Careers at RFCUNYJob Openings

Overview

The CUNY Cultural Service Corps is a new program at CUNY launching in fall 2016. Modeled after the CUNY Service Corps, which provides hundreds of CUNY students with paid work experience in civic-oriented jobs in community-based organizations and government agencies, the Cultural Corps will be a strong student pipeline into New York City’s arts & culture institutions. New York City has recently made a commitment to address the lack of diversity in the leadership, staff, and audience of New York City’s cultural institutions, and CUNY is partnering with NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs to create the CUNY Cultural Service Corps, which will create opportunities for CUNY students to work in the City’s cultural sector.

The CUNY Cultural Service Corps would expand the program’s current community partner portfolio to include more cultural institutions and adapt the program’s robust training model to meet the specific training needs of CUNY students entering NYC’s cultural sector. The hallmarks of the CUNY Service Corps would be maintained in the Cultural Corps, including recruiting a participant cohort that reflects the demographics of New York City and of CUNY overall in terms of socio-economic and ethnic/racial diversity, thorough preparation of participants before they go into the field, ongoing professional development for participants and their onsite supervisors, and data-driven program management and assessment.

The CUNY Cultural Service Corps will place 85 CUNY students with cultural organizations throughout New York City to serve in a broad range of capacities, including curatorial services, accounting, education, data management, information technology, program development, and more. Students will be paid $12 per hour to work 12 hours per week for 24 weeks during the academic year. Components of the CUNY Cultural Service Corps will include the following:

• Pre-service and Ongoing Professional Development of CUNY Students - Students will participate in professional development training both before and during their placements. Pre-service training will address basic workplace readiness skills, such as communication with supervisors, workplace etiquette, and cultural competency, as well as special topics specific to the needs of cultural institutions such as museum behavior, the etiquette of visiting museums, finding relevant connections between art and everyday life, and more. Ongoing trainings will support students as they work with cultural organizations throughout the academic year and connect students to the civic engagement mission of NYC’s cultural sector.
• Ongoing Training and Support for Cultural Institutions - The CUNY Cultural Service Corps will equip NYC’s cultural institutions with the tools to welcome CUNY students and leverage their skills and interests. In addition to providing training for partner sites on successfully hosting CUNY students, the Cultural Service Corps will offer additional partner supports, including program orientations, training for first-time supervisors, and troubleshooting of student issues.
• Advisory Board - The CUNY Cultural Service Corps will create opportunities for the City’s stakeholders in arts and culture to participate in program development. The program will create an advisory board that will include CUNY faculty in the arts, staff from cultural institutions, and representatives from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
• Rigorous Program Evaluation - CUNY will rigorously evaluate the CUNY Cultural Service Corps, assessing student gains in workplace skills, abilities, and knowledge; personal development; social/professional networks; and academic motivation.   Capacity-building benefits to cultural institutions will be assessed as well.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direction of the Associate Director of the CUNY Service Corps, the manager will:

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

• Support recruitment & selection of Service Corps alumni for the CUNY Cultural Service Corps
• Support matching of students to community partner sites
• Develop and administer training and enrichment programming for 85-student cohort in the CUNY Cultural Corps; basic topics to be addressed include goal-setting, communication, dependability, problem-solving, civic engagement, teamwork, public speaking, professionalism, networking, and resume writing; programming specific to the arts and culture landscape in New York City could include a special speaker series, site visits to notable exhibits/sites; dynamic, interactive creativity workshops, facilitated by teaching artists and performers; and skill development trainings in specific content areas
• Serve as primary point person to students during the academic year, helping them to navigate challenges at their placements sites and in their academic courses

COMMUNITY PARTNER ENGAGEMENT

• Serve as primary liaison to the cultural institutions in the CUNY Cultural Service Corps portfolio; support and monitor their involvement in and execution of various program aspects
• Develop relationships with community partners to understand organizational needs and available development opportunities
• Support the planning and coordination of a matching fair for the CUNY Cultural Service Corps

PROGRAM OVERSIGHT & ADMINISTRATION

• Manage program administrative functions and operations, including biweekly student payroll
• Enter student and partner data into project management system (Symplicity)
• Maintain program quality and performance standards of participating organizations and students