ASHOKA
Social Innovation
Ashoka identifies and supports the world's leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community that embraces these new frameworks to build an "everyone a changemaker world."
Greater Washington, D.C. Area
Job Title: Ashoka Support for Entrepreneurs (ASE) Coordinator
Supervisor: Global General Counsel
Social Entrepreneurs in Legal Education (SELE) (60%)
The Ashoka Global Legal Department wishes to develop
a program to accelerate legal social innovation. The ASE
Coordinator will play a central role in developing this idea.
There exists a significant gap in the availability of
experiential learning for law students interested in law
and social innovation. Concurrently, social entrepreneurial
organizations often lack sufficient capacity to carry out
projects. A newly proposed Ashoka Legal Internship
Program addresses these needs by providing short term
support to Ashoka Fellow ventures focused on the law
while law students gain practical experience and exposure
to the legal social entrepreneurial space. The ultimate
goal is to multiply the number of changemaker lawyers
exponentially. The Weil Legal Innovator will be responsible
for managing the project from design to
implementation phase.
Fellows Support Services (40%)
Ashoka provides different services to Fellows to support
their social ventures and bring their ideas to scale. Given
the nature of their work and the diverse geographical
location of Fellows, and although Ashoka Fellows refrain
from direct political involvement, they sometimes face
challenges due to the political landscape. The Weil Legal
Innovator will help revamp of the existing Fellows Security
Program by performing research, and updating and
expanding resources to develop a robust internal structure
to assist Fellows with security challenges, for example
assisting with relocation and linking Fellows to appropriate
networks as necessary. This will involves engaging with
Ashoka’s Venture and Fellowship Teams.
- Ashoka seeks a self-motived applicant who flourishes in creative work environments
- The ideal candidate will be well organized and able to manage their own time as different tasks arise
- Requirements for the position include proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, research skills, the ability to take initiative, project management skills, the ability to work independently and in a team environment, and the ability to communicate with professional and educational networks
Greater Washington, D.C. Area
Job Title: Special Project Lead, Ashoka U
Supervisor: Chief Operating Officer
Ashoka U is the higher education initiative of Ashoka – the world’s largest community of changemakers. Ashoka U believes that higher education can and should be a force for social impact. Given Ashoka U’s innovative and fastpaced culture, the Weil Legal Innovator can work on several strategic projects throughout the year.
Knowledge Products and Resources:
The Commons is an online, professional development program for higher education faculty and staff working to advance social innovation education opportunities on their campuses. Working in cohorts, participants have the opportunity to learn from a coach and one another as they work to advance their own social innovation education project.
- Research, analyze and develop content for knowledge products and trainings on changemaking education and organizational transformation in higher education.
- Develop and curate new materials for Commons Cohorts, providing participants the opportunity to access the highest quality resources to support them as they accelerate social impact opportunities on campus.
Exchange Products:
The Exchange is Ashoka U’s global gathering for social impact educators. Every year, Ashoka U brings together 650+ faculty, staff, administrators, students, and thought leaders for three days of inspiration, learning, and community building for social innovation and changemaking education.
- Co-design a Track at the Exchange.
- Co-lead development of 2021 Exchange sponsorship strategy and deck, making the Exchange more accessible and contributing to the financial sustainability of Ashoka U.
- Co-lead the process to secure hosts for the 2022 and 2023 Exchanges, supporting Ashoka U to update sponsorship pricing related to hosting and develop a shortlist of potential campuses.
Community Engagement Projects:
Changemaker Campus is a community of leaders and institutions that work collectively to make social innovation and changemaking a new norm in higher education and beyond. There are currently approximately 45 campuses in the network across 10 countries. #MillionsofChangemakers is a global call for commitments from colleges, universities, and higher education innovators to activate and support changemakers.
- Activate stakeholder influence and collaboration across our networks (e.g, Changemaker Campus, #MillionsofChangemakers, Commons, and/or Ashoka U Exchange).
- Create/nurture communities/practices at the intersection of law, higher education, and social impact.
DESIRED SKILLS
- Keen sense of curiosity and desire to learn
- Strong research, analysis, and writing skills (e.g., mine large amounts of data; identify categories and units of analysis; identify and/or calculate themes, trends, etc.; synthesize, draw conclusions, report, and persuasively present analysis)
- Strong written and oral communication skills (e.g., proficiency conducting interviews, managing meetings, fielding stakeholder questions, and developing fact sheets, memos, presentations, reports, etc.)