Alternative Breaks – Directors
Student Director and Leader Detailed Descriptions (6 positions)
Communications Director (1)
The Communications Director is responsible for managing Alternative Breaks’ public relations and image with the campus and the larger community. During the fall semester, a majority of the director’s time is spent organizing participant recruitment and facilitating the participant selection process. Throughout the school year, this director maintains various forms of social media (Instagram, etc.).Other projects include updating and ordering T-shirts. The Communications Director ensures the program has a voice and a presence on and off campus.
Community Engagement Director (2)
The Community Engagement Co-Director is responsible for deepening Alternative Breaks’ connection with community partners through events, workshops, and sustained service. These directors will work closely with the Community Partnerships Director to identify sites interested in strengthening our partnership, the Communications Director for content creation and event advertising, Program Development Director to identify and collaborate with campus organizations, centers, and departments interested in co-hosting events. The Community Engagement Directors will create and facilitate socials and other team-building service activities for the Alternative Breaks cohort. In addition, they will conduct outreach with Alternative Breaks alumni to support the student leaders. The Community Engagement Directors are instrumental in providing alternative community engagement opportunities with partners outside of the week of service. The Internal Community Engagement co-Director will support Break Leader Training (BLT) facilitation/slides, manage the bCourses page, and maintain Break Leader and Director Team engagement. The External Community Engagement co-Director will be responsible for reaching out to other organizations on campus for collaboration, organizing social events, and maintaining Alternative Breaks’ engagement with the broader UC Berkeley community. Both the internal and external directors will collaborate on organizing the All Community Meetings, planning/executing service days, reaching out to alumni, and coordinating professional development workshops for inside and outside of the Alternative Breaks community.
Finance Directors (2)
The two Finance Directors are responsible for all financial aspects of the Alternative Break programs. Responsibilities include the following: managing the trips’ fundraising, preparing ASUC credit cards, obtaining food/in-kind donations for events (i.e. ACM), collecting and depositing trip fees, administering stipends, and–most importantly– keeping track of all the money going in and out of the program. The Finance Directors ensure the program sticks to its budget and is sustainable for future programmatic years, while also ensuring each trip is financially viable. The Finance Directors work closely with the Alternative Breaks Program Manager, ASUC Finance, and campus partners who deal with insurance, liability, and business operations. The Finance Directors will need to quickly become familiar with campus policies and prepared to have more professional relationships with non-students. The Finance Directors ensure the sustainability of Alternative Breaks.
Community Partnerships Director (1)
The Community Partnerships Director is interested in how the program and trips show up in the community and work with our various partners, both on- and off-campus. Responsibilities include the following: finalizing housing and processing contracts, securing locations for programmatic events throughout the school year, helping trips find advisers, ensuring communication between trips that occur in the spring, convening panels, reflections, and feedback sessions, introducing trip proposals and trip itineraries, and training on best practices for engaging with community partners.
Program Development Director (1)
The Program Development Director is responsible for expanding the Alternative Breaks program and developing institutional knowledge of the program. The primary responsibilities – 1) The director will work closely with the Program Manager and Graduate Student to revise the Alternative Breaks participant resource document (including forms and waivers), organize the Google Drive, and create efficient workflows. 2) This position will develop relationships with student organizations, campus academic departments, and cultural centers to identify pressing social justice issues and areas for Alternative Breaks trip growth. 3) Organizes participant rosters, keeps track of participant demographics, and curates a database of current and past program participants, contacts for recruitment outreach, and Break Leaders.
Break Leader (12)
Leading an Alternative Break is an extremely rewarding experience — one that offers students an opportunity to bridge academics and community wisdom, commit to our motto, “solidarity in action,” and grow as social justice leaders. As a critical service-learning program, Alternative Breaks incorporates education into its service and reflection activities. Break Leaders (BLs) plan a service-learning trip to take place during spring break and facilitate a Decal in the Spring.
Bridging Berkeley
Director
The Bridging Berkeley Director works with a fellow Director as Co-Directors to manage a Bridging Berkeley mentoring team at a local middle school site. Directors oversee recruitment, interviewing, and hiring of their mentor team and lead Orientation and bi-weekly team meetings. Directors also work with site staff/teachers to schedule and structure mentoring and problem-solve issues that come up. The ideal candidate should be collaborative, detail-oriented, willing to facilitate a community/team and empower others while still holding accountability for the group.
Cal in the Capital
Student Directors (4 positions)
Employer Outreach & Partnerships Director
The Employer Outreach & Partnerships Director is responsible for cultivating and maintaining relationships with existing and potential employers in Washington, D.C. This position will work with the Program Manager to create an employer outreach strategy, and market exciting opportunities for students seeking summer internships. The expectation in this role is that the student will travel to Washington, D.C. in early January.
Recruitment & Communications Director
The Recruitment & Communications Director is responsible for leading fall recruitment efforts such as planning outreach strategy, facilitating information sessions, and creating application and interview criteria. This role also manages the CITC email account and social media, as well as Slack communication with the summer cohort. In addition, this director will occasionally support fundraising efforts through creating flyers and social media campaigning.
Academics & Operations Director
The Academics & Operations Director is responsible for year-round planning of the spring DeCal. In the fall, the student will revise the syllabus, gather and submit all required materials for creating the course, and coordinate support from our faculty sponsor. In the spring, this role will plan and facilitate DeCal lessons, update the bCourse, and coordinate with panelists and guest speakers. This director is expected to be available for every class during the spring DeCal.
Development & Alumni Relations Director
The Development & Alumni Relations Director is responsible for establishing a relationship with our Alumni network, as well as lead fundraising efforts. This director will create email and social media campaigns, and attend required meetings for University-related crowdfunding pushes. In addition, they will assist Alumni in creating the cohort bios, mentorship program, and planning events over the summer. The student in this role will also provide secondary support with employer outreach.
CREATE
Program Manager (2 positions)
The Program Manager oversees student and community partner recruitment, selection, and placement. They also organize weekly meetings for CREATE members and support teaching artist mentors in leading workshops to help CREATE participants with their teaching. In addition, they manage finance and fundraising for the program, including applying for grants and submitting grant reports. The ideal candidate will have strong communication skills, be detail-oriented, and will have some program management experience or prior leadership experience.
Public Service Internship Program (PSI)
Student Directors (2-4 positions)
The Student Directors for the Public Service Internship program (PSI) work collaboratively with the program manager to support student interns. This includes providing training and ongoing support for approximately 30 interns working in community organizations, local government, and nonprofit agencies in Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and other Bay Area cities. Key components of the job include planning and leading program meetings, building and maintaining relationships with student interns and site supervisors, and maintaining regular office hours. A successful candidate will have extensive leadership experience, strong organizational and communication skills, and a commitment to public service. Prior program experience preferred but not required.
RSI Residential Service Initiative (RSI) – Filled
Co-Directors (2 positions)
The 2 Residential Service Initiative (RSI) co-directors work together to train and support Vice Presidents of Philanthropy (VPPs) in organizing engaged service programs for students living in the Residence Hall community. Directors and VPPs are required to enroll in the PSC Leader Units (1 unit each). Co-directors develop and facilitate weekly seminars to supplement the units’ requirements. Seminar topics include social justice & community engagement, community building, event planning, and basic needs (previous seminar curriculum will be available for adaptation). In addition, Directors are available to coach VPPs through challenges they experience planning their service events during office hours. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, interested in growing their facilitation skills, and enjoys working with internal and external stakeholders. Prior program experience is preferred, not required.