Environmental Health Services Administrative Project (Unpaid Intern)

HEALTH CARE AGENCY
The OC Health Care Agency (HCA) is a regional interdisciplinary health jurisdiction and an accredited health department, charged with protecting and promoting individual, family and community health through partnership and coordination of public and private sector resources. Many of the HCA's services are preventative in nature and therefore are not readily apparent to the public. Some examples include food protection, monitoring the quality of ocean water, mental health services, alcohol and drug use services, communicable disease control, public health field nursing and public health clinics.

The Environmental Health Division, within the HCA, provides regulation, education, and guidance in food and pool safety, hazardous materials, land and water quality.

THE OPPORTUNITY
The primary focus of this internship will be to support the Environmental Health Division’s internal communications with their Share Point site. The intern(s) will be part of a team that designs, develops, builds, promotes, and maintains the Environmental Health Share Point. 
Example duties will be:

Additional projects may be assigned depending on capacity. These additional projects would be division support-based, such as workflow improvements and communications.

EDUCATIONAL AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
This internship is best suited for individuals who are currently enrolled in an accredited college or university or who have graduated within the last 6 months and are interested in pursuing a career or gaining experience in the public sector and/or in gaining experience with communications, user experience, user interface, and general administrative tasks.

SKILLS, TRAINING, AND QUALIFICATIONS:

Preferred Skills

• SharePoint skills
  • Basic familiarity with Microsoft SharePoint (creating pages, uploading content, using Lists, document libraries)
  • Understanding of digital file organization concepts
  • Ability to design simple site layouts or user interfaces
• Technical and digital literacy
  • Proficiency with Microsoft 365 (Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
  • Ability to learn new software tools quickly
  • Understanding of workflow and communication systems
• Communication skills
  • Clear written communication for drafting guidelines, instructions, or site text
  • Ability to work collaboratively with a team
  • Professional communication skills for working with staff in a public-sector environment
• Organizational skills
  • Attention to detail when organizing digital files and structuring information
  • Ability to follow guidelines and help create new organizational standards
  • Strong time-management and task-tracking abilities
• User experience (UX) awareness
  • Basic understanding of user navigation, simplicity, and intuitive design
  • Interest in improving how users find information
• Analytical thinking
  • Ability to identify workflow inefficiencies
  • Problem-solving skills for improving document management or communication processes

Recommended Training or Academic Background

• College coursework in:
  • Communications
  • Public Administration
  • Information Systems
  • User Experience / UI Design
  • Business Administration
  • Public Health administration (optional but helpful in understanding the division’s work)

Qualifications

• Current college student or recent graduate (within 6 months)
• Interest in public-sector work, environmental health, communications, or digital systems
• Ability to work onsite in Santa Ana
• Comfortable working in a team environment
• Commitment to confidentiality and professionalism (important in a government setting)

TIME COMMITMENT
This internship opportunity is an office-based position. Interns will not be expected to travel, drive their personal vehicle, or perform duties outside of standard office work. This is an on-site/in-person position. Remote or telework is not available.  The OC Health Care Agency’s Environmental Health Division will accommodate an intern’s school schedule. Interns will be expected to commit a minimum of 20 hours monthly, up to a maximum of 80 hours a month. All work is performed on-site at the Environmental Health Division, between the hours of 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.
 
BENEFITS AVAILABLE TO INTERNS
Although this is an unpaid internship that does not lead to paid employment or include employee benefits, students and recent graduates are offered an excellent opportunity to:
APPLICATION PROCEDURE 
REQUIRED BACKGROUND SCREENING/REFERENCE CHECK 
Prior to placement, applicants may be asked to submit contact information for reference checks, and a background screening will be conducted that requires a state issued driver's license or ID card and a U.S. Social Security number and live scan.EMAIL NOTIFICATION:

Email is the primary form of notification during the recruitment process. Please ensure your correct email address is included in our application and use only one email account.

NOTE: User accounts are established for one person only and should not be shared with another person. Multiple applications with multiple users may jeopardize your status in the recruitment process for any positions for which you apply.

Candidates will be notified regarding their status as the recruitment proceeds via email through the GovernmentJobs.com site. Please check your email folders, including spam/junk folders, and/or accept emails ending with "governmentjobs.com" and "ocgov.com." If your email address should change, please update your profile at www.governmentjobs.com.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

For additional internship postings, please check our Web site at the following link: https://hrs.ocgov.com/careers/volunteer-intern/internships/internship-opportunities

Click here for additional Frequently Asked Questions.