What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Student Life position at BEAM for Summer Roles?
About BEAM
The mission of BEAM is to create pathways for students from low-income and historically marginalized communities to become scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists. Led by staff with these same technical backgrounds, BEAM believes that pathways to STEM careers are created through community, individual support, and access to advanced work that typically lies outside most school curricula. We work to directly support students and to transition them to other supportive enrichment programs that enable their future success.
BEAM's model provides continuous support from middle school through college graduation, including intense academic summer programs for middle school students (after 6th and 7th grade), weekend classes and mentoring, and STEM-focused support through college. Our program includes not just access to learning advanced math but also support finding and applying to other opportunities, including support with college admissions and financial aid. In addition to our academic content, bringing students into community is a key part of our mission and all of our work is designed to support that goal.
BEAM has grown from a small summer program serving 17 students in the summer of 2011 to a year-round, national program, serving 420 students at six summer program sites and 600 students in year-round programming in New York City and Los Angeles this school year. In addition, our BEAM National pilot program now reaches over 500 elementary-aged students in seven different states, working to create a new nationwide pathway modeled on our local work.
With our recent strategic plan, our team has committed to transforming the organization from a successful startup to a more mature and scalable organization that can drive change across the country.
About the role
BEAM is seeking a Director of Student Life for our BEAM Discovery campuses this summer. Each one will be part of a leadership team along with a Site Director, Associate Site Director, Academic Director, one guidance counselor, and a full complement of seasonal staff (23-29 counselors, 7-8 faculty, 1 nurse).
Work Schedule
- Staff Dates: 30 workdays for Site Directors, 29 workdays for staff, plus 1 holiday
- Leadership Team Planning: June 30
- All Staff Pre-Camp Training: July 1–3 (with July 4 holiday)
- Camp Dates: July 7–August 7 (24 student days)
- Wrap-Up: August 8–11
- Salary: $6500
Responsibilities
Before summer staff arrive:
- Train for the role:
- Attend BEAM summer leadership training; training will be scheduled around your availability, but ideally during standard business hours
- Review BEAM DoSL manual
- Refresh on changes to BEAM policies and systems
- Prepare to implement training
- Coordinate with the other site leadership to prepare distribution of responsibilities in the summer. Any work you do beyond this, in particular reviewing to-do lists and ensuring tasks are happening, will be paid at an hourly rate on a separate contract
During the summer:
- Managing the counselor team:
- Using BEAM-provided scripts to train them in the days before the program.
- Supplementing provided materials with any systems and training you would like the counselor team to follow.
- Providing coaching and supervision in the first few days of camp, when counselors are still learning how to do their job.
- Coordinating any special counselor duties.
- Briefly checking in with each counselor regularly, and being present to answer any questions or address concerns.
- Giving counselors mid-program feedback and sending emails to summarize any parts of these conversations that might adversely impact rehires.
- Coordinate coverage in the case of counselor absences
- Coordinating program activities:
- Supervise morning transportation.
- Manage field trip transportation.
- Using counselor preferences to decide what activities to run and assign counselors (and faculty) to run them.
- Training counselors on sorting students into activities and supervising this process.
- Tracking inventory of and purchasing all necessary supplies and snacks.
- Ensuring that all activities run smoothly and create an awesome experience for the students.
- Supervising planning of special events, like talent show.
- Coordinating behavior management together with the rest of the leadership team: reviewing student behavior reports through CARE system; handling routine follow up; escalating more serious infractions to the Site Directors.
- Together with the rest of the leadership team, communicate with parents about any issues at the program.
- Leading by example in setting the tone of the program (e.g., find balance of academic and social leadership; treat students with respect; center students as doers of mathematics in the classroom)
- Participating in the leadership decision making process, along with co-SDs and the guidance counselor.
- Carrying out miscellaneous roles as needed for the program's functioning.
After summer staff leave:
- Providing feedback on summer staff to the person writing letters
If you are interested in further prep OR wrap-up work, please talk to us about this as we may have additional prep or wrap-up work to send your way, with BEAM paying you an hourly rate for that work.
Qualifications
To be considered for this role, you must have served as staff at an in-person BEAM Discovery site for at least one summer and must have been offered a multiple-year rehire offer at that time.
In the case of multiple individuals interested in the role, BEAM will decide who to hire taking into account the following:
- Preference given to those who have been a BEAM Discovery counselor for multiple years
- Preference given to those with experience working at the specific site of the role
- Preference given to those with past leadership and/or administrative experience
- Preference given to those with multiple years experience working at BEAM
Salary : $6,500
