Please take a look at the Harlan Institute Fall Intern Program. The Harlan Institute is a non-profit I co-founded. The Harlan Institute’s mission is to bring a stylized law school experience into the high school classroom to ensure that our next generation of leaders has a proper understanding of our most fundamental laws. By utilizing the expertise of leading legal scholars and the interactivity of online games, Harlan will introduce students to our Constitution, the cases of the United States Supreme Court, and our system of justice. Harlan’s long term strategic goal is to develop condensed law school courses that can be taught at no cost in high schools across the country using engaging online programs. Harlan has partnered with iCivics, an organization founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, to help bring our products to students nationwide.
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Candidates selected for the Harlan Intern Program will work closely with our executive board, including me, to help develop two major initiatives, FantasySCOTUS.org and YourConstitution.net.
FantasySCOTUS.org will be a Supreme Court fantasy league targeted towards high school classes that teach about the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and civics. The site will be free for all teachers and students to use. What makes FantasySCOTUS.org so effective for pedagogical purposes is that it is real. These are real cases that the students will read in the news. Leveraging the immense popularity of fantasy sports among teenagers, FantasySCOTUS.org will transform following the Supreme Court from a routine review of old cases into an exciting game of predicting live cases. Factoring in the competition aspect, as students will compete with other classes across the Nation, this engaging and interactive platform will make the Supreme Court speak to the students unlike ever before.
YourConstitution.net will bring the Constitution to life by shining a light on the faces and places that gave rise to famous Supreme Court cases, and telling their stories. This interactive website will take the reader through a visual tour of some of the most famous cases in constitutional law history. Along this journey, the reader will see some rare archived photos of the people and places involved; hear the facts of the cases retold from a human perspective; and most importantly, learn the history and see photographs of what happened to those people and places after the Supreme Court decided their fates.
Application Process
The process is short and simple. Please send a resume and a writing sample to [email protected]. If your application is selected, you will receive a brief telephone interview. For more details, please visit www.HarlanInstitute.org
- Legal, Political Science, & Government- The Institute is looking for candidates with an interest in constitutional law, who keep abreast of current Supreme Court cases, and can explain cases in plain English
- Technology- All of the Institute’s lesson plans are driven by technology. Candidates with a background in web development (HTML, PHP, MySQL), graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator), and a good grasp of Web 2.0 (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc.) are in demand.
- Education- An important component of the Institute’s initiatives is teaching, primarily high school students. Candidates with a background in education, and those with teaching experience, are in demand
- Business- The Harlan Institute needs skilled candidates who can plan, market, and raise funds for this exciting new product to a national audience. A background in marketing, advertising, or finance can help shape the roll-out of the Institute’s products.
Responsibilities:
FantasySCOTUS.org:
- Research cert grants and cases pending before the Supreme Court for the 2010 October Term
- Summarize the cases and questions presented in plain English
- Reduce the case to one or two primary issue
- Gather all relevant precedents, statutes, and other resources
- Prepare lesson plans for teachers to use to teach case
- Formulate blog posts for each class, and scoring rubric
- Investigate Justices’ voting histories on that topic to allow students to make informed predictions
- Work on developing the league and setup for the September school year
- Integrate site with YourConstitution.net
- Develop weekly SCOTUS trivia tidbits
- Prepare other related research projects for students
- Promote and market FantasySCOTUS.org
- Develop grassroots network of teachers nationwide (e-mail, message boards, direct mail if needed)
- Reach out to home-schooling market
- Research different advertising opportunities and ways to get in classroom
- Fundraise and help develop donors for FantasySCOTUS.org and the Harlan Institute
YourConstitution.net:
- Utilize the Library of Congress and other D.C. Libraries to locate photographs and other materials dealing with the people behind famous constitutional Supreme Court cases
- Research famous Supreme Court cases, summarize them in plain English, focusing on the human element of the cases
- Obtain photographs for each of the cases
- Manage the YourConstitution.net ConWiki
- Reach out to famous Constitutional litigants, through phone, e-mail, and direct mail, and schedule interviews with the Institute
- Manage copyright issues and ownership of photographs
- Communicate with historical societies, records halls, and other organizations that may have photographs
- Assist with Harlan Institute publication, Constitutional Places, Constitutional Faces
- Promote and market YourConstitution.net in various educational markets as a resource for students to learn