Our Teams

Working with SASA opens up more opportunities for me to learn about new things. For example, learning an interesting fact about the ancient world or designing the SASA website with WIX. My experience is made better with the support of everyone on the SASA team.

Sarah Aina Shamsul Azhar - Former Social Media Intern

All of our staff and interns are students and/or early career scholars/professionals who volunteer their time to bring SASA projects and content to you!

WHAT WE DO

Social Media

The Communications Team plays an integral role in SASA’s messaging, look, and feel. The variety of social media content allows members of the team to exercise creativity and build skills transferable to a number of other workplace environments. Getting the word out about SASA is a great opportunity for networking and for furthering our shared goal of bringing ancient studies into the mainstream. The SASA Communications Team has been creating content on our social media channels to give the public an insight into all the exciting projects each of the Teams of SASA have been working hard on all year long.

RESEARCH

The Research Team is the factual foundation of SASA’s mission. Our initial Downward Trend study proved that the rate of academic support for ancient studies was in sharp decline, and spurred our organization to set about building a better future for our past. Our Research Team members work on a variety of projects looking into the way that ancient studies intersect with the modern world, from the ways in which our understanding of the past is colored by those who founded academic disciplines to the ways AI is reshaping the landscape of learning. Right now, the team is engaged in recreating our initial Downward Trend work in order to take a look at how things have shifted in the past four years, as well as looking at other metrics that more directly show SASA’s impact on the landscape.

Executive

This Team is the engine that keeps SASA running smoothly, handling SASA’s administration, recruiting, finances, legal matters, productivity software, internal processes, and more. Since SASA is a fast-growing start-up organization, the Executive Team innovates new processes, procedures, and tools to support the development of all the other Teams. Participating in the Executive Team is an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in exploring non-profit management and administration.

Virtual Conference

Every year, SASA runs a public-facing, free virtual conference on ancient studies called Opening the Past. Our Virtual Conference Team is in charge of coordinating this grand undertaking, which involves not only arranging the speakers and technology, but also coordinating our messaging, working with video editors and field experts, and reaching out to scholars whose work is less visible to the academic circuit. The 2023 virtual conference was a huge success, with four keynote speakers and two days of panels discussing the science of antiquity and how ancient thinkers thought about progress and technology. We had over 17,000 views over the two-day event.

ACCESS

One of our primary methods for saving Ancient Studies is providing greater ease of access for students who want to begin studying the ancient world and developing their skills. We work to compile and present quality information to help students of any background make their way into Ancient Studies fields. We have published a database of free online resources in all Ancient Studies fields in August 2021, and we are currently compiling a list of colleges and universities that offer programs in Ancient Studies. The newest project of the Access Team is creating "how to" guides to demystify material that often goes untaught for beginners and college students.

Inspire

The Inspire Campaign aims to utilize social media to spark a lifelong interest in Ancient Studies in teenagers and young adults. Interns would have the opportunity to work as part of a larger social media campaign, specifically focusing on content creation and historical research. Interns on the Inspire Team create content that interests them, as well as content that is relevant to the current social media zeitgeist.

OUTREACH

This team forms relationships and partnerships with other organizations, individuals, and businesses to help further our mission and theirs. Interns will seek out potential partners, help draft language for our outreach, assist in planning strategy for effective outreach, and work to maintain and grow relationships.

ARCHAEOGAMING

We work with scholars to begin creating complete lesson plans, videos, and materials using video games with ancient-related content to explore themes and ideas of ancient history and society. These educational materials are distributed to a network of teachers for use in their classrooms. Preference will be given to individuals with prior experience in elementary and high school classroom settings and the development of script guidelines, editing of scripts, video editing and distribution.

Grant Writing

Our Grant Writing Team works in tandem with Fundraising to bring in the funding for our projects. The team also works closely with our SASA Ambassadors to find new ways to reach out to organizations who want to work with us. We continue to secure several grants from organizations that have worked with us in the past. We continue to build existing partnerships and look to obtain grants from new sources.

Creative

The creative team includes graphic designers, video editors, and website designers. These talented individuals work on a variety of projects for each of SASA’s 19 other teams. An intern with this team has the opportunity of engaging with many project types, gaining a wide array of experiences. This is a great opportunity for those with some creative background and interested in developing their skillset.

Live Events

We develop, plan, and run SASA’s live events, including Book Clubs, Master Classes, and our popular Winter and Summer Reading Groups. We also run annual fundraising events like the SASA Birthday Bash and Halloween Bash. Members participate in the entire event creation and production cycle, from soliciting new presenters to organizing events, assisting in live event production, to post-event communications, video editing, and management.

