Job Description

Harlem Village Academies 

Harlem Village Academies is a community of educators working to build an urban school district in Harlem based on the ideals and rich tradition of progressive education. HVA is also the demonstration site for the new Progressive Education Institute.

The Opportunity 

HVA High has a solid track record of success, with 95% of students accepted to college every year since inception. The College Counseling Director will manage the college admission process, systems, team and programs at HVA High. The Director will join a dynamic team of educators and will take our work to the next level, continually improving the quality of colleges to which our students are accepted.

Responsibilities 

College Process

• Create, execute, and monitor systems that ensure an efficient and effective college application process.
• Codify and institutionalize all processes, procedures and supporting documents for the college application process.
• Provide one-on-one college counseling to a caseload of seniors through the admissions cycle including, but not limited to, creating a college list, writing and revising the personal statement, advising on financial aid, and making final matriculation decisions.
• Arrange strategic college representative visits to HVA.
• Collaborate with HVA marketing to promote HVA to national colleges and universities.
• Build and maintain relationships with colleges and universities to create partnerships benefiting both the school and students.
• Build strong relationships with teacher teams.
• Create communication systems to work effectively with students and parents.
• Track and ensure progress of all college initiatives.
• Measure and report weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually on results of college benchmarks to high school principal and academic director and to HVA superintendent and chief executive.
• Accountable for accomplishing goals including but not limited to 95%+ of students accepted to four year colleges as well as goals related to college matriculation and college selectivity.

College Readiness 9-12 Curriculum and Courses

• Oversee the refinement and implementation of a world class 9-12 college readiness curriculum.
• Collaborate with the team to teach and/or co-teach the 12th Grade College Readiness class, working directly with students.
• Collaborate with teachers and advisors to implement college and career curriculum.

 

College Admissions Testing & Reporting

• Maintain relationships and manage college testing processes for PSAT, SAT, ACT and IB, including but not limited to test dates and score reporting.
• Oversee ACT or SAT prep programs, both in-house and external, to meet goals.
• Ensure timely uploading and sharing of test data to inform college and school practices.
• Evaluate test results to identify possible school-wide intervention strategies.

 

College Culture

• Use data-driven practices to inform yearly benchmarks calendar, college lists, and financial aid timeline.
• Coordinate with advisors and grade level leaders to ensure collaboration and support of college initiatives in the school.
• Ensure operations and academic teams are informed, aligned and supporting the needs of the college team, e.g. transcripts, data imports from student information systems.
• Plan and execute strategic college visits aligned to the 9-12th grade scope and sequence.
• Contribute to high school leadership team to ensure college perspective on school-wide decisions.
• Develop strategic events that celebrate the success of HVA Seniors and build a school-wide college going culture.

 

Summer Opportunities

• Build and maintain systems for managing the summer opportunities office including the master calendar, success toward articulated goals and metrics, the benchmarks calendar, and the development of new and continued community partnerships.
• Ensure strategic integration of summer opportunities’ benchmarks calendar with the entire school and the college readiness curriculum.

 

Candidate Qualifications 

The ideal candidate will have at least five years experience working in the admissions office of a selective college, and will be a first generation college student familiar with the challenges of that experience. In addition, the candidate will be passionately committed to urban youth and will have the following skills, background experience and qualifications:

College Advising Experience

• At least six years of demonstrated success in advising low-income, first generation college applicants and their families in all phases of the college and financial aid application processes including student admissions to selective colleges and favorable financial packages.
• Track record of results with college admissions such as over 90% of first generation, low-income applicants admitted to selective four-year colleges.
• Experience developing early college awareness programs resulting in student motivation.
• Wide knowledge of east coast and national colleges including degree programs, opportunity programs, diversity programs, admissions criteria, defining fit for first-generation low-income students, as well as familiarity with admissions personnel.
• Effective participation in local, state, and national college admissions counseling events and professional organizations leading to increased results for student admissions.

 

Educational Background

• Masters in higher education, school counseling, or related field preferred

 

Management Experience

• Successfully managed a team to achieve ambitious performance metrics
• Demonstrated experience managing systems, programs, and events with attention to detail
• Demonstrated experience developing and codifying systems to achieve ambitious goals

 

Curriculum Development Experience

• Experience with college prep and/or college readiness curriculum development
• Teaching or training experience preferred

 

Skills

• Excellent organizational skills and acute attention to detail
• Ability to see multiple projects with many moving parts through from beginning to end
• Strong analytical and writing skills
• Focus on results and the flexibility and willingness to do “whatever it takes”
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Ability to work autonomously, as well as to take direction
• Exceptionally skilled at analysis, communication, persuasion, and negotiation
• Maturity, humility, strong work-ethic, sense of humor, and “roll-up-my-sleeves” attitude
• Solid technical skills and experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

How to Apply

HOW TO APPLY Please apply through the Careers section of our website: http://bit.ly/HVA-Careers. Harlem Village Academies is an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to diversity among our staff. Applicants of diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Bureaus: New York. Job Categories: Full-Time. Job Types: School Network Staff.