For 2022 – 2023, Cristo Rey Jesuit seeks a full-time Alumni Advisor.

Are you hard-working and passionate about ensuring urban students graduate from college?

Are you inspired by the transformative capacity of Catholic education in the Jesuit tradition?

Are you energetic and optimistic, quick to recognize the good in every student and opportunity in every challenge?

Are you an empathetic listener who builds trusting relationships with students, parents, and colleagues?

Are you efficient and entrepreneurial, ready to fulfill diverse responsibilities in a fast-paced, evolving environment?

Are you growth-oriented and data-driven, able to maximize feedback and resources to reach ambitious goals?

If so, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School needs your talent to enrich our supportive, college-bound learning community, serve families who embrace bold dreams for their children, and inspire students to lead through service to others.

About Cristo Rey:

Cristo Rey Jesuit (CRJ) Milwaukee is part of a national network of 38 high schools transforming urban education through a unique integration of college-prep academics, professional experience, and spiritual formation with a focus on students of limited financial means.  At CRJ’s new $35 million campus, just across the Menomonee Valley from Marquette University, in the heart of Milwaukee’s dynamic Clarke Square, Cristo Rey serves a diverse student body of approximately 425 young men and women and 350 alumni.  Students attend class four days per week and work in a professional setting one day per week through our innovative Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP).  It is the collective mission of our staff to provide our students with a Jesuit education that ensures they students gain admission to—and ultimately graduate from—college.  In pursuit of that goal, Cristo Rey staff collaborate, reflect, and practice to maximize their impact each day.

Job Description:

The Alumni Advisor reports to the Director of Postgraduate Success.  As part of Cristo Rey Jesuit’s team, you will blend ambitious vision with clear systems thinking to support high school alumni to and through college and to career. You will forge relationships with CRJ students and their families starting in high school, including by providing support in our College Readiness class.  You will maintain strong communication with alumni once they are on campus, track and report their progress, and offer flexible support based on their needs.  In the spirit of cura personalis, or care for the whole person, you will help ensure alumni’s social-emotional well-being. You will combine empathy, cultural dexterity, and your expertise working with colleges and low-income communities to build lasting partnerships between CRJ, alumni, their families, and college personnel. You will leverage your extensive knowledge about college admissions, matriculation, financial aid, on-campus resources, career development, student development, and college-success skills to support alumni and nurture and sustain a college-going culture at CRJ. With the support of the Director of Postgraduate Success, you will develop and implement a plan to engage non-enrolled alumni. Your interpersonal intelligence, courage, and drive to find solutions will make you an asset to an adult team that is high-functioning, vibrant, and grounded in a deep commitment to the school’s bold mission.  By giving generously of yourself, your gifts, and your time, you will build the foundation of a school that serves its students’ diverse needs, cultivates their many talents, and robustly supports its graduates to and through college and on to career.

Responsibilities:

Direct Support of Students and Alumni

• Maintain ongoing contact with each alumnus via phone, social media, email, messaging and in person by conducting visits to colleges where CRJ alumni enroll.
• Use data-driven practices to identify high-priority alumni for intensive intervention, such as face-to-face meetings at least once per semester as well as other preventative interventions.
• Connect alumni to appropriate on-campus champions, programs and other support resources.
• Track alumni’s grades, academic credits, contact information, and course selection information.
• Help plan and execute recurring alumni events and traditions (socials, networking events, panels, etc.).
• Assist in the development CRJ’s College Counseling curriculum and the College Readiness course, with an emphasis on knowledge and skills necessary for a successful transition to college.
• Assist with the creation and implementation of the college transition segment of the College Readiness course.
• Support the senior matriculation process, including tracking data and materials necessary to a smooth matriculation process.
• Assist with college-focused field lessons and in-school college and career events for students.
• Proactively build relationships with current CRJ students to know them and excite them about college.
• Support the college process during strategic times as determined by Director of Postgraduate Success

Development of Systems, Relationships, and Practices

• Ensure the overall quality and success of alumni support systems through a data-driven analysis and leveraging resources for support
• Maintain up-to-date records and data on alumni progress using Salesforce and other software as appropriate.
• Proactively build relationships with key college personnel (academic success program staff, opportunity program staff, financial aid officers, academic advisors, and other on-campus champions) to ensure top-notch support for our alumni and to help college personnel understand CRJ and CRJ alumni.
• Develop familiarity with the environments at colleges where alumni attend, and leverage this understanding to assist the college counseling team in recommending strong matches for CRJ seniors.
• Collaborate with college counseling and school leadership to acquire and build resources to support robust college and alumni support, provide professional development for CRJ teachers and staff, and to help build college-transition knowledge and investment in parents and families.
• Create engagement plan for unenrolled alumni that provides support, guidance, and encouragement to enroll or re-enroll in college as well as guidance and support in pursuing career opportunities.
• Foster connection between alumni and corporate partners, colleges, and community organizations to develop programs and collaborative relationships that will allow alumni to grow professionally in college, ease alumni’s transition from college to career, and extend CRJ’s impact on the development of a diverse local talent pipeline

Professional Presence

• Model values consistent with Catholic, Jesuit education and service to others.
• Engage students and parents with respect, fairness, and empathy to enable full partnership with the school.
• Approach your professional practice through a developmental lens, and enthusiastically participate in professional development, including with the CR Network; seek and apply feedback from leadership and colleagues; demonstrate drive and independence in accessing resources to further your own improvement.
• Contribute fully to the adult community in a range of contexts: as a member of the twelfth-grade team and the counseling team, in whole-staff meetings, in adult formation sessions, and so on.
• Collaborate with peers with integrity, humility, commitment, humor, and joy to ensure the foundation of trust that will enable the team to accomplish its ambitious goals.

Student Support and Contribution to School

• Serve as a student formation advisor, guiding students’ development of the Graduate at Graduation values.
• Actively monitor transitions, meals, and/or other common times to ensure a calm and orderly environment; chaperone and moderate school events, including retreats, field lessons, college visits, and dances.
• Seek opportunities to participate on committees, plan and attend school-wide events, and otherwise contribute to the life of the school.
• Other duties as assigned, including but not limited to:
  • Represent College Counseling/Alumni Advising Program at school events, including fall Open House.
  • If bilingual, assist with translating documents and during parent meetings.

Qualifications, Skills, and Characteristics:

Successful applicants will embody mission-commitment, openness to growth, attention to detail, resilience, results orientation, optimism, determination and zest.  In addition, they will meet or exceed the following requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher.
• 1-2 years experience working in an educational setting with teens and/or young adults in diverse, low-income communities.
• Expertise in the college admissions and financial aid processes and college opportunity programs.
• Extensive knowledge of the academic, socio-emotional, and life skills necessary for college persistence, particularly for first-generation college students.
• Superior initiative, resourcefulness, and organizational capability.
• Proficiency using technology to track data and provide corresponding support.
• Proficiency in Spanish preferred; teaching experience a plus.
• Experience in Salesforce a plus.
• Experience in college student development or student affairs a plus.
• Willingness and availability to work occasional evenings and weekends.
• Full vaccination against Covid-19.

Apply

To apply, submit all of the following in pdf format (as one document, if possible) to jpandl@cristoreymilwaukee.org, and include the position in the subject line.

• Resume with cover letter that articulates your interest in and readiness for the position.
• Contact information for three professional references (email and phone number)
• Undergraduate and graduate (where appropriate) transcripts

Disclaimer.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School provides equal employment opportunities to applicants without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sex, or national origin.  Candidates from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.