We’re looking for an intern!

Are you looking to get experience working at a knowledge-focused organisation and are you pretty hyped about games, love researching and sharing knowledge, and like the idea of working with and learning from the past-pros of the VALUE team — the volunteer organization behind Interactive Pasts, RoMeincraft, Streaming the Past and many more playful projects —, then you may be the intern we’re looking for!

What would you like me to do?

You’ll be there to help support the logistics of our volunteer-run organization, which could include organizing and running (online) events, updating our website content, increasing the visibility of our current activities, and writing for e.g. our bulletins and other news items. 

Beyond these smaller aspects of the internship, we would also like you to undertake a project that is all your own.

Specifically we’re thinking of one of (or maybe even a combination of) the following:

• Producing a New Video Series. For example, check out the Exploring Imperator Rome that Corine TimesNewRoman did during her very own internship. We’re open to your ideas on the theme of this video series.
• Make Highlight Videos of our ongoing Twitch streaming programme, Streaming the Past. Our live streams are quality content (if we say so ourselves), but at 2-3 hours they are not exactly YT friendly. If you go for this project, you’ll be tightly editing our superfun yet long live streams to 5-10 minute videos.
• A research project at the intersection of games and the past. Our projects are always driven by in-depth academic (graduate-level and above) research and, ideally, are data-driven. Furthermore it would be important that the ideas, concepts, and outcomes of your research project would be shared in the form of popular scientific posts on our Interactive Past webpage. Ideally, your research project would lead to a (co-)authored paper or presentation. We’re open to your own research idea, but we would be very interested in someone who would be able to plan and conduct a new round of our two-yearly survey among players of historical games.
• Create a small game and/or mod. This game will not be a commercial product, but would have as an aim to share knowledge about the past. In particular, we would be highly interested in someone who would be interested in designing a small Roblox project. 
• Your own very good, superfun idea for an internship that has sharing and making knowledge about the past in a playful manner at its core.

All content you make in the course of your internship will be made available under a CC BY 4.0 license, as part of VALUE’s open access ethos, while you retain authorship. 

Will I learn anything new?

We certainly hope so! While it’s good if you have some experience in the type of internship project that you will be undertaking, you will also be given ample time to learn what you need to. Furthermore, together the members of our organization have a varied knowledge and skill-set. Want to learn from others how to do hardcore history, archaeology or research on games, how to organize events, run social media feeds, do video and other content production, programming, and even a modicum of game design, you’re in the right place.

What are the requirements for this internship position?

This is a higher education internship, but we are not necessarily looking for historians, archaeologists, or other academically trained interns (of course, you’re very welcome to apply if you have any of those backgrounds). You do need to be excited to do (non-commercial) knowledge-driven work at the intersection of games and the past. You also need to be able to work and learn (somewhat) independently on a day to day basis as well as enjoy working as part of a team of volunteers and knowing when to reach out to others for assistance. 

How will you support me?

You will be paired up with one of the senior members of the VALUE Foundation as your internship supervisor. During your internship, you will have weekly meetings with them.

VALUE also has their own internship channel on Slack, which consists of people that have previously completed an internship at our organization and are happy to support you during your internship.

We do expect you to provide your own computer for the work you will be doing for us. If you require specialist software or hardware for your project, but do not have access to these, please let us know in your application and we can see if it is possible to work something out.

Where will I do this internship?

At a place of your own choosing! Yes, this means that this is, in principle, a remote internship and that we’re accepting applications from around the globe. The only ‘space-time requirement’ is you should be willing and able to have regular (at least once a workweek) online meetings between 9:00-17:00 CET/CEST.

We know the downside to not being in an office is there’s less direct contact, but we have an active Slack workspace. Also, if you are in the Netherlands (at some point) during your internship, we’d love to meet you in Leiden.

Will I receive some form of compensation?

Yes, you will. For a 6 month internship at 20 hours/week, we will be able to offer you €800,- (before taxes or any international money transfer costs).

When can I start?

We like your initiative! We are looking to have someone start anywhere in fall 2026.

How long is this internship supposed to last for?

Ideally, 6 months at 20 hours/week. Other time spans or hours per week can be discussed.

How can I apply?

Please send us your: 

• Motivational letter (max. 1 A4)
• CV
• A brief description (max. ½ A4 or a 3 minute video) of the project you would like to undertake

You can email your application to info @ value-foundation.org before 1 September 2026. Please be advised that the use of AI in preparing your application can reduce the extent to which we can assess your personal qualities and writing skills.

If I don’t get this internship position with compensation, but I would still like to intern with you, because I don’t care about compensation, can I still do it?

We feel getting compensated for your work is very important. At the same time, we understand that getting experience is also incredibly valuable — and that there are few opportunities where you can combine both a passion for the past and for games. If there is no paid internship position available, we are happy to discuss alternatives with you, such as a volunteership, or publishing your article/video.