Summer 2025 Sherwin Lee Siy Tech Policy Internship

Overview:

At a time when the internet holds the promise of online creativity, sharing, learning, socializing, and education, and at the same time the threat of monopolization, misinformation, abuse of privacy, and others, the thoughtful regulation of the internet is more important than ever. Sherwin Lee Siy, a leader at Public Knowledge for almost a decade, recognized this imperative and made enormous contributions to the field and the public. Sherwin passed away in 2021, and a summer legal internship has been created to continue his legacy.

The internship is part of Public Knowledge’s hallmark program “PKTrains,” which has served as a driver for diversity in the tech policy field for almost a decade, training more than 20 full-time post-graduate fellows and dozens of student interns, externs, and other learners. 

We strongly encourage underrepresented groups, including minorities, to apply. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of perspectives and experiences.

The Position:

Public Knowledge is currently hiring for this legal internship for Summer 2025. The intern will promote fundamental human rights in the digital economy by creating and executing strategies to promote the open internet, balanced intellectual property rights, and communications competition. 

Applicants must be current students or new graduates as of May 2025. Applicants must have a strong interest in the policy-making process -- the U.S. Congress, the executive branch, and agencies such as the FCC. Applicants should have a demonstrated interest in public interest (non-profit) technology policy, including issues arising under internet, telecommunications, copyright, patent, privacy, and international law. (A “demonstrated interest” is broad - it can range from reading and following tech, tech policy or politics on your own, following the work of Public Knowledge or other tech policy advocacy teams, a class, paper, or internship, etc. Whatever experiences show that you are interested in this area.)

Essential Responsibilities and Tasks:

The intern will collaborate on strategy and advocacy to shape laws and regulations that support open internet policy, communications competition, and balanced intellectual property law; draft legal and advocacy documents that support public interest positions; collaborate with government relations and communications staff to develop and execute strategy on Capitol Hill, at the Federal Communications Commission, with other government agencies, in coalitions including other public interest groups, and with the press; and develop expertise in a select set of national internet technology or related policy issues—other responsibilities and tasks, as needed.

Application Information

The internship will be 10 weeks, from approximately the end of May or the first week of June to early August. We ask that interns work in person Monday-Thursday in the Public Knowledge office in Washington, DC, and have the option to work remotely on Fridays, but we can make accommodations for interns if needed. 

The stipend for the Siy internship is $10,000 for the summer.

To apply, please fill out the application by March 1, 2025. Interested applicants are encouraged to apply early.  

Organization Description:

Public Knowledge is a nonprofit technology policy organization that promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We challenge barriers to people’s rights to fairly create, access, own, and use content and innovative technologies by providing resources to policy makers and the public.

Our modes of advocacy include outreach to the U.S. Congress, the executive branch, and administrative agencies, filing administrative comments, submitting amicus briefs, hosting public education events, building coalitions, and writing white papers and blog posts. Legal and advocacy interns participate in all aspects of our work.

Please see our website to learn more about our positions on particular issues and the work that we do. www.publicknowledge.org. For more general information about PK’s advocacy training program, click here.