INTERNSHIP TITLE: US (Portland) – Tola Engagement Intern
INTERN WORKSITE LOCATION: Portland, OR USA
DATES OF INTERNSHIP: April – August (Flexible)
LENGTH OF INTERNSHIP: 3-5 months
FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR THE INTERNSHIP: This is an unpaid Internship
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Mercy Corps continues to hone and sharpen systems to increase agency efficiency and effectiveness and maximize impact for the people we aim to serve. This requires ensuring we have the right people, capacities and systems to not only implement programs on time, on scope and on budget but to ensure learning is used and leveraged to enable influence and impact throughout implementation. As part of this, Mercy Corps is undertaking the development and rollout of an Open source software solution, called Tola. Tola aims to support adaptive program management by improving the quality of program data and ensuring we retain the evidence necessary to support the results we report on our programs.
Purpose / Project Description:
Back in October 2015, Mercy Corps determined to break the rollout of Tola into two phases: 1) Inception Phase (October through December 2015) and 2) Global Rollout (January 2016 and on). During the inception phase, five Mercy Corps countries participated in the initial rollout and through that process, helped inform the strategy for global rollout. Beginning in January, we have moved into full global rollout of Tola and are just beginning to scale, rolling out to the second cohort of countries. One of the key success factors to any good project, is good communication. The Tola project team is seeking an intern to support their communication strategy and introduce new, creative solutions for reaching our user audience.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Obtain experience on communicating across multiple contexts and with remote user groups
- General understanding of working for an NGO and particularly around monitoring and evaluation, data management, program management, etc
- Learn about the software development process and agile development
DELIVERABLES:
- Cultivate the Tola user community on Slack – posting relevant content, engaging users in discussions,
- Support Tola’s bi-weekly newsletter by developing content and identifying creative solutions to inform users of new features
- Support and develop communication pieces for the general Mercy Corps audience
- Develop a communication content structure on Mercy Corps’ intranet and create pages
- Gather data on use of Tola and develop stats for reports
IDEAL CANDIDATE SHOULD POSSESS THE FOLLOWING QUALIFICATIONS:
- Tech savvy – specifically, familiarity with Slack
- Strong written communication skills that exhibit personality, humor, creativity and (most of all) brevity
LIVING CONDITIONS: Based in Portland, OR USA
Mercy Corps interns and volunteers represent the agency both during and outside of work hours and are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
Candidates interested in this internship should submit a resume and a statement of interest. In your statement, you are encouraged to discuss any experiences related relevant to the projects outlined. You may wish to describe your career interests (specifically as they relate to policy and advocacy, humanitarian aid, or development) and discuss your previous work and educational experiences demonstrating these interests. Your application will be reviewed by the hiring team within 3 weeks of submission and shortlisted candidates will be contacted directly for interviews. All applicants will receive notification once a decision has been made.
EmoticonEmoticon