Position Title: Strategic Impact Intern (August 2025 – May 2026)
Department: Strategic Impact and Planning
Reports to: Director of Strategic Insights
Location: Indianapolis, USA
Duration: 2025-2026 Academic Year, mid-August through mid-May. Dates are approximate and will be coordinated with the selected candidate.
Compensation: $19 to $21 / hour for an undergraduate-level student.
$20 to $24 / hour for a graduate student or a recent graduate.
Schedule: 15 hours weekly required, maximum of 20 hours weekly. Schedule can be negotiated with the supervisor.

Responsibilities

The candidate will be required to provide support, coordination, and issue research and advising on projects within the Strategic Impact and Planning unit. The unit focuses on building data systems and evidence aligned with today’s students and tomorrow’s credentials to make continuous improvement, document effective practices, inform Lumina and the field, and measure progress and success against key metrics to ultimately help to improve post-high school educational outcomes and increase the proportion of working-age adults in the United States with high quality credentials that lead to economic prosperity.

The candidate will be focused on work in Strategic Insights, but will work on projects across the three departments in the unit:

Strategic Insights creates tools, resources, spaces for conversations, and the overall environment that supports cross-department knowledge sharing and alignment of work.
Data and Measurement includes both an internal-facing role focused on gathering and analyzing data that guide our strategy and an external-facing role focused on ensuring federal, national, and state data systems and measures speak to today’s students and all high-quality credentials.
Research and Evaluation builds the evidence-base for how best to support adult students of color (Black, Hispanic, and Native American) on their pathway to earning a quality credential that leads to employability, informing our internal strategic efforts and the field.

Data and/or research knowledge of one or more of these areas and their context is ideal:

Access: Postsecondary enrollment and re-enrollment
Student Success: Designing and implementing efforts and solutions that lead to persistence and completion of a high-quality postsecondary credential
Credentials of Value: Improving and expanding the postsecondary capacity to deliver high quality credentials that lead to well-paying jobs and further pathways.
Redesign: Redesigning how we organize, fund, and govern the education and training systems serving today’s students.

Responsibilities will include:

Help to align the work across the foundation noting any trends that may impact current and future work.
Pull out insights from our current work and highlight them through dashboards, emails, newsletters, and/or learning sessions.
Develop and maintain databases as needed.
Support structures and opportunities for strategic learning at the Foundation and in the field and support the team to ensure that learning and evaluation results are considered and integrated into ongoing efforts.
Identify opportunities to elevate strong ideas from the field through writing, presenting, and assisting with convenings.
Track developments and trends in postsecondary data and research aligned with the content areas above especially for adults of color.
Manage short projects that leverage data, research, and knowledge from the field to inform internal strategies and grant implementation.
Synthesize data and evidence
Develop memos or briefs to inform internal discussions and decisions
Assist in managing grants and contracts, including tracking and reviewing grant reports.
Engage with colleagues across the foundation through internal meetings and contribute to strategizing conversations.
Work alongside strategy officers and directors to manage project coordinating tasks.
Other projects or tasks that the candidate and supervisor agree are related to the portfolio.

Education

A student enrolled in a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D.-level program or a recent college graduate; we will also consider an equivalent combination of work and learning experience.

Qualifications

Strong communication and analytical skills
Ability to work independently and collaboratively
Ability to juggle multiple projects at a time
Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office

Stable access to high-speed internet
Knowledge of community colleges, higher education systems, and their multilayered contexts

Ability to analyze, synthesize, contextualize, and communicate research and trends as it relates to the goals of Lumina Foundation

Apply now »

This summary describes typical intern responsibilities. It is not exhaustive and is subject to change.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis; posting will close on 6/27/2025 or earlier if a large number of applications are received.

About the foundation

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. We envision higher learning that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation’s talent needs through a broad range of credentials. We work toward a system that prepares people for informed citizenship and success in a global economy. With an endowment of nearly $1.5 billion and offices in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., Lumina has a passionate and committed staff that values candor, collaboration, and connection. Learn more about our core values.

How We Work

Lumina is committed to helping the nation redesign learning after high school so that millions more adults earn degrees, certificates, and industry certifications that have a strong return on investment. We concentrate on ensuring that more adults have access to programs that lead to meaningful credentials, that they have financial and non-financial support along the way to ensure their success, and that the credentials they earn lead to good jobs, higher pay, and greater opportunity to learn and serve others.

We support and expand evidence-based practices that can meet the nation’s pressing need for talent. We pursue strategies to achieve equity in education, which means everyone has a real opportunity to earn a degree or quality credential, regardless of family income, race, ethnicity, or location. Achieving equity requires eliminating the systemic barriers—such as beliefs, policies, and practices—that create unfair outcomes. We concentrate our efforts on colleges and universities that serve the vast majority of students, including community colleges, public comprehensive universities, and minority-serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. And we are working to develop the nation’s capacity to meet individuals’ and society’s education and training needs beyond 2040.