Work in Washington Veterans Jobs

Req #: 234630

Department: COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Posting Date: 05/24/2024

Closing Info: Open Until Filled

Salary: $5,800 - $6,800 per month

Shift: First Shift

Notes: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here. (https://hr.uw.edu/benefits/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/benefits-professional-staff-librarians-academic-staff-20230701_a11y.pdf )

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

While this position is open until filled, the priority application date to apply and to be considered is June 10th, 2024.

Together with world-class partners, the University of Washington’s College of Engineering is developing a new generation of innovators. A national leader in educating engineers, each year the College turns out new discoveries, inventions, and top-flight graduates, all contributing to the strength of our economy and the vitality of our community. As a College of Engineering employee, you can help create a real impact for our students, faculty, friends, and fellow staff while joining a community of innovators committed to building a culture where all members thrive, are valued, and feel a sense of belonging.

POSITION PURPOSE

This position is responsible for the advising and retention initiatives and activities for The Washington STate Academic RedShirt (STARS) program. The STARS program is a College of Engineering (CoE) retention program targeting students from economically and educationally underserved backgrounds. Students enter the program as freshmen and remain active program participants through their second year and then to a lesser extent through graduation. While the incumbent will collaborate with the program's director and actively engage in the development and delivery of retention programming and interventions, the primary responsibility will be proactive individual advising, counseling, and success coaching, promoting the well-being of approximately 60-80 students per year (STARS uses a cohort model and students enter the program in groups of 30-40.) The incumbent carefully monitors student academic performance and develops and applies intervention strategies to assist in removing obstacles for students from admission through completion of the engineering math and science prerequisites (typically 2-3 years) to ensure their progression and success. The incumbent must be passionate about responding quickly and consistently to individual student, group, and institutional retention and success needs and will consistently seek to learn, develop, and improve targeted intervention strategies for individual students as well as the overall STARS program. The incumbent will collaborate on STARS seminars (the primary focus is on learning and study skills, personal, career, and professional development). The incumbent actively assists the Director and Pathways for Inclusive Excellence (PIE) Manager in the STARS admissions process, as well as takes on a leadership role in the planning, coordinating, and implementation of the STARS advising and orientation sessions and the STARS Bridge Program.

One of the most complex components of this position will be assisting students in becoming highly self-regulated and self-motivated learners, counseling, and motivating students towards quickly and consistently identifying and addressing obstacles to success. Most STARS students deal with multiple barriers to success, so the position requires having or developing a strong knowledge base and understanding of and commitment to student development, student success philosophy, and learning skills pedagogy. STARS is a highly selective program; however, the success of the program directly hinges on the Academic Counselor's willingness and ability to proactively counsel and guide students toward identifying obstacles and motivating them toward success. This requires the ability and willingness to consistently address issues immediately and directly with individual students as well as the group. This includes working closely with faculty, instructors, TAs, staff, and tutors to quickly identify and proactively address barriers to success.

Effectively teaching/facilitating learning how to learn, excellent study skills development and extensive time management skills are components of the STARS seminars and another complex component of the position.

Additionally, the incumbent will collaborate with a wide range of staff in the relevant academic units as well as staff from other recruitment and student support offices, particularly Engineering Department Advisors, the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, the CoE Career Center, and the UW Counseling Center.

STARS is a highly visible CoE program at UW and a profile has appeared in the Seattle Times, CoE TREND, an issue of the Provost's report series, Trends & Issues in Higher Education, and on the front page of the CoE and UW Websites. The number of undergraduates who are underrepresented minorities admitted to Engineering departments has increased by 93.5% (139 --> 269), since 2012-13 which is when the STARS grant was written. (During this same time period, undergraduate enrollment in the College grew by just 30.5 %.) STARS is also visible externally and has been supported by over $1.2M from the National Science Foundation and a $2.1 million grant from WSOS. It has recently received $500k a year in permanent funding from the State of Washington.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Counseling/Advising/Success Coaching (60%):

• Utilizes a comprehensive and holistic approach to engaging in proactive developmental academic, professional, and personal counseling/advising/coaching.

• Consistent in quickly identifying success barriers and immediately addressing issues.

• Keenness, patience, and perseverance for pursuing the symptoms and causes of a student or group having difficulty succeeding; pro-activeness to ideate and initiate plans for improving and getting on the road to success.

• Utilizes proactivity and consistency in assisting students in setting realistic and achievable goals.

• Maintains excellent relationships with PIE instructors, TAs, and tutors, regularly checking in/communicating about how students are doing; including directing and guiding in how to assist students who are struggling.

• Makes referrals for students who need assistance with overcoming obstacles such as specialized tutoring or other extended or intensive assistance--in general effectively familiarizes students with college resources and how to utilize them.

• Effectively guides students in transitioning from high school to college and navigating the UW campus.

• Regularly facilitates resolution of personal challenges affecting academic progress or behavior of students.

• Maintains an open door policy and ongoing communication with students; strongly encourages students to seek out assistance when needed.

• Creates a sense of community, with detailed attention to building and promoting a sense of belonging and inclusivity and creating a welcoming learning environment for all students. This includes being adept at facilitating difficult conversations when required as part of community-building and creating an inclusive environment.

