Program Associate, Campuswide Immersion

Organization Overview

As America approaches its 250th birthday, growing polarization threatens our national unity, democracy, and security. We can’t afford to wait—we must address this divisiveness now. To chart a peaceful path forward, we need citizens who are well-informed, productively engaged, and committed to democracy. Today’s 14-24-year-olds urgently need the civic knowledge and skills to solve the complex challenges our country faces. Yet, the institutions where they learn, work, and live are not fully equipped to provide them with the tools they need to become effective, collaborative citizens.

The mission of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars (“Citizens & Scholars”) is to cultivate talent, ideas, and networks that develop young people as effective, lifelong citizens. Our vision is a strong American democracy and a flourishing civil society where all people can thrive. We collaborate with leaders in higher education, business, and philanthropy to transform colleges, workplaces, and communities into hubs for civic development. In each of these spaces, we develop and implement programs that equip young people with the civic skills needed to address the divisive issues facing our country. Our offerings include co-designed programs, digital products, convenings, trainings, fellowships, and coalition networks – all with clear success metrics to measure real progress.

For the past 80 years, Citizens & Scholars has prepared leaders and engaged networks of people and organizations to meet urgent education challenges, helping to shape an informed, productively engaged, and committed citizenry. Formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, we have forged stronger connections between K–12 and higher education and provided early funding for the work of 16 Nobel Laureates, 21 Pulitzer Prize winners, 27 Presidential and National Medalists, 44 MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipients, and more than 100 college presidents.

Today, under the leadership of its President, Rajiv Vinnakota, Citizens & Scholars is uniting the organization's legacy with a commitment to launch new civic learning ventures in and beyond education, building unlikely alliances to reimagine and recenter citizen development for young people.

Position Overview

The Campuswide Immersion Program Associate will play an integral role in supporting the program director and the rest of the CWI Team, as well as the growing number of institutions that rely on CWI structure and support to diversify, strengthen, and evaluate their programming.

Campuswide Immersion (CWI) is a first-of-its-kind initiative created through College Presidents for Civic Preparedness. Its mission is to create campus cultures where every student, not only those who choose to participate, feels empowered to engage in civil discourse, navigate information critically, and collaborate to solve shared challenges. Grounded in a shared theory of change, CWI partners with a campus-defined Action Council of faculty, staff and students to embed civic learning across the campus. Together, they cultivate the motivation, skills and social permission students need to navigate differences and lead with civic fluency. Through this work, colleges and universities strengthen democratic values and prepare the next generation of informed, engaged citizens.

Reporting to the Program Director, this individual will be a trusted and essential colleague on the CWI team with strong organizational skills and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with both internal and external colleagues. The ideal candidate will possess acute attention to detail, have the ability to plan as well as manage and store materials about CWI’s initiative.

This role, like all roles at Citizens & Scholars, is based out of our Princeton, NJ headquarters, and will require occasional visits to the Princeton office. However, most time will be spent working remotely, and the ideal candidate will be a self-starter who is comfortable working in a remote work environment.

Essence of the Position

• Serve as the logistical lead in storing and sharing information about the Campuswide Immersion (CWI) initiative, engaging 40+ institutions in creating campus cultures that support civic engagement, learning, and development.
• Coordinate and organize all virtual and in-person sessions with multiple cohorts and with the CWI team.

Primary Focus

• Organize and implement all virtual sessions: schedule and confirm all sessions; manage invitations and reminders; track participation; create objectives, robust agendas, and supporting documents and presentations to share with participants.
• Manage, track, and update institutional attendance and relationships of participating Action Council members, including contributing to the inputs of progress markers in coordination with the Program Officer.
• In coordination with Director of Events, design and implement all in-person and virtual CWI convenings and CWI-related gatherings; serve as liaison between Director of Events, CWI Program Director, and CWI Program Officers; ensure a well-designed experience and sound logistics; support the creation of event materials and booklets; manage communication with attendees as required.
• In consultation with the Communications team, refine and implement a communications plan to ensure participating schools are informed of CP2 and CWI news, events and progress updates.
• Assist with preparation of all CWI materials (e.g., creation, proofreading, evaluation, dissemination) and sub-grant materials.
• Manage electronic repositories of information for CWI—including Egynte, Teams, Airtable, and other systems as needed. Coordinate multiple sources of information to produce one accessible Action Plan for each institution.
• Manage payment disbursements to campuses and contractors working with CWI; process appropriate documents for payment, ensure campuses are aware of and fulfill eligibility requirements; coordinate payments with finance team.
• Assist the Program Director with recruitment for new cohorts.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required
• At least 2-3 years of non-profit program/project support or university administration experience.
• Excellent skills in writing and interpersonal communication.
• Previous experience working directly with campus leaders in higher education.
• High attention to detail.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to work well with people with diverse perspectives and experiences.
• Proficiency with various social media; Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook); knowledge of Airtable a plus.
• Willingness to travel to convenings.
• Remote work
• Authorization to work in the United States

Attributes

• You are entrepreneurial and self-starter: you are eager to start and manage new projects, always thinking about ways to increase impact and scale; you don’t need to be told what to do, and you will manage up and ask questions to mine for clarity throughout the process.
• You pay close attention to detail and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a team who thinks big and is always iterating on projects until we complete them.
• You are an excellent communicator – written and oral - and can persuasively capture where we currently are and where we can go together; you keep stakeholders informed, invested, and excited to be a part of the team.
• You are eager to learn and grow alongside your colleagues, working to build strong, trusting relationships in which you are committed to excellence in your work that is directly tied to impact in the field.

Our Core Values

• We are constantly learning and improving. We test and refine new ideas and learn from our mistakes. We dare to question old solutions. We seek opportunities to collaborate with our diverse team; different backgrounds, skill sets, and thinking styles give us valuable new perspectives. We share knowledge and insights with each other to help us grow as individuals and as an organization.
• We value diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for all. We believe that we are stronger for our differences, and we acknowledge, respect, and appreciate them. We actively work with and learn from everyone—across all demographics, backgrounds, ideologies, and geographies. We identify areas where we differ and, for the good of the organization and each other, we explore and engage with differing perspectives.
• We are gracious and grateful in all that we do. We invest in our relationships with warmth and a sense of humor. We express gratitude to all our colleagues and stakeholders. While we strive for excellence, we recognize that no one is perfect. We give others the benefit of the doubt and act with kindness and integrity.
• We are attentive and intentional. We are aware of the needs of the world and those around us so that our work has a real impact. Our work is mission-driven and we know the “whys”—both large and small—behind what we do. Recognizing that details matter, we are equally committed to quality.

C&S offers a generous benefits package.