Scholarship Community Manager

Colorado Mesa University•Grand Junction, CO

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Scholarship Community Coordinator is a full-time, student-facing, campus-based position within the First-Gen+ Support Center. The coordinator independently manages assigned scholarship communities, including relationship-based student support, cohort engagement, program requirements, events, partner relationships, student tracking, budget monitoring, and reporting. The coordinator serves as a consistent point of contact for scholars and donors, providing proactive, relationship-based support that promotes belonging, academic progress, persistence, and completion of scholarship requirements. The position requires regular and predictable on-campus availability for scheduled appointments, drop-in support, student employee supervision, team collaboration, and programming. The coordinator works closely with Financial Aid, the CMU Foundation, IRIS, academic departments, and external scholarship partners. Financial Aid retains responsibility for financial-aid compliance, award packaging, and final disbursement decisions. This position works in close partnership with Financial Aid during reporting cycles and when addressing student financial questions or concerns. This role understands each student’s circumstances and the intent of the scholarship partner, and serves as an important advocate and connection point, helping both areas complete their work accurately, thoughtfully, and on time.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
At least two years of professional experience in student support, advising, scholarship administration, program coordination, case management, or a closely related area.
Demonstrated experience managing multiple responsibilities, deadlines, records, projects, and stakeholder relationships.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office 365 and the ability to learn university technology systems.
Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills with the ability to establish trust and maintain positive, professional relationships with students, donors, external partners, and campus colleagues.
Ability to clearly communicate complex scholarship, financial, academic, social/emotional, and program information through written communication, individual conversations, group facilitation, and formal presentations.
Ability to calculate, track, and interpret scholarship awards, expenditures, and program budgets.
Accurate and timely data entry, recordkeeping, reporting, and management of confidential information.
Basic spreadsheet and data-analysis skills for student tracking, program assessment, and reporting.
Ability to build trusting, professional relationships with students from varied backgrounds while maintaining clear expectations and accountability.
Strong organization, communication, follow-through, judgment, and attention to detail.
Ability to independently manage an active, high-contact caseload, multiple programs, and overlapping deadlines.
Ability to maintain confidentiality and recognize when questions, concerns, or errors require prompt consultation or escalation.
Ability to receive feedback, correct errors, adapt to change, and continue learning.
Ability to plan programs, supervise student employees, and collaborate across departments while maintaining ownership of assigned responsibilities.
Ability to learn and accurately apply scholarship, financial aid, purchasing, travel, and university procedures.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in student affairs, higher education, counseling, business, public administration, or related field.
Lived or professional experience supporting first-generation, income-eligible, or otherwise underserved college students.
Experience with scholarship programs, financial aid, donor-funded programs, student retention, or cohort-based support.
Experience supervising employees and planning student programs or events.
Experience with Ellucian Banner, student-success platforms, CRM systems, or comparable record-management systems.

Responsibilities

Independently manage assigned scholarship communities, including Reisher Scholars, Daniels Fund, and other institutional or externally funded programs as assigned.
Provide proactive, relationship-based advising to a dedicated caseload of scholars through regular meetings, drop-in availability, outreach, follow-up, and referrals to campus resources.
Monitor student eligibility, academic progress, engagement, and scholarship requirements, following up promptly when concerns arise.
Maintain accurate and timely student notes, program records, tracking systems, shared files, and reports.
Coordinate scholarship award processes with Financial Aid and ensure required information is complete and submitted by established deadlines.
Coordinate scholar recruitment, selection, onboarding, ongoing engagement, and transitions through program completion or graduation.
Monitor program budgets, reconcile expenditures, and follow university purchasing, OneCard, travel, and financial procedures.
Plan, coordinate, attend, and evaluate orientations, workshops, dinners, selection activities, donor engagements, and other events/programs, including occasional evenings/weekends.
Serve as the primary operational contact for assigned scholarship partners, maintain program commitments, and support donor relationships, agreements, and reporting in collaboration with appropriate university partners.
Recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate assigned student employees, including delegating responsibilities, communicating expectations, monitoring progress, and providing ongoing feedback.
Develop strategies that strengthen scholar engagement, retention, academic success, career readiness, and connection to the university.
Attend required meetings and training and remain current on changing scholarship, financial aid, purchasing, student support, and university processes.
Maintain working knowledge of other Scholarship Community programs to support collaboration, cross-training, and short-term backup coverage.
Communicate progress, concerns, barriers, and needed decisions to the Director promptly and contribute to First-Gen+ Support Center initiatives and continuous improvement.