Ashoka Latin America Intern

Position at Ashoka

About

Ashoka is looking for graduate students to support the Ayni: Communities of Local Innovators initiative. Ayni is a global community of social innovators and local government leaders who are working collaboratively to address pressing needs in their cities. The initiative is led by Ashoka, the Social Innovation CoLab - UC Chile, Red de Innovación Local, and Via Educación.

Through a six-month program, Ayni accompanies teams of social entrepreneurs and municipal leaders through a step-by-step collaborative innovation process. Teams build a shared understanding of their problem of interest, identify the critical shifts that are needed to make an enduring impact, and design a collective systems-change strategy by engaging local actors who are impacting or are being impacted by the problem. In 2021 Ayni accompanied 80 teams of social entrepreneurs and municipal leaders in close to 70 cities in Latin America. For more information, please see our article in the Social Innovations Journal.

Internship Description

The internship program offers students the opportunity to accompany teams of social entrepreneurs and local municipal leaders during the design of local change initiatives and experience firsthand the local innovation process; the interns support the teams by providing critical input and research on the problem analysis (such as survey design) and by mapping best practices globally.

Interns also have the opportunity to support the programmatic team led by Ashoka, RIL, CoLab, and Via Educación by contributing to the development of knowledge and program strategy (such as metrics).

Learning Outcomes

• Work side-by-side with social entrepreneurs and local government leaders
• Learn about design thinking, systems change, and participatory governance
• Contribute and impact change processes on the ground

Requirements

We are looking for graduate students with experience and/or coursework in innovation or entrepreneurship, international development, or in themes that are relevant for local development (environment, urban policy, health, economic development, citizen participation, inclusion of vulnerable or marginalized groups in local policy design). Native Spanish or advanced Spanish and experience in Latin America are highly desirable but not a must.

Compensation: Unpaid

Dates: Flexible

Time Dedication: full-time or part-time

Location: Virtually/remotely or in one of the following offices: Washington DC, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Santiago – Chile.