The UCLA Labor Center, housed in the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, offers over three hundred leadership development, service-learning, and field research placements annually to undergraduate students at UCLA and from other universities. Students participate in these experiential learning opportunities through the interdisciplinary Minor in Labor and Workplace Studies and summer internship programs taught by UCLA faculty from various social science departments. The students are placed in labor, governmental, or other nonprofit organizations in and around Los Angeles for the duration of the quarter or summer program. The Labor Center also coordinates a Social Justice Nonprofit Career Fair every spring that connects students and the public to employment and volunteer opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

The Labor Summer Research Internship Program is both a seminar and an internship; a way to augment traditional classroom-based learning with experiential learning in a community setting with direct engagement in labor and workplace issues. This Summer Sessions Institute offers students a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in an applied research experience focused on the Los Angeles labor movement that is leading national efforts to promote social justice for working people.The internship gives students the opportunity to work in a supervised setting on an applied research project with a labor or worker organization.

The Student Leadership Academy (SLA), includes a two-day leadership development training, followed by an eight-week, full-time, paid internship program. The goal of the program is to give emerging student leaders and activists in-depth experience with careers in the labor movement.

Dream Summer is a ten-week, full-time internship program that places undocumented student leaders with social justice, labor. and queer/LGBTQ organizations. This internship experience provides leadership development and training for undocumented leaders and strengthens multigenerational social-justice movements. Each participant will receive a $5,000 award to support her or his educational goals

The Social Justice Nonprofit Career Fair brings to the UCLA campus over seventy-five nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and nonprofit recruiters and representatives from local colleges and university offices of career services. Students and job seekers can distribute resumes and speak with recruiters about current and future employment, internships, and volunteer opportunities.

For more information, please contact our internship coordinator:

Ciarys Najera | 310-206-0812 | cnajera@irle.ucla.edu