March 24, 2026Ramapo DMC - CFA Infrastructure Internship

Ramapo DMC / Center for Food Action Internship Opportunity

The DMC Center has one paid internship opening on the Center for Food Action (CFA) Data Excellence project — one of the DMC’s flagship Community Impact Projects. This intern will join an active student development team and take on a foundational role: unifying a growing suite of real-world applications into a cohesive, production-ready infrastructure. Read on for project details and how to apply.

About the Center for Food Action

The Center for Food Action is a New Jersey nonprofit providing food assistance and support services to thousands of families across Bergen and Passaic counties. CFA operates multiple pantry locations and relies on accurate data to run its operations, report to funders, and serve its clients effectively.

The DMC Center has been building CFA’s data infrastructure since Phase 1 — a time-series inventory database, a pricing module, a barcode scanner for bulk donation intake, and an analytics dashboard. Phase 2 has expanded that work significantly, with a dedicated team of student interns building applications now actively in use at CFA’s Mahwah and Saddlebrook locations.

The Existing Team

This intern joins a team of three active Phase 2 interns, each working on a distinct application strand:

• Inventory intake and barcode scanning — integrating the DMC scanner directly with PantrySoft via API to automate donation data entry at the warehouse level
• In-kind donor tracking — streamlining drop-off intake, generating electronic confirmations, and pricing donations using the Phase 1 pricing module
• Service analytics and data reporting — working directly with CFA staff across locations to build and refine reports that drive operational decisions

These applications were developed rapidly to meet real CFA needs. The new intern’s role is not to add another application strand — it is to step back and work at the infrastructure level to unify what has been built into a platform that can be maintained, extended, and deployed more broadly.

What You’ll Be Working On

A significant pattern emerging across the DMC’s Community Impact Projects is that common functional building blocks — user account management, intake workflows, automated notifications, reporting, and data export — are appearing independently in multiple applications built for different organizations. The intern in this role will work to identify, consolidate, and standardize these shared components into a coherent shared architecture.

This work has direct real-world stakes: the DMC is actively deploying applications to additional nonprofit partners, and a unified infrastructure dramatically reduces the cost and effort of each new deployment.

Primary Responsibilities

• Audit the existing CFA application suite — codebase review, dependency mapping, documentation of current architecture across all active apps
• Identify duplicated logic and overlapping patterns across applications (authentication, communications, reporting, data models)
• Re-architect shared components into reusable modules with clean, well-documented interfaces
• Improve deployment infrastructure — environment consistency, configuration management, and deployment workflows across hosted applications
• Collaborate with the existing intern team to ensure refactored components integrate cleanly with their active work
• Contribute to technical documentation to support long-term maintainability

Stretch Goals

• Help extend the unified architecture to support deployment to additional DMC partner organizations (FCDC, CUMAC, and others in the pipeline)
• Contribute to the Shared Pricing Module — a reusable pricing component with applications across CFA, MEVO, and other DMC partners

Internship Details

• Start Date: May 2026 (flexible)
• Duration: 12–15 weeks
• Hours: 15 hours/week
• Scheduling: Flexible; may extend into summer as needed
• Location: Primarily remote; some on-site visits to CFA Mahwah may be expected

Who Should Apply

Applicants should be current sophomores or juniors in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or Data Science. Programming experience is required; web application development experience is strongly preferred. The skills below reflect preferred background — not requirements. Breadth and a systems-level mindset matter more than any single tool.

Preferred skills:

• Web application development (Node.js preferred; other frameworks welcome)
• Database design and SQL
• General full-stack experience
• Experience reading and working within an existing codebase
• Version control (Git)

Significant pluses:

• Interest in software architecture, refactoring, or platform thinking
• Deployment and DevOps experience (Linux, nginx, environment configuration)
• Prior internship or project work outside coursework
• Cybersecurity coursework or experience

How to Apply

Email sfrees@ramapo.edu with the subject line: “CFA Internship Application”

Include:

• A brief introduction — your name, class year, and major
• A short paragraph on why this project interests you
• A summary of relevant skills and experience (coursework, projects, jobs, or certifications)
• A current résumé or CV

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply early — the position will be filled as soon as the right candidate is identified.

