Social Innovation Intern Jobs (NOW HIRING)

About the Opportunity

826 Boston seeks a thoughtful, culturally responsive, and experienced professional to serve as the Internship Program Manager. We are seeking a candidate with a strong understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles and approaches who can build a strong, learning-centered internship program that supports 826 Boston’s mission and provides a high-quality experience for both interns and the students they support.

The Internship Program Manager will also spearhead efforts to increase the number of compensated interns, expanding support for 826 Boston’s programming 

Mission

826 Boston is a nonprofit writing, tutoring, and publishing organization where students in grades K-12 and beyond can share their stories, amplify their voices, and develop as leaders in school and in life.

Responsibilities

Internship Management

• Manage the intern hiring process, with a focus on recruiting individuals of color, those from the LGBTQ+ community, individuals from diverse economic backgrounds, former 826 Boston students, and skilled individuals with experience and/or interest in working with the populations we serve.
• Facilitate intern onboarding and offboarding processes.
• Retain interns by providing coaching, support, and check-ins throughout their internship placement. 
• Serve as a liaison for intern accommodations, performance challenges, and support needed throughout the interns’ placement at 826 Boston.
• Provide guidance and resources for intern supervisors to manage interns effectively and set clear goals and responsibilities. 
• In collaboration with intern supervisors, build team capacity and create space for program innovation that reflects the needs of students and educators we work with.
• Manage the professional development of interns to support their learning experience and professional growth, through providing opportunities like workshops, informational interviews, and networking.
• Collaborate with the Sr. DEI Growth Manager on goals and action plans for the Internship Program, and collaborate with program staff and the Senior Management Team to ensure systems and practices are aligned with those goals.
• Manage program data, including administering internship surveys and maintaining personnel files.
• Review intern feedback shared via check-ins and surveys, and elevate trends to the Senior Management Team and/or supervisors as needed.
• Create and manage the internship program budget, which entails submitting receipts and ensuring partners and interns are paid on time.
• Support an intern-to-staff pipeline by providing individualized growth opportunities.
• In tandem with the OOST Assistant & YLAB Teaching Artist, conduct targeted outreach to 826 Boston students and alumni to encourage their involvement in 826 Boston’s internship program.
• Update and expand the Intern Hub and Intern Supervisor Toolkit that provides resources, training, expectations, and more for interns and supervisors. 

Community Partnerships

• Build, cultivate, and manage strong relationships with partner universities and high schools to recruit interns and Federal Work-Study students.
• Manage relationships with programs that compensate interns, like College for Social Innovation’s Semester in the City, DukeEngage, Forest Foundation, BAI Edvestors, and BreakTime, among others.
• Coordinate with Boston’s Office of Youth Engagement and Opportunity (OYEO) to hire teen staff as needed.
• Explore additional partnerships, such as graduate programs, to bring in new externally compensated interns.
• Collaborate with other 826 chapters to share best practices for growing and sustaining a robust internship program.  

Additional Responsibilities

• Provide occasional support to programming as a tutor when a program staff member is absent.
• Provide support at select outreach and fundraising events, including nights and weekends on rare occasions.
• Support the Sr. Director of People, Operations, and Program Supports with administrative tasks as needed.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate is a team player with a steadfast commitment to improving the quality of K-12 education, a desire to work in a collaborative and inclusive culture, and a passion for youth empowerment through writing and publishing.

826 Boston recognizes that impostor syndrome and the confidence gap might prevent some applicants from applying. Few candidates will have all of the relevant experience listed below, but 826 Boston is committed to assessing candidates with transferable skills and a willingness to be trained for this role.

Skills and Experiences 

• 2+ years of professional experience working in career services, education, admissions, or youth development nonprofit.
• Experience developing and implementing DEI-aligned processes and protocols.
• Exceptional relational skills and expertise in relationship-building and community-building within educational, nonprofit, or community-based settings.
• Exceptional organizational, time management, project management, and resource management skills.
• Knowledge of and fluency with social and racial justice, intersectionality, BIPoC and LGBTQIA+ history, and historic/current systems of oppression.
• Ability to give and receive feedback with humility. 
• Ability to take initiative, demonstrate flexibility, and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Familiarity with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) system, particularly the schools in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain.
• Experience with Google Suite. 
• Proficiency in a language in addition to English is preferred, but not required.

Salary and Benefits 

826 Boston offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience in a similar position, with the potential for an annual performance-based bonus. The salary for this position is $62,0000 for 40 hours per week. 

We offer competitive salaries and benefits and are committed to equity, trust, and transparency in compensation. Basing compensation on someone’s ability to negotiate or their prior salary can lead to inequities and bias in how people are paid, particularly for groups experiencing historical oppression. Therefore, we do not ask for prior pay history from our candidates, and our offer-making process is negotiation-free for salaries and benefits. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint, depending on internal equity and the budgeted amount for the role.  

Benefits include flexible work from home options, generous paid time off (including 15 PTO days, accrued sick leave, 13 paid holidays, 6 Summer Fridays off, and an organization wide two-week winter break); health, dental, and vision insurance (826 Boston covers 80% of premiums), parental leave, paid Birthday off, paid sabbatical, and more.

This is a nonexempt, full-time position (40 hours a week) that reports to the Sr. Director of People, Operations, and Program Supports. The ideal start date is November 1, 2026. 

826 Boston Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement 

At 826 Boston, we honor and actively work toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across our organization. We are committed to centering the voices of the students who we serve, to creating inclusive spaces, and to incorporating feedback from our community into our decision-making processes. Our DEI lens is always evolving through the courageous conversations in which we participate and the relationships that we build through our work and service. We strengthen our cultural competency through experience, training, and feedback, which informs the development of all new organizational practices and goals and the evaluation of all existing procedures.

826 Boston is dedicated to providing a platform for student advocacy through writing and publishing opportunities. In our work and mission, we are committed to dismantling white supremacy culture by recognizing that we are complicit in systems of racism and oppression. We will work to hold ourselves accountable in addressing these harmful structures and behaviors. To learn more about our DEI Action Plans across the organization, please click here. 

About Us

826 Boston is part of a national network of youth writing centers, co-founded by the award-winning author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari, that were named in GOOD Magazine’s “30 Places We Want to Work.” Since opening in 2007, 826 Boston has delivered its free youth writing and tutoring programs to more than 29,000 students and has been recognized by The Boston Globe as one of the best places in the city to volunteer. 826 Boston’s youth writers have published their work in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and in numerous award-winning 826 Boston books, including A Place for Me in the World, which was hailed as a “triumph of middle school education” by The Boston Globe. In 2013, the 826 National network garnered the prestigious American Literacy Prize awarded by the Library of Congress. In 2025, 826 Boston was named one of the Bostonians of the Year by The Boston Globe for our steadfast commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Accommodations

826 Boston provides reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities at every stage of the application process. Disclosing a disability or requesting a need for accommodations is a separate process from admissions and will have absolutely no bearing on a candidate’s application status. 826 Boston will make every effort to meet your request, but specific requests are not guaranteed. If you need to request an accommodation, please contact Catherine Gomez at catherine@826boston.org.

How to Apply

Please include why you are interested in 826 Boston and how your experience has prepared you for this position in your cover letter. The priority application deadline for this position is August 31, 2026. After that date, applications will be considered on a rolling basis. It is in your best interest to apply as soon as possible.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.