internships for the inexperienced?

[urbanleopold]

hey,

i'd really like to get a job or internship related to urban planning/sustainability/land-use planning etc, to prepare for graduate school...but i'm a recent English B.A. with little practical or academic experience with urban planning...how difficult is it to find a good internship or job? according to the research i've done on the internet, it doesn't really look too promising.

i'm also really interested in an internship or job abroad related to the field...in latin america or an English-speaking country that is not the U.S....is this basically a pipe dream?

thanks for your help.

[Suburb Repairman]

You might try sliding in with a local government as a permit clerk or something like that. Then maybe you can absorb some stuff by observing other people in the department.

There are several universities that do an excellent job with their study abroad programs, so they might have connections for getting jobs in those countries as well. Most decent planning programs have good internship connections, though it sounds like you are trying to find something before starting grad school. Pepperdine, though it's expensive and don't know if it has a planning program, comes to mind. If you are looking for a Latin American emphasis, I would strongly recommend the program at the University of Texas (I think they have a program that focuses on Latin American planning).

a little difficult: yes.
pipe dream: no.

I hope that was helpful.