Fundraising

The Fundraising Team runs SASA’s annual fundraisers, the Birthday Bash in spring and the Halloween Bash in the fall, as well as smaller events throughout the year. The Fundraising Team is also responsible for putting our Annual Report together and for brainstorming future funding possibilities. Donations are the lifeblood of a nonprofit like SASA! The Fundraising Team brought back the Bazaar with new designs and implemented several giveaways that increased our fundraising opportunities. For the first time in SASA's history, we also set and met our fundraising goals for the Annual Conference and Halloween Bash.

Major Donor

The Major Donor Team identifies potential donors and assists the Executive Director with researching and cultivating relationships. The intern will learn about prospect research and focus on creating files for new and existing contacts. They will also help craft messaging and materials to attract and communicate with potential donors. This is a good opportunity for someone with a passion for the humanities who is interested in learning more about non-profit development and fundraising.

Mass Communications

The Inter-Organizational Communications Team provides all our mass mailings, our newsletter, and our blogs. Our Inter-Org team has started our brand new research blog, Issues in Ancient Studies, to showcase the work our Research Team is doing. We’ve also started sending out our newsletter, the Oracle, twice a month to keep up with the increasing output of our growing organization. We’ve been working on initializing a journalism project, too, focusing on universities closing their ancient studies departments.

Mentoring

The Mentoring Team is designed for high school students who wish to pursue higher education in Ancient Studies disciplines and early undergraduate students who want to continue their education. The principal goal of this program is to empower our mentees by assisting them in making conscious choices regarding their education and career choices. Interns in our team actively participate in the entire program development process, which can take various forms, such as contributing to our guide or conducting research. Participation in our project is ideal for anyone interested in project management at non-profit organizations. We require no previous experience in this area. However, preference will be given to candidates who have experience working with Google Workspace and have excellent time management skills.

Archaeogaming Live

Archaeogaming Live runs weekly Twitch streams where we play video games and talk about their ancient studies with relevant guest experts. We’ve played Stray Gods, Pentiment, Chants of Sennaar, and more, all available to watch on Twitch and YouTube. By the end of 2023, we had 488 Twitch followers and 40 episodes streamed for a total of 103 hours. On top of that, we also hosted specials with interviews with the publishers of books on historical video games, developers, and a roundtable on mythology in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

CEU

Beyond the need to maintain credentials through continuing education (CEU) options, educators are constantly seeking opportunities to deepen their knowledge. Unfortunately, many existing providers offer expensive courses that lack a focus on ancient studies. The SASA CEU team aims to fill this gap by creating a rich and diverse selection of courses, workshops, and live events specifically tailored to educators interested in deepening their knowledge of ancient studies. Interns will gain valuable experience by assisting the SASA CEU team in developing and implementing engaging professional development opportunities. This includes contributing to course materials and program design, such as crafting syllabi, website descriptions, lesson plans, presentations, and Learning Management System (LMS) setup.

Recruitment

The Recruitment Team manages all of SASA’s personnel needs, writing and maintaining job advertisements, onboarding new volunteers, and running our thrice-annual internship cycle. In each of 2023 and 2024, the Recruitment Team successfully brought on over 100 interns and volunteers! We are expecting similar if not increased numbers for 2025! We have worked hard to streamline the recruiting process and practices that we follow by creating recruitment guides and informational sheets for internal use.

Salesforce

Our Salesforce team at SASA plays a crucial role in managing and optimizing our customer relationship management system. This team is responsible for ensuring that our Salesforce platform is effectively utilized to track donor information, manage fundraising campaigns, volunteer recruitment, tracking mentorship, maintaining research databases, etc. Interns who join our Salesforce team play a vital role in supporting the day-to-day operations of our nonprofit CRM system. Their responsibilities may include data entry and maintenance, generating reports and analytics, assisting with troubleshooting and problem-solving, and providing user support and training. Interns will also have the opportunity to participate in project work, such as implementing new features or customizations within the Salesforce platform. Overall, our Salesforce team relies on the dedication and hard work of our interns to help us achieve our mission and goals. Through their contributions, interns gain valuable experience and skills in CRM management, data analysis, and project coordination, which can be applied to future career opportunities in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Technical

The technical team oversees all of SASA’s data analysis projects, IT related needs, and website development. An intern with this team would have the opportunity to work in their specific area of interest, developing their skillset and gaining real-world practical experience. This role for data analytic or IT based interns is best suited to individuals who have some experience, either academic or professional, in the respective field. Website development interns should have prior hands-on experience and be comfortable working on a Wix-based website.

WHAT WE OFFER

Professional Development program to support our interns and provide real-world education
Work experience - great for anyone interested in working within the ancient world or with nonprofit
Receive college credit for SASA Internships