Internship Coordinator

About exalt

exalt elevates expectations of personal success for youth ages 15-19 who’ve been involved in the criminal justice system. We inspire youth at a critical crossroads to believe in their worth, from the first steps in contemplation through the journey to create lasting behavioral change. Our powerful combination of structured classes for tangible skill development, individualized support to navigate the education and justice systems, placement in paid internships and an alumni network of resources equips youth with the tools and experience to avoid further criminal justice system involvement. At exalt, we empower youth to see a future filled with hope – and we provide the road map to get there.

Job Summary

Exalt is seeking an Internship Coordinator as part of a board endorsed strategic plan for expansion into Syracuse, NY. The individual in this role is highly collaborative, passionate about relationship building, and enjoys working in a dynamic environment that is focused on providing the highest quality internship and external opportunities for court-involved youth in Syracuse. This individual is passionate about utilizing exalt’s unique, humanizing, critical pedagogical and culturally relevant curriculum and methods of youth development to empower court-involved students to thrive in their internships, re-engage in education and avoid further criminal justice system involvement. They will strategically seek out and build new partnerships to help advance the mission of exalt and work closely with various members of the program team to place core and post-graduate exalt students at their internship sites. The Internship Coordinator acts as a point person for exalt’s internship partners in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors.

Responsibilities

• Strategically prospect and develop new external partnerships to help exalt’s core and alumni participants in Syracuse advance in terms of their education, employability and criminal justice avoidance.

• Leverage current and internal relationships among staff, board and friends of exalt to cultivate new and additional internship opportunities.

• Sustain and strengthen current internship relationships to strengthen exalt’s current internship partner pool in Syracuse.


• Conduct frequent outreach via phone, email, and in-person visits to Syracuse businesses, NYS government agencies, and Syracuse nonprofits to develop exciting, innovative and enriching internships that provide meaningful and transformative experiences for exalt students that help them meet their interests and goals.


• Provide the Lead Teachers and Program Coordinators with a list of active/eligible sites and assist Program Coordinators and Teachers with placement of core program participants to internships sites.

• Collaborate with Lead Teachers and Program Coordinators to secure placement and schedule interviews.

• Coordinate the placement of graduate interns at extended 3-month graduate internship sites and provide support during their internship experience to circumvent attrition.

• Ensure that all data related to internship development, cultivation and placement as well as interviews and intake, is captured in Salesforce.

• Support with special events, outreach and recruitment, and other business engagement tasks as needed.

• Organize and facilitate internship match meetings to help teachers and program coordinators determine program participants' career interests and best fit.

• Vet new internship sites to ensure that burgeoning partnerships align with exalt’s mission, four tenets and development of participants’ four Core skills.

• Work with exalt's program leaders to develop innovative and effective communication strategies to attract and sustain new internship and community partners that will ultimately create pathways to higher levels of engagement (i.e. new donors, in-kind donations, workshop providers).

Competencies

• Adaptability: Able to adapt quickly to new information and unexpected obstacles, and approach change positively. Able to adapt exalt’s curriculum to the specific needs, learning styles and personalities of each cohort of students.


• Applied learning: Able to learn and apply new position-related information For example, all exalt youth interface with the juvenile or criminal (adult) justice systems. The Lead Teacher must become familiar with these systems to understand their role in students’ lives and meaning in curriculum.


• Communication: Clearly and effectively convey and receive information and ideas to/from students and colleagues through a variety of media. Demonstrate strong written, oral and listening skills.


• Planning and organizing: Organize work, set priorities, determine resource requirements and seek input and support from supervisors/colleagues; determine necessary sequence of activities needed to achieve goals.


• Stress tolerance: exalt students face a plethora of obstacles in their lives and often have pending court requirements that put their freedom in Staff must be able to make challenging decisions (e.g., potentially releasing a student from the program who cannot meet standards despite program flexibility) and balance the emotional aspects of working with young people facing severe challenges.

Compensation

• The Internship Coordinator Salary is $60,000 per year.


• exalt offers competitive benefits to all full-time employees that include health, dental, vision, and life insurance; 401k matching; commuter and parking flexible spending; paid time off; and more.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent level of experience in internship placement, partnership building, or matching with system-involved youth required.

• 1-3 years of experience in youth development, youth justice, internship, partnership and/or network development fields.

• Familiarity working with court-involved youth or similar population of system-involved youth who have not had exposure to a professional environment or in the workforce.

• A deep and nuanced understanding of the business, political, non-profit criminal justice/human services relationships and landscape in the Syracuse area.