Assistant Director - Rice Emerging Scholar Program

The Assistant Director of the Rice Emerging Scholars Program (RESP) is responsible for assisting with the planning, execution, and assessment of all components of a comprehensive summer program for incoming first-year STEM students. The Assistant Director coordinates all elements of the RESP summer program outside the classroom and provides leadership through advising, training, and supervision of upper-class students who serve as RESP Student Fellows. The Assistant Director is also the primary advisor to RESP Scholars during the academic year and works with other Assistant Directors to provide comprehensive academic and student-transition support throughout students' tenure at Rice.

Special Instructions to Applicants:

All interested applicants should attach a resume and cover letter in the Supporting Documents section of the application, preferably in PDF format to avoid any formatting issues.

Ideal Candidate Statement:

Ideal candidates should possess strong advising and problem-solving skills, as well as experience and interest in working with diverse student populations.

Workplace Requirements:

This position is exclusively on-site and full-time, requiring all duties to be performed in person at Rice University. Per Rice policy 440, work arrangements may be subject to change.

Hiring Range: $60,000 - $65,000 annually, contingent upon qualifications and experience

*Exempt (salaried) positions under FLSA are not eligible for overtime. 

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree

• 2+ years of experience providing student support in a college or university setting

  • In lieu of the experience requirement, additional related education above and beyond what is required may be substituted on an equivalent year-for-year basis.

Skills:

• Knowledge of student-development, learning, and identity-development theories, as well as experience applying these frameworks professionally

• Ability to solve problems and support/advise students experiencing personal and/or academic challenges

• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with experience collaborating with faculty, staff, students, families, and administrators

• Ability to multitask and manage multiple projects with competing deadlines

• Demonstrated understanding of the experiences of students in transition and the strategies necessary to facilitate their success

• Experience and comfort working with diverse student populations, including, but not limited to, first-generation college students, low-income students, and underrepresented student groups

• Strong coaching, instructional, and organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to quickly assess the effectiveness of interventions

Preferences:

• Master’s degree (preferably in college student personnel, counseling, student affairs, or a related field)

• Familiarity with student-transition issues, particularly in highly selective academic environments

• Experience working with social media platforms and website management

• Experience working with new or first-year student populations

• Experience working with underrepresented student populations, particularly in STEM disciplines

• Experience in event planning and execution

• Experience providing academic support, leadership development, and program development

• Experience advising and supporting students with complex and diverse needs

• Experience utilizing proactive and intrusive advising strategies

• Experience supporting student-success and undergraduate-retention initiatives

• Experience working with faculty

• Experience working in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment

• Strong interpersonal communication skills and the ability to build rapport and sustain relationships with students

Essential Functions:

• Identifies and advises approximately 65 RESP Scholars who need additional support and provides sustained, individualized, holistic, and developmentally appropriate coaching to assist in their academic, social, leadership, and interpersonal development

• Assists first- and second-year students in developing road maps for success at the university, using a variety of strategies to facilitate goal identification and implementation

• Assists in monitoring student academic performance and progress toward graduation, prepares reports, and maintains student records as necessary

• Maintains awareness of best practices in proactive and holistic advising, student-success coaching, and higher education/student affairs, integrating these approaches into advising practices

• Assists in developing student-success interventions, workshops, and other programs designed to facilitate the transition to college

• Develops training programs designed to educate student leaders, faculty, and staff about the populations served by the office and strategies for supporting successful student transitions

• Performs all other duties as assigned

Additional Functions:

• Communicates and collaborates with residential college Magisters, Wellbeing Services, academic departments, Campus Life departments, and other campus resources as needed to ensure students receive comprehensive support

• Provides support, as needed, for other Student Success Office initiatives, including, but not limited to, New Families Orientation, Orientation Week (O-Week), office-wide marketing initiatives (social media and website), and programming support for first-generation and low-income students

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Rice University is committed to ensuring Equal Employment Opportunity and welcoming the fullness of diversity into our candidate pools. Rice considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. Rice also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified persons with disabilities. If an applicant requires a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please get in touch with Rice University’s Human Resources Office via email at [email protected] for support.

If you have any additional questions, please email us at [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in employment with Rice University.