Work With Purpose – The Student Analyst Program
February 24, 2020 | By Matt Fortier
Students today have myriad job opportunities presented to them: work in the library, the dorms, or a local retail outlet. Others choose internships (paid or not) in their chosen future industry. But what if you have higher goals? What if you want to make an impact on society? What if you want to dive deeper into your own motivations? We’ve got you covered, and today, we open applications for the Summer 2020 Student Analyst program.
About a dozen undergraduates and graduates, from both our home here at Georgetown and schools across the nation, will get more than the typical summer job experience because we hold the deep conviction that they’re more than employees – they’re the future of social impact leadership.
Interested? Read the Job Descriptions and Apply
In fulfilling our mission as a training ground for students and preparing students for leadership in the social impact space, we center our approach on experiential learning. Student analysts gain hands-on experience supporting projects across our Fair Finance, Data + Digital, and Sustainable Student Impact portfolios, learning by doing and applying theoretical concepts to real-world problems. What sets the Student Analyst program apart is that in addition to gaining direct experience tackling social impact projects, we accompany students on their social impact journey through fostering reflection and cultivating mutual investment. Let’s explore how this is achieved.
A key feature of the program is the creation of a Mutual Development Agreement, where students identify 2-3 learning and development goals they wish to achieve over the course of their semester at the Beeck Center, connecting them to their project and portfolio’s broader goals. The process is iterative, with the analyst and their supervisor working to identify not only the appropriate goals for the semester, but also the responsibilities of both the student and supervisor in meeting each goal. For example, Casey Doherty (College ‘20), works with me to support our Social Impact Navigator. She set the goal of improved communication through different mediums and for different audiences (the Navigator calls this Influential Communication & Collaboration). To help her reach that goal, I provided her with relevant opportunities while developing additional resources to enhance her abilities. For example, we’ve designed a Social Impact Storytelling workshop for this spring, to guide students on how to break from their usual academic style.
Student Analysts in Action
Read first-hand reports from our student analysts on the work they’ve done.
- Taking Action for Social Impact as a Georgetown Student
- How to Get Started in Public Interest Tech
- From Heritage Village to Opportunity Zones
Another aspect of the program that sets us apart from any old job, is that we provide workshops and team-building activities throughout the semester. In addition to our upcoming Social Impact Storytelling workshop, we’ll also be hosting a training session with Data + Digital Fellow Denice Ross giving students practical skills for creating and leveraging a LinkedIn profile, and navigating formal and informal networking opportunities. The Center’s open workspace serves as a great starting place for such a network, as students develop lasting relationships through team-building activities such as a National Archives field trip and kayaking on the Potomac.
We encourage students to break down silos and bridge gaps through our Discern + Digest series, where students grapple with challenging questions and strive to discover their personal role in working towards the common good. This weekly series provides students an important opportunity to step back from their daily work activities and gain perspective on their actions through reflection and discernment. Given the busy lives we all lead – all too true at a place like Georgetown – putting away laptops and phones (D+D is a technology free zone) and talking through questions about identity, personal responsibility, personal motivation, and self-care, is incredibly valuable. Moreover, Discern + Digest helps students become comfortable not necessarily solving thorny questions, but rather unraveling them, leaving space for silence, discomfort, and uncertainty.
I’ve written this blog in conjunction with the Summer 2020 Student Analyst Program application launch because we hope to attract students who are interested in social impact, who want to apply themselves to our work, and with whom this concept of “more than just a job” resonates. We want to attract students interested in gaining skills for social impact leadership and developing a mindset that embraces reflection and is motivated towards the common good. For students thinking about their role in the greater social impact space and who are ready to immerse themselves in a unique learning opportunity while taking risks and being challenged, we look forward to seeing your applications and getting to know you this spring!