July 1, 2020
Creating brightspot’s Council of Student Advisors
As we work to make the student experience more engaging and more equitable, we are excited to share the details on one of our new initiatives as part of our commitment to racial justice: the Council of Student Advisors (CSA).
Every year brightspot strategy sets out to learn and grow. As a learning organization, we reflect often on how we can continue to impact the student experience in higher education and find new ways to engage and connect with students. The CSA is intended to create a learning loop between students and our team – and broaden the conversations and interactions with students from an institutional scale to a national one.
We are looking for curious, caring, and driven college students with a diverse range of racial and socio-economic backgrounds and life experiences from across the country to serve as an advisory board that holds us accountable for creating a more equitable and inclusive student experience while offering advice on how to do so. In exchange, the students on this council will gain valuable experience, mentorship, and skills to support change at their institutions – along with compensation for their time.
The purpose of the Council:
- The CSA will provide a platform for long-term open dialogue between brightspot and the CSA students so that brightspot can continue to strengthen our commitment to an equitable and inclusive student experience in a meaningful way.
- brightspot will receive feedback and advice on our approach and outreach to students with the aim to capture a broader and more diverse student perspective in onsite engagements.
- Student advisors will form a community where they can work together and learn from each other and brightspot, as well as create and co-develop their own ideas and strategies to tackle problems they are passionate about on their campuses with tools and advice from brightspot that will help amplify, support, and strengthen their advocacy efforts.
CSA members can expect to:
- Receive a stipend for their contribution during their 8 month term on the CSA. We believe time and knowledge are valuable. We also know there is no better way to create equity than through paid opportunities.
- Work through a curriculum in which they learn how to conduct research and create insights, identify a problem to solve at their institution, and then propose and prototype potential solutions. One member’s solution will be selected by the CSA and brightspot to receive funding and support for implementation.
- Walk away from their time in the CSA with a better understanding of the creative problem-solving skills and community engagement tools that support change and build consensus, and gain experience in group-work dynamics.
- Have a consistent brightspot mentor or two with them along the way who can guide them while also interacting with many of the members on our team.
- Join and contribute to a network that lasts beyond their CSA term to stay connected to events, career opportunities, and each other.
If you’d like to learn even more, the detailed position description is here.
The application deadline has passed. Stay tuned for more updates on the CSA.