• Engages student participation in planning and implementing community-building events.

• Facilitates students' academic progress by evaluating their STARS curriculum needs and developing appropriate STARS-related educational plans.

• Ensures STARS course scheduling is performed well in advance of the registration period each quarter.

• Schedules and registers students for all STARS-related courses and workshops, including working to secure STARS spaces in courses and creating a quarterly registration gird.

• Evaluates individual student progress on an ongoing basis, and regularly adjusts the strategies and offerings accordingly.

• Stays current on best practices and innovative approaches for student persistence and retention.

• Works closely with PIE math and science instructors, workshop leaders, and tutors to carefully monitor individual and group grades, issues and progress and is extremely proactive in taking action to address problems.

• Works collaboratively with and serves as a liaison between outreach, retention, and other direct student support services on campus; maintains positive internal and external relationships (critically works closely with CoE department advisors to keep them informed about individual students and program changes and assists student transition to departments).

• Utilizing the STARS data structure and policies: assists in the collection and maintenance of data on program activities; gathers, compiles, and organizes student grades and progress; maintains accurate records that may be used for written and statistical reports.

• Promptly responds to emails and inquiries from students, faculty, staff, parents, industry and the public.

• Documents and maintains relevant student information.

• Interprets, stays informed, and accurately explains university and CoE academic policies and procedures, FERPA (especially in reference to working with parents), and STARS Contract and Handbook (keeps Contract & Handbook up to date).

• Provides input to CoE Student Services Unit as needed in ensuring the success of STARS and/or other Diversity & Access programs. STARS Seminar (25%)

• Full responsibility for researching, designing, planning, developing, coordinating, and delivering all aspects of the quarterly STARS seminars required for participants during their first year of study.

• Teaches/facilitates the learning, study skills, and personal development components of the seminars; including advising and assisting students in developing and maintaining excellent time management skills.

• Prepares and facilitates presentations on topics that are steeped in both learning and student development theory.

• Proactively continues to develop and maintain a knowledge base and understanding of proven strategies/best practices for motivating students toward general academic and personal success. Programmatic and Administrative (15%)

• Assists in managing and maintaining day-to-day operations of the STARS program, including general administrative duties; as STARS is a growing and changing program this includes regularly performing other duties as assigned.

• Develop appropriate community-building and academic enrichment activities.

• In general, leads in the program design and development, planning, coordination, and implementation of the STARS Bridge Program.

• Selects, trains, and provides work direction to STARS First Year Interest Group (FIG) Leaders.

• Collaborate with the STARS Director on planning and development of all STARS program elements and activities.

• Review content on STARS website regularly to ensure accuracy and work with PIE Manager to update as needed.

• Assists Director and PIE Manager in some aspects of the STARS admissions process.

• Engage in continuous training on campus policies, resources, and support structures.

• Ensures the confidentiality of all academic records. Lead Responsibilities

• Day-to-day academic, professional, and personal counseling, advising and coaching; community-building; event planning and implementation and --in general--all counseling/advising and programmatic activities of the STARS program and other duties as assigned.

• Responsibilities include regular in-office business hours (8AM - 5PM) as well as occasional evenings and weekends. Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field and:

• Two - three years of Administrative, Counseling, Advising, and/or comparable experience with increasing levels of responsibility. Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Demonstrated ability to exercise professional judgment and ability to work independently.

• Experience and/or strong commitment working directly with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

• Experience facilitating conversations on contemporary issues on race, ethnicity, and other issues of diversity and equity in our society and their impact on the field of engineering and computer science.

• Commitment to providing exceptional student (customer) service.

• Demonstrated excellence, sensitivity and empathy in regularly and directly providing constructive feedback focusing on the particular performances, not the performer; ability to offer nonjudgmental feedback on students’ work, stressing self-awareness, opportunities to improve and ways to advance success.

• Superior interpersonal, oral and written communication skills.

• Demonstrated outstanding planning, organizational, prioritization and time management skills.

• Affinity for and demonstrated high level of attention to detail; keen eye for details and making a conscious effort to understand causes behind an occurrence.

• Ability to interact professionally with a broad spectrum of individuals and groups.

• Highly self-motivated, quick and impassioned learner and open to new ideas with desire to lead implementation.

• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of, or a dynamic self-directed commitment to learn student development and learning theories and best practices.

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively under pressure in the context of a fast-paced environment, with frequent interruptions and managing a complex, multi-faceted, and growing program.

• Demonstrated strong work ethic and willingness to go the extra mile to ensure student success.

• Ability, willingness, and commitment to working in a dynamic team-oriented environment that includes, faculty, instructors, staff, and student workers.

• Flexibility to adapt to challenges and the ability to master new skills quickly DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Preference for 2-4 years of administrative, counseling, advising, and/or comparable experience with increasing levels of responsibility.

• Preference for familiarity with UW advising and administrative systems.

• Demonstrated word processing and database skills for report production, presentations, and creative flyers; excellent experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Microsoft Access strongly preferred.

• Excellent problem-solving skills.

• Experience teaching and/or conducting workshops.

• Experience with program planning, development, and management. Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are access ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.

University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.