Student Success Advisor

Student Success Advisor, EF Gap Year
Cambridge, MA

Who you are:

A passionate leader, driven by creating a fantastic customer experience and eager to mentor students who are on a journey of personal growth and career development. You are able to understand and empathize with students and their parents during an important transformational time in their life, cheering them on and coaching them through challenges while motivating them to create and achieve personal goals and celebrate their wins. 

Who we are:

EF Gap Year offers a 18-22 year olds a life-changing year or semester abroad that combines travel, language study, service learning, internship, and leadership training. We help students grow as people and provide hands-on experiences that better prepare them for college and the career world. We are the newest division in the EF Education First family of educational travel programs.

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The role:

EF Gap Year is looking for an Advisor to join the Student Success Team to help ensure a successful experience for travelers during their EF Gap Year program.  In this role, you will build trusting relationships with students and provide them with individual support. This includes helping them establish their personal goals and motivate them to achieve them.  Beyond serving as a mentor to Gap participants, the Program Support Advisor is passionate about creating a flawless customer journey and takes initiative in finding creative solutions when parent or student concerns arise.  They are a flexible team player, with a drive to enhance program quality and be a part of a new division of EF.

Advisors are responsible for:

• Conduct admissions interviews for potential student candidates
• Engage with students at specific Gap Year components throughout the year, including internship interview preparation, Orientation and Leadership Academy
• Maximize student well-being and program success
• Help participants identify and achieve their personal growth goals through group and one on one coaching
• Help participants set goals, chart their progress throughout the experience, and measure learning outcomes
• Build meaningful relationships which anticipate customer needs
• Identify new and innovative ways to connect with and coach all Gap participants to success
• Serve as the primary contact for students, helping to resolve challenging customer and parent questions prior to departure and on program
• Collaborate with local resources on the ground and operations staff to problem solve any operational program issues
• Staff Emergency Support shifts outside of business hours throughout the time students are on program

Your Skills Include:

Any or all of these things! If this role sounds like a good fit, but you feel that you don’t tick every box, we would still like to hear from you as we understand great teams of people have different backgrounds and experiences. We appreciate that applying takes a lot of effort, and we really value the time you invest.

COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING

• Clear and effective communicator especially via phone and email
• Quick to connect with a persuasive and motivating communication style
• Collaborative and work optimistically with others
• Embrace empathy for the customer and understanding their needs

PRESENCE & SOLUTIONS-ORIENTATION

• Open to feedback, listens to others, and shows dedication to implement feedback for growth
• Solutions-oriented – able to solve any problem for your customers and your team

TIME MANAGEMENT & GRIT

• Self-motivated and fearless
• Skilled at juggling multiple priorities at once and managing your time
• A go-getter and believes that nothing is impossible, willing to put in effort and hard work to accomplish your goals
• Decisive and confident – fearless when faced with uncertainty

BELIEF & LEARNER-MINDSET

• Open to ambiguity and not afraid to make mistakes
• Generous in extending trust and willingness to try new ideas, policies, and processes
• Coachable and seeking ongoing professional growth
• A life-long learner – naturally curious and passionate

The Team

EF Gap Year transforms young people into true global citizens. Participants travel the world, learn a new language, volunteer for a good cause, gain internship experience in future careers, and develop leadership abilities. They build an impressive portfolio of global skills while away and return home more self-confident, self-reliant and mature—ready for success in college and professionally. 

The Benefits & Perks: 

Knowing that the work you do each day changes students’ lives is inspiring, working with a group of remarkable teammates is motivating, and on top of that you’ll have the opportunity to:

Live Well 

• Guaranteed base salary (please note, this is NOT a commission-based role) and 25% company match on your 401(k)
• Expand your worldview with paid business travel plus three weeks of paid vacation time to start (and four weeks starting in year two!)
• EF is proud to offer a market-leading health and dental benefits plan
• Stay healthy with on-site fitness classes and access to Employee Assistance Programs
• Competitive fertility assistance benefits and paid parental leave programs

Live your Truth

• We believe our business, like our world, is better when we embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
• Build your network by joining EF’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Team
• Join one (or several) of our employee led clubs or affinity (we call them“EF-inity”) groups such as: LGBTQ+@EF, Black@EF, Latinx+@EF, API@EF, Indigenous@EF, or Parents@EF. Don’t see a resource group, affinity group or club that matches your passion? Feel free to create one! 

Live Engaged 

• We work in an open environment without cubicles or private offices
• Enjoy comprehensive in-house professional development opportunities with weekly and monthly trainings and workshops
• Keep up that student mentality with free in-house language classes and an annual stipend for continued education

Live for FUN! 

• Explore the neighborhood with discounts to local gyms, businesses, concert tickets, and sporting events
• Explore the world with discounts on hotels, flights, rental cars, as well as paid travel.
• Enjoy our in-house cafe, bar, hair salon, and fitness center

A tiny bit about EF Education First:

At EF we believe that the world is better when people try to understand one another. Since 1965, we have helped millions of people see new places, experience new cultures, and learn new things about the world and about themselves. Our culturally immersive education programs—focused on language, travel, cultural exchange, and academics—turn dreams into international opportunities. 
 
When you join EF, you join a multicultural and diverse community working across more than 600 schools and offices in 50 countries, all with one shared mission of opening the world through education. Whoever you are, whatever you are passionate about—we welcome you and want you to bring that to work every day. EF is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to inclusion and belonging across race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, identity, parental status, experience and everything else that makes you unique.  
 
Founded in Sweden in 1965, EF has school and offices around the world, including hubs in Boston, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Shanghai, Stockholm, Zürich, and more. Learn more at https://ef.com.