Retention Specialist

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt | Salary Schedule: 60, Grade: 24 | Bargaining Unit: CSEA | 12 months per year, 37.5 hours per week | Mandated Reporter: Yes

About the Role

The Retention Specialist performs paraprofessional work involving outreach and retention of students in specific programs designed to foster student success. Under direction, the employee develops strategies to support and enhance student completion and success. This role requires extensive public contact with students, faculty, staff, vendors, and external educational institutions to exchange subject matter and procedural information. A high degree of independent judgment and creativity is required to resolve a variety of problems. The Retention Specialist may direct the work of student assistants, clerical staff, and instructional aides.

Responsibilities

• Exchanges information with students, faculty, and staff regarding subject matter, resources, materials, policies, and procedures associated with classroom, laboratory, or college programs and services.
• Confers with faculty regarding curriculum, learning tools, student assignments and progress, tests, test scores, alternate learning methods, and other technical information related to services and programs provided.
• Attends meetings, conferences, and workshops to obtain current subject matter, procedural, and other information.
• Participates in division and department planning activities.
• Makes presentations to small and large groups to publicize services and programs.
• Assists with outreach and retention of students into specific programs, including developing strategies to enhance student completion and success.
• Provides encouragement and support to students undecided about a major by offering information regarding specific majors.
• Proactively meets with students to monitor their progress.
• Tracks student involvement in on-campus support resources, including academic counseling, student educational plans, financial aid, scholarships, internships, transfer programs, and completion of transfer admission guarantees.
• Develops an early alert system to identify under-performing students and collaborates with instructional aides and tutors to intervene.
• Assists in planning academic support structures, including workshops, study groups, tutoring, program activities, accompanying students to off-campus events, and other support services to enhance retention and success.
• Works with faculty advisors and student leaders of clubs to develop programs that promote academic success.
• Uses a variety of computer software to organize and maintain learning resources, compose and prepare correspondence, reports, publicity, and other materials; sets up and maintains online and manual files; and enters, modifies, and retrieves statistical and other data for reports.
• Trains and leads the work of student assistants, clerical, and other staff as assigned.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Successful experience of increasing responsibility that has included event planning, assessment, and evaluation.
• Demonstrated cultural competence, sensitivity to, and understanding of the diverse academic, socioeconomic, ethnic, neurodivergent, and LGBTQIA+ backgrounds of community college students, faculty, and staff.
• Demonstrated oral and written communication skills, including public speaking.
• Experience with a variety of computer software to compose and prepare correspondence, forms, reports, presentations, and other written materials.
• Experience with research and compiling data for formatting and preparing statistical, financial, and other reports.
• Skill in setting up and maintaining online and manual files.

Skills

• Working with diverse adult learning styles.
• Multi-tasking and prioritizing workload under deadline pressure, using independent judgment for decision-making.
• Use of Microsoft Office Suite and web-based content management systems.
• Establishing and maintaining respectful and sensitive working relationships with individuals diverse in academic, socioeconomic, ethnic, neurodivergent, and LGBTQIA+ backgrounds.
• Oral communication, including public speaking.
• Written communication.
• Organizing, setting up, tracking, and maintaining data in electronic and manual files.
• Directing the work of others.
• Performing research in a designated subject matter area.
• Designing lesson plans using original research, subject-matter knowledge, and materials.

Physical and Other Requirements

This classification requires communication with individuals and groups, work in close proximity with others, comparing and interpreting data, flexibility, tact, and patience. Physical demands include manual dexterity, bending, pulling, pushing, and reaching to perform essential functions.

Benefits

• Paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave.
• The District pays all or a portion of monthly medical plan premiums (depending on coverage) and fully covers monthly dental and vision plan premiums for employees and eligible dependents.
• Additional paid benefits include life insurance, salary continuance insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program.
• Classified employees participate in the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), a defined-benefit retirement plan through the State of California.
• Optional tax-deferred 403(b) and 457 retirement plans are also available.