Open Positions
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Programs Manager Job Description / Fall 2023
The James Wilson Institute is a private, non-profit organization devoted to the study, advancement, and deeper understanding of natural rights and the role they played in the drafting of the American Constitution. The Institute, poised for growth in its tenth year, seeks to restore to a new generation of lawyers, judges, scholars, students, and citizens the American Founders’ understanding of the first principles of our laws and the moral grounds of their own rights.
Description: The Institute seeks a Programs Manager committed to the JWI Mission. The Programs Manager will manage planning for JWI programs and events, both in the Washington D.C. area as well as around the country. This person will also be responsible for communicating with partner organizations to host programs. The Programs Manager will report directly to the Programs Director. The Programs Manager will also work closely with the Programs Director to select and manage interns throughout the year. The Programs Manager will interact regularly in preparation for events with distinguished faculty members, authors, jurists, publication editors, attorneys, and JWI staff.
Skills & Qualifications: Strong writing, organizational, and team communication skills are vital to this work. An ideal candidate for the Programs Manager position is someone highly motivated to take leadership on independent projects and complete them in a timely and consistent manner. The Programs Manager should be a devoted team member, willing to coordinate with both other JWI team members as well as partner organizations. They should have a strong capacity to remain flexible and tackle new projects while keeping long-term projects moving forward. They must have a professional attitude, a willingness to collaborate closely with other staff, and the capacity to adjust to and handle issues as they arise. They should have a keen sense of situational awareness in their projects, asking for help when it is needed and working independently when needed. Candidates with a bachelor’s degree and 1-2 years of NGO experience are preferred, but these qualifications are not required. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite is required. Start date soon.
Beyond anything else, an ideal applicant should have a deep appreciation of the work of the American Founders, the regime that they crafted, and the moral principles of reasoning that undergird the system.
Position Level: Entry-level
Location: Alexandria, VA (In-Person)
Degree Requirements: Bachelor's degree preferred, not required.
Compensation: Competitive with similar NGO positions.
An interested applicant should submit a resume and cover letter explaining their interest in the position and how they would fit in the JWI team and mission. They should also submit a brief writing sample explaining their understanding of the Mission of JWI and the role of reasoning from first principles in the American legal regime.
Interested candidates should email a resume and cover letter to Mr. Daniel Osborne at Daniel at jwinst.org Email correspondence only. No phone calls please.
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James Wilson Institute Internship
Are you looking for a substantive internship that fosters intellectual growth while honing professional skills? Are you interested in law, philosophy, and America's founding principles? James Wilson Institute interns perform critical work in carrying out our mission to transform the legal culture.
Each fall, spring, and summer, JWI welcomes about two interns to our office in Historic Old Town, Alexandria, VA. Ideal candidates will demonstrate a commitment to the Mission of JWI, a good work ethic, and strong writing skills. Although an intern's specific responsibilities and projects vary based on the semester, past interns have:
- Interviewed scholars and public figures
- Created promotional videos
- Written commentary pieces on Supreme Court decisions
- Assisted in major fundraising initiatives
- Designed publications
We accept both full- and part-time interns. We also are accepting interns who are willing to work remotely via online communication. Full-time interns will receive a stipend of $500/month. Part-time interns who are able to commit to at least 20 hours per week will receive a partial stipend.
To apply, please send your resume and a cover letter, explaining your interest in the mission of JWI, to Staff at JWInst.org.
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The James Wilson Communication Internship
The James Wilson Communication Intern will perform the role of helping promote the external visibility of JWI through social media management, preparation of publications, advertising service administration, and website administration. The communications intern will foster clear and effective communication from JWI to targeted audiences. The communications intern will also promote the development of media, both digital and physically published. Tasks may include the creation of media content such as videos and podcasts, media editing, website management, and assisting in the editing of written media to ensure that it meets JWI quality standards.
An effective communications intern will have a solid grasp of: clear and concise writing, social media techniques, advertising and promotional tools, interviewing skills, script development, writing styles, formatting techniques, website management, and the mission of JWI.
We accept both full- and part-time interns. We also are accepting interns who are willing to work remotely via online communication. Full-time interns will receive a stipend of $500/month. Part-time interns who are able to commit to at least 20 hours per week will receive a partial stipend.
To apply, please send your resume and a cover letter, explaining your interest in the mission of JWI, to Staff at JWInst.org.
Internship Timeline:
Summer (May/June-August) Internship
Fall (August/September-December) Internship
Spring (January - May) Internship
Past interns have shared these accounts of their time with JWI:
"I consider the summer I interned at JWI to be one of the more deeply impactful times in my life. In the broadest terms, I would characterize my time at the Institute as an experience in seeing how things fit together. I got to see how ideas I’d encountered at Professor Arkes’s seminar table—ideas about the first principles of natural law, statecraft, and the American regime—were in fact the animating force behind the Professor’s work in the rough-and-tumble world of Washington politics. This gave me a deeper sense of what Prof. Arkes meant when he would describe law as the place where political philosophy comes down from the clouds, and is brought to bear on the remarkable realities of the lives of ordinary people. It helped me to appreciate that philosophical and practical reasoning need not—indeed, should not, cannot afford to—be treated as occupying distinct spheres."
"As for my experience at JWI, I consider myself so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such a dedicated, professional, and generous group of people this past summer in D.C.. My internship proved to be engaging in both its educational facets and its practical work experiences. I was fortunate enough to conduct my own interview with a constitutional law scholar on a recent book, help write an essay with a my fellow intern in which we analyzed an opinion from the Supreme Court’s summer term, and attend a variety of lectures and conferences dealing with different facets of the philosophy of law in the D.C. area.
"On the practical side, I was exposed to the inner workings of a small non-profit, working alongside the staff as they went through the processes of updating their publications, running their annual summer seminar for young lawyers and law clerks, and identifying and pursuing grant opportunities from charitable foundations. These experiences all served to broaden my professional horizons and expose me to the variety of career opportunities alive within the legal professions that I had before been profoundly ignorant of.
"Moreover, I would be remiss if I failed to mention how my time working in DC this summer had introduced me to what I came to know as a real community of minds--people, personalities, most importantly, friends--and a set of relationships that were grounded in a deep kind of understanding of and feeling of gratitude towards the tradition it strives to uphold, and the truths it fights to make manifest within the legal profession and public square. So, in consideration of the amazing people I was privileged to meet, the conversations I engaged, the analytical and practical skills I sharpened, and the life-experiences I was exposed to by virtue of the professional circles JWI travels within in D.C., I cannot thank everyone there enough for taking me on over the summer."
"My internship with JWI opened my eyes to the inner workings of D.C. through interacting with major policy and judicial figures and researching and writing on unfolding Supreme Court cases. An internship with almost any other organization would not have provided the same intimate insight into the inner workings of D.C. that I gleaned from my time at JWI."
