Job-Specific Responsibilities
Student education and engagement:
- Assist with and lead the development, implementation and facilitation of trainings, workshops, and/or an orientation program for undergraduate students, as well as for course support staff and graduate students to effectively work with undergraduates in the context of engaged scholarship.
- Work with students, colleagues, and institutional partners to cultivate a visibly and intentionally equitable and inclusive climate and curriculum within engaged scholarship, and which is explicitly designed to foster the optimal growth and development of students as they develop their sense of agency, and understanding of their roles and responsibilities in society.
- Oversee the undergraduate Student Advisory Committee, an undergraduate student committee convened to support the MPES. Advise students on engaged scholarship opportunities
Program development and implementation:
- Have a leadership role in the design and implementation of new engaged scholarship initiatives and opportunities.
- Develop strategies to bring the substance of engaged scholarship to students beyond those actively engaged with public service programs or civic engagement, while enhancing opportunities for actively engaged students.
- Develop and oversee new programmatic efforts based on student and institutional needs and interests, as well as areas of opportunity, such as student led inquiry and research endeavors; organizational internships that are academic, scholarly or intellectual in nature; co-curricular programming; connections between the academic, co- and extra-curricular domains.
Program administration:
- Provide programmatic oversight of the various components of the MPES.
- Assist with day-to-day program administration during the academic year and summer.
- Assist with ongoing reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.
- Manage inquiry-based research programs including application processes, oversee administrative processes and coordinate program logistics.
- Assist with on-ongoing data collection, including interviews with students, course support staff, and faculty.
- Complete basic analyses of qualitative and quantitative data.
- Support continued expansion of engaged scholarship into undergraduate education through outreach, collaboration, and resource development.
- Organize and support meetings and events, including program events as well as those within academic departments or in collaboration with offices, programs, and departments across Harvard.
- Have a leadership role in ensuring all administrative practices and program components are just, equitable and inclusive to the fullest sense.
Relational work and communications:
- Support partnership building work to support academic and co-curricular endeavors.
- Support expansion of engaged scholarship through outreach and collaboration to elevate the MPES and engaged scholarship. Regularly communicating engaged scholarship opportunities through various channels.
- Develop and oversee a social media strategy. Represent the MPES at Harvard College and beyond, including through professional meetings and conferences.
Resource and digital tools management:
- Manage and maintain the Canvas resource portal (web-based teaching and learning management platform), program websites, and online engaged scholarship library.
- Assist to ensure all resources and tools are current, easily accessible, discoverable, and searchable. Source new materials, add and remove materials as necessary.
- Assist in developing and implementing structures, initiatives, and programmatic efforts to support undergraduate students’ development of competencies to pursue engaged scholarship, such as through workshops, trainings, non-credit courses, webinars, and web-based trainings.
- Develop and implement co-curricular education and student engagement strategies. Assist with and lead the development of new resources and tools as needed.
Typical Core Duties
- Manage course development which may include recommendation and implementation of course sequencing, scheduling, grading processes and exam sessions
- Act as an advising resource for faculty and other academics regarding educational strategies and formats
- Manage events and programs related to academic affairs
- Review program goals, policy, curriculum, and program requirements and make recommendations for improvement
- Develop reports and analyze statistics pertaining to course development, teaching effort and student progress
- May manage administrative processes for faculty and other academics including recruitment, appointment and development
- May provide ongoing training and documentation
- Research, resolve, and provide accurate policy guidance to faculty and other academics
- Ensure compliance with University policies and procedures and applicable legal rules and regulations
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required
- Minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience
Additional Qualifications and Skills
- 2+ years’ experience teaching undergraduates or, alternatively, 3+ years’ experience with undergraduate education in a context other than in a course, such as through mentoring, advising, or working with undergraduates specifically on academics, research, or scholarly endeavors. Teaching experience strongly preferred.
- Experience working with young adults or students ages 18-22, such as through mentorship, advising in an educational, academic, or higher education context, specifically.
- Experience supervising undergraduate students conducting academic research/scholarship.
- Educational experience in classroom-based, co-and extra-curricular contexts with undergraduate students.
- Experience bridging theory, research, and practice. Demonstrated ability to move between theoretical principles and abstract concepts, and their concrete or real-world applications in the context of undergraduate education. Related skills to support undergraduates to link and move between theory, research, and practice.
- Knowledge of website design. Experience with website design and management, and familiarity with web platforms highly desirable.
- Human subjects or community-engagement ethics training and preparation.
- Solid understanding of and experience with undergraduate, community based, applied or experiential teaching and learning pedagogy, curriculum design, teaching and learning methodologies, facilitation strategies, and instructional techniques.
- Knowledge of the scholarly, practice, and programmatic literature in the broad field of engaged scholarship, as well as the principles, theory, methods, applications, and practice of engaged scholarship in an academic context.
- Hands-on experience in community contexts, whether through community-engaged or community-based teaching, learning, or research; outreach, programming, advocacy, organizing or service delivery.
- Outstanding interpersonal skills, and a demonstrated track record of successful collaboration with diverse people, settings, and contexts; ability to manage various types of relationships, work across academic, community, and student contexts with careful attention to details.
- Have exceptional problem-solving, organizational, and time management skills. The ability to multi-task and handle various projects at once.
Physical Requirements
- Sitting using near vision use for reading and computer use for extended periods of time
- Lifting (approximately 20 to 30 pounds), bending, and other physical exertion
Working Conditions
- Work is performed in an office setting
- Flexible work arrangements and schedules are possible but must be negotiated.
- May require travel on occasion.This position will be based in Cambridge, MA. All remote work must be performed in a state in which Harvard is registered to do business (CA, CT, MA, MD, ME, NH, NY, RI, and VT). FAS Human Resources is currently developing hybrid workplace models which actively support some remote work (within a state in which Harvard is registered to do business) where business and team needs allow. Furthermore, individual flexible and remote work options for this role will be discussed during the interview process.
Additional Information
The Assistant Director of Engaged Scholarship will provide leadership and programmatic support for the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship (MPES), and for the further development and implementation of engaged scholarship initiatives and opportunities at Harvard College. This position directly reports to the Director of the MPES within the Harvard College Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship. The MPES is a joint program of the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship, and the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), and is administered within the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship. The Assistant Director will be housed within the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship and report to the Director of the MPES.
The Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship has an extensive array of student-facing public service programs and civic initiatives. The Assistant Director of Engaged Scholarship is a new position that reflects growth of the MPES, as well as expansion of engaged scholarship within undergraduate academics and the co-curriculum. In addition to being a key partner in the continued development and ongoing expansion of the MPES, the Assistant Director of Engaged Scholarship will be an integral part of strategic planning for the MPES and the department, specifically in the design and implementation of systems, structures, content, practices and procedures to expand engaged scholarship at Harvard College, in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and across the University. The Assistant Director of Engaged Scholarship will have a leadership role in developing and implementing new engaged scholarship initiatives and opportunities. Areas of particular interest for development include student led inquiry and research endeavors; organizational internships that are academic, scholarly or intellectual in nature; connections between the academic, co- and extra-curricular domains; co-curricular opportunities and structures, such as non-credit courses or study groups on engaged scholarship; and strategies to bring the substance of engaged scholarship to students beyond those actively engaged with public service programs or civic engagement efforts. The Assistant Director of Engaged Scholarship will work in close collaboration with public service and civic engagement staff, as well as with a variety of campus partners in civic engagement, undergraduate education, educational practice, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion.