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Deep-Dive Masters (Summer Internship) - Second Round of Application Review

Summer 2017 Deep-Dive Masters

Ashoka SFS Internship Program

 

The Opportunity

Ashoka Social Financial Services (SFS) believes that markets can be a powerful tool to improve the quality and character of people’s lives. For almost a decade, Ashoka SFS has searched for and identified leading social entrepreneurs with systems-changing new ideas that use the market to create social impact. A sub-set of these social entrepreneurs is showing us something new: we can achieve greater impact by shifting the market itself to align financial success with social impact. These innovations change what it takes to win, and have the potential to shape large-scale patterns of market activity to benefit everyone.

The Ashoka SFS team has embarked on a collaborative effort to understand and share with others what we believe is a new way of thinking about and designing how our markets work.

In Summer 2016, we launched the inaugural Ashoka SFS Summer Associate internship program and welcomed the first cohort of Deep-Dive Associates. With this team of 6 outstanding Associates, we investigated over 180 Ashoka Fellows to identify innovations that are changing the architecture of our markets. This work resulted in case studies that dive deep into 18 market-based innovations to show how they each create social impact in different areas of need – such as education, efficient energy markets, affordable housing, and financial inclusion. We are expanding this rigorous program to strengthen and maximize our team-of-teams at Ashoka SFS and reach higher levels of impact.

We are currently looking for creative and forward-thinking leaders to join our team as Deep-Dive Masters and help us co-lead the next class of Deep-Dive Associates for 10 weeks in Summer 2017 (June 12 – August 18).

Key activities will include:

  • Participating in a leadership development component (remote workshops, virtual meetings, etc.) during the spring semester to equip you with the necessary knowledge and tools to co-lead a team-of-teams;
  • Guiding and motivating a small team of Deep-Dive Associates throughout the summer in our Arlington, VA offices as we search for and identify powerful market-based innovations coming out of the Ashoka Fellowship; and
  • Collaborating with the Ashoka SFS team to develop clear strategies for planning, executing, and closing the summer effort.

We expect successful candidates will take an active lead in developing and carrying out strategies for managing new information and insights; helping everyone to see the big picture and connect it with fine-grained details and analysis; encouraging Associates to lead and contribute during small-team discussions, team working sessions, and development of deliverables; and expressing passion for seeing the power of markets in creating social impact.

Why Ashoka Social Financial Services?

  • Work with a dynamic team that is passionate about unleashing the potential of markets to solve social problems.
  • Contribute to building an exciting new initiative for a leading global organization.
  • Help support world-renowned social entrepreneurs and learn from their work.
  • Gain concrete leadership experience while researching new and innovative ways to improve the quality and character of people’s lives through the market.

While positions are unpaid, this partnership offers a unique vantage point to combine learning from the most powerful social innovations around the world with cutting-edge thought leadership.

What qualities are we looking for in Deep-Dive Masters?

We look for the following in our Deep-Dive Masters:

  • Determination, ambition, and passion for changing the world by bringing together people and through rigorous approaches and big ideas;
  • Entrepreneurial character and capacity to mobilize people, ideas, and resources to achieve strategic goals for a shared vision; and
  • Ability to analyze information at a conceptual and operational level, and creative in solving problems of large-scale.

Strong candidates will be excellent communicators, express self-awareness and strong empathy for others, and have strong ethical fiber.

What else do we look for?

While not required, we have found that people with the following succeed in this position:

  • Masters degree, Doctorate or other graduate-level experience;
  • Familiarity with qualitative analysis; and
  • Deep experience with at least one of the following: Public Policy; International Development; Diverse for-profit business models; Social Entrepreneurship, Social Impact, and/or Innovation; Economics, Sociology of Economics, Philosophy of Economics, and/or other discipline with an emphasis on economies; other related field.

We welcome all applicants, but will be looking for evidence of comfort/experience with conceptual work and detailed research for undergraduates.


 


 

About Ashoka

Founded in 1980, Ashoka is the world’s working community of more than 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs. It champions the most important new social change ideas and supports the entrepreneurs behind them by helping them get started, grow, succeed, and collaborate. As Ashoka expands its capability to integrate and connect entrepreneurs around the world, it builds an entrepreneurial infrastructure that is supporting the fast-growing needs of the citizen sector. Ashoka’s vision is to create change today, for an Everyone A Changemaker™ society to become the reality of tomorrow. For more information, visit our website.