Internship Program
Our community needs a growing body of young people who can contribute to the material and spiritual progress of our neighborhoods, both through professions and voluntary engagement with civil society. The capacities developed by our programs aspire to equip a new generation of youth to read social reality and develop meaningful processes and initiatives of social action. This growing cadre of human resources will need to be able to analyze the social forces at work in society with a coherent conceptual framework and generate new ways of thinking about social change in light of relevant scientific and spiritual knowledge.
Tutoring
Each intern is responsible for providing one-on-one academic tutoring for two middle schoolers each week for one hour. Academic tutoring focuses on helping middle school students in library and numeracy. Using the material from the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program, interns help junior youth improve their language capabilities. Language tutoring focuses on four elements: pronunciation, fluidity, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Numeracy focuses on helping the middle school students strengthen basic math skills including multiplication and division, addition and subtraction, fractions and basic algebra using flashcards and worksheets.
Mentorship
Each intern is connected to an older mentor who consults with them about every aspect of their life. Mentors work with the youth to help them reflect on their lives. They consult with the youth about everything they are doing – service, tutoring, where to go to school, what courses to take, decisions about how they’re spending their time and dimensions of their relationships with their family. They explore the value of the things the youth are doing with their time. Mentoring sessions often last between 90 minutes and two hours. Having a mentor provides an opportunity for reflection and to have a trusted friend to turn to with challenges and to identify ways of overcoming challenges as they arise.
Scholarship
In order to support their intellectual development, each intern receives a financial scholarship as part of their internship. For high school students, they receive a their scholarship at the end of senior year to use for their academic advancement.
Study of the Preparation for Social Action materials
As part of the internship, each intern will study books of the Preparation for Social Action materials developed by Fundaec (Foundation for the Application and Teaching of Science). Fundaec is a Baha’i inspired organization in Colombia focused on building capacity in various populations to help them carry out action and research related to the various processes that make up their social, economic, and cultural life. The PSA materials “enable young people to participate in generating and applying knowledge as protagonists of the progress of their communities. PSA is a program that equips young people with the necessary skills to become promoters of community well-being.” PSA materials help strengthen the intellectual capabilities of the interns by helping building capacities to read reality, describe the world around them and engage in action.