Position Title: Director of College Success
Reports To: Vice President of Scholar Support Services
Organization Overview:
Steppingstone prepares students from marginalized communities to access, navigate, and graduate from college through two initiatives, the Steppingstone Scholars Program and the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA). The Steppingstone Scholars Program is a direct-service program in Boston that provides academic, social-emotional, and college-readiness services to students, called Scholars, beginning as early as fifth grade and continuing all the way through college graduation. The Steppingstone Scholars Program consists of five components: Admissions, the Academy, Middle School Success, High School Success, and College Success. NPEA connects the people, practices, and innovations for eliminating barriers to educational access, and college and career success for underserved students.
Position Summary:
Scholar Support Services is made up of Middle School Success, High School Success, and College Success and supports Scholars and their families through college graduation after the intensive Academy summer and school year program. College Success serves approximately 600 Scholars pursuing college (2-year and 4-year) and other post-secondary paths (work, trade, and other workforce programs). Over 80% of Scholars will be first generation college students and the majority of them come from low income backgrounds. Based on research and analysis conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse, the national 6-year graduation rate for students who entered college in Fall 2015 was 62.2%. For the two cohorts after, the graduation rate remained relatively stagnant at 62.3% and 62.2%. In Boston Public Schools, 52% of those who started college in Fall 2015 graduated with a college degree within six years. Black and Latinx students graduated at a rate of 42% compared to their White and Asian peers at a rate over 70%. Given these realities, the College Success team seeks to implement activities to ensure successful post-secondary transition, college persistence and success goals are met, and Scholars graduate from college on-time and ready for post-graduation opportunities.
The Director of College Success will lead this division successfully by providing effective staff management, program oversight, and data driven decision making. The Director will serve as part of the program leadership team and collaborate with other directors to ensure college readiness goals are met and that the Scholar and family experience is consistent across their journey at Steppingstone. The Director will work a Monday-Friday schedule. Some evening and Saturday work is required and work schedules can be adjusted accordingly within that week. Evening work typically ends around 7:00 p.m.
The Steppingstone office is hybrid with the expectation that employees will work in the office a minimum of two days per week, with some flexibility around work hours. A $500 home office set-up stipend will be provided upon hire, followed by quarterly stipends of $50. Laptops are provided to each employee to enhance the hybrid experience.
The Steppingstone office is accessible by public transit and has very limited parking availability.
Program staff support the admission of new students and families to the Steppingstone Scholars Program, including interviewing prospective students and families. Due to the nature of those interviews, PTOs are granted on a very limited basis in February.
Salary Range: $75,000 – $80,000
Start Date: August 2024
Responsibilities:
Staff Management
Program Management
Knowledge Management
Requirements:
Required Skills, Abilities, Competencies:
Education and Work Experience:
Preferred education and experience:
Physical Demands:
To Apply: Please input your resume and a thoughtful cover letter outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position, and how you learned about this position. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement
As a condition of employment, all Steppingstone employees, including full-time, part-time, temporary and contract employees, and interns, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. To be considered fully vaccinated, individuals must have received two doses of the approved Pfizer/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine or single dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, and remain up to date with all boosters recommended by the CDC prior to the finalization of the hiring process. Finalists will be given details about how to demonstrate receipt of vaccination.
Reasonable accommodations will be considered on a case-by-case basis for exemptions to this requirement in accordance with applicable law. Applicants should be aware that for external-facing roles, particularly those involving close contact with students, accommodations that involve remaining unvaccinated against COVID-19 may not be deemed reasonable. Steppingstone will engage in the interactive accommodation process on an individualized basis in light of each particular role.
Employee Benefits:
Steppingstone Core Values
Power of One
Walk the Walk
Embrace Growth
A candidate will be found unsuitable for employment with Steppingstone and automatically disqualified if they use threatening language or behavior either written, verbal, or physical during any phase of the interview process.
The Steppingstone Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any individual, employee, or application for employment on the basis of race, color, marital status, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, or handicap, as defined by law.