RISE Summer Associate Positions

RISE Egypt is a global nonprofit that is leveraging its network of top experts, investors, and researchers to accelerate entrepreneurship for development in Egypt. RISE Egypt operates as a “Think and Do Tank,” linking capacity-building for growth stage social enterprises with world class research to enable an evidence-based scale-up of its portfolio companies. RISE assists social entrepreneurs to overcome growth-stage challenges through its flagship fellowship program by providing deep technical assistance, organizational and governance capacity-building, as well as research to support data for decision-making in the growth process. This year, RISE is launching a new initiative called LEEP for Collaborative Impact that aims to extend the type of 1:1 support entrepreneurs receive to the wider ecosystem by enabling visibility, access to knowledge, and a platform for collaboration that can connect social innovators from across Egypt with one another and with global resources. By providing this online/offlline space, the LEEP platform seeks to reduce geographic and knowledge disparities in critical development outcomes such as education, environmental sustainability, health, and the creative industries, thereby improving quality of life for individuals and communities across Egypt. Learn more about RISE Egypt at www.riseegypt.org.

Since its founding in 2013, RISE Egypt has seen substantial growth, and our new organizational capacity will allow us room to formalize an undergraduate and graduate level Summer Associate Program. The Summer Associate Program will create a holistic learning experience for young adults interested in the fields of social innovation, sustainable development, business, media, research and beyond. We would like to open this opportunity to your students in hopes of creating a long lasting relationship with your program as well as the students we host. 

The program entails a summer long internship based in the heart of Cairo, working on the ground with the RISE team to develop research, programs, and cross-functional support in key areas. Each summer, RISE Egypt will support up to 10 students who will join the organization as a cohort and integrate into our warm and welcoming office near Tahrir Square. The RISE office will serve as home base, but there will be many opportunities to interact with the wider social innovation ecosystem on the ground through events and gatherings. There will be three types of Summer Associates hired to support current programming: Research Associates, Program Associates, and Media/Communications Associates. Brief job descriptions are below:

Students will get the chance to work in qualitative and quantitative research as well as policy translation in the areas of early childhood and primary education, clean/renewable energy, food waste and sustainable agriculture, recycling/upcycling, health/healthcare, and design for development/creative industries. Additionally, if a student has a specific applied research topic that s/he would like to propose as a summer field research project, we will accept open-ended proposals through our application process. However, topics must clearly relate to the areas of social impact and/or sustainable development.

Students will get the chance to support programming already being led by RISE Egypt to catalyze entrepreneurship for development in Egypt. By joining as a Program Summer Associate, students will gain deeper insights into what it takes to run effective programs in the area of social/environmental impact, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. They will also learn the importance of evidence and collaboration in supporting cross-sectoral partnerships to catalyze development impact in a complex developing country environment.

Students with creative skills in the area of photography, film, and social media and/or the related arts are welcome to apply for this position. By joining as a Media/Communications Associate, you will help in the storytelling aspects of all the work being conducted within RISE Egypt. Specific projects may be assigned throughout the summer, and also creative storytelling projects may be proposed by the Summer Associate, with the goal of showcasing compelling and inspiring stories of social impact/innovation from the ground to both local and global audiences.