Social work internship fellowship
This social work internship places you in community projects on waste and health, with a mentor who supports you at each stage. You run household surveys and trainings with residents near where you live, then use what they tell you to study what helps people change their habits around waste.
For students interested in sociology, social work or community development who want to work face to face with families and residents. Online, with field work near where you live. The fellowship is paid because every fellow receives time and attention from senior researchers and leaders.
Why sociology and social work matter for sustainability
Pollution and heat hit people hardest when they have the least room to adapt. In informal settlements, many families live under hot tin roofs and beside open drains or dumped waste. Sociology studies how income and gender shape these risks. Social work adds the skill of earning a community’s trust and helping residents act on problems they already know well.
Earth5R’s community work in 150+ Indian cities includes door-to-door household surveys, training on waste segregation and composting, and women’s livelihood work such as paper bag making, bank accounts and financial literacy. In informal settlements in Mumbai, women plant saplings with Earth5R in upcycled containers on hot tin roofs to cool their homes. As a fellow you join this kind of work near where you live and study what it changes in daily life.
This work links to the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 10, Reduced inequalities and Goal 11, Sustainable cities and communities.
Available projects in the social work internship fellowship
You join Earth5R’s live work through your own subject. Your mentor shapes the final project with you.
Household waste and health survey
Run a door-to-door survey in a neighbourhood near you on how families sort and dispose of waste, and which health problems they link to it.
Segregation training and follow-up
Help run a waste segregation and composting training for residents or building staff, then go back a few weeks later to record which habits changed and why.
Women’s livelihoods and wellbeing
Study whether livelihood work, such as paper bag making and financial literacy training, changes women’s income and say in household decisions, using interviews you design with your mentor.
Rooftop plantations and home heat
Interview families in an informal settlement who grow saplings on hot tin roofs, and record what they notice about heat and comfort inside their homes.
What you do in the field
- Learn consent and research ethics before you meet any household
- Design a short survey or interview guide with your mentor
- Run door-to-door surveys and record answers on the Earth5R app
- Help run a community training on waste segregation or composting
- Code interview notes and find common themes
- Write up your findings and present them in a research conversation
Skills you build
On a social work internship, you collect your own data near where you live, using the Earth5R app and data forms. Earth5R checks the data on its platform before it goes into your project report.
How the social work internship fellowship works
Every fellow moves through four phases. Each phase is checked by your mentor before you move on.
Observe and Map
Go into the field near where you live and collect primary data for your project in Sociology and Social Work.
Frame and Design
Find the root cause in your data and frame a problem worth solving, with your mentor.
Model
Build a working model, analysis or design for your solution, and test it.
Build and Deploy
Put your solution to work, measure the result and publish a verified record on earth5r.org.
Along the way you take part in research conversations with professors at MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and other universities, and ask your own questions. See how FIELDWORK works.
Where this can take you
Degrees this work supports
- BA in Sociology or Anthropology
- Bachelor of Social Work (BSW)
- Master of Social Work (MSW)
- MA in Sociology or Social Policy
- MA in Development Studies
Careers in this field
- Community development officer
- Social worker with an NGO or city agency
- Field researcher in the social sciences
- CSR programme manager
- Livelihood programme coordinator
Universities known for Sociology and Social Work
Strong sociology and social work programmes look for applicants who have spent time with communities and can reflect on what they saw. A fellowship project gives you survey data and a written analysis from your own field work, reviewed by your mentor and recorded on earth5r.org. Students use a social work internship to build a record of real work for applications to universities like these.
Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
USA · Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
The Crown Family School teaches a master’s programme in Social Work, Social Policy, and Social Administration and a doctoral programme with PhD and PhD/AM options. Its research centres include the Center for Climate, Health, and Society, which works on health equity in climate-vulnerable urban communities, and the Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development.
Columbia University School of Social Work
USA · Columbia School of Social Work
Columbia School of Social Work offers the Master of Science in Social Work, with an online option, and a PhD. Its research centres include the Center on Poverty and Social Policy and the Columbia Population Research Center. The Sauti Mashinani Lab carries out community-led work on climate justice and health equity across several countries.
University of Michigan School of Social Work
USA · School of Social Work
Michigan’s School of Social Work offers undergraduate programmes, the MSW, an MA in Social Impact Leadership and PhD programmes. Its course on Environmental Justice Organizing studies how environmental racism and climate change affect low-income communities of colour. Units within the school include the Curtis Center and the Program Evaluation Group.