Categories: Community Impact Feature, Uncategorized

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March 23, 2026Ramapo DMC - MEVO Internship

Ramapo DMC / MEVO Internship Opportunity

The DMC Center has one paid internship opening supporting MEVO, a New Jersey-based nonprofit inspiring community action for a healthier environment. This engagement is part of the DMC Center’s broader Community Impact Projects initiative, which partners students with nonprofits and community organizations to build real software solving real problems. The intern will work on an existing volunteer management platform and take the lead on building a brand-new Harvest Tracking Application for MEVO’s farm operations. Read on for project details and how to apply.

About MEVO

MEVO is a New Jersey nonprofit dedicated to inspiring and empowering people to take action for a better environmental future. Through programs ranging from community trail work and farm-to-school partnerships to active farm operations and environmental education, MEVO mobilizes hundreds of volunteers each year in support of its mission.

MEVO operates farms as a core part of its programming — growing produce, supporting food access initiatives, and connecting communities to the land. The organization needs modern digital tools to manage its volunteers and track its agricultural output accurately and efficiently.

The DMC Center has been building MEVO’s volunteer management platform and is now extending that work into a fully integrated harvest tracking system. This intern will be a key contributor to both efforts.

Visit mevo.org →

What You’ll Be Working On

The DMC Center is partnering with MEVO to operationalize and extend their volunteer management application, build robust reporting tools, and — most significantly — develop a new Harvest Tracking Application for MEVO’s farm operations. Work is organized across three areas, with the Harvest App as the central deliverable.

Work Area 1: Volunteer App Refinements

The existing volunteer management application is a functional prototype. This area covers refinements to move it toward production readiness for MEVO’s spring event season.

• Password reset and account recovery flows
• Electronic liability / waiver form support at signup
• Mobile UX polish for staff roster and check-in/check-out views
• Shareable per-event registration links and QR codes for MEVO website embedding
• Admin account management improvements and bug fixes

Work Area 2: Export & Reporting Tools

MEVO needs structured exports for year-end reporting, grant applications, and volunteer hour verification. The data is already being captured — this area builds the reporting layer on top of it.

• Year-end volunteer summary export to Excel (total hours per volunteer, all events)
• Per-event roster export with hours logged
• Event cleanup data export (weights, item counts, notes)
• Printable volunteer hours certificate — single-page view per volunteer
• Admin reporting dashboard with summary statistics

Work Area 3: Harvest Tracking Application (Primary Focus)

This is the centerpiece of the engagement — a brand-new application module built alongside the existing volunteer platform. MEVO needs to track what is harvested at each farm session: produce types, quantities, locations, and dates.

• Farm / location management — define and manage MEVO’s farm sites
• Produce type catalog — maintain a list of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other produce
• Harvest event creation — record date, farm location, and staff present
• Harvest recording UI — log quantities by produce type per session, supporting multiple units (lbs, count, bundles)
• Harvest history — browse and filter past harvests by farm, date, and produce type
• Harvest reports and Excel export — summary views by season, farm, or produce type
• Database schema design and migrations
• Integration with the DMC Shared Pricing Module — a reusable pricing component extracted from the DMC’s Center for Food Action project (stretch goal)

Internship Details

• Start Date: Late March / Early April 2026 (flexible)
• Duration: 12–15 weeks
• Hours: 15 hours/week
• Scheduling: Flexible; may extend into summer as needed
• Location: Primarily remote with periodic on-site coordination

Who Should Apply

Applicants should be current juniors in Computer Science or Data Science, as this project may extend or continue into the following year. The skills below reflect preferred background — not requirements. Breadth of experience matters more than mastery of any single tool.

Preferred skills:

• Web application development (Node.js preferred; other frameworks welcome)
• Database design and SQL
• General full-stack experience
• REST API design

Significant pluses:

• Excel / data export experience
• Mobile-first UI development
• Interest in environmental or nonprofit work
• Prior internship or project work outside coursework

How to Apply

Email sfrees@ramapo.edu with the subject line: “MEVO Internship Application”

Include:

• A brief introduction — your name, class year, and major
• A short paragraph on why this project interests you
• A summary of relevant skills and experience (coursework, projects, jobs, or certifications)
• A current résumé or CV

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply early — the position will be filled as soon as the right candidate is identified.

Categories: Community Impact Feature, Uncategorized

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March 8, 2026Ramapo DMC / RMI Internship Opportunity

The DMC Center has two paid internship openings supporting the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation — one focused on application development and IT support, and one focused on community data intake work ideal for students with digital humanities backgrounds. Both positions carry a $5,000 stipend starting late March; read on for details and how to apply!

About the Partner

The Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation are descendants of the original inhabitants of New Jersey, southern New York, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. State-recognized since 1980, the Nation’s approximately 5,000 members are concentrated in the Ramapo Mountains along the NY/NJ border, with others scattered across the United States.

