First Year Mentor - Student Assistant Specialist

The New School•Bovina, TX

10d•Onsite

About The Position

The First Year Mentor program is an exciting leadership opportunity for Lang students to build upon their own academic, pedagogical, and activist work, and to inspire first year students to become part of a community at Lang that values and practices a commitment to care, critical thinking, and social justice. Following a training and orientation in August and early September, First Year Mentors support a group of incoming first year students to help them make a smooth transition to Lang and engage with the campus community. The First Year Mentor program is a leadership opportunity for Eugene Lang students to support incoming first-year students as they transition to college, fostering a community grounded in care, critical thinking, and social justice. Mentors participate in extensive training, collaborate with faculty and campus partners, develop workshop curricula, and help facilitate Orientation activities, including seminars, campus tours, and academic advising panels. Ideal candidates are strong communicators who are committed to student support, inclusive community building, social justice, and the academic mission of Lang and The New School.

Requirements

Completed at least one full semester of coursework at Eugene Lang College
In good academic standing

Nice To Haves

Facilitates conversations with ease and interacts respectfully with others
Demonstrates (active) listening for understanding and an openness to feedback, learning, and growth
Displays effective communication across lines of identity and difference, and exhibits awareness of how positionality conditions both what and how communication transpires
Displays a commitment to supporting first year students and a working understanding of the various challenges and opportunities that first year students at Lang can encounter
Possesses a broad-based investment and interest in Lang/TNS culture and community
Committed to (and/or open to) learning about social justice struggles and to dismantling interpersonal, institutional, and structural violence at TNS and beyond
Committed to seminar learning, process-oriented pedagogy, and the relay between academic, social, and holistic wellness
Strong communicators who are committed to student support, inclusive community building, social justice, and the academic mission of Lang and The New School.

Responsibilities

Offer informal support to new first year students and facilitate their arrival onto campus.
Lead an introductory seminar discussion for first year seminar students with first year seminar faculty.
Take first year seminar students on a luncheon walking tour of TNS.
Lead a panel discussion (“How I Decided”) on major and course selection processes.
Participate in extensive training.
Collaborate with faculty and campus partners.
Develop workshop curricula.
Help facilitate Orientation activities, including seminars, campus tours, and academic advising panels.