High Impact Cultural Kitchen Program Assistant

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Hostelling International Chicago is a large downtown hostel that serves the community in 2 ways: through tourism and through education. Cultural Kitchen is one of the hostel’s signature educational programs, reaching over 800 Chicago Public School students each year. The program involves classroom lessons during which students learn how to be culturally sensitive and research the culture of a country of their choice, and culminates at the hostel when students cook a meal from their focus country, dine with travelers, and present what they’ve learned. The Cultural Kitchen Program Assistant facilitates the dinner and presentation portion of the Cultural Kitchen program at the hostel. The hostel is looking for a dependable, outgoing volunteer who is skilled at working with youth to provide an energetic and welcoming atmosphere for all Cultural Kitchen participants and dinner guests.For more information about the Cultural Kitchen program, visit volunteers.hiusa.org

Key Responsibilities: Provide orientation to hostel and evening activities for student groups Oversee volunteers and teachers/chaperones during cooking time Provide support to students, volunteers, chaperones, and travelers throughout the before and during the meal, and during the post-dinner country presentation Oversee kitchen clean-up Provide written feedback on successes and challenges for each Cultural Kitchen dinner to Education Coordinator

Initial Impact: Ensure successful, positive, meaningful experience for Cultural Kitchen student participants and travelers Be a role model for high school students looking to attend college and/or travel in the future Help HI-Chicago maintain relationships with the local community

Sustainable Outcome: Help local youth appreciate the cultural diversity of the world and the people in it so they may better their communities and our world Help HI-Chicago create lasting partnerships throughout the local community Training and Support: Orientation to and training in the Cultural Kitchen program by HI-Chicago Education Coordinator Support and mentoring provided by Education Coordinator Reports to the HI-Chicago Education Coordinator

Qualifications: Experience and skill working with high school and/or middle school aged youth Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills Basic kitchen/cooking skills Strong presentation skills Must be willing to undergo a background check Preferred: travel experience, teaching experience, familiarity with the HI-USA mission Time

Commitment: Two training sessions (4-5 hours each) 2 dinners per month during the school year . Must arrive at hostel by 3:30pm and remain until clean-up is complete (usually 8:00pm). Consult with the HI-Chicago Education Coordinator for scheduling. Benefits: Supervisory/leadership experience Experience with intercultural communication Exposure to experiential education programming and networking opportunities with Chicago Public School teachers Meet travelers from all over the world and students from all over Chicago Opportunities to utilize foreign language skills Rsum building experience and a letter of reference at the end of the assignment.