The Nation operates through Ramapough Munsee Lenape, Inc. (RMI) to coordinate services including youth education, elder care, food sovereignty programs, and tribal governance. A central challenge for the organization is membership record keeping — census data is currently fragmented across paper files, individuals, locations, and disconnected digital systems.

Accurate census data is required for:

• State and federal grant applications supporting education, healthcare, and food security programs
• Tribal leadership elections, with changes coming in the near term

Project Description

The DMC Center is partnering with the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation to build a modern data infrastructure system supporting their operations and grant-seeking capacity. Two interns will work closely together and directly with tribal staff throughout the project.

Project Deliverables

• Tribal membership database — centralized system consolidating data currently scattered across locations, individuals, paper files, and disconnected digital systems
• Member intake application — user-friendly tool enabling tribal staff to collect, enter, and update member records
• ID card printing system — application to produce official tribal membership ID cards
• Digital document ingestion pipeline — tooling to ingest and organize historical paper and digital records into the new database
• Automated grant reporting system — generates formatted reports for federal and state assistance applications
• IT/cybersecurity support — on-site assessment and hands-on support for the Nation’s systems and data infrastructure

Position 1: Application Developer & IT/Cybersecurity Support

Supervised by: Dr. Scott Frees, Professor of Computer Science

This intern works directly with Dr. Frees to build and deploy the software systems, and provides hands-on IT support to the tribe on-site.

Primary responsibilities:

• Extend DMC created tribal membership database and intake application
• Develop the ID card printing system
• Build the digital document ingestion pipeline
• Conduct an IT/cybersecurity assessment of current infrastructure
• Provide on-site IT support — configuring systems, troubleshooting, documenting infrastructure
• Collaborate with the Data Intake intern to ensure systems reflect real-world field needs

Ideal background:
Note that applicants should be current Juniors, as this project is may extend into next year. The skill below are not required, they are preferred.

• Web application development (Node.js preferred; other frameworks welcome)
• Database design and SQL
• General programming experience — breadth matters more than mastery of any single tool
• A significant plus: IT support experience, cybersecurity coursework

Position 2: Digital Data Curation

Supervised by: Prof. Sarah Koenig, School of Arts, Humanities, and Education
This intern works directly with tribal staff and community members to gather, verify, and digitize membership data — translating real-world records and community knowledge into structured entries that feed the new database.

Students with backgrounds in digital humanities, history, sociology, anthropology, communications, or related fields are strongly encouraged to apply. Students who combine humanities and technical experience are especially competitive for this role.

Primary responsibilities:

• Conduct structured intake sessions with tribal staff and members to gather and verify membership data
• Digitize paper records and legacy documents for ingestion into the database
• Work with tribal staff to identify gaps and develop strategies for reaching members with missing records
• Document data provenance — where records came from and how they were verified
• Assist with quality assurance on incoming data
• Help develop intake workflows that are clear and accessible for tribal staff

Ideal background:

• Experience with community engagement, oral history, archival work, or qualitative research
• Strong interpersonal skills — this role involves direct, sustained work with community members
• Attention to detail and comfort with structured data entry
• A significant plus: Technical skills alongside humanities training — experience with databases, spreadsheets, document scanning, or archival digitization

Internship Details (Both Positions)

• Start Date: Late March 2026 (flexible)
• Duration: 12 weeks · 15–20 hours/week
• Scheduling: Hours may be spread over a longer period, extending into summer if needed
• Compensation: $5,000 per position, paid in three installments over the project period
• Location: On-site at the Ramapough Tribal Center (Stag Hill Road, Mahwah, NJ — approximately 4–5 miles from Ramapo College) plus remote work
• Transportation: A car is required. Both interns will be expected to work on-site at the Tribal Center.

How to Apply

Email Dr. Scott Frees at sfrees@ramapo.edu with the subject line:
“RMI Internship Application — Position 1: Developer” or “RMI Internship Application — Position 2: Data Intake”

Include:

• A brief introduction — your name, year, and major
• Which position you are applying for (you may express interest in both)
• A short paragraph on why this project interests you
• A summary of relevant skills and experience (coursework, projects, jobs, or certifications)
• A current résumé or CV
• Confirmation that you have a car and can travel to Mahwah for on-site work

Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Apply early — positions will be filled as soon as the right candidates are identified.

Categories: Community Impact Feature, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Internship Story

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