For more information about Let's Get Ready, visit www.letsgetready.org
About The Position:
The Director of Student Support plays a pivotal role in Let’s Get Ready’s mission to provide increasingly individualized, compassionate, accountable and escalated support to students - virtually and at scale - as we continue to grow our program across the country. The director will directly provide discrete, on-demand support to students-of-concern who have been escalated from our near-peer mentors and program managers. The director will also provide strategic leadership, designing and implementing systems and initiatives that build the organization’s capacity to provide a rigorous continuum of support to students-of-concern within our growing population of high school and college students. The director will serve as an internal subject matter expert and a thought and administrative leader reporting to the Chief Program Officer.
Duties/Responsibilities:
This description is only a summary of the typical functions of the job, not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all possible responsibilities, tasks, and duties of the position.
Escalated student support
- Provide discrete, on-demand caseload support to students-of-concern who are escalated by program staff, supporting them to access and navigate resource systems at LGR, within their institutions and in their communities (e.g. food/housing insecurity, navigating foster/adoption college funds, intensive transfer support, accessing disability services at school, transportation issues, financial hardship, academic probation/dismissal appeals, and students experiencing campus climate concerns).
- Lead LGR’s crisis response efforts, including evaluating individual student cases for safety, providing mental health/safety referrals reporting, and engaging with partners, where appropriate
- Develop and implement complaint and values-aligned safety/escalation policies and protocols used by the program teams, codifying documentation protocols, and ensuring adequate team training, support and compliance.
- Serve as a resource and advisor to Program Managers around special student circumstances, providing targeted support and resource referrals, as needed.
- Lead a collaborative process with Program Directors to create a streamlined internal communication plan that ensures that students who are receiving escalated support have a seamless experience in the program
Program strategy, leadership and design
- Lead initiatives to improve LGR’s ability to identify and support the needs of students who face significant barriers to college againment
- Serve as a subject matter expert, contributing insights and strategic consultation to ensure alignment of internal resources and program strategy to best practices in the field and a deepening understanding of the barriers to college attainment our students face
- Develop success metrics for this work, leveraging existing and new data to measure the performance of or escalated support and wellness initiatives
- Build systems and resources to proactively promote mental health/wellbeing for students and coaches, including providing professional development and identifying/developing wellbeing promoting content to build skills around help-seeking and coping with the stress of college
- Identify or develop mental wellness promotion content/opportunities for students/coaches that help to build skills around coping with the stress of college life
- Identify and/or develop content and initiatives to increase help-seeking behavior for students
- Leverage available data (including sub-group analysis) and other available data to help us prioritize and augment support for students, including collaborating with the Partnership team to better understand regional and partnership challenges and how we might augment our model to target identified groups
Network building
- Build and maintain a network national and local service/resource providers who can be leveraged in support of students - either as direct referrals, or to supply quality coach/student-facing resources around wellness and student support
- Position LGR as a trusted expert in the field with all partners and external relationships and stay up to date on trends in college access and success, student well-being, and culturally responsive student support
Required Skills/Abilities:
Initiative, Personal Development, Analytical thinking, Ownership
- Strong emotional intelligence (EQ), adept at flexible and creative thinking, and experienced in collaborative work with diverse individuals and groups, with students at the center of their work
- Knowledge of high-impact strategies that promote persistence and degree completion and reduce time to completion, particularly for underrepresented students
- Ability to function independently and complete projects with limited supervision
- Takes initiative to influence up, down and across the organization
- Owns and executes on the day to day while also holding the big picture
Communication, Collaboration, Support, Leadership
- Demonstrated commitment to the values and mission of Let’s Get Ready and experience working directly with college students from diverse populations (esp. first gen students, students from low income backgrounds)
- Skilled at outreach, building partnerships with community organizations and campus liaisons who can serve as resources and referrals for our students
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to flex communication styles in presenting to diverse audiences, specifically college students and racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse communities
- Skilled at functioning in cross-departmental teams, leveraging influence and relationships to move toward goals
- Narrates context, asks probing questions and solicits multiple sources of advice prior to taking action
Adaptability, Strategic Planning, Challenge the Process, Decision Making
- Agile, highly organized, and able to prioritize in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment
- Experience in supporting and enhancing a sense of belonging and success for students from traditionally marginalized populations in terms of sexual identification, gender identity and expression, race, national background, citizenship status, ethnicity, etc
- Leads with a strong sense of self-awareness and adaptability
- Proactive project and process manager who spearheads both corrective and preventative initiatives
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree required; masters degree in social work, student affairs/services, counseling or a related field preferred
- 5+ years of related work experience
- Familiarity with the fields of college access/success, scaled virtual programming, higher education, culturally responsive pedagogy, student counseling, or adolescent mental health
Location & Hours:
This is a remote, full-time position that requires employees to be available for work and collaboration between standard work day hours (Eastern time). Employees will be issued a work laptop and initial work-from-home stipend (see below).
Compensation and Benefits:
Salary range of $85k-$88,750 with excellent benefits and a flexible working environment.
Salary commensurate with work experience and skill level.
Benefits include national medical, dental, vision (100% covered) plans, free therapy via Talkspace, access to Kindbody - a fertility health company, HSA/FSA, IRA retirement plan participation with 3% employer match, 20 days paid time off, 11 paid holidays plus the week between Christmas and New Years Day, $300 work from home stipend for new employees, pre-tax transportation options, and more!
How to apply:
Complete application, submit resume and a cover letter that introduces yourself and why you are interested in the position. Applicants applying by November 27th will be strongly considered. All others will be considered on a rolling basis. Please do not contact the job poster.
In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. Let’s Get Ready is unable to sponsor visas.
Let’s Get Ready is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building and maintaining a culturally diverse workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. We encourage women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.
