Making a Connection Teaching Internship

Organizational Description:

Journey's End Refugee Services, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ the best-qualified personnel without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, age, sex, gender identity, marital status, or any other reason prohibited by law. 

Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc. is a refugee resettlement and immigration services provider for the Western New York Region. Journey’s End works to assist newly arriving refugees to find gainful employment and avoid dependency on social services. 

Hours Required:

10-16 hours per week for 3 months. Hours available between 9-2 M-F. Preferred availability of 3-4 hours a day, 4 days a week.

Position Description:

Making a Connection (MAC) is an educational readiness program designed to address the unique needs of mature refugee ELL students (ages 17-24) in Buffalo, New York. MAC offers opportunities to achieve educational, vocational, and employment goals through classroom instruction, ESL classes, employment training, internship placements and community service opportunities. Certified teachers and translators deliver instruction and transitional support services. Students are provided with opportunities to build their skills and set their own goals while receiving practical employment experience and preparation for continued education (GED, Vocational Education, College Prep).

Duties of MAC interns might include, but are not necessarily limited to, providing one-on-one coaching in conversation and academic skills, assisting students in the classroom in reading, writing, and math skills, participating in fun events in the school and/or community, helping with arts/sports related activities, socializing with students during breaks/lunch/free time to help with conversation and life skills, providing teachers with general assistance throughout the school day. Interns may assist with light teaching, if comfortable/appropriate (especially if the intern has an educational background).

We seek four interns per semester, including summers - one for each of our four MAC classrooms. Classes are held at the Journey's End offices,  2495 Main Street, Suite 530, in the Tri-Main Building, conveniently located several blocks south of the Amherst Street subway station.

This is an unpaid internship. A portion of the intern's time will be dedicated to their personal educational development including a thorough training in Journey's End and its mission.

Requirements:

  • Current graduate, undergraduate, or certification student.

  • An interest in teaching and adult education.

  • Professionalism, dependability, confidentiality, and punctuality

  • Adaptability to a rapidly changing environment

  • Effective interpersonal communication skills for working with people from other cultures and with limited English.

  • An interest in Buffalo's refugee population

  • An interest in the daily functioning of non-profit organizations.

  • Effective interpersonal communication skills for working with people from other cultures and with limited English.

Intern will gain:

  • Teaching and classroom management experience.

  • Experience working with the refugee population and learning the concerns and issues thereof.

  • Professional feedback and guidance.

Journey’s End supervisors will:

  • Communicate with intern about learning goals and outcomes.

  • Train and evaluate intern.

  • Provide proof of attendance, if needed.

 

Interested candidates should email a résume and cover letter to volunteer@jersbuffalo.org. No phone calls please.