Consultant, College & Career Success (Part-Time)

DESCRIPTION OF ROLE

BEAM is seeking a subject matter expert in the field of college success and/or career counseling with experience supporting students from low-income, first generation backgrounds in pursuing a STEM career. The ideal candidate excels in user-centered design, creating clarity in the face of complex challenges, and operating with a creative, solutions-oriented mindset.

Today, BEAM has over 400 alumni who are currently in college or have recently graduated. The College and Career Success (CCS) Consultant would lead the design of a new STEM-focused program that supports these alumni in achieving their college and career goals. By the end of the contract term, the consultant will produce a re-designed CCS program model that BEAM staff will implement in Fall 2025.

In addition to designing a new program model, the CCS Consultant will directly advise a caseload of approximately 40 BEAM alumni who are currently in college pursuing a STEM degree. These advising sessions help BEAM students stay on track with degree requirements, navigate unexpected challenges, and explore various resources their schools and other support organizations have to offer. This work will not only impact the lives of BEAM’s current students but also provide valuable insights for the design of future program services.

Throughout your time on staff, you will work closely with our College Admissions teams in New York and Los Angeles, our central Design Team, and other senior leaders at BEAM. Combined with external research, customer insights, and your personal expertise, you will be able to design a CCS program that helps BEAM students not only thrive in college but also launch a life-changing STEM career. At the end of the contract term, pending the consultant’s recommendations, BEAM may decide to extend the contract to support implementation or extend a full-time offer to lead the work.

This position is a part-time contract role with an initial duration of approximately six months. There is potential for the role to transition into a full-time permanent position, contingent upon business needs and individual performance.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

You will be provided with a full list of roles upon starting at the organization, which we expect to include:

Program Benchmarking and Research (25%)

• Gather best practices and benchmarking data from 5 or more college and career access organizations that support college students in attaining a degree and job after graduation
• Gather research on college persistence, STEM degree retention and career attainment that informs how to best support low-income and first-generation college students
• Design and produce a set of guiding principles, program recommendations and potential partnerships that will inform the design of a STEM-focused college and career program at BEAM

Program Design (45%)

• Create a scalable College and Career Success (CCS) program vision that aligns with BEAM’s mission and theory of change, including the number of students served annually, measures of success, and key activities
• Build an implementation plan for Fall 2025 that outlines the necessary expertise, staffing, partnerships, and processes to run the CCS program yearly
• Curate resources that can support the delivery of the CCS program, and outline any additional resources BEAM must develop to run the program
• Create the introductory training full-time staff will need to launch the program

College Student Advising (35%)

• Complete at least 25 first-year and 15 year 2+ BEAM college student advising sessions by the end of the contract term (an average 10-12, 45 min virtual advising sessions/mo)
• Collaborate with local program teams, sharing information and brainstorming how to support students in their transition to and through college
• Create and send a monthly newsletter to BEAM college students sharing STEM-based college and career resources, which includes creating a list of summer research, internship and program opportunities and following up through Beam’s college Slack community
• Track relevant data from student advising sessions that inform future program design

QUALIFICATIONS

We understand that there are many paths to acquiring experience and therefore welcome candidates from diverse and nontraditional backgrounds for this role who have demonstrated equivalent transferable skills to carry out the major duties outlined in this job description.

• A bachelor’s degree
• 2-3 years of relevant work experience designing and managing college and career access programs
• Experience with STEM education, STEM research, or STEM outreach
• Experience working with youth, especially college students in a mentoring/advising capacity
• Communication skills (including verbal and written), with a high energy level and an ability to tailor clear communication to multiple audiences
• Attention to detail, strong organization skills, and the ability to take a project from start to finish.
• Love and commitment for helping each of our students and guiding them to use available resources and to advocate for themselves.
• Passion for BEAM’s mission and strong interest in being part of a team working to support historically excluded students and their families, and
• Strong basic computer skills, including experience/familiarity with at least some of the following: Windows OS, Microsoft Office, Google Suite, and/or Slack.

Significant pluses may include:

• A degree with a concentration in STEM
• Experience with youth from historically marginalized and/or low-income communities
• Fluency in a language spoken by our families (such as Spanish, Mandarin, or Cantonese)
• Prior teaching background (including such activities as leading an advisory group)
• Experience managing data in Salesforce or another database