Student Advocacy Specialist

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JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

The Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications seeks a Student Advocacy Specialist to coordinate student retention and student success efforts.

The Student Advocacy Specialist will assist in improving efforts around first year seminars as well as focus on retention of underrepresented students, students who are Pell-eligible, and First-Gen students. This new role will report to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and coordinate these areas. This position will be filled at the Advanced or Senior Professional level.

Responsibilities: Following are the key responsibilities of this position:

• Monitoring College retention, persistence, and graduation rates for undergraduates, including subsets for comparison to the general population (e.g., 2+2, Pell-grant recipients, underrepresented minorities, First Gen, etc.)
• Designing and implementing programs and outreach to increase student success, especially where needed for targeted populations, and monitoring the success of those programs.
• Overseeing our Living-Learning Community as a liaison with Residence Life
• Working closely with student organizations and overseeing student mentoring programs and federal work-study programs to ensure these are effective in increasing engagement and retention.
• Working closely with our scholarships coordinator to consider how scholarships can most effectively be deployed for student success/graduation.
• Considering ways our First-Year Seminars can most effectively increase retention/persistence, and designing effective curricular/co-curricular approaches to ensure transfer/2+2 students are positioned for success
• May oversee student employees.

Education and Experience: A minimum of a Bachelor's degree + 3 years of experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience for the Advanced Professional level. Additional education/experience is required for the Senior Professional level. The level will be determined based on the successful candidate's skill and qualifications.

Penn State is committed to and accountable for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its forms. We embrace individual uniqueness, foster a culture of inclusion that supports both broad and specific diversity initiatives, leverage the educational and institutional benefits of diversity, and engage all individuals to help them thrive. We value inclusion as a core strength and an essential element of our public service mission.

Penn State offers competitive benefits to full-time employees, including medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans, in addition to tuition discounts (75% discount for spouse and children), and paid holidays. Please visit https://hr.psu.edu/current-employee/benefits for more detailed information.

The salary range for this position, including all possible grades is:

Salary Structure - additional information on Penn State's job and salary structure.

CAMPUS SECURITY CRIME STATISTICS: