Communications Intern

Science Atlantic is a non-profit association for post-secondary faculty, researchers, and students in Atlantic Canada. Now in our 60th year, priorities of our five-year strategic plan (https://sciatl.org/StratPlan2018-22) include member engagement, developing partnerships, and increasing communications. Our goals in 2022 are to increase engagement of new and existing members, partners, and donors, and implement systems that improve online communication and connection.

Who you are:

You are a dynamic and organised person with excellent communication (written and oral) and relationship building skills. You excel when working as part of a team and you care about engaging people in achieving meaningful goals. You enjoy developing persuasive communications, and you like to apply your problem-solving skills in new situations. You get the “big picture” and how your work fits in meeting organisational goals. You are self-motivated, able to approach situations with a fresh eye, dependable, and can effectively work remotely with a team using a variety of project and team management software platforms.

Possible projects:

As part of a team with the Program and Membership Support Officer, Executive Director, and student employees, the Communications Assistant will be able to develop a custom placement focussing on their skills and interests. The successful candidate will work on three to five of the following:

● Overall, as part of the team, understand and contribute to organisational goals for the period of the placement

● Take over development and implementation of communications strategy (currently being developed by a recent PR graduate; there will be 4-6 weeks of overlap)

● Help us communicate the right messages to the right people: we have multiple audiences that have different opinions of why Science Atlantic matters: students, faculty, sponsors, senior academic leaders (Deans, VPs, Presidents), donors)

● Research current and potential donors to gain insight into needs, beliefs, and habits, and draft donation appeal pieces

● Research potential funding bodies and assist with preparing grant applications that communicate our value (another current student employee is researching potential fundraising options which is a new activity for us; they will finish in April)

● Provide social media mentorship to a part-time undergraduate student employee (this student works for us year round but has no social media training or experience and would gain from a Humber student’s expertise)

● Assist with developing surveys

● Review and improve our style and editorial guide, and do short presentations/workshops at staff meetings to improve our skills

● Leverage website, blog, and internal communications channels to improve relationships with supporters, members, and others

● Analyse the performance of communications for effectiveness in meeting goals

● Format and updating by-laws for print and web

● Coordinate translation of documents

● Assist with developing and updating policies for the organisation

● Possible: Develop onboarding communications for a new online community (the software we chose is being reconsidered so this may not happen in 2022)

Example of a current student project: Develop a pitch for why post-secondary institutions should join our organisation.

Competencies:

● Excellent communication skills

● Proficient in Microsoft Office and Google docs

● Highly organised and able to prioritise multiple tasks

● Able to work well in a team of staff and volunteers, mainly virtually

● Creative and flexible; strong critical thinking and problem solving skills

● Responsible and dependable

● Assets:

o Familiarity with online communications platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mailchimp, WordPress (or similar)

o Familiarity with team management tools (we use Notion, Slack, and Clockify)

o Bilingual (English and French)

Please provide: cover letter, resume, and sample of work

Due to funding constraints, this opportunity is open to domestic students only.

I have a one-on-one with each student each week to plan, develop, and review goals, go over the projects they're working on, answer questions, offer suggestions. I'm available as needed throughout the week, and team members are enouraged to work with each other. We have weekly team meetings where we go over all our projects and discuss if we are on track, what we need help with, etc.

As a team:

1. We have daily staff check ins and weekly team meetings in which students rotate in the positions of chair and scribe to gain experience in leading meetings and capturing actions
2. Students set individual goals at the beginning of the term and share with each other for accountability.
3. In the weekly meetings, we review each person's projects to ensure they're on track.
4. At the end of the term, we review as a group how we met our goals for the term.