Giorgia Auteri, a December 2010 SPEA graduate with a degree in environmental management, is one of 25 semifinalists for the Sierra Club’s “Best Internship on Earth” competition.

If selected, she will serve as the organization’s Outdoor Youth Ambassador and spend this summer hiking, rafting, and exploring with the Sierra Club's youth programs around the country, and video blogging about her experiences along the way.

Applicants for the internship had to produce a short video explaining why they would be the best Ambassador, and upload it to YouTube. Sierra Club will name 10 finalists for the internship Tuesday (April 26) and announce the winner May 10 in its newsletter, The Insider.

“For my application video, I used footage from a May-June 2010 cross-country bicycle trip that I did with my boyfriend,” Auteri said. “We biked from Chester, Ill., to San Francisco. We would sometimes record footage of the trip using a fish-eye camera strapped to our helmets.

“After the trip I had been looking for ways to share the experience and encourage others to do it, so the Sierra Club internship provided the perfect opportunity for me to do this, while at the same time applying for an awesome internship.”

Auteri was born in Seattle, grew up in Columbus, Ind., and currently lives in Chicago. While at IU she took part in SPEA’s Washington Leadership Program, interned with the Environmental Protection Agency and did volunteer work with Sierra Club, the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, Sycamore Land Trust and IU's Volunteers in sustainability.

See videos for all 25 semifinalists http://www.sierraclub.org/bestinternship/.