Internship Opportunities

 

The High School Mentoring program is designed to provide elementary school-aged girls healthy and supportive relationships with caring Big Sisters to help them reach their full potential. Big Sisters are high school students at a school nearby to the Little Sisters’ elementary school.  Big and Little Sisters are matched in a 1:1 relationship. All matches meet one day a week during the Little Sister’s school day or afterschool program.   During the group session, matches spend time as a group, and in the 1:1 pairs. They do a variety of activities designed to help build girls’ competence and confidence, through the growth of the relationship between the Big and Little Sister. Big Sisters participate in 1 hour a week of Leadership Development to assist them in building a positive, caring relationship with their Little Sister and to grow their skills in areas such as effective communication, healthy relationships, and healthy decision making.

 

The High School Mentoring intern will be directly involved in planning and running this program.  Her primary assignments will consist of conducting assessments of potential Big Sisters (20-30 minute interviews), assessments of potential Little Sisters (20 minutes), making matching decisions and providing clinical match support to these 1:1 matches. She will co-facilitate the High School Mentoring Group on a weekly basis, including the Leadership Development component for the Big Sisters. She will actively plan curriculum and match activities for the weekly sessions taking into account the age and developmental needs of the Big and Little Sisters and the group as a whole. 

 

Students will have the opportunity to work with a diverse urban client population. Our Little Sisters come from a range of racial, ethnic, family and religious backgrounds.  Many of the girls we serve come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and are dealing with a range of issues common to living in poor urban areas, such as community violence.  The Little Sisters in our High School Mentoring program are in grades 2-5 (ages 7-11).  The Big Sisters are high school students, ages 15-18.  Little Sisters are referred to the program for a variety of reasons, often because of stressful family situations, shyness, poor social skills, or they are in need of special attention or some other reason. Girls participate in our 1:1 programs voluntarily. 

Our agency offers the unique opportunity to work solely with elementary aged girls and adolescents, and focus exclusively on girls’ issues and development.