Sample cover letter for Full Time position at StoryCorps

StoryCorps

111 Book Avenue

New York, New York 11111

[email protected]

Dear StoryCorps Recruiter,

I just saw your posting in idealist.org for a mobile Senior Coordinator. I have not applied to be a part of StoryCorps before, but since reading your idealist.org posting and your website, I am very interested in working for your organization. Your organization is working to accomplish such an important and necessary goal: publicly expressing the diverse voices that make up the melting pot of the United States, and better yet, doing so over public radio waves.

As a student at Johns Hopkins University, I pursued a strong interest in radio. Through our campus' internet radio, I had my own one-woman music show, and later became one-third of a trio talk and music show called Three Girls, One Mic. I also became an early member of the executive board, mostly dealing with both on and off-campus events. In the summer following my one-woman radio show, I interned at the Hip Hop and R&B radio station in Baltimore, known as 92Q (92.3FM). I mostly worked with their street team for the summer, representing the station at different events throughout the city, interacting with the public, handing out prizes, and providing support to DJs and other staff as needed.

Beyond my work with the radio, I graduated with my BA in Anthropology and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. As a student one of the most important parts of my college experience was my desire to get to know the city of my university, Baltimore. Following this desire, I worked for a public health study that took me all over Baltimore City, to count and assess specific indicators of individual city blocks, reported back via a mobile PDA device. Interaction with people was second nature, but it was not the goal of this study. So after that study ended, I worked for a different Johns Hopkins study that focused on gender relations in Baltimore City residents aged 15-24. As a part of this study, I traveled with a partner throughout the city, conducting in-person interviews of algorithmically-chosen households. Jobs with studies such as these satisfied my craving for exposure to Baltimore City, its vast neighborhoods, and the different populations that inhabit them.

Since graduating I have worked with the New York Department of Education as a tutor in Queens, New York, teaching Math, English, and English as a second language (to a Spanish-speaking Dominican student) to students in NY public schools, K-12. I am fluent in Spanish. In my junior year of college I studied abroad in Salvador, Brazil, and have since learned Portuguese as well. In Brazil, besides Portuguese, I studied with a program focusing on Public Health, Race, and Human Rights. I completed an independent study project focusing on the Hip Hop community in Salvador, and how it was used as a tool for otherwise silenced voices--similar to Hip Hop's early days in the US.

With my past experiences, knowledge, flexibility, and willingness to learn, I can really contribute a fresh, productive, and unique perspective to your already impressive organization. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my cover letter and resume, and I hope it will result in an interview so that I can further explain my experience in person, and learn even more about the StoryCorps team. Thank you again.

Sincerely,