RISE Internship: Research Assistant at International Resilience Lab at Arizona Institute for Resilience
Position Title: Research Assistant
Reports to: Sarah Clark
Hours/Week: ~5-10h/week (flexible)
Total hours: 200 h
Pay rate: $19.6/h
Internship Date Range: January to June 2026
Location: flexible
About the Resilience Internships and Student Experiences (RISE) Program
The RISE Program is hosted by the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR) and provides undergraduate and graduate students with paid internships related to resilient environments and societies. RISE internships give students experience in workplace settings with an opportunity to grow their interpersonal skills and prepare them for careers after graduation.
About the International Resilience Lab: The International Resilience Lab (IRL) collaboratively leads and facilitates socially engaged research and collaboration between the University of Arizona and local and global partners.
We envision a reality where solutions to global social and environmental challenges are developed through collaborative, socially engaged, and culturally appropriate scientific research. We believe that this type of research can contribute to making the world more resilient and sustainable, enabling transformative change.
The IRL is one of several centers, programs, and institutes that make up the AIR. IRL aligns with the overarching mission of the Arizona Institute for Resilience to collaborate with global communities towards resilience, to manage risks and identify solutions to societal and environmental challenges.
Internship summary:
In this internship you will gain experience conducting research on international development and resilience policy and programs. This internship will support the project “Understanding the impacts of the cancellation of USAID Resilience programming in Kenya” focused on investigating the effects of US policy and programmatic change in the areas of development and humanitarian assistance.
Internship description:
In this internship, you will support the conceptualization, data collection, and analysis of interviews with development practitioners and high-level policy makers who were instrumental in advancing the resilience agenda in USAID. You will gain experience in interviews, organizing and coding qualitative data, and interpreting it. Furthermore, you will be invited to participate in scholarly outputs generated from this project (the writing will likely proceed after the internship is officially over). This project aims to help practitioners, academics, and policymakers make sense of a time of great upheaval in the fields of international development and humanitarian assistance. This is a flexible hour internship of around 5h/week for 10 months.
Key responsibilities:
- support collection of various types of qualitative data – primarily via key informant interviews.
- conduct data cleaning and analysis of interview data.
- conduct literature reviews focusing on aspects required by the project (e.g., USAID resilience policy and programming, development and humanitarian assistance in Kenya etc.)
- participate in team meetings.
- provide feedback and support with paper writing.
- Potential to participate in proposal writing and searching for funding.
Qualifications:
- Interest in research.
- Interest in the fields of international development, humanitarian assistance, and resilience.
- Strong organizational and communication skills.
- Experience with data cleaning and organization.
- Experience with qualitative data collection and analysis.
- Flexibility to accommodate interview scheduling (some interviews will be conducted in African timezones)
Compensation:
The intern will be hired and paid by the University of Arizona. The pay rate is $19.6/hour.
How to Apply:
Applicants must be active U of A students enrolled in at least 6 credits. The intern will be hired as a U of A student employee. Please note:
- During the semester, student employees are limited to 25 hours/week (20 hours/week for international students) across ALL U of A positions.
- During the summer, student employees are limited to 35 hours/week across ALL U of A positions.
International students should consult with International Student Services (ISS) if work authorization is needed before securing an internship. ISS advising information can be found here.
Submit a 2-page max CV to Sarah Clark at saraheclark@arizona.edu with an email entitled “Research Assistant Position – Resilience Impacts”
Applications must be submitted no later than December 19.