The National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE)’s Internship Program is a partnership with the National Park Service and other Federal agencies with cultural resource protection and public land management responsibilities. The purpose of the program is to accomplish needed and important work on federally protected lands while providing program participants with professional experience in their chosen fields. Interns work under the guidance of agency staff who are subject area experts to carry out the mission of the park.

To be eligible, applicants must be between 18 and 30 years old (or 35 if a veteran) when starting the internship, a college student or recent graduate (within the past 12 months at the time of application), enrolled in a degree-seeking program, and a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is located in Vancouver, WA, and Oregon City, OR. This internship will be based at the park’s Cultural Resources Division offices in Vancouver, WA. Fort Vancouver NHS has a museum collection of nearly 3 million archaeological artifacts, historic objects, and archival collections that tell the story of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, the US Army’s Vancouver Barracks, Pearson Air Field, and the McLoughlin House.

The park is currently undertaking a 100% inventory of its museum collection to prepare the collection for a large-scale move. The project also includes cataloging never-before-cataloged collections.

The intern’s primary duties will include:

• Assisting Fort Vancouver NHS with a complex 100% inventory project in preparation for a large-scale collections move
• Assisting with cataloging archaeological collections
• Assisting with processing archival collections

Secondary duties will include:

• Routine housekeeping and environmental monitoring in exhibit spaces and collections storage areas to ensure the preservation and protection of museum collections and enhance the visitor experience to the site
• Assisting with public programs related to archaeology and museum collections

The intern will work under the supervision of the park’s Museum Curator, alongside other Cultural Resources Division staff, interns, and volunteers.

The intern will work on a part-time schedule of up to 20 hours per week.

A background security investigation may be required prior to the start date. All NCPE internships accrue 4 hours of PTO for every 80 hours worked.

Qualified NCPE interns who complete their internships may count their position towards earning a Public Land Corps (PLC) Non-Competitive Hiring Authority certificate.  Once earned, the PLC certificate may be used to apply for eligible Federal permanent, temporary, or term positions. Visit https://preservenet.org/ncpe-internships/ for details about this benefit. Successful completion of the internship does not guarantee Federal employment.