PortSide Intern Projects

Email Chiclet@portsidenewyork.org to apply
Read about our great 2026 Spring semester interns on our webpage Crew here!

About our office

We work hard but not with a corporate office vibe. Our office is on the ship MARY A. WHALEN, and our summer dress code is casual, shorts and flip flops are OK; and the ship interior can get hot. We have outdoor wifi, so it’s possible to do computer work outside. If you know how to row or kayak, there are occasional projects that use such boats. The MARY WHALEN moves slightly when ferries come in; so if you are very sensitive to motion-sickness, this might not be for you. Our shipboard offices are not ADA-accessible, we are very sorry to say. Benefits to interning here are trips on the ferry and the fireboat Harvey, work with a small team that has a strong team spirit, playful sense of humor, and a great ship cat Chiclet. There can be a lot of interaction with the public since the ship deck is open to the public all week in the summer for TankerTime, plus people come for our special events and our Visiting Vessels program. Work project areas are listed below after the list of skills sought. Interns often work on multiple projects that have overlapping needs and skill sets.

Skills we seek here

  • Organized and good at project management

  • Strong communication skills in writing and in person

  • Graphic design skills would be great

  • QuickBooks for nonprofits.  Photo and video editing. Squarespace web design. Canva for flyers.  We don’t expect one candidate to know them all, that’s what we use and seek.

  • We use Bonterra not Salesforce for our CRM. We can train on that.

  • Love for being outdoors. There is a lot of outside with this job.

  • Tech skills. We don’t have enough of this work to make it a whole project area, but there’s always something to debug, upgrade or connect since we have outdoor webcams, wifi and security cameras, many routers inside the ship; video and sound recording equipment; plus speakers, sound board, and film projector for TankerFlicks movie nights.

Project areas

Help run public programs
Be a docent during ship tours and greeter during other programs. Set up/put away tables and chairs, film screen, speakers, etc.

Capacity building and development (fundraising)
Research grants and potential board members, help grow a fundraising committee, and help plan a fundraiser. 

Shipwork & maintenance
Prep and paint ship exterior and outdoor furniture. Sand and varnish wood. Maintain floating dock. Restore to dinghies to sailing condition.

Virtual museum RedHookWaterStories.org  (RHWS)
RHWS is built with Omeka, an open-source, web-publishing platform used by archives and museums. Add new entries by summarizing research. Update Red Hook businesses by going around Red Hook to visit and photograph them.

Respond to the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) process
Since summer 2024, PortSide is involved in the planning process related to our site, the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT), NYC’s largest land acquisition in decades; because we are here and are maritime and community advocates.

Social Media
This can overlap with the BMT work above. We’re looking for interns who can bring creative flair and a sense of humor to illustrating waterfront and maritime issues and topics, PortSide activities, and who can help attract younger audiences to our content. Interns will brainstorm with staff on topics. Platforms used are Facebook, X, Threads, IG, LinkedIn, YouTube.

Create memes, graphics, and videos to convey the message. We’re open to gamifying content and being playful! Make surveys and outreach materials. Select and use a post-scheduling app.