MODULE 01 · Onboarding · 45 MINUTES

Your role, two missions, one accountable project

Learn the principle. Practice the work. Preserve what you learn.

Your learning goals

Explain the full nonprofit intern project cycle.
Assign each output to its responsible nonprofit.
Define a useful first contribution and its evidence.

Preparation

Begin with your current Welcome Hub onboarding instructions and the nonprofit intern role.

Read the role as a project cycle

The Nonprofit Programs, Research, Innovation & Mission Operations Intern role supports My Heart Spark Foundation, Inc., including the Heart Spark Research & Innovation Institute, and Convergence Quotient 45 Mission, Inc. Your assignments may serve either organization or an explicitly coordinated initiative. The role includes research, educational programming, innovation, community engagement, leadership development, and organizational operations. Begin every project by naming the organization, intended audience, need, desired outcome, and responsible project contact. This orientation develops a Convergence Q45 learning pathway within that broader role. A strong first contribution makes one real program easier to understand, deliver, evaluate, or continue. The current assignment determines your scope and authorized tools.

Move from mission to evidence

Use the role cycle in sequence: study the mission; identify the need; research the opportunity; design the program or solution; develop and implement approved activities; evaluate and improve; document outcomes; prepare continuation materials. Each step produces evidence that helps the next person act. A mission summary supports an audience and needs statement. A source table supports the design choices. A program plan connects activities with outcomes. A test record shows what the learning resource actually does. An evaluation explains what participants reported or demonstrated and the limits of that evidence. A continuation dossier makes ownership, open questions, and the next action visible. Treat attractive materials as one component within this complete cycle.

Keep organizational identity visible

The two nonprofits have distinct missions, records, assets, funding requirements, and decision authority. Record an owner for every deliverable and a permitted destination for every file. For a coordinated initiative, identify both organizations and document how contributions and shared resources were authorized. Use the assigned organization name in source logs, draft titles, budget records, and communications. Separate verified organization facts from your proposed program ideas. A project may be valuable while its funding, publication, or implementation arrangements remain pending. Your learning responsibility is to make the proposal usable and its status accurate. Read the existing Welcome Hub pathway before beginning role exercises so prior onboarding work and recorded progress remain connected.

Worked example

title

Worked example: a first Q45 contribution

body

Synthetic project: Q45 Purposeful Service Practice. Owner: Convergence Quotient 45 Mission, Inc. Audience: adult workshop participants. Need: participants want one manageable way to apply their learning. First output: a one-page service planning exercise and a three-question usability check. Evidence: an annotated source note, a completed fictional learner example, an accessibility check, and a revision log. Proposed outcome: participants can name an action, a date, and a useful sign of progress. The Foundation has no assigned ownership in this example; a future shared project would document its own authorization.

Your practical assignment

Create your mission and project map

Read the version 2 role description and identify six duties relevant to a Q45 assignment.
Map the eight project-cycle stages to one concrete output each.
Choose a synthetic first project and name its organization, audience, need, outcome, owner, and information sources.
Add three questions that must be resolved before implementation and a useful action you can complete while each question is pending.

Evidence to prepare

A mission and project map of 600–900 words.
An eight-row project-cycle table.
A scoped first-contribution brief with three dependencies.

Assignment scoring guide

Use these criteria for self assessment and feedback. Each criterion contributes 25 points to the 100-point assignment rubric.

Criterion	Points	Evidence
Role fidelity	25	The map covers research, education, innovation, engagement, operations, and evaluation.
Mission and ownership	25	Every output has a named nonprofit and a justified audience.
Actionable scope	25	The first contribution has a defined output, next step, and evidence.
Traceable reasoning	25	Facts, proposals, and unresolved questions are labeled accurately.

Reflection

Which duty is closest to your current strengths, and which requires deliberate practice?
What would make your first output useful to the next intern?

Scoring and revision guidance

Evidence is absent or cannot be assessed.

Limited evidence; substantial guidance and revision are needed.

Partially demonstrated; a material element needs revision.

The essential requirement is met; minor corrections remain.

Complete, accurate, traceable, and usable evidence for the criterion.

Review the explanation for each missed question, revisit the relevant lesson, and retry. Revise practical work against the rubric and document the change.