"Student Progression and Achievement Specialist"

Description

The Student Progression and Achievement Specialist serves as the main point of contact in the Office of Student Success & Transition for addressing faculty and staff alerts, primarily submitted through Navigate Berea, as well as concerns about student academic performance and meets with individual students to provide academic coaching and interventions geared toward academic progress and success. In collaboration with the Executive Director of Student Success; student success colleagues; and the Office of Academic Affairs, the Specialist analyzes data from a variety of sources, including Navigate Berea, grade reports, and feedback systems, to develop a data-driven and supportive intervention and communication plan to react holistically to and refine a student caseload. Provides guidance and intervention to individual students on all opportunities and challenges related to transition, progress, success, and intervention. Develops and collaborates with key stakeholders, including Student Life, Labor, and other student-facing areas, on programming geared to enhancing student engagement and success. The Specialist also serves as a Summit Guide as part of the First-Year Summit; and develops and collaborates with campus stakeholders on programming geared toward enhancing student engagement and promoting retention and resilience. As a key member of the Student Success & Transition team, this role champions equity, fosters student engagement, and incorporates best practices from the field of student development.

Your Key Responsibilities

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Regular and predictable attendance is essential. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Instruction: Serve as a Summit Guide for at least one cohort of the First-Year Summit, including in-session instruction as well as supplemental advising and support of cohort students as needed.
• Intervention: Serve as the main point of contact for faculty and staff alerts and concerns about students’ academic performance. Collaborate with stakeholders to review Roster Checks, Progress Reports, and other available institutional data to determine which students or student groups may need intervention or additional support.
• Navigate Berea: Serve as the primary SST member to utilize Navigate Berea (EAB) to respond to student alerts, and conduct progress reports and mid-term interventions.
• Light Suspension: Review Light Suspension cases and support students returning to good standing.
• Individual Student Support: Provide proactive and reactive one-on-one academic coaching, advising, and intervention services tailored to students’ academic standing, learning needs, and goals, including course mapping, registration assistance, and degree audits.
• Workshops, Engagement, and Communication: Plan, coordinate, and/or deliver academic success activities, programs and instruction, and develop partnerships with faculty, staff, and programs to increase opportunities for student academic success and progress across campus, including, but not limited to, Registration, Course Planning, and Curriculum workshops.
• Assessment & Continuous Improvement: Use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of academic interventions, inform decision-making, and recommend program enhancements.
• Committee Service: Attend Students of Concern committee meetings. Serve on additional committees and other groups related to student academic progress and success as assigned.
• Records: Maintain accurate and confidential student records and track intervention outcomes in compliance with FERPA.
• Labor Supervision: In support of Berea College’s great commitments this position requires student supervision. The fourth great commitment is to promote learning and serving in community through the student labor program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done. The Supervision would include scheduling, assigning and approving work performed. Developing students about common workplace acumen and giving them tangible work experience is an expected outcome. To learn more about the student labor program and requirements on this position see: Labor Program Goals
• Other roles/duties will be assigned as necessary to assist the College in the attainment of the goals set forth and the enhancement of a positive, respectful learning environment for all staff, faculty and students.

What You'll Bring

Education required to ensure success in this position:

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred

Experience required to ensure success in this position:

• At least 4 years of experience planning and leading student academic success programming in higher education.
• At least 4 years of experience working with first-generation college students with a limited income.
• Higher education or high school classroom instruction experience preferred.

Special skills, knowledge and abilities:

• A deep and genuine commitment to working directly with students to facilitate their development, provide educational opportunities and foster academic engagement and success to motivate students to meet their full potential.
• Knowledge of student development theories and best practices related to providing academic support to students from limited income and to first-generation college students, including serving as a Summit Guide to support the First-Year Summit program.
• Strong familiarity with emerging enrollment software and technologies, such as EAB, related to student tracking and interventions.
• Ability to quickly learn and implement Berea’s academic policies related to academic progress and degree completion.
• Ability to review and analyze data to target student interventions and communications.
• Strong written and oral communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty and staff across the institution with an understanding of the perceptions and needs of these areas.
• A willingness to work occasional evening and weekend hours for student-facing programming.
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality and comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

License, certification, or registration necessary:

• Valid Driver’s License
• Required background checks

Physical requirements:

• Ability to navigate campus grounds and buildings independently
• Ability to travel independently
• Ability to lift up to 20lbs for student programming and events

Environmental conditions:

• Professional office environment with interruptions and noise due to frequent visitors, students, staff, and faculty
• Some travel is required for meetings, conferences, etc.

Ability to operate the following vehicles or equipment:

• Standard office equipment: computer, fax, phone, etc.

Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 46 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them with a no-tuition promise, valued at more than $204,000. Berea’s students excel in the College’s supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only ten federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students are expected to work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus. The Washington Monthly ranks Berea College #1 Best Liberal Arts College, 2024. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2025.

Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at www.berea.edu.

Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.