Common Experience Internship
Common Experience Intern: Kindness Specialist
The Common Experience at UCLA seeks to unite the Bruin community by igniting discussion and inspiring action across campus. Students, staff and faculty gather annually to choose a theme which guides exploration and discourse for the community. The selected theme for the 2024-2025 academic year is “Critical Discourse and Social Impact,” and the selected media is the The War for Kindness by Jamil Zaki. Interns of the Common Experience will support the Academics and First Year Experience team within Residential Life to bring this year's theme to fruition through research, implementation, and assessment of the program as we work to create community, inspire empathy, and promote positive activism at UCLA.
Why we need you
Student’s input and leadership drives the Common Experience Program forward by:
- Voicing ideas and being present to inform program goals, planning, and initiatives
- Allowing for diverse backgrounds and histories to inform the program
- Creating opportunities for student-to-student engagement
- Allowing student voices to guide discussion
- Showcasing driven, passionate, leadership to ensure student body buy-in
The Common Experience is a Residential Life/First Year Experience program that largely influences campus and finds momentum through partnerships. Interns will have the opportunity to participate in building campus relationships with student organizations, departments, and institutional initiatives. We seek an organized, adaptable, and motivated individual like you to ensure the success of our program, with the ultimate goal of building community across campus!
What you’ll do
Under the direct supervision of the First Year Experience Coordinator, interns will perform the following tasks:
Community Building & Event Planning
- Promote, develop, and implement active and passive programming and events relevant to this year’s Common Experience theme
- Develop positive, respectful, and personal relationships with Residential Life+ student and professional staff
- Identify campus partners and stakeholders that directly relate to the Common Experience program and theme - offer resources, build comradery, and utilize their expertise
- Leverage personal knowledge and experience to bring creativity to existing/planned programming
Administration
- Complete assigned reading of the book and other relevant materials to inform work
- Work independently and efficiently on all task assignments
- Maintain an online archive of all files and work for the Common Experience program to serve as a reference for future years’ interns and staff
- Meet regularly with the First Year Experience Coordinator and affiliates
- Work a minimum of 6 hours per week in a designated office space during the 2024-2025 academic year; other hours are spent outside of the office delivering presentations and facilitating events
- Attend training sessions as assigned and weekly staff meetings
Communication
- Develop strong oral and written communication skills for presentations to students, staff, and faculty and through email correspondence
- Collaborate with peers and interns and other Residential Life/Campus employees (student and full-time) to establish and continuously contribute to the overall success of the Common Experience Program
- Work closely with the staff to understand students’ needs and concerns, and to encourage their involvement in programs
- Establish an effective work relationship with the First Year Experience Coordinator, Academics & First Year Experience team, fellow interns, and other stakeholders in order to effectively meet students’ needs
What makes you qualified
Skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to perform assigned functions above are preferred and will be developed through trainings. Previous knowledge of and engagement with social justice and/or empathy-building experiences is preferred, but not required. Additionally, programming and leadership experience through participation in a formal organization are deemed helpful.
For this position, candidates must have a 2.3 minimum cumulative GPA at the time of application, hire, and/or rehire (beginning of Fall Quarter of each academic year).
Successful candidates must maintain full-time student status (12 units per quarter) during time of employment.
Looking for candidates with spunk, spirit, and spice to grow and share their knowledge to advance the Common Experience Program across campus.
We are prioritizing candidates who can start in person work on the Hill over the summer, June 2024, and continue through the school year.
How much you will get paid
Pay is $17.05/hour and follows Student 2 classification.
Over the summer we will offer up to 30 hours/week and during the school year we will offer up to 12 hours/week, minimum 6 hours/week.
Summer training
Interns are required to attend All Staff Training. This begins September 9th, 2024 and ends September 13, 2024. Housing and a meal plan may be provided during this period.
If you have questions about this please email FirstYearExperience@orl.ucla.edu.
Hiring timeline
Application opens: May 3, 2024
Application closes: May 24, 2024
Interviews begin: May 27, 2024 (and on a rolling basis)
Offers will go out: June 5, 2024
Start Date: As early as June. We are prioritizing candidates who can work over the summer during Sessions A and/or C.