NAU Climate Action Committee Remote Volunteer Writers Wanted
Today’s Guest Blog was written by Noel McDavid as part of her work in the Professional Writing for Digital Audiences class during the spring 2024 semester.
The Professional Writing (PW) program at NAU (Northern Arizona University) teaches students skills that are relevant to career-level and workplace writing. To learn more about the PW program at NAU, check out the Professional Writing Master of Arts. You can also visit the faculty directory if you have questions.
As I worked toward getting a degree in professional writing, I quickly realized that it is crucial to start developing a portfolio before graduation day. I’ve found that one of the best ways to become a successful writer is to have work that’s published online. The good news is that NAU’s Climate Action Committee is making it easy to start establishing yourself in the writing world—they’re looking for volunteer writers!
About the Climate Action Committee
According to their website, the Climate Action Committee at NAU is a student-led organization that “aims to provide an avenue for students to get involved with tangible, visible, and research-based campus sustainability initiatives that are hands-on and engage the wider community.” When asked about their mission statement, founder Phoenix Eskridge-Aldama elaborates on each of the committee’s central values:
- Tangibility: “Our core focus is to engage in projects that have a measurable impact on our community’s emission outputs.”
- Visibility: “We like to make changes that students can actually see and experience.”
- Research-based: “We have a great mix of learning and exchanging research skills among members since the club has expanded to include both graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of backgrounds.“
Below are some of the projects the Climate Action Committee has completed and is working on:
- energy efficiency upgrades like installing thermal window films on the Phyisical Science Building
- street adoption
- an initiative to help students get free bikes
The committee meets biweekly on Mondays from 6–7 p.m. in-person and via Zoom!
Why write for the Climate Action Committee?
When you write for an NAU advocacy group like the Climate Action Committee, you get more than just writing experience—you gain volunteer experience too. And since you and the committee members are all part of NAU, communication is easy. You can chat with the committee via email or through their handy Slack channel.
In addition to experience and ease of access, this is also a great opportunity to learn how to write for social media. This specific committee happens to have its own Instagram profile.
Advocacy writing can improve your portfolio
Being an advocate requires empathy—and so does being a writer. Writers gain empathy by learning about the issues we are writing about. When you write for an advocacy group like the Climate Action Committee, you’re able to learn more about the topic (in this case, eco-friendliness and climate change) over time.
Eventually, you may become an experienced climate advocate writer. This can open you up to many different jobs you may otherwise not have been qualified for. For example, if you volunteer as a writer for the Climate Action Committee, you may later qualify for sustainability writer roles such as an environmental report writer or a sustainability report writer. In other words, the more “niches” or topics you can become well-versed in, the more job opportunities you can be considered for.
Apply as a writer for the Climate Action Committee
It’s easy to apply to be a Climate Action Committee Volunteer Writer (CACVW) at NAU! Simply prep your resumé, develop a short writing sample (250–500 words at least), and attach a portfolio or your LinkedIn account if you have any prior writing experience.
- Send the above information to pje53@nau.edu.
- Use the subject line Remote Volunteer Writer Opportunity.
- The committee will take it from there!