Academic Achievement Counselor 3

Department Summary

The Academic Advancement Program (AAP), a multiracial program, represents the best of what United States society aspires to: access, equity, opportunity, and excellence. AAP has three key goals: To create and administer innovative academic programs for students from first-generation and/or low-income backgrounds, and/or students who have been educationally underserved in higher education; To provide academic support for a diverse population of undergraduate students in their pursuit of academic excellence; To promote UCLA access and academic success for high school and community college students across the State's increasingly diverse populations. AAP programs and services are linked together by an underlying belief that all AAP students have earned their academic right to be at UCLA and have demonstrated the academic potential to excel at, and graduate from, UCLA. Our mission is carried out in a coordinated and integrated manner by a professional and para-professional student staff who share in a common vision and sense of purpose. Our programs and services are proactive rather than reactive, comprehensive rather than fragmented, and oriented toward furthering the long-term academic and personal growth of AAP students – rather than merely solving or mitigating immediate problems. Moreover, AAP encourages and promotes academic achievement and excellence by providing students with: peer learning (tutoring) academic programs academic, personal, and career counseling graduate and professional school mentoring scholarships research opportunities and stipends opportunities to participate in innovative science programs and a computer lounge.

Position Summary

The Academic Advancement Program provides innovative programs and services to undergraduates from diverse populations who have been historically underserved by higher education. AAP programs and services include peer learning, College counseling, mentoring, scholarships and research opportunities to support the academic success, retention and graduation of the program's students. AAP is part of the Division of Undergraduate Education within the UCLA College. The Academic Counselor provides individual and group counseling to AAP undergraduate students in the areas of academic, social, personal, and resource advising.

Responsibilities

• Being a team leader and mentor to student peer counselors
• Conduct student assessments
• Participate in the development, management, and evaluation of AAP counseling and student service programs
• Participate in outreach activities and evaluate student petitions and determine decisions
• Serve as an AAP liaison to assigned campus programs, Diversity initiatives, and community organizations that work with the AAP student population
• Participate in Freshmen and Transfer Summer Program (F/TSP) by providing advising and academic programming to entering students
• Independently prioritize goals, identify problems, develop solutions, and complete tasks following AAP, UCLA College and University policies and procedures and program expectations
• Make independent decisions both within and outside of established guidelines
• Independently assume managerial and programmatic duties associated with special programs under their purview
• Reports to the AAP Director and Senior Director of Counseling, with special assignments from the AAP Director

Qualifications

• One year of academic advising experience (Required)
• Demonstrated skills and experience to effectively counsel and advise students with professional, academic and/or personal questions and concerns
• Skill in working independently and following through on duties with minimal supervision (Required)
• Detailed knowledge of University and College academic rules, regulations, policies and procedures; detailed knowledge of AAP program rules, regulations, policies and procedures; detailed knowledge of campus and community resources for students (Preferred)
• Demonstrated skill in problem solving and generating alternatives in order to improve operational processes
• Ability to organize and conduct group presentations to provide information and explain policies and procedures to various constituencies
• Skill in speaking with persons of various cultural, social economic and educational backgrounds (Required)
• Skill in setting priorities that accurately reflect the relative importance of assigned projects and responsibilities
• Ability to establish and promote cooperative working relationships
• Skill in writing grammatically correct, concise, and logical reports, correspondence, and proposals (Required)
• Skill in using standard office applications (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Zoom and Slack) and the Internet; adaptability regarding the use of office internal software and web-based applications (Required)
• Skill in interacting diplomatically and effectively with representatives from other academic units/institutions
• Skill in evaluating information and policies according to criteria established by the Associate Director for Counseling (Required)
• Ability to use discretion, sound judgment and tact in dealing with confidential materials and information (Required)
• Supervisory skills to hire, train, develop and evaluate performance of subordinates to elicit high degree of professionalism and performance (Required)
• Working knowledge or ability to use UCLA's online academic student information system (OASIS), Counselor Desktop, and other online systems used for academic advising/counseling (Preferred)
• Demonstrated skills and experience to counsel and advise effectively students within those special programs discretely administered by the counselor (Required)
• Detailed knowledge of academic rules, regulations, policies and procedures required for those programs discretely administered by the counselor
• Ability to develop, manage, and assess independently all individual programs under the purview of the counselor (Required)
• Skill in representing to the campus and community, in advocating for, and in serving as a resource regarding, those programs managed uniquely by the counselor
• Ability to prepare reports, correspondence, and statistics regarding assigned programs
• Must be able to maintain a regular schedule and on-time attendance
• May need to work on weekends or evenings as needed (Required)

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in related area or equivalent experience/training (Required)
• Master's Degree in related area or equivalent experience/training (Preferred)

Schedule

8:00 am – 5:00 pm