Job Description

Job Description

Teaching and Learning Intern (Undergraduate Level)
Job Description

About Us:

Achieving the Dream — Conceived as an initiative in 2004 by Lumina Foundation and seven founding partner organizations, Achieving the Dream now leads the most comprehensive non-governmental reform movement for student success in higher education history. Together with our Network of over 300 institutions of higher education, 75 coaches and advisors, and numerous investors and partners working throughout 45 states and the District of Columbia we are helping more than 4 million community college students have a better chance of realizing greater economic opportunity and achieving their dreams.

Achieving the Dream (ATD) believes that equity — our core founding principle — is the driving force to achieve the educational, economic, and social benefits of higher education for the students we serve. We believe that when colleges intentionally design and implement antiracist and just structures, policies, and practices that combat oppression, students and their communities thrive. Higher education must interrogate the disconnect between institutionalized practices that impact student success and the systemic structures and processes that continue to oppress and exclude students based on the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender identity, language, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, economic status, and/or religion.

Achieving the Dream remains steadfast in our commitment to delivering student-centered strategies to guide and support colleges to disrupt and dismantle historical systemic discriminatory legacies, structures, and barriers that prevent community members from prospering. We expect ATD Network colleges to honor their institutional responsibilities to create and invest in thriving local communities by leveraging their leadership positions to actualize social, economic, and racial justice. Through bold actions, colleges must transform their practices to target and eliminate specific barriers to student success and address their students’ needs by centering equity within their local context.

To learn more about ATD’s commitment to equity, review our Equity Statement: ATD’s Equity Statement

To learn more about our organization and mission, visit our homepage: www.achievingthedream.org

About This Role:

Job Overview

Achieving the Dream is seeking a Teaching and Learning Intern to support the Teaching and Learning team to develop professional learning services. The ideal candidate demonstrates interest in the area of higher education (particularly with a community college focus), will have experience in research, writing, and editing, and is familiar with different teaching and learning modalities (online, blended, in-person).

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assist the Teaching and Learning team with research that will impact the development of new professional learning services and resources for faculty and faculty developers.
• Conduct literature search to build a curated list of multimodal resources including articles, videos, podcasts, guides, websites and blogs, open educational resources (OER), books, and professional learning services (workshops, webinars, and courses).
• Co-create measurement instruments (survey and interview questions) to support the continuous improvement process.
• Conduct research on best practices in the following areas:
  1. Equity-Minded Teaching and Learning Strategies for Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, poverty-affected and first-generation students
  2. Equitable Digital Teaching and Learning Practices
  3. Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching and learning
  4. Multi-language learners
  5. Effective Instructional Strategies at the following institutional types:
  • Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU’s)
  • Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI’s)
  • Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s)
• Create and design presentations (virtual and in person).
• Other duties as assigned.

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain experience in the development and support of student-centered and equity-focused teaching and learning practices in higher education.
• Develop an understanding of issues and practices in a national non-profit setting.
• Perform research and contribute to projects that will inform the intern’s desired educational and career journey.
• Develop skill competencies specific to an occupation or professional interest.

Skills/Qualifications/Experience

• Familiarity with and interest in higher education, student success, and teaching practices/modes, particularly with a community college focus.
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite, databases, word processing, and internet research.
• Experience writing for a range of audiences and editing written work.
• This is a virtual position. A strong candidate will be self-directed, with strong collaborative and communication skills, and able to work independently while meeting deadlines.

Core Competencies

Collaboration: Demonstrates respect, humility, and willingness to collaborate when seeking to understand others and making decisions.

Disciplined ****Execution: **** Has the ability to break down big picture work goals into management tasks; has the foresight to anticipate potential roadblocks to ensure timely completion of tasks and projects.

Effective Communication: Ability to actively listen and thoughtfully question to create greater understanding and to offer insights that advance problem-solving.

Learning Orientation: Embraces challenges, new ideas and different perspectives as an opportunity to learn; continually seeks out and applies new learning to activate change or improvements.

Systems Thinking: Defines the system and one’s role in the system. Sees relationships and the dynamic elements of the holistic system and executes work accordingly. Influences the system and maps connections to ATD’s external landscape.

Change Agent: Serves as an agent of change at a personal, team, and organizational level to pursue outcomes for students. Adapts as the environment changes, while managing associated

risks. Motivates staff, team, organization, and partners to activate the change needed to advance defined priorities.

Culturally Competent: Models appreciate inquiry to gain understanding and awareness of others’ cultural identity and practices. Creates safe and constructive forums for sharing diverse perspectives and opinions.

Emotional Intelligence : Demonstrates self-awareness and self-regulation and recognizes impact of personal behavior on others.

ATD strongly encourages applicants from diverse and historically underrepresented backgrounds to apply. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

Please include a cover letter along with your resume. In the cover letter please discuss the following:

• Why are you passionate about ATD’s mission?
• What qualities, experiences, or other considerations do you believe make you an ideal candidate for this position?

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Achieving the Dream believes that diversity, equity and inclusion is critical to its work and its mission. ATD takes meaningful steps to promote inclusion in its hiring, retention, promotion, and board recruitment, and supports equity work at the community colleges it serves.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Achieving the Dream is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse work environment. **** Employment policies and decisions are based upon merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally- protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.