What are the responsibilities and job description for the College and Career Navigator position at College of Lake County?
The College and Career Navigator (CCN) actively recruits and engages with prospective students, their families, area high schools, local employers, and community partners to build awareness of college options, foster a college-going identity, and create connections to CLC as one of the top choices in higher education. The CCN serves as a point person for prospective students exploring college and career options and has an established caseload of incoming students who have committed to enrolling at CLC. The CCN is responsible for providing a personalized, culturally relevant onboarding experience for incoming students though a holistic approach to student support during college and career exploration activities, field of interest and college selection, academic readiness and financial literacy activities, and successful transition to first semester enrollment.
There are 3 possible CCN caseload assignments:
There are 3 possible CCN caseload assignments:
- Embedded High School CCN – this CCN works within the high schools (4 days a week) to provide programming and hands on assistance with students that are interested in attending CLC. Their caseload consists of 9-12 grades as well as recent high school graduates.
- Non-Embedded High School CCN – this CCN works with high schools that do not have embedded partnerships. They provide programming and group onboarding events for students interested in attending CLC. Their caseload is 9-12 graders and recent high school graduates.
- Adult Learner CCN – This CCN staffs the three CLC campuses and provides assistance for students interested in attending CLC. Their caseloads consist of adults who are two years or more post high school graduation.
Required Qualification(s)
- Bachelor’s degree, preferably in a related field with two (2) years’ experiences in higher education or higher education institution, secondary education, and/or human services.
- Strong oral/written communication and interpersonal, presentation, computer (word processing, internet, email, database) and organizational skills.
- Ability to work flexible hours including some evening and weekend hours, consistent with student and program needs
- Required 1 late shift during the week to ensure evening coverage at the Grayslake campus
- Proven ability to work effectively and constructively with persons of diverse cultures, language groups, and abilities; demonstrate sensitivity to and ability to work with the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds of community college students, faculty, and staff, including those with disabilities; establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work.
- Must have reliable transportation to visit CLC campuses, local high schools and community organizations
Desired Qualification(s)
- Master’s Degree in a related field.
- Experience working with community college, and under-represented students.
- Experience with caseload management.
- Demonstrated knowledge of, and prior experience with, predictive analytics and proactive student intervention.
- Bilingual in English and Spanish.
Posting Date
05/24/2024
Closing Date
06/08/2024
Expected Start Date
Special Instructions Summary
Pay Rate
$49,450/year (THIS IS FIRM)
Full-Time/Part-Time
Full-Time
Location
Grayslake
Total Hours per week
40.00
Work Schedule
Monday – Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm, with one of those days as an afternoon shift 11:00am-7:30pm. May vary in accordance with needs of the college/department. Some evening and weekend hours will be required to support enrollment efforts.
Beginning Monday, June 3, 2024, CLC will have a compressed work week schedule with eight (8) Friday closures ending Friday, July 26, 2024. The hourly schedule will be determined by the department.
Beginning Monday, June 3, 2024, CLC will have a compressed work week schedule with eight (8) Friday closures ending Friday, July 26, 2024. The hourly schedule will be determined by the department.
Software Testing Required
MS Word, Powerpoint, Excel
Interview Process Requirements
Presentation
EEO Statement
The College of Lake County is an equal opportunity employer and has a strong commitment to diversity. In that spirit, it seeks a broad spectrum of candidates including minorities, women and people with disabilities.
Summary of Essential Functions
Student & Customer Service - 80%
1) Recruitment and Onboarding of New CLC students
1) Recruitment and Onboarding of New CLC students
- Develop and execute outreach and recruitment activities in support of the college’s integrated marketing and enrollment plan.
- Build rapport and regularly communicate with students who have made the decision to attend CLC from their point of acceptance through the first day of classes.
- Responsible for assisting students from pre-recruitment through first semester advising
- Assist with the preparation of materials such as brochures, fliers, newsletters, post cards, and social media for promoting enrollment at CLC and engage with their individual caseloads
- Educate on the benefits of college, build awareness of college and career options and pathways, and foster a college-going identity.
- Customize delivery of information to varying audiences including high school students, parents, high school counselors, local employers, and community organization partners.
- Connect prospective students to alternative methods of exploring CLC’s offerings, such as on-campus tours, virtual tours, experience days, or other events highlighting academic programs and career options.
- Utilizes college and career exploration tools and one-on-one coaching to build student confidence in their decision to attend college and to pursue a specific field of interest.
- Build prospective student perception of CLC as a top choice in higher education.
- Execute targeted communication strategies and campaigns across multiple communication modalities (call, email, text, mailings, in-person appointments).
- Assist with student application and provide guidance on how access their CLC portal and student systems
- Assist with day-to-day walk-ins at all CLC campuses and high schools.
