NPS employees and the public, including users of assistive technologies. This requires using Adobe Acrobat to set document language, correct reading order, tag content appropriately, and add alternative text for figures and graphics. The opportunity includes formal training in both Section 508 requirements and the practical Acrobat techniques needed to bring documents into compliance, which is a marketable skill set for anyone working in public-sector communications, digital publishing, or educational content management.

The internship further supports ongoing outreach coordination through the PCLP Public Face Work Group (PFWG). In this area, the intern assists with monthly meetings and collaborative projects aimed at identifying and publishing newsworthy cultural landscape preservation stories. Training is provided on GoToMeeting webinar tools, and the intern gains regular exposure to active initiatives in cultural landscape preservation while working with NPS historical landscape architects and landscape historians. This element is structured to build familiarity with inter-office collaboration, meeting support, and the behind-the-scenes process of translating technical preservation work into content that is timely, accurate, and interesting to broader audiences.

A more creative, media-heavy set of tasks involves producing new outreach materials intended to engage youth and more diverse audiences in cultural landscape preservation. Using Adobe Creative Cloud and ArcGIS, the intern develops illustrated web stories, photo-based tours, videos, infographics, and story maps. All draft materials are reviewed by the program manager before publication, which provides an editorial and professional quality-control experience similar to what is expected in communications offices and digital media teams. The description also notes an on-site documentation component: the intern will film a cultural landscape workshop at SLBE, adding practical experience in video documentation and field-based content capture.

Finally, the internship includes expanding and improving staff training materials hosted on the NPS Common Learning Portal. The intern helps organize training resources by topic, convert materials into Section 508-accessible formats, create and apply metadata, and upload content into the portal. Training is provided on the Common Learning Portal platform, and the educational angle is exposure to how NPS staff are trained on cultural landscape preservation and how learning content is curated, packaged, and maintained in a large federal organization.

Administratively, this opportunity is listed as discretionary funding under a cooperative agreement, with an award ceiling of $76,697 and an expected single award. The notice states it is a “notice of intent to partner with Conservation Legacy under an existing cooperative agreement,” and that no applications will be accepted, meaning it was not an open competitive call at the time of posting. Overall, the internship is best understood as a hybrid of preservation communication and digital information stewardship: it blends writing and web publishing, archival-style metadata work, accessibility compliance, and media production, all tied directly to the NPS mission of preserving and interpreting historic structures and cultural landscapes.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PCLP Outreach Media Internship" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.931.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 06, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Notice of intent to partner with Conservation Legacy under existing cooperative agreement. No applications will be accepted.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $76,697.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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