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
UK · Department of Sociology
LSE’s Department of Sociology offers undergraduate and postgraduate study in sociology. Its research areas are economic sociology, politics and human rights, social inequalities, urban sociology, and knowledge, culture and technology. The department is also home to LSE Human Rights, an interdisciplinary hub for human rights scholarship.
UK · Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI)
Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) teaches master’s degrees in Comparative Social Policy and in Evidence Based Intervention and Evaluation, and DPhils in Social Policy and in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation. Its research studies policy and programme interventions that aim to reduce inequalities and improve people’s lives.
UK · Social Work, School of Social and Political Science
Social Work at Edinburgh is part of the School of Social and Political Science and offers the BSc, the MSW, an MSc by Research, a PG Certificate and a PhD. Teaching is rooted in practice, with placements arranged through local and international partners. Its scholarship focuses on social justice and work with people who experience disadvantage.
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Canada · Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW)
Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) offers the Master of Social Work, with two-year, advanced standing and Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency options, and a PhD programme. Its labs and institutes include the Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal, the Institute for Life Course & Aging and the BRIDGE Lab for community-engaged equity research.
Hong Kong · Department of Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA)
HKU’s Department of Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA) offers the Bachelor of Social Work, a Bachelor of Social Sciences, the Master of Social Work and a Master of Expressive Arts Therapy. Undergraduate study combines coursework with field experience, and MPhil and PhD students research social work practice, policy and lived experience.
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Singapore · Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Department of Social Work in the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers undergraduate degrees, a Master of Social Work by coursework, a Master of Social Sciences by research and a PhD. It publishes the Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development and works with the Social Service Research Centre.
Australia · Department of Social Work, Melbourne School of Health Sciences
Social Work at Melbourne is a department of the Melbourne School of Health Sciences. It teaches the Master of Social Work and supervises graduate research, including PhDs. Research themes include health, mental health and disability, family violence, child and family welfare, and criminal justice.
This list is for guidance. These universities are widely known for Sociology and Social Work. Earth5R has no admissions arrangement with them, and admission decisions rest with each university. Fellows get help researching universities, scholarships and applications, depending on the programme.
What your fellowship fee pays for
An internship fellowship at Earth5R is time and attention from senior researchers and leaders. Each part below takes staff time and resources that we set aside for every fellow.
Live mentoring with experts
One-to-one mentoring in most fellowships, with regular check-ins on your project.
Dialogues with global researchers
Academics from international universities and renowned scientists, who answer your questions and discuss your work.
Support in the field
Guidance while you collect data and work on your project in the field.
References for your next step
References when you apply for jobs, higher studies and research programmes.
Your work, hosted for life
Your work and data stay on Earth5R’s website and servers for life, where universities and employers can check them.
Time from senior people
Each fellow receives time and attention from senior researchers and leaders, set aside for them.
Fee details available on request.
Choose your fellowship
The fee pays for live mentoring, dialogues with global researchers, support in the field, references and lifelong hosting of your work. Fee details available on request.
Social work internship: common questions
Will I meet communities in person during this social work internship?
Yes. Field work happens near where you live, and much of it is face to face with households, building staff or women’s groups. Your mentor helps you plan each visit, and you follow consent and safety steps for every interview.
How do I protect the people I survey?
You learn how to ask for informed consent before your first visit, and your mentor reviews your questions before you use them. You collect only what the project needs and keep people’s names out of your written report.
Is this social work internship useful for an MSW application?
It gives you mentored field work with communities and a written analysis to describe in your statement of purpose and interviews. Your work is recorded on a verified profile on earth5r.org. Admission decisions rest with each university.
Is the social work internship fellowship paid?
Yes. It is a paid, mentored internship fellowship. The fee pays for live mentoring, dialogues with global researchers, support in the field, references and lifelong hosting of your work. Fee details are available on request.
Can I do this social work internship online?
Yes. FIELDWORK runs online, and your field work takes place near where you live. Your mentor guides you through each step.
Who can apply?
School and university students from India and other countries. The fellowship prepares you for university, postgraduate study and work.
What do I get at the end?
A certificate, a letter of recommendation, a project report and a verified profile on earth5r.org, where universities and employers can check your work.
Apply for the social work internship fellowship
Work on a live Earth5R project in Sociology and Social Work with a mentor, take part in research conversations with global researchers, and build a verified record of your work. Fee details available on request.
