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Position: Senior Associate for Teen Journalism Programs

Who we are: WriteBoston is a youth literacy focused non-profit. We believe that powerful literacy skills are core to social justice, social mobility, and equal opportunity. We are an engaging, hardworking, social-justice-loving, youth and education focused team. The demand for our work supporting schools, districts, educators, and education partners is rapidly expanding and we are looking to grow our team to meet this need.

WriteBoston exists to center and amplify the voices of youth in the greater Boston area. We do this in two ways: 1) through our newspaper Teens in Print, which is written by and for Boston teens and published quarterly, including an intensive summer journalism program, and 2) through our professional development and coaching services helping schools, districts, and education organizations better serve youth in their development as readers, writers, and critical thinkers. To see more about the specifics of our work, please look through our website.

This position will be focused on the Teens in Print newspaper and journalism program. WriteBoston’s Teens in Print is a family of free afterschool and summer programs that produces a pioneering citywide newspaper created by Boston public high school students. Developed in 2004 and published four times a year, TiP has served as a powerful platform for student journalists, editors, essayists, poets, photographers, and artists for more than a decade. Each year, 60,000 copies of the newspaper get distributed through the city’s public schools, libraries, and community centers, and articles are published online at BostonTiP.com.

While this job absolutely requires specific skills and experience, the right orientation is equally important. So if this job and this organization speak to you, please apply.

Scope of Work: One of the reasons our team loves working together is that the exact nature of our daily work varies depending on the needs of the students we are serving. Here are some illustrative examples of the kinds of work this position might involve:

• Overseeing the production of the quarterly Teens in Print newspaper: guiding students’ thinking on drafts, preparing and maintaining the page budget, sourcing and creating artwork to pair student with work, and copyediting and fact-checking the entire newspaper.
• Creating and maintaining a vast curriculum of engaging journalism lessons plans and workshops designed to accomodate the needs of a wide variety of high school learners; constantly searching for and adapting new and exciting works of journalism to serve as sample texts.
• Working with students one-on-one, offering critical feedback and highly tailored support to take them from the novice stages of journalism through the publication cycle.
• Facilitating high energy, hands-on journalism and media literacy workshops geared towards students who are new to the program and are curious to learn more about today’s media landscape.
• Optimizing student writing for online, uploading it to the Teens in Print website, and strategically and creatively sharing their posts on social media in hopes of reaching each platform’s target audience and increasing our name recognition.
• Writing! Everything from press releases, to marketing materials, to cover letters, to website copy, to grant reports.

Who you are: You are a media savvy journalist with soft spot for teens and desire to mentor the next generation of writers. You are someone who feels energized and excited by the range of responsibilities and hats that this role could entail! You should think about applying for this position if you are someone who:

• Has extensive experience in journalism, whether that be in the form of an undergraduate degree program or professional experience at a news outlet. While the exact form may vary, experience in and familiarity with the tenets of journalism are essential. We are looking for an individual who not only has published bylines, but a deep fascination with the field of journalism, specifically in our contemporary context.
• Is motivated by youth work and social justice. We do what we do every day for the students we serve and out of an abiding belief that respectful, responsive, and meaningful literacy work is social justice work. You should have experience mentoring urban youth and understand the complexities they may be facing both in and out of school, and become a supportive, trusted adult in their lives.
• Is a digital maven. You can cobble together a promotional video from footage you’ve taken on Snapchat, design an Instagram story that will get kids talking, or edit out the bunny ears one teen journalist is giving a mentor in an otherwise adorable photo. When confronted by unfamiliar technology, you are quick to Google and learn. You need to be (almost) as online as our high schoolers!
• Is a truly excellent problem solver with amazing organizational skills. You are able to identify the most important issue in a conundrum and unpack it thoroughly. No matter what shape this role takes, you will spend a lot of time helping youth work through thorny dilemmas, confront interesting problems, and design and implement next steps.
• Is a nimble writer. You will be called upon to assume different voices, write for different platforms and turn around writing at a rapid pace. Words should excite you!
• Enjoys working on a team, but can also fly solo when necessary. You won’t lack for thought partners and problem solvers (our team is awesome!) but you will often need to be able to take the ball and run with it. We are looking for someone who is both a team player and self-starter.
• Feels comfortable stepping in and leading. This role will involve facilitating meetings, running workshops, etc. The idea of it should be appealing to you.
• Is a voracious consumer of journalism. Are you always on Twitter or plugged into your favorite podcast? To excite students about journalism, it is critical that you too are passionate about it.

Location: WriteBoston’s home base is the Bruce Bolling Building at 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury, MA. However, you will also be traveling to programming sites across the city of Boston where we run afterschool and summer programming.

Hours: This position is a full time 40 hours a week position. Occassionally, work hours will fall outside the 9-5. We are an explicitly family-friendly organization. We expect employees to work hard but also prioritize work/life balance and a culture of work that is both rigorous and humane.

Salary and Benefits:

• $40,000-55,000 annual salary, depending on expereince
• 4 weeks of paid vacation + Christmas week off
• 11 paid holidays
• Generous sick and personal time
• Medical/dental insurance
• 401K

Seeking Diverse Candidates: WriteBoston is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or gender. We strongly encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. We actively seek to build a staff that reflects the students and communities we serve.

Strong command of written and verbal Engligh required; we would love to find a bi-lingual candidate as most of the students we serve speak a second language other than English.

How to Apply: Please send your resume and cover letter to the attention of Program Director Carla Gualdron and Editorial & Content Manager Alyssa Vaughn at tipjobs@writeboston.org. In addition to your cover letter and resume please include a professional writing sample.