Reinventing Internship at JFF

At JFF, when we set out to imagine the future of work, we start in-house. This summer, we’re excited to be doing that by welcoming 17 interns to JFF for an innovative 11-week work-based learning program that invests in new talent, supports our staff, and draws on the strengths of a diverse candidate pool from across the United States for a meaningful summer of work.

“JFF’s mission is to create equitable economic advancement for all, and we take that to heart internally as well,” says Presceia Cooper-Dennis, JFF’s director of talent acquisition. “We create a summer work experience that reflects our values by recruiting equitably, compensating fairly, and offering growth opportunities for all the participants.”

Our internships are mission-driven work experiences, guided by a set of core values that compel us to achieve these objectives: provide training for learning and skill development, represent the diversity of the communities JFF serves, apply rigor and intentionality to hiring and recruitment, leverage best practices and data for innovation and improvement, create growth and learning experiences for both interns and staff, and build a future talent pipeline for JFF.

We take a unique approach to internship hiring and compensation, with a focus on our values of inclusivity and equity. A high school diploma is the only degree credential required; interns do not need to be enrolled in college or another type of postsecondary education or training program. Our internship program is fully remote this year, enabling us to hire people in nine different states. We are paying our interns a competitive hourly rate for their work and contributions. These policies ensure that a wide range of applicants feel welcomed into the organization. We received more than 250 applications for this year’s internships.

As our internship program gets underway, we will be taking a “walk the talk” approach to live our field-based program efforts internally and integrate the interns into the meaningful project work and professional development we value at JFF. We have paired each intern with a JFF mentor for coaching and guidance, and we designed a weekly series of invited internal and external speakers to share their expertise on JFF’s focus areas in workforce development, education, training, and technology. We’re thrilled to position JFF as a leader among peer organizations offering work-based learning experiences for interns.

Meet This Year’s Interns!

• Andrea Armas, Development Team
• Asha Mixon, Advancement Team
• Deon Soogrim, JFFLabs, Corporate Leadership Team
• Giao Nguyen, Inclusive Regional Economic Development Team
• Hector Torres, Learning Team
• Larisa Barreto, JFFLabs, Operations and Incubation Team
• Lauren Tankeh, Policy Team
• Lenlee David, Inclusive Regional Economic Development Team
• Nebiyu Tadesse, JFFLabs, Data Team
• Priscilla Liu, Policy and Advocacy Team
• Priscilla Luu, JFFLabs, ETF Team
• Rayan Tejani, JFFLabs, Acceleration and ETF Team
• Rebecca Gullutto, Work Team
• Ryan Martinez, People and Culture Team
• Taesung Kim, Advancement Team
• Thea Gay, Executive Team
• Xixi Zheng, Research and Analytics Team