- Serve as a point of contact for special population groups and liaison for departments on campus to ensure streamlined support for students
2) First-Semester Academic Advising
- Apply “appreciative” (strengths based) and “advising as teaching” approaches to help students determine, discover, design and create a pathway to their academic, career, and completion goals.
- Responsible for having a generalist understanding of all programs and student support services offered at CLC and participate in professional development and continued education to remain current on all of CLC’s student success initiatives
- Manage Navigate system for student appointments, note taking and academic planning
- Help students select a field of interest or a program of study.
- Create a holistic academic plan with the student, ensuring all credit for prior learning has been received.
- Advises students for first semester course selection and assists with registration.
- Start initial conversations with students about their transfer or career plans and options
- Assisting students with development of a personalized success plan
- Maintain detailed advising notes in a shared notes system.
- Follow FERPA regulations and advising professional standards.
3) Career exploration
- Guide students through career exploration tools to assist in career identification and connect to fields of interest and academic programs at the college.
- Collaborate with faculty in the FOI regarding careers and connect students with faculty mentors.
4) Transfer exploration:
- Support students through the transfer school exploration process.
- Incorporate transfer school admission and major requirements into students’ first semester academic plans.
- Receive information, guidance, and resources from the college’s Transfer Information Coordinator regarding accurate transfer planning.
- Conduct surface level research in partnership with students in order to support their transfer admission process.
5) Financial planning
- Connect students to financial aid options, financial literacy resources and educate students about payment options and procedures.
- Collaborate with Financial Aid in understanding various funding opportunities including scholarships and grants.
- Participate in financial aid events at high schools and in the community.
6) Personal First-Semester Success Support
- Support students on developing success skills, academic skills and navigating personal situations that impact the decision to enroll.
- Effectively navigate conversations with potential students to discover the student’s story and identify potential internal and external obstacles or barriers to enrollment.
- Begins academic skill preparation through referral to additional testing preparation services, online modules, and workshops.
- Create an environment in which students strengthen their self-advocacy, ownership, decision making, critical thinking, and goal setting skills.
- Promote healthy approaches to balancing the demands of college, work, and family to students.
- Building and maintaining relationships with students, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, their academic and professional interests, facilitating culturally responsive coaching conversations about college readiness, providing social and emotional support.
- Connect students with CLC community and support services
7) Case Management
- Proactively manage a caseload of students, effectively addressing their needs.
- Establish mutually respectful one-on-one relationships with assigned students and provide individualized coaching and ongoing feedback.
- Communicate with students regularly through meetings as well as other channels of communication to ensure engagement and persistence.
- Utilize data and technology to run proactive communication campaigns managing assigned students’ needs.
- Monitor students’ progress by closely tracking registration and success data in real time; develop intervention strategies to assist students in their onboarding and enrollment journey.
- Celebrate students’ achievements and completion of key milestones.
- Respond to student concerns and issues by advising and referring them to appropriate resources.
- Handle immediate or sensitive issues requiring confidentiality or quality assurance; escalate matters requiring senior leadership intervention at a Director or Dean level.
- Use web services and software programs including TargetX, EAB Navigate, PeopleSoft, career exploration tools, transfer planning tools, Microsoft Office, Image Now, and other programs to assist in meeting student needs and the objectives of the College.
- Maintain data to gauge student learning and success; help assess student learning outcomes related to advising.
- Guide caseload of incoming students through the remaining tasks to prepare for first semester advising and enrollment, such as academic placement, accessing financial aid, evaluation of prior transcripts, etc.
- Monitor enrollment and attendance at recruitment and engagement activities.
Project and Process Management – 15%
1) Case management of incoming students
- Help facilitate change management activities related to the case management approach to advisement; provide programmatic support of this model by being an institutional resource to improve and advance the onboarding and advisement role for student success.
2) Internal and External Collaboration
- Collaborate with other departments to ensure a high-quality recruitment and onboarding experience for students
- Collaboration with the dual credit department to ensure clear pipelines in onboarding to enrollment at the College
- Collaborate with high school and community partners to foster a college-going identity and create connections to CLC and serve as a liaison to CLC for students, staff and families.
- Collaborate with high schools, all CLC campuses, and community partners to ensure college and career navigator responsibilities are clearly defined and fit the scope of the role.
- Represent College of Lake County at local high schools by proctoring on-site testing events and providing IT assistance, registration support, and connecting to other departments as needed
- Develop relationships with FOI departments, Lead ASA’s, and corresponding academic units, the outreach and on-campus experience team, financial aid, student records, registration services, and the welcome and one stop center.
- Participate in internal and community events to promote CLC and the department.
- Contribute innovative ideas to enhance process efficiency.
- Navigating and managing the culture of high school and community sites
Other – 5%
- Participate in professional development activities
- Participation in on-campus experiences as needed including but not limited to CLC Open House, Field of Interest Information Sessions, convocation, career and trade fairs, etc.
- Serve on college committees and governance as approved by their supervisor.
- Perform other related functions as assigned.
Salary : $49,450