Want to volunteer? Check out these roles.

Mentoring is the heart of Minds Matter’s vision for change. Being a sustained presence in a student’s life can transform them personally and academically. You’ll see your tangible impact on your students as they learn and grow. You also are not doing this alone, as each student has two mentors forming a triad to share experiences, insights, and lots of laughter while growing together.

Mentors are supported in their role by team leads, program heads, writing coaches, summer program heads, college counselors, and staff, but your own experiences in college, career, and life are invaluable. Our program is structured so you can build deep connections with your student. What makes a great mentor is an empathetic listener, willing to make a long-term commitment to your student, uniting behind the dreams they have for their future, an openness to learn and grow yourself, and helping turn barriers and challenges into opportunities for your student.

Time commitment: Attendance of weekly Saturday afternoon sessions (~2 hours). Touch base with mentee 1x/week during the week.

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Do you love creating content for social media? Are you passionate about educational equity? Minds Matter Southern California is looking for a talented Social Media Manager to increase our community engagement and brand awareness through the effective use of our social media outlets. As a Social Media Manager, you are up-to-date with the latest content creation tools, digital technologies, and social media trends to effectively engage key audiences. You should have excellent written and visual communication skills and can creatively express who Minds Matter is as an organization to help us to reach a broader, more diverse audience. You should be passionate about engaging with the Minds Matter community at sessions and events as opportunities to generate and create content.

You will be responsible for the following:
● Creating original content (text, graphics, photo, video)
● Coordinating the efforts of other content creators (students and volunteers)
● Managing posts and responding to followers
● Partners with our Co-Directors of Marketing & Communications to manage and measure social media strategies that align with our organization’s values and brand

Time commitment: 3 to 5 hours (content creation, posting, meetings, metrics, etc.)

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Our social-emotional learning (SEL) program is called Connections®, a co-facilitated listening circle for our students to share their stories. In addition to boosting mental wellness and personal growth, Connections cultivates students’ self-advocacy, voice, listening skills, and sense of belonging. We need Connections Facilitators to lead these discussions.

Are you an empathetic listener? Do you enjoy self-reflection? Are you comfortable being vulnerable? Can you listen without trying to “rescue” others’ feelings? Can you hold space for others? If you said yes to all of the above, be a Connections Facilitator! As a facilitator, you co-lead a 45-minute to 1-hour Connections circle for a group of 10-15 high school students each Saturday morning. You also collaborate with other facilitators and meet 1-2x/month to ensure consistency of the program, share best practices, and make modifications as necessary. As MMLA expands its Connections program, you may be asked to co-lead an MMLA community circle 2x/year for the greater MMLA community. No prior experience is necessary.

Time commitment: Facilitator training is 16 hours that take place either 1 or 2 Saturdays at the end of the summer. Attend every Saturday session for 2 hours in the morning. Spend 1 hour weekly on the lesson plan.

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Do you have expertise in college advising and want to work with driven and determined low-income students passionate about their higher education, this is the role for you! You work closely with the Program Director to add expertise to our college knowledge curriculum. The Junior program focuses on college exploration and preparation for the senior year when applications become real. It’s all about helping students juggle their long list of to-dos for college application preparation and keeping them accountable. Join the junior team if you want to guide our students through this daunting process!

If you want to see this process through, join the Senior program as a team lead. The senior year is an incredible roller coaster ride so having passionate, supportive and organized team leads ensures triads stay on track for success. Team leads work with 5 to 7 triads helping to ensure they get the most out of the afternoon sessions. Team leads are the main point of communication and information for students and mentors. If you love working with others towards a common goal, enjoy helping others stay on target, and thrive when others achieve their goals, this is the role for you.

Time commitment: Attend at least 90% of the Saturday sessions. Work with Program Director or Co-Directors to ensure full coverage of sessions.

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Is the written word your passion – this role is for you! Helping students explore who they are, developing ideas, elevating their voices, and then seeing it all come together in a powerful personal statement and essays is one of the most impactful roles in the organization. Instructors build a foundation that is reinforced by writing coaches and other volunteers.

You will lead morning sessions focused on the college application helping students craft powerful essays and personal statements supported by a team of writing coaches. Each coach works directly with 3 to 4 students as they complete their applications for college and scholarships. These roles have a heavy time commitment in the fall and early spring. Experience with admissions or college counseling is a plus for this role as well as a passion for the writing process, excitement around grammar, patience, empathy and a curious mind will all serve you well in this role.

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Summer programs are an essential component of the Minds Matter sophomore and junior programs in order to help our students become familiar with the college application process. As Junior Summer Program Directors (SPDs), you are in charge of the internal application process, build and maintain strong relationships with college summer programs and work closely with the national liaison to coordinate applications for nationally partnered programs. You work closely with the Junior Program Director(s), and Junior Team Leads in the OC location but also interface directly with students to ensure all questions are answered, and applications and financial aid forms are completed on time. Being organized, detail-oriented, and great at managing an inbox are essential — SPDs track all the details of student applications and manage the summer program budget.

Time commitment: Attend a handful of Saturday sessions in the fall to introduce yourself and lead presentations, then any Saturdays with working sessions (January through March) until all students are placed in a summer program. Email coordination is required throughout the week.

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Do you love storytelling? If so, this would be a perfect role for you! You are responsible for creating the content for our quarterly newsletter as well as other external collateral. Your writing would highlight individual students, mentors, and volunteers and keep supporters up to speed on key events. You work with the Director of Newsletter on the storylines for each newsletter issue and the Directors of Communications for external collateral for our community, donor, and partner audiences. You are responsible for the timely delivery of that content. Writing/storytelling/editing experience is a huge plus!

Time commitment: This role will work independently from regular Saturday sessions, but must remain closely in touch with the organization. Can work remotely.

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