Engagement Specialist

Organization: buildOn

Type: Full Time/Exempt

Location: Boston

Schedule: Tuesday-Saturday; Monday-Friday outside of the academic year

Salary: $21.63 - $23 per hour (Commensurate with Experience)

How You Will Make an Impact

Simply put…you will engage amazing Boston high school students in SERVICE. You will do this during class in partnership with teachers and after school & on weekends with community-based organizations. You will use buildOn’s modified IPARD model to engage youth in service learning. This model leads to community impact as well as measurable growth for the students themselves. You will help recruit students for our Immersion program where they will pair up with business professionals to teach them the power of service while gaining new skills and building their networks. You will also inspire students to apply for buildOn’s Trek program where they can travel to a buildOn partner country (Malawi, Nepal, Nicaragua, Guatemala or Senegal) to help build a school. (You can go on Trek too! See benefits below!)

The Program

Our Boston Service-learning program provides high school schools the tools they need to transform their communities through service. Globally, we partner with people in countries with high rates of poverty and illiteracy to build schools, enroll previously out-of-school children, and support adult learners through our Adult Literacy Program. To date, our U.S. students have contributed more than 2.4 million hours of service to their communities, and we’ve built more than 2,500 schools in eight countries––breaking ground on a new school every 36 hours. 

If you’re passionate about service and educational justice like we are, we welcome you to apply!

About You

buildOn seeks an experienced and committed professional with a demonstrated passion for engaging youth in breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through SERVICE and education! Our Engagement Specialists understand the power of connecting those who might not otherwise have the chance to serve and learn together.

Our Engagement Specialists are motivated to achieve challenging goals and inspiring youth to serve. A successful Engagement Specialist is outgoing, humble, and willing to approach students individually and in groups to invite them to serve. Engagement Specialists are sincere, energetic, and fun!

Core Job Responsibilities

Student Engagement in Service Learning

• Recruit students to serve with buildOn in their own communities. Recruitment happens in the hallways between classes, during lunch time, during classroom presentations, and by developing a core group of students to engage their peers. Teachers and counselors refer students to buildOn for various reasons and you welcome them in.
• Engage students in meaningful service learning in partnership with community organizations after school and on Saturdays.
• Work closely with teachers to engage students in IPARD service learning in the classroom.

Achievement of KPI Focuses & Data-Driven Decisions

• Use best practices as well as innovative strategies to meet monthly goals for number of students engaged and hours served.
• Use Salesforce platform to enter student engagement in a timely manner.
• Write monthly engagement logs and use monitoring reports to innovate and pivot to improve programs and meet goals.

Relationship Building

• Establish, develop, and maintain strategic partnerships with school advisors and counselors, administrators, faculty, support staff, parents, and local community partners.
• Provide outreach to parents/guardians and gain their support for engaging students in service learning.
• Establish relationships with partner organizations to connect students to needed services that are outside of buildOn’s scope.

One buildOn

• Support collaboration with other departments, such as Development, Marketing, Global, Finance, and HR to meet organizational goals, such as fund development and elevating student voice, to work as ONE buildOn.

What You Bring

• A commitment to SERVICE. An understanding of the power of Bronx youth to transform their own lives and the community through SERVICE
• Commitment to creating programs for youth that are empowering and antiracist
• 2+ years of engaging youth in the classroom or extra-curricular programming
• Ambition…a willingness to meet ambitious goals each month because you understand that when youth SERVE, they GROW
• Willingness to take initiative in co-developing and implementing new service-learning
• Demonstrated skills as a teacher/facilitator or experience working side-by-side with teachers/facilitators, particularly implementing service-learning projects
• Knowledge of the systemic issues that inhibit the growth of communities and a strong desire to use service to develop youth
• Functional knowledge of regional school district(s) and educational and nonprofit landscape.
• Spanish language is a plus!

What We Offer

At buildOn we value our staff members. Without a talented team we cannot engage youth in service. Our benefits include…

• A generous time-off policy of 39 days annually
  
  • 2 paid shutdown weeks (10 days)
  • 2 weeks of paid vacation (10 days)
  • Paid sick days (5)
  • Paid personal days (7)
  • Paid holidays including Juneteenth (7)
• 100% insurance premium paid for medical, dental and vision along with subsidized deductibles.
• 403(b) retirement plan with an employer match
• An opportunity to go on Trek to a buildOn partner country where you will work in solidarity with community members to build a school
• $50 cell phone reimbursement

#LM1