College & Career Counselor

Job Description

Job Title: College and Career Counselor
Level: Adolescent
Classification: 1.0 FTE, 10 month position (August to June)
Licensure or Certification: Preferred Licensure Area(s): MN School Counselor
Benefits Eligible: Yes
Compensation: Commensurate with experience
Reports to: Director of Student Services
Start Date: August of 2024

General Description:
The College and Career Counselor position at Great River works with students and families across the high school to help visioning and planning for life beyond graduation. This position is a touchpoint for students throughout their high school journey, including navigating course selection, building good study habits and understanding grades and GPA early in 9th grade to decisions around the IB Diploma, IB testing, PSEO, Online Courses, credit recovery and other variables throughout the high school years. The road to planning post graduation begins in earnest with the junior Key Experience in the fall and continues with standardized testing, obtaining letters of recommendation and starting to visit schools and other options through the junior year. Ultimately, this role spends the majority of their time working with the college application process throughout the senior year, from the opening of the Common Application, through application deadlines and landing with the financial aid and decision process in the spring.

This position is also an integral part of the regular academic program and schedule of the school and includes aspects such as in-service, community meetings, workshops, college visits and leading a Key Experience for seniors every year after they complete their IB exams.

Hours: 8:30 - 4:30 during school days, with some meetings extending past 4:30. One 25 minute lunch break during the day.

Essential duties and responsibilities include:
College Accessibility Planning
Individual Family meetings:
Spring of junior year
Fall of senior year
Winter/spring of senior year

Work with seniors at Great River School
Meeting with all seniors in September through January to chart a course through their senior year for planning, applications, deadlines and decisions
Support throughout the entire process of developing a college application
Support in completing FAFSA submissions
Support developing scholarship submissions
Helping students and families meet decision deadlines
Hosting college visits
Hosting or attending college info sessions and evenings, including PSEO and IB nights.
Sending out grade and transcript reports - specifically in February and June
Collaboration in meetings with students to help plan schedules, choose classes, make decisions about PSEO and IB, helping with credit recovery planning and overall transcript and schedule strategy.

Work with juniors at Great River School
Support beginning in February through June of junior year in building an application, including:
Letters of recommendation
Personal essays
Standardized testing
Extra-curricular activities
Planning for and participation during the fall Key Experience with the junior class
Working with Juniors during the end of spring semester to prepare for college planning
Support in the administration of the ACT and PSAT on site at Great River School

Experiences Planning at Great River School
Planning experiences for juniors and seniors
Junior Fall Key Experience
Experiential Learning in May (ELM) - Senior Spring Key Experience

Additional Duties:
Process Awareness and Education – This role is essential in educating students and parents about colleges, the college admissions process, trends, procedures, and testing; advising and supporting students and families as they go through the process; and helping students and families aspire realistically and make decisions that best meet their needs.
Application Support – The counselor will work to host various workshops for groups of students and families that focus on varying aspects of the process, including the Common Application, letters of recommendation, activities lists, personal essays, Early Decision and Early Action, financial aid and scholarships. The counselor regularly has follow up individual meetings with students to support completion of these steps.

Hosting Events – The counselor works to maintain numerous community, local and national relationships to share resources with families, including hosting College Night, participating in IB and PSEO sessions, SPED College Education night and organizing dozens of college visits throughout the fall

Reporting – The counselor works to load students’ transcripts, completes counselor reports, updates and shares the School Profile, sends interim and midterm grade reports and letters of recommendation for both college and scholarship applications.

Recommendation Letters – The counselor writes an individual recommendation letter for the majority of students after gathering information from parents, teachers, school records, and students themselves. The counselor also provides guidance to guides and other staff on best practices for writing letters of recommendation.

Data and Statistics – The counselor maintains records of admission decisions, statistics, and trends including alumni network of feedback. This information is shared with staff, school leadership and the board and informs programmatic decision making and is also shared with parents during presentations about the college process.

Relationships – The counselor maintains an awareness of issues and trends in college admission, higher education, testing, as well as keeping up-to-date about specific colleges and maintaining a network in professional organizations, including the schools that visit GRS every year.

Testing – The counselor maintains information about standardized tests such as PSAT, ACT, and TOEFL, including how to study, obtaining fee-waivers and strategizing when, whether and how to approach testing in a post-COVID environment.
Scholarships – The counselor updates staff, parents and students about scholarship opportunities, supports application completion and may attend reception ceremonies.

Meetings, Key Experiences and Commitments
Attending weekly Level Meetings
Attending professional development and in-service days, coordinating with the Director of Student Services to determine whether to attend level meetings, department meetings or otherwise.

Planning and participating in Key Experience – including Fall, ELM and Senior Key Experiences.
Participating in other duties as assigned by the Head of School or Director of Student Services, including contributing your fair share of the operational needs of the school

Qualifications

Qualifications:
Ability to develop supportive relationships with students.
Patience and flexibility in working with students that have a history of struggling in school.
Ability to de-escalate conflict and work with students, families and guides to regulate, re-engage and repair as needed.
Work flexibly to serve obligations, while also responding to the needs of the moment on any school day
Establish working relationships with all Great River Students in the UA program - specifically with seniors.
Establish effective communication with families.
Work with teachers to advocate for student success.

Preferred Qualifications:
Bachelor’s Degree or higher
Experience with post-secondary education institutions
Experience working in schools
A valid MN School Counseling License

Institution Description

Great River School (GRS) is a public Montessori school serving students grades 1st through 12th with the International Baccalaureate program in 11th & 12th grades. Our community is committed to an engaging environment which prepares students for their unique roles as responsible and engaged citizens of the world. Our vision is world peace through education. We specifically seek to deconstruct systems of bias and oppression that interrupt relationships and access to education. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, racial justice, gender inclusion, and accessibility of education is central to our core values as a school community.

Application Instructions/Comments

Great River School provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and or expression, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

In addition, Great River School will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. Applications will be reviewed and interviews conducted on a rolling basis until successful candidate(s) are hired.

Please send a letter of interest, resume and three professional letters of reference (email of application materials is preferred) to:

Email: jobs@greatriverschool.org

David Núñez
Head of School
Great River School
1326 Energy Park Drive
St. Paul, MN 55108