The JAG College Success Specialist will have a leadership role in the design, facilitation, and implementation of direct services to ensure students are supported during critical transition periods, including from high school into college and from college into the career world. This position is a full-time employee of Jobs for Arkansas Graduates (JAG), based at the college, and working in collaboration with the Colleges admissions and student support services.

This is a year-round, full-time, salaried position. The primary schedule will be Mondays through Fridays; however, it will on occasion require evening and weekend work, and some in- and out-of-state travel, including attendance at meetings and conferences.
The fundamental purpose of the College Success Specialist is to empower students, especially first-generation college students, to make informed decisions about their continued education plans and to prepare students for successful transition to post-secondary education and training.
This position will have three primary roles:
1. Identify JAG high school students, JAG alumni, and parents of JAG students/JAG alumni throughout Arkansas who have articulated aspirations in fields of interests aligned with higher education opportunities available through the College and connect those students to the enrollment process at the College through supported, ongoing facilitation.

2. Primarily support JAG graduates enrolled at the College, but also potentially other students identified as being at-risk of dropping out before attaining a degree, to ensure they stay enrolled successfully. The College and Career Transition Specialist would work one-on-one with students to identify any challenges they may face to attaining a degree and serve as a liaison to specific services/supports to ensure those challenges are overcome.

3. Develop individualized post-college transition plans for JAG students while still enrolled at the College, but also potentially general population students, to ensure all students have a plan that will take them through graduation and into the workforce. This work will include making sure the students are aware of the current demands of job market, and the skills required to meet those demands.

• Collaborate with JAG Specialists, teachers, counselors, and administrators at high schools to students in their junior and senior years of high school to begin the process of relationship development to support the transition process to postsecondary education to the College.
• Provide early outreach to students and their adult support networks with information about the importance of post-secondary training or education.
• Build upon resources and best practices and align proven strategies to best serve student needs. For example, Jobs for Americas Graduates competency-based approach has helped in-school youth find success in learning the skills and information needed to create plans for college and career plans after graduation.
• Create a learning community among the students being served through this program, that builds a sense of belonging and offers peer-to-peer mentoring and leadership development opportunities. This builds upon the best practices of JAGs school-based Career Association model; however, will slightly differ in focus (postsecondary education) and will be more complex in that membership..
• Provide information about career options, continued education pathways, educational requirements, and existing supporting resources (such a college application support, financial aid seminars, etc.)

• Facilitate the development of individual graduation and continued education plans to include the best options to meet individual academic and post-secondary goals.
• Coordinate post secondary visits with school personnel and/or college access teams.
• Assist students with enrolling continued education programs.
• Work with guidance to track FASFA PIN and FASFA application completion.
• Connect/refer students to academic enrichment activities such as study groups, tutoring and workshops on effective study skills as appropriate.
• Coordinate the administering and providing interpretation of ability/career assessments and college entrance assessments as such as Accuplacer.
• Assist in the preparation for PSAT, SAT, etc. and coordinate follow-up activities with school personnel.
• Ease the transition of students from high school to postsecondary training and education. Providing at a minimum monthly follow up services for the 18 months following their graduation or separation from their secondary institution into the College.
• Track the progress of individual students and subgroups as they progress through high school, into the College, and post-graduation connection to workforce.
• Conduct and analyze ongoing formative and summative evaluation data for program effectiveness.
• Provide and/or submit reports as scheduled/requested.

• Participate in JAG and College activities and events including meetings, professional development as required etc.

• Serve on project teams, work groups as assigned.
• All other duties as assigned.

• Bachelors degree; five years of experience working with students who face barriers to success in education; ability to communicate effectively with youth, adults, and members of the community; ability to analyze, develop, implement, and track intervention plans and strategies; knowledge of and the ability to analyze data.
• The position requires significant project management/multi-tasking experience and the ability to oversee progress on specific project components, including responsibilities that may be assigned to others.