Each year, the Sister Islands Association hires one person to work as the assistant office manager in our office on Ometepe. We will have an opening this year, preferably to start in June, and we are now accepting applications.

The office assistant supports our office manager, Dora Gutierrez Traña, and our scholarship coordinator, Santiago Triguero, and is involved with other programs as needed. The volunteer’s duties range from coordinating community projects to translating memos between Spanish and English, interviewing scholarship candidates alongside the scholarship coordinator, organizing special needs events, and much more. The activities are varied and can involve travel to different communities across the island. Past volunteers say that it is a valuable opportunity to participate in a long-term cultural exchange with people throughout our sister island and to become closely involved in the work we do with the people of Ometepe.

The position is typically filled by a recent college graduate, but past candidates have also included mid-career or retired people. People with work experience in other fields would be welcome. The job requires good Spanish fluency and dedication to the goals and vision of the organization. We would prefer this position to be a year-long one, but we have learned during Covid that we need to be adaptable, and thus we are willing to talk with candidates about their term of service. We consider this a volunteer position, though we do provide lodging in the office, a modest stipend, and health insurance, along with round-trip airfare. If you have specific financial concerns, we are willing to talk about accommodating those (student debt payments have come up in the recent past as an issue).

If you are interested or have questions, please use our contact form to get in touch with us, or phone our president, Deb Russell, at (206) 842-3592 or (206) 919-5657. We would be pleased to talk with you.