About
ESA’s staff relies on student volunteers to help run our Annual Meeting each year. We greatly appreciate your interest. We will select students (undergraduate or graduate level) to assist with tasks throughout the week. Volunteers who complete their assignments (about 1 hour of training and 10 hours of work) will receive a refund of their student Early Bird registration fee. Please note that the refund must go to the original form of payment.
Applications will be accepted on a first come first served basis, and applicants will only be accepted if they are also registered for the meeting. Preference will be given to ESA members and students available at the very start and very end of the meeting.
*Please note that in recent years, all available volunteer slots have filled well before the Early Bird cutoff date.
Eligibility
In order to be considered for a volunteer assignment at this meeting, by the Early Bird deadline, each applicant must:
- Be a student*
- Register to attend the meeting at the student Early Bird rate (which includes paying the appropriate fee)
- Complete and submit the online student volunteer application including your ESA ID and the email affiliated with your your ESA account
- Submitting the online application does not guarantee you a spot
* We will consider current students, students who graduated in 2027 and students who will be starting in Fall 2027.
Volunteer Assignments
Applicants will be notified of their selection on a rolling basis and will be instructed to sign up for assignments starting in early July.
Student volunteers will work several shifts throughout the week to complete the 10 required hours. Shifts are available every day throughout the meeting. Most shifts are 2 hours.
Possible assignments include:
- Session Presider: Help speakers for oral presentations move their slides onto the laptop in the room, introduce each speaker, and manage Q&A after each presentation. You will also help resolve minor technical issues. No previous experience with A/V support is required. You will be able to text our professional A/V for help with any technical issues that require troubleshooting. All A/V assistants will be trained on site at one of three training sessions. The majority of student volunteer positions are session presider shifts.
- Registration Desk: Greet attendees and give them their registration materials, help keep the Registration area organized, and perform other support tasks as assigned by ESA staff.
- Information Desk: Answer general questions about the meeting. Knowledge of the local area and fluency in other languages are helpful skills for this task.
- Session Attendance Counting & Human Signage: Stand outside the door and direct folks. Visit the workshops, special sessions, and plenaries to estimate attendance.
- ESA Booth: Help sell merchandise at the ESA booth and answer general questions.
- Press Room: Greet members of the media as they arrive and help answer their questions.
- Career Central: Greet attendees at the welcome desk and answer general questions.
- Set-Up and Packing: Assisting ESA staff with setting up the conference center prior to the meeting and packing up supplies when the conference has concluded.
If You Are Selected
We will notify all applicants of their status by early July.
Volunteers will be eligible for a refund of their meeting registration fee after signing up for and completing all 10 hours of assignments. Volunteers will be reimbursed for the applicable Early Bird student fee, but not for any additional fees, such as Short Courses. All refunds will be processed after the meeting, but no later than October 1, 2027.
Please note that all refunds may only be returned to the original form of payment for fraud/auditing purposes.
Timeline
| Early May | Meeting registration and volunteer applications are open. |
| June | Deadline for Early Bird Registration AND volunteer applications. Note: slots often fill prior to the close of the application. |
| Early July | Student volunteer applicants will start to be accepted on a rolling basis and will be instructed to signup for shifts. |
Questions?
Holli Jones / Meetings Manager
Phone: (202) 833-8773
Email: holli@esa.org
