Visitor Experience Guide

Edelman Fossil Park & Museum is seeking Visitor Experience Guides to assist with our visitor experience program. The ideal candidate for this position is friendly, engaging, and eager to get our visitors excited about the experience they will have at the museum. A Visitor Experience Guide will work well under pressure and is adept at interacting with visitors. In this position, you would work closely with the Visitor Experience Manager, Education Manager, Live Animal Manager, Visitor Care & Production Lead, and Volunteer Coordinator. Experience in customer service, ticketing, cash handling, and administration are advantageous but applications of all experience levels will be considered. An ability to thrive in a fast-moving, mission-driven startup culture is a must. This role reports directly to the Visitor Experience Manager.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in a customer service setting
• Teaching experience and museum experience is advantageous
• Some experience with basic administrative tasks
• Strong customer service skills
• Experience with admissions within a cultural or tourist attraction a plus
• Must be dedicated to addressing the biodiversity and climate crises
• Experience with troubleshooting various tech/gaming platforms a plus
• Must be a highly collaborative, mission-driven person
• A valid driver’s license, your own vehicle, and an ability to engage in moderately strenuous all-weather outdoor activity are required

Work Setting:

The new 44,000 sf museum is an architectural stunner, that features two Cretaceous World galleries containing over three dozen Gary Staab sculptures of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures, The Hall of Extinction and Hope, which explores both the 5th and 6th extinctions, Discovery Forest hands-on learning gallery, Critter Cove live-animal center, an immersive VR deep time experience, paleontology collections, a paleontology themed playground that includes a 45-foot wooden pterosaur climber, nature trails, and a four-acre fossil quarry that exposes five formations that include the K/Pg horizon.

• This is a part-time position with G&A Museum Operations Mantua, LLC, based at the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, in Mantua Township, NJ.
• The role will require weekend work and occasional evening work.
• The role will require frequent work outdoors.
• The role is ideal for a lifelong learner with a willingness and ability to continually learn science content.
• Must engage in moderately strenuous activity and may be required to move light to moderately heavy objects.
• Must be comfortable speaking in front of groups of varying sizes and demographics.

“Discover the Past. Protect the Future.” This is an opportunity to grow with a young, vibrant, and purpose-driven world-class organization.

Start Date: ASAP
Job Type: Part-time
Pay: $18 per hour

Weekly day range: The museum is open seven days a week and this position requires at least one weekend day per week

About Leadership
Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, Founding Executive Director, has unearthed some of the largest dinosaurs ever to walk the earth, including the massive 65-ton Dreadnoughtus, which appeared in the recent film Jurassic World: Dominion. He is a recipient of The Explorers Club Medal, the highest honor in exploration. He is a TED speaker, recipient of a Nautilus Book Award, co-recipient of a Telly Award, and author of the bestseller, Why Dinosaurs Matter (Simon & Schuster.) His research has been featured three times in Discover magazine’s 100 Top Science Stories of the Year, and he has appeared in over 20 television documentaries. He is the former founding dean of the School of Earth & Environment of Rowan University. He founded the Green Jobs Academy, which helps workers retool for careers in green energy and other sustainable fields. And he serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Colossal Biotechnology, a CRISPR-based company endeavoring to resurrect the wooly mammoth and other recently extinct species.

About the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum
The Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University will transform lives by providing a unique opportunity to explore a remarkable site of scientific wonder. Visitors will embark on a personal, hands-on voyage of discovery in an extraordinary setting that bears witness to one of the most momentous events in our planet's history. By opening a window to the past, we imbue visitors with the thrill of scientific discovery as they develop a new appreciation for the preciousness of life that sustains our world today.

The museum under construction will become a one-of-a-kind destination that both educates and entertains. The local community will gain a world-class cultural institution that will attract visitors from across the country and around the globe. The fossil park and museum will energize economic development in the region, elevate the prominence of Rowan University, and foster pride of place for Southern New Jersey.

Globally Important Research: At the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, visitors travel back in time to when dinosaurs ruled New Jersey. Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and 75% of species. The fossil park’s 4-acre fossil quarry, set into a 65-acre property, is providing scientists with the best view ever into this pivotal, calamitous event that ended an Earth era, paving the way for the modern world as we know it. Over the past 13 years, fossil park founder, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, and his team, have unearthed over 100,000 fossils from a 66-million years old bonebed in the quarry bottom, and have cataloged over 100 fossil species.

A Rich Heritage: Surprising to many, New Jersey boasts a rich heritage of fossil discovery. In 1858, Hadrosaurus, the world’s first discovered nearly complete dinosaur, was found in Haddonfield, New Jersey. In 1866, the world’s first discovered tyrannosaur, Dryptosaurus, was unearthed just a mile from the fossil park. (T. rex, found in Montana, would come later in 1905.) Many other new species of ancient creatures have been discovered in New Jersey, from Cretaceous beds running from Freehold southwest through Swedesboro. Although dinosaurs were first recognized from fragmentary remains in England, southern New Jersey can rightfully claim its place as the cradle of dinosaur paleontology.

The Thrill of Discovery: Hand-on, authentic discovery is at the core of the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park public experience. Above the research layer, there are areas designated for public digging. Nearly every child or grownup who visits the quarry to dig for fossils, finds a 65-million-year-old fossil, with their own hands, that they get to take home. Over and over, this has been a transformational experience for people. When they make a personal connection between themselves and deep time, and the place where they live and the Earth’s ancient past, they never again see the world, or their place in it, in quite the same way. Children seem to understand the authenticity of the experience. The shark tooth or ancient clam that they may dig up, is a real discovery. At that moment, they become explorers, voyagers, authentic discoverers—an experience that can set them on a new path.

Sustainability: The core concept behind the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum is that we must learn from Earth’s deep past to guide our way into the future. The extinction of the dinosaurs serves as a cautionary tale for the multiple, simultaneous existential crises we face today. In the Hall of Extinction & Hope, visitors will confront the alarming facts about the unfolding climate and biodiversity crises. And they will learn why there is hope in the battle to save Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere, and that we all must act now to create the future that we all wish for our posterity. Finally, through a personalized RFID system, visitors will connect with sustainability programs and organizations, giving them a sense of agency and avenues through which they can make a positive difference.

Carbon Net-Zero and Sustainable Construction: The Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park Museum will be an all-electric building, deriving its energy from zero-carbon electricity and ground-source heating and cooling. Upon opening, the museum will be New Jersey’s largest carbon net-zero facility. Further, construction is underway using reduced carbon concrete, bird-safe glass, and large amounts of embodied carbon contained within sustainably-raised accoya cladding and wood-fiber-lamination beams.

At Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, we treasure the diversity of our planet's history and are committed to reflecting that diversity in our team. Edelman Fossil Park & Museum is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, age, ancestry, nationality, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability status, liability for military service, protected veteran status, affectional or sexual orientation, atypical cellular or blood trait, genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing), or any other category protected by law.

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