The USA State Department has launched the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) program. On the site, employees and contractors post “challenges” (online tasks that need to be done), and student volunteer are invited to complete any they want to. Most tasks are designed for students to complete in two minutes to two hours. No clearance is required to post “challenges,” according to the website. Anyone with a State.gov or USAID.gov email address can sign up and post any short “challenge” that does not require a security clearance or any special permissions to complete. Any student with a .edu email address can sign up to volunteer on the microtasks.

The microvolunteering initiative grew out of VSFS’s eInternship program — administered by the Bureau of Information Resource Management’s Office of eDiplomacy — which selects qualified undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students to partner with U.S. diplomatic posts overseas while the students work remotely on digital-based diplomacy projects.

While any U.S. student can volunteer to do short tasks through the micro volunteering platform, students must go through an application process to be selected for an eInternship. eInterns complete longer projects as part of their nine-month program. Applications for the 2013-2014 school year eInternships opened July 2 on USAJobs.gov, and VSFS will continue to accept submissions through July 20. Prospective applicants indicate projects they’re interested in and the selected eInterns complete projects assigned by Foreign Service Officers. Selected students intern online for 5 to 10 hours per week through the fall and spring semesters. These students complete all assignments from their college or university campuses; eInterns don’t travel abroad or to the State Department.

Nice to see the State Department providing this opportunity – as the United Nations has been providing this opportunity for more than a decade via its online volunteering service!