[jobs] Global Kids Completes Fall Hiring Process
All positions posted on October 20th have now been filled.
As you might recall, we decided to take a rather unusual approach. We were not sure how many people we needed to hire, nor the right combination of skills. So rather than take a guess and issue a few tightly-constructed job descriptions, we approached the hiring process as one of those old Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books which allowed applicants to tell us what their strengths were and how they could best meet our diverse needs.
Some applicants left their interviews interested in a different position, or a different combination of half-time positions, than when they had first applied. GK's understanding of each position and how they could be combined into one set of hires changed for us as well throughout the process.
It was certainly resource intensive to interview for what turned out to be more than a dozen unique job descriptions, but in the end we arrived at a strong combination of new staff and consultants arranged in a combination we could never have predicted in advance.
The two new full-time staff positions at the GK office are:
Rik will be heading up the development of the new International Justice Center, a social network based in Second Life to support activities related to the International Criminal Court. As one of the lead activities in the 1990's who used the Internet to inspire and coordinate international efforts amongst NGOs to support its very creation, and as a Second Life expert, what an ideal fit. In addition, Rik will be leading the team working with the MacArthur Foundation to bring their work into Teen Second Life, exploring how virtual worlds can support their philanthropic efforts. Read Rik's own comments, some of the unique history behind this hire, and why he has been called "an unstoppable juggernaut of employability".
Shawna will be involved with two different projects. Shawna will be partnering with Rik to manage the online components of bringing the work for the MacArthur Foundation into Teen Second Life, beginning with Conservation & Sustainable Development, Human Rights and International Justice, and Population and Reproductive Health. In addition, Shawna will be responsible for our collaboration with TakingITglobal on our new Youth Media Exchange, a web-based social network for youth around media production and global issues, in association with Asia Society.
The following lists new consultants for our Science Through Second Life project, which will take place at Global Kids' High School for Global Citizenship. Beginning next semester, two dozen freshmen will take part in a daily class using Second Life to learn the life and physical sciences. Tracy Rebe, HSGC's Assistant Principal, will be teaching the class. Kate Farrell, a high school teacher in Scotland and a SL-educator, will assist from within the virtual world. Cathy Arreguin and Elizabeth Wellman will be developing the new science curriculum while Selen Turkey will intern on the project, assisting with the curriculum and running the evaluation.
All of these projects are pushing the envelope -- using a virtual world as a social network to create real world change, leveraging the emergent properties of a web-based social network to empower global leaders, using virtual worlds within schools for science education, bringing philanthropic work into virtual worlds -- but that's what we love to do at Global Kids' Online Leadership Program. And I can't imagine a better group of people to take it on.
