Seeking Metro DC Grad Students to Research & Lead International Dialogues

About Learning Life & Its Citizen Diplomacy Initiative

Learning Life is an educational nonprofit in Washington D.C. that seeks to spread learning in everyday life beyond school walls. Learning Life has recently begun a Citizen Diplomacy Initiative that engages lower-income American families, starting in Washington D.C., in live internet video dialogues or “virtual exchanges” and project collaborations with lower-income families in other nations to foster global citizenship and family and youth development.

img_5505About the Opportunity

Learning Life seeks metro D.C. graduate students in Master’s or Ph.D. programs to serve as volunteer organizers for our live international dialogues. Organizers work with specific families in D.C. and abroad to:

  1. Schedule family-to-family dialogues and reserve space for the dialogues.
  2. Schedule Learning Life language interpreters to translate the families’ words during the dialogues.
  3. Remind the families and arrange their transportation to the dialogues as needed.
  4. Moderate the dialogues to ensure families are actively participating and progressing.
  5. Conduct periodic surveys of the families and enter the resulting survey data in our databases.
  6. Communicate with our foreign partners via Skype to arrange the dialogues and gather their data.
  7. Contribute to Learning Life research reports based on the accumulated data.

screen-shot-2016-09-17-at-3-31-26-pmTime commitment is about 5-8 hours/week for at least one year. Specific benefits include:

  1. Working directly with Learning Life’s founder, Dr. Paul Lachelier, a sociologist with twenty years of experience as a teacher and community organizer
  2. Experience with research, and the opportunity to co-author research reports
  3. A work reference and written recommendation, contingent on performance
  4. Participating in and shaping live, international, family-to-family dialogues
  5. Working with lower-income families and children ages 10-18 to help them learn and thrive
  6. Nurturing international understanding and global citizenship
  7. Experience managing volunteers
The Graduate Students We Seek

This opportunity is ideal for graduate students seeking tangible experience in international (a) research, and (b) peace and development work using the internet. Applicants should be outgoing, cultural sensitive, organized, detail-oriented, hard-working and punctual. Prior experience in international affairs, community organizing or social justice work is preferred, but not required. Fluency in Spanish, French, Arabic or Filipino is a plus, as is having lived in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and/or Washington D.C.’s Wards 7 or 8 (D.C. east of the Anacostia River).

How to Apply

Email Dr. Lachelier directly at paul@learninglife.info with your resume and times you are available in the next seven days for a phone interview.