Edtech.com's Summary

UMass Lowell is hiring an Academic Success Coach & Outreach Specialist. This role involves meeting with students for one-on-one coaching, supporting them through academic challenges, and contributing to programmatic offerings that promote student success. The coach will gather data for actionable outreach and collaborate closely with academic departments and student services to enhance student retention and achievement.

Highlights

Meet one-on-one with students facing various challenges.
Develop and execute academic success workshops.
Coordinate and contribute to key RHSA annual events.
Collaborate on outreach efforts and manage cohort monitoring in Salesforce and SIS.
Build and maintain effective partnerships within the university.
Requires Bachelor's degree with 2 years' experience, or Master's degree with 1 year.
Preferred familiarity with Salesforce, SiS, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook.
Grant-funded position from June 2025 to May 31, 2026, with potential for continuation based on funding.

Academic Success Coach & Outreach Specialist Full Description

General Summary of Position:

The River Hawk Scholars Academy (RHSA) is a student success and retention program at UMass Lowell, supporting first-generation college students as they navigate the transition from high school to college and beyond.

The RHSA Academic Success Coach & Outreach Specialist meets with students for one-on-one coaching; communicates with students and supports them directly when they either self-identify to schedule an appointment or are identified through early alert systems, RHSA internal reporting structures, or retention campaigns; and contributes to RHSA programmatic offerings in the form of academic skill-building workshops and other key RHSA programming. The position will gather data to translated into actionable outreach and collaborates closely with academic departments and Academic & Student Services. This role coaches and provides students comprehensive supports and opportunities to promote overall wellbeing and strengthens their academic achievement.

The Academic Success Coach & Outreach Specialist is a grant funded position (June 2025-May 31, 2026), with potential for continuation contingent on funding.

Essential Job Duties:

Academic & Student Success Coaching:

Meet one-on-one with students based on targeted outreach, who are facing challenges with one or more aspects of college life, particularly struggles with motivation, academics, managing the load of schoolwork in balance with other responsibilities (such as work or family), and navigating the culture of higher education
Direct students to campus resources as appropriate (counseling, The Solution Center, advising, tutoring, Residence Life, etc.)
Keep accurate and timely records of all student interactions using reporting systems of record (SiS, Salesforce, etc.)
Continue to follow up with students as necessary based on level of need
Balance needs of individual students with maintaining availability for large cohort of students while responding promptly to meet student needs

Programming & Skills Development:

Develop and execute academic success workshops based on awareness of student need
Coordinate the Study Peer offerings and schedule
Contribute to key RHSA annual events (RHSA Welcome Day, First Gen Week celebrations, end-of-year events, etc.)
Monitor and track program participation and contribute to annual reporting.
Support development of new RHSA initiatives and collaborations as needed
Participate in university-wide campaigns and other special projects as appropriate

Campus Collaboration & Partnerships:

Serve as point of contact and collaborator with key RHSA special programs and academic initiatives such as career readiness initiatives and other academic-based initiatives.
Communicate with faculty as needed in support of student success, including RHSA Faculty Advocates.
Work closely with Centers for Learning, Advising & Student Success, and divisional teams in relation to academic support programming, advising, and other student success initiatives.

Cohort Outreach, Retention, and Recruitment:

Collaborate on re-enrollment and early alert outreach efforts, including calling and emailing RHSA students and accurately reporting in Salesforce.
Manage the overall cohort coding into SIS & Salesforce with semester updates to accurately monitor cohort numbers, participation, and overall success.
Contribute to recruitment outreach effort.
Represent RHSA at Admissions’ yield events alongside the RHSA team and present to incoming RHSA students at summer orientation sessions.
Contribute to the department’s marketing, social media, and general outreach efforts; this may include the need to oversee student employees to help expand RHSA’s visibility and awareness of supports & services.

Other Job Duties:

Promote the University’s commitment to customer service by:
- Building effective partnerships with co-workers throughout the University by freely sharing appropriate information and providing assistance when needed.
- Ensuring optimum service to all internal and external partners in response to all requests for service and information.
- Maintaining an environment that is welcoming to persons of all backgrounds, nationalities, and roles.
Perform other related duties as assigned.

Working Conditions:

Evenings and weekend work is occasionally required.
Position requires on-campus presence as this is primarily student-facing work.

Minimum Qualifications (Required):

Education:

Bachelor’s with 2 years relevant experience, however, will consider candidates with Masters and 1 year

Experience:

Minimum of 2 years’ relevant experience, preferably in higher education, directly supporting student success
Demonstrated success in managing a caseload, developing a student through a multi-dimensional lens, and executing student success strategies.
Demonstrated ability to proactively develop and maintain positive relationships with students to support social, emotional, and academic wellbeing.
Ability to conduct data management, tracking of student outreach, academic progress, etc. utilizing established monitoring platforms.

Skills:

Ability to establish program priorities, monitor progress toward achieving caseload and program goals, and conduct assessments to evaluate overall effectiveness.
Ability to work with software platforms and familiarity with data to monitor and track caseload.
Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build and maintain relationships with faculty, staff, students, and external partners.
Ability to work independently, be organized, and balance competing priorities to meet deadlines.
Familiarity with or demonstrated ability to learn how to use the following software applications: Salesforce, SiS, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Outlook, and word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software.

Preferred Qualifications:

Higher Education experience preferred
Demonstrated expertise and experience working with first-generation, low-income, or underserved college students
Knowledge of best practices in student retention in higher education desirable

Special Instructions to Applicants:

Only current UML Employees within the Grants & Contracts (MTA/GRACE) bargaining unit will be considered during the first 10 business days of the posting. All other candidates will be considered after that period.

This is a Grants & Contracts (MTA/GRACE) bargaining unit position, Grade P15.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled; however, the posting may close when an adequate number of qualified applications is received.

This position is contingent upon funding. This is a grant-funded, temporary, full time, benefited position from June 2025-May 31, 2026. Continued employment is contingent upon grant funding.

Please include a resume and cover letter with your application. Names and contact information of three references will be required during the application process.

Original Job Description