HOPE Ambassador

 

Overview
The HOPE Initiative relies heavily on the concerted leadership and participation of Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and ultimately, its students. The role of the HOPE Initiative Ambassador – Outreach Specialist successfully incorporates mentorship, resiliency guidance, problem solving, general (non-academic) assistance, and “safe space conversations”. HOPE leans on a network of passionate professionals on campus that are dedicated to the success of Black and Latino male students.
 
Above all else, the role of the HOPE Ambassador is to empower students along their educational pathway, ensuring registration and course completion towards graduation and/or transfer.

Responsibilities
HOPE Ambassadors are student leaders who provide campus information and first-level advising, serve as event co-facilitators, and provide general mentoring and peer guidance to prospective students. The overarching goal is to promote asset-based language and approaches in empowering Black and Latino Male Students towards persistence, retention, and graduation. Outreach Specialist roles and responsibilities can be categorized into four basic areas:
 
  1. Outreach and Relationship Building
  • Ambassadors serve as front-line support for student success, initiating contact for Black and Latino Male students; there is some specificity in roles (D4I, IPs, Graduation, Veterans), but the expectation is that you will be functioning in all of them in some capacity. We also want to ensure students are academically planned and registered for the following semester and beyond, up until graduation.
  • In this capacity, you will be conducting Phone/email contact, mailings, open office hours, in-person and/or remote meetings with students (and where applicable, parents), and qualitative data collection. Ambassadors log their connections with students for reference/HOPE leadership.
  • The purpose of these contacts is to gather student information, answer questions, assist them as they navigate BHCC, helping them get to know what HOPE (and the institution as a whole) has to offer, contribute to student retention/success, and keep HOPE Leadership/other Ambassadors updated specifically to the concerns of participants in the HOPE Initiative.
  • As a front-line level of student empowerment, you will be tasked with eliminating the barriers to student success, through direct referrals, providing resources, and other duties as assigned.
 
  1. Qualitative Data Collection
  • The HOPE Initiative is a student-centered program, so in this capacity, you literally shape the programming and direction of the initiative moving forward. In this capacity, you will be responsible for collecting qualitative data from students, in the form of Focus groups and individual interviews, surveys, and general contact/interaction. The data you collect will be the foundation for programs, services, and other projects that are created through HOPE, both independently and collaboratively.
     
  1. First-Level advising
  • Ambassadors will also play a large role in helping students become familiar with the course registration process and serve as an initial avenue for general assistance/conversations. The Ambassadors will help facilitate course-related dialogues on campus, take them to visit departments in a physical and/or remote capacity and connect them to the people behind the services, resources, and facilities they will have access to as a student at BHCC. Ambassadors will also be expected to show students how to navigate self-service, the functions of student central, and offer direct information specific to course registration (course delivery, adding/dropping courses, etc.).
 
  1. Barrier Navigation & Elimination
  • All of the aforementioned items point to one major thing: the removal of barriers to student success at the college. Navigating BHCC can be a challenging and weird experience: whether you are 18 or 53; a new student or returning after some time away; a parent, a veteran, or in the middle of a career. Too often, Black and Latino Males are made to feel marginalized, and that they do not matter. By removing the barriers, and forming these connections, you ENSURE that these students matter. You are not expected to have all the answers; in this role, however, you will be exposed to a bevy of resources, and if you don’t know the answer, will have a direct contact/connection to someone who will.
Training
To receive adequate training, Ambassadors will:
  • Attend all mandatory training/meetings relevant to onboarding in the role, including but not limited to:
    • effective mentoring
    • leadership skills
    • service-learning competencies
    • cultural competency
  • Be responsible for downloading WebEx on your mobile devices and/or computer (as applicable), as all means of communication specific to the role will function via this platform.
  • Responding to correspondence from HOPE Leadership in an expedient fashion
    • Ensure that calendar invitations are synced to proper email service, as to be on time and present for required meetings
    • Be Available and Present for individual check-ins throughout the semester
    • Be available to work on campus at least one day per week
  • Cross-Campus/Community-Based Organization Collaboration Opportunities
    • This role will grant you tremendous leadership opportunities to present to other departments, collaborate with outside organizations, and/or partake in college-wide training/retreats
  • Alignment with Existing Hope Programming, including but not limited to:
    • Dialogue Series Discussions
    • Open Office Hours
    • Welcome Days

 

I am enrolled/planning to enroll in courses for the following semester(s)
Have you applied for, and/or are eligible for Federal Work-Study?
For which HOPE Ambassador role(s) would you like to be considered? (select all that apply)
*Please note: HOPE reserves the right to designate positions based on applicant strengths and/or departmental need.