Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor

Department: Education
Classification: Non-exempt
Reports to: Director of Education and Career Pathways
Status: Full-time
Hours Per Week: 40, FTE 1.0

Job Description Summary:

Since 2017, Wellspring and Gloucester High School have been partnering closely to support students who are preparing for next steps beyond high school. We do this through several initiatives including A) the GHS Mentor Project, B) Reading and Writing Beyond High School and C) emerging opportunities for Early College.

GHS Mentor Project: Working in partnership with the Wellspring Education Department, Gloucester High School (GHS), and the Gloucester Education Foundation (GEF), the goal of the GHS Mentor Project is to provide additional support for students who may not be making viable plans for post-secondary education, job training, and/or employment due to social, academic or financial barriers.

The Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor works directly with the Gloucester High School Counseling Department to identify students in need of mentor support based on counselor and teacher recommendations. During this time the Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor meets with each high school student presented as a viable participant to establish SMART goals and initial action steps. Upon doing so the Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor uses collected data to present to the Manager of Career Pathways and Mentoring who is charged with identifying and matching mentors.

Reading and Writing Beyond High School: The Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor works directly with students in Gloucester High School’s Reading and Writing Beyond High School class, offering a series of dynamic workshops, some in collaboration with Wellspring’s Academic Advisor. All students in the course are assessed to find out if they are engaged in viable planning for post-secondary education (including 2-or-4-year college, industry specific training programs) or employment opportunities that will lead to a livable wage. The students who are not working on viable plans following graduation or need substantial support to execute these plans will be given the opportunity to transition into one-to-one advising or a small cohort with the Youth and Young Adult Career Advisor or the team of Career Advisor and Academic Advisor.

Emerging Opportunities for Early College: Leaders at Gloucester High School are planning to provide Early College opportunities to interested students in partnership with North Shore Community College. The courses will take place onsite at GHS either during or immediately following the regular school day. As plans to launch Early College at GHS get underway, the Youth and Young Adult Advisor will work collaboratively with the Guidance and English Language Learning teams at GHS to get the word out to students about this opportunity and support students’ full participation and completion of the course(s). Once finished, students will also get extra support to consider their next opportunities through North Shore Community College or other college settings.

Note: This position is partially funded by a formal partnership between Wellspring, Gloucester High School, and Gloucester Education Foundation with a commitment currently running through June 30, 2024.

Responsibilities for the Gloucester High School Mentoring Project

  • Forge strong relations with the Gloucester High School Guidance Counseling Department
  • Meet bi-weekly with the Lead High School Guidance Counselor to discuss identified students for potential mentor matching, progress and next steps.
  • Review Gloucester High School student referrals and create intakes for potential participants using the Apricot database
  • Create participant records using the Apricot database including all meeting notes with high school counselors, teachers and students
  • Meet with participants (currently high school juniors) to forge relationships and determine goals and action steps
  • Meet with the Manager of Career Pathways and Mentoring to discuss the identification and matching of mentors for participants
  • Manage data input and use quantitative and qualitative data to inform bi-weekly conversations with the Director of Education and Career Pathways
  • Provide students with up-to-date information about education-related funding opportunities offered by Wellspring and community-based partners
  • Create and distribute project promotional materials
  • Serve as a mentor as needed during the academic year
  • Meet weekly and as needed with the Education Team as directed by the Director of Education and Career Pathways

Responsibilities for the Reading and Writing Beyond High School class (at Gloucester High School) *

  • Develop, implement and at times (co-)present a series of dynamic workshops focusing on academic or career needs
  • Provide and assess student interest inventories to determine workshop presentations
  • Collaborate with Wellspring’s Academic Advisor and the Director of Education and Career Pathways to establish caseloads related to student education and career goals
  • Forge relationships with students and classroom teacher
  • Provide one-to-one coaching for students interested in going directly into the workforce and/or trade schools; establish goals / action steps and determine the need for a mentor
  • Input all data into Apricot database, including goals, action steps, activity notes etc.
  • Provide students with current information regarding grants and scholarships offered by Wellspring and community-based partners
  • Collaborate with established community based partners to offer resources
  • Other duties as assigned

Responsibilities for Early College *

  • Partner closely with North Shore Community College colleagues and Gloucester High School leadership to launch the Early College program
  • Assist with information sessions and other outreach to students, NSCC applications, and general student support
  • Collaborate with Wellspring’s Academic Advisor if/when students are in a post-secondary academic path

*Responsibilities in these three areas may shift as the needs of the organization and the programs change over time.

Work Location: 50% or more of the time onsite at Gloucester High School (during the academic year) with other days/times at Wellspring’s offices in Gloucester. Pre-scheduled opportunities for remote work may be discussed with the Director of Education and Career Pathways.

Required Qualifications

  • Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in counseling, education, or related field or equivalent experience
  • Multilingual/Bilingual in Spanish and/or Portuguese
  • Knowledge of or willingness to learn about the developmental stages and needs of youth and young adults
  • Excellent communication skills – written and oral; ability to build rapport with students, faculty, administrators, caregivers, and community partners
  • Self-motivated with excellent organizational skills
  • Prior experience with career and educational advising/counseling
  • Resourceful, organized, and highly adaptable, a proactive problem-solver
  • Sensitive to and experience working with socio-economically diverse, multicultural, and multilingual populations
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office platforms

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience working in a high-school setting
  • Well-versed in data entry and use of databases for reporting purposes

Interested candidates should send resume to jobs@wellspringhouse.org

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