Position: Instructor & 11th Grade Support, Fellows Program

Reports to: Senior Coordinator, Student Services & Program Operations

Status: Part-Time (20 hours per week); Non-exempt; Temporary (Nov 2024 - May 2025)

Start Date: November 2024

The Job

The Opportunity Network (OppNet) is looking to hire an exceptional team member to provide facilitation and general support for our OppNet Fellows Program. This is an exciting opportunity for someone interested in engaging in an innovative, six-year early college readiness and career development program teaching and coaching public high school students in New York City (OppNet Fellows). You will hone your virtual and in-person facilitation skills, collaborate on our Career Fluency® curriculum, use organization and communication skills to support the 11th grade program, learn best practices for out-of-school time instruction, and enjoy a real opportunity to create social change.

OppNet Fellows (and the Opportunity Network organization) is functioning as a hybrid program for the 2024-25 academic year. As such, this position will have both remote and in-person responsibilities, including multiple in-person events and responsibilities held at our Lower Manhattan office (85 Broad Street) and our Queens location (Sunnyside Community Services). This position may also have occasional time in our Bronx location (DREAM Charter High School).

The Organization

Since 2003, OppNet has ignited the drive, curiosity, and agency of historically and systematically underrepresented students on their paths to and through college and into thriving careers, powered by our commitment to access and community. This year, OppNet will reach more than 10,000 students of color across the nation to support them in achieving their college and career goals.

• OppNet’s founding Fellows program works with 1,000+ students over the course of six years, from 11th grade through to college graduation, to provide college guidance, five summers of paid internships, career exposure and skills-training, and support in growing personal and professional networks.
• OppNet’s Career Fluency® Partnerships Program works with 35+ schools, youth-serving nonprofits, and corporations across 20+ cities to build their capacity to amplify college and career outcomes for their own students.
• Through Opportunity Ignited, we provide advisory services to corporations seeking to embed values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their businesses.

All of the work OppNet leads is in service of realizing our vision of a nation connected through vibrant communities and networks actively in pursuit of social justice and educational equity – a nation where all young people can freely create their own path to enduring success that honors their passions, ambitions, and full identities.

Our Core Values

• Galvanize Community While Celebrating The Individual
  1. We recognize the critical importance of creating spaces throughout our work where all feel that they belong and the fullness of their identity is affirmed. In doing so, we are able to build a culture of community united by inclusion in service of the personal and professional growth of all.
• Maximize The Power of Storytelling
  1. We work with the understanding that storytelling can amplify student and community voices to break through echo chambers and shift field discourse towards real change – informing, inspiring, and moving people to actively create a more equitable world.
• Center Social and Racial Equity Relentlessly
  1. We commit to designing all pedagogical practices, engagement activities, and programming in line with our vision for realizing social and racial equity in this nation, recognizing our country’s long history of structural oppression at the intersection of race and class across primary, secondary, and higher education and the professional sector – while also challenging both our role and the nonprofit ecosystem’s in perpetuating it.
• Activate Solutions Through Assets, Not Deficits
  1. We guide our work with a commitment to bolstering the strengths, talents, ambitions, and already existing assets of students, partners, and communities – over and above perceived needs – to generate solutions that drive their individual and unique visions of success forward.
• Pursue Impact that Lasts
  1. We approach all our work alongside students and communities with the fundamental goal of building success that sustains, understanding the organizational imperative we have to innovate, iterate, and collaborate with all stakeholders – from donors to families to college admissions counselors – in order to do so.

The Person

The ideal candidate will personally connect to the important work we do and value diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) across the organization. The candidate will demonstrate DE&I values by actively participating in all organizational-wide learning sessions and self-reflection as well as working with others to enact changes that contribute to meeting the organization’s DE&I goals. The candidate should possess organizational skills and attention to detail, energy and initiative, and the ability to prioritize and complete a variety of tasks on time.

Responsibilities

OppNet Fellows Program Support (85%)

• Prepare for weekly classes and events for OppNet Fellows (in-person and virtual);
• Facilitate weekly personal and career development and college prep workshops (in-person (Queens and Manhattan, with possibility for the Bronx) and virtual);
• Provide support for program-wide curriculum review and development;
• Monitor and support student learning and take any necessary action to ensure standards of high-engagement;
• Assist to document all participant attendance and interactions and maintain student records;
• Chaperone virtual and in-person career exposure and college prep field trips;
• Assist with student recruitment info sessions at partner high schools;
• Assist with recruitment interviews and related prep;
• Liaise with student families when necessary; and
• Engage in peer-learning sessions with other OppNet staff to continuously improve the organization’s collective quality of instruction.
• Track the completion of 11th Grade Fellow Assignments and coordinate regular assignment reminders

Learning, Development, and Program Reflection (15%):

• Depending on scheduling, the opportunity to participate in organization-wide DEI learning sessions, equity working groups, and optional identity-based affinity groups
• Attend weekly team meetings, and if scheduling allows - All Hands meetings and All Staff meetings
• Develop professional and personal intentions as they relate to OppNet’s DEI commitment, incorporated into performance feedback

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from a competitive college or university, current graduate students are encouraged to apply;
• Experience working with teenagers, preferably at a youth non-profit or school;
• Experience/skills in workshop facilitation and/or curriculum development (virtual setting a plus!);
• Experience with Zoom platform as a participant and host;
• Superb communication skills;
• Can lead class sessions in rigorous but inspiring fashion; understands how to be both nurturing and demanding; appreciates boundaries, but not afraid to push or challenge; enjoys teenagers;
• Resourceful and ability to solve problems;
• Responsive to program correspondence in preparation for workshops;
• Open to receiving feedback to improve teaching performance;
• Understands the importance of program evaluation and will comply with policies to measure the effectiveness of program;
• Detail-oriented; can be counted on to produce high-quality work; and
• High degree of effectiveness and efficiency - gets things done!

Requirements to Work for OppNet

• OppNet requires that all employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including new hires, unless an exemption has been approved.
• Hybrid In-Person: Candidates for this position must be available for regularly scheduled and ad hoc meetings that require a physical presence with NYC-based OppNet stakeholders regularly (periodic in-person workshops/team meetings)

Compensation & Terms
This is a non-exempt paid, part-time position, benefits not included.

The hourly rate is $21/hour. The position requires an average of 20 hours per week throughout the academic year (November 2024 – May 2025). The Instructor must be available Mondays-Wednesdays from 4PM-7PM for facilitation and Thursdays from 2PM-4PM. The Instructor will report directly to the Senior Coordinator for Student Services and Program Operations.

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The Opportunity Network is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to maintaining a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment and we are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified applicants. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We recognize that diverse teams make the strongest teams, and we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.