Marketing Communications Intern

COMMUNITY PARTNER

Encoded Textiles Collaborative

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP

Duties

A Marketing Intern will work alongside Program Manager Jeffrey Ferns to assist with business relations, fundraising, and press in conjunction with other team members.  This position involves some oversight of other areas to coordinate marketing and public relations efforts.  On-site support at fundraising galas, business partnership meetings, and strategy sessions will be required.  Internship offered in partnership through ASU Project Humanities.

Ideal candidates will be energetic, hard working, web-savvy, and brimming with ideas about creative ways to market our project. While assisting with a wide range of project endeavors and programs in diverse communities, interns will gain hands-on experience in all facets of marketing from engaging and working with non-profits, k-12, Indigenous communities, cultural institutions and the private and public sectors of business.

Duties:
 Assisting the project team collecting, communicating and coordinating  regional and nationwide interest in the project its events, programs
 Assisting the team  with archiving  reviews and other media engagements, and press
 Assisting with mailings to  diverse media outlets, channels, institutions and other contacts
 Assisting with publicity materials, media research and outreach as needed
 Other marketing assistance as needed

Population served

As a marketing intern responsibilities include building bridges, recieved feedback for project initiatves, collaboration in marketing with Indigenous communities,  through direct contact, meetings, presentations with Navajo Nation tribal members, Navajo community organizations, Indigeneous artists participating in the project  and with Navajo Nation elected officials and other Native American tribes.

Community need/impact

According to UNESCO 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by approximately 3% of the world’s people, and by the end of the 21st century, 90% of the world’s languages will likely be replaced by dominant languages.  Indigenous languages are increasingly less likely to be spoken by younger generations.  For example according to Golla (2007), in our first engaged community, the Navajo Nation, only 25% of the children are learning Diné bizaad (the Navajo language).  Contemporary society is encroaching on indigenous communities, creating a decline in younger generations’ desire to learn their native language or engage within their culture.  The Encoded Textiles Project will enhance educational and preservation infrastructures and dissemination techniques for indigenous languages, cultures, and traditions through barcoding technologies.

The Encoded Textiles Project will significantly increase the number of resources (e.g. curricula models, literature recommendations, oral narrative collections, videos, etc.) for educators on National Endowment for the Humanities’ EDSITEment website.  There are currently only six, indigenous-specific resources available.  While measuring an increase in language and cultural prestige is difficult, various engagement levels will be examined: access of video resources and documentary distribution, access of educational materials, demand for the traveling exhibit, interest of indigenous communities to be included, and advancement of the technologies for commercial and educational purposes.  Exhibition visitors will be polled, collecting demographic information and determining impact, while ensuring access to targeted generations and traditionally under-served populations, including the indigenous communities. Additionally K-12 educational infrastructure impact will be researched by examining the success of incorporating awareness of indigenous cultures and languages into curriculum while adhering to state standards for education and maintaining or improving students’ state assessment scores.