Director, Experiential Education & External Engagement

The Life and Career Design Institute ( LCDI ) empowers ALL members of the Wheaton College community to find their unique goals for work and life by leveraging design thinking. The Institute takes the liberal arts and co-curricular learning to new distinction. Introduced in June 2024, the LCDI is building the framework for students to connect classroom learning to their career aspirations through robust experiential education offerings. For these opportunities, the LCDI prioritizes student engagement with external employers and alumni to lay the foundation for networking that will support them throughout the entirety of their careers both at and beyond Wheaton.

Wheaton seeks an experienced leader to join the growing LCDI Team as Director of Experiential Education & External Relations, reporting directly to the AVP for Life & Career Design to support our vision of building scaffolded experiential opportunities and developing an employer engagement strategy. This role will be the LCDI's subject matter expert on experiential learning (including, but not limited to, internships, externships/shadow experiences, Sophomore Experience, supporting the Wheaton College Internship course designation, LEAPS , etc.), the primary point person for the Career Fair, and other employer engaged events, and manage the campus Handshake account. This role supports the College's focus on students' career readiness and outcomes, meaningful external engagement, and organizational recruitment within the Life & Career Design Institute ( LCDI ).

Position Priorities Include (but are not limited to):

Experiential Learning Program Development & Management (30%):

• Develop and manage all campus-wide experiential learning programs, including WCI 298 (Wheaton College Internship course), and design and prototype an externship (1-5 day educational shadow) program to provide first-year students with active career-learning opportunities.
• Be the campus subject matter expert on Internships and other forms of experiential learning.
• Manage the internship poster session and the funded internship engagement process.
• Build learning goals and a scaffolded curriculum to support students following our philosophy of increasing the "breadth before depth" of career awareness.
• Collaborate with Academic Affairs to maintain connection points with faculty and to disseminate information about the LCDI and its offerings to academic campus partners.
• Support programming requests from faculty and staff by building relationships with external partners.
• Develop measurements and manage reporting on engagement and student success.

External Partner (Employer Relations) Development (30%):

• Develop relationships with employers and other external partners to provide experiential learning opportunities and job opportunities for students and alumni.
• Create a strategy to maintain intentional engagement between external partners and students throughout the calendar year.
• Collaborate with the Director of Life & Career Navigation to empathize with student needs as an intentional method to drive external partner engagement strategies.
• Manage the annual career fair (including employer signups, Handshake postings, staff assignments, and budget).

Handshake™ and Data Management (15%)

• Develop usage systems and policies for Handshake to educate and support employers and internal stakeholders.
• Manage all postings and general administration of the Handshake platform at Wheaton.
• Track and report key data to the LCDI Dashboard.
• Collaborate with LCDI staff and student workers to provide marketing content and recruit alumni to be featured in programs or on media outlets.
• Manage the Alumni LCDI LinkedIn page for job postings.
• Create a strategy to showcase LCDI programming and opportunities to the alumni community.

LCDI Organizational Leadership (15%):

• The Director will complete the LCDI Leadership Team (along with the AVP of Life & Career Design and Director of Life & Career Navigation) responsible for bringing Life & Career Design to the Wheaton Community.
• The Director will remain apprised of recruiting trends and solicit employer and external partner feedback.
• The Director will actively participate in the National Association of Colleges & Employers ( NACE ) and stay abreast of national recruiting trends and best practices.
• The Director will collaborate with peers across the New England region and nationally.

Other Duties to Support the Growth & Success of the LCDI (10%)

Minimum Qualifications:
Core Competencies

• Highly Relational - able to build relationships with various partners by understanding and empathizing with partner needs and goals.
• Highly Organized - the successful candidate will have keen attention to detail, be process-oriented, and be able to translate ambiguity into actionable steps.
• Excited about Designing Your Life ( DYL ) and the transferable nature of a liberal arts & sciences curriculum.

Technical Skills & Experience

• Master's degree in a related discipline and five (5) years of professional experience in career services, Life & Career Design, Employer Recruitment, or higher education management.
• Ability to learn Handshake and other systems quickly and manage technical processes.
• Comfortability with data, assessment, and reporting.
• Awareness of experiential learning and employment trends.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships with students, staff, faculty, alumni, and senior corporate executives, including evidence of a clear understanding of Life and Career Design principles.
• Must have excellent written, oral, and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage projects and comfortability supervising others in a project management style of leadership.
• Ability and willingness to work some nights and weekends and to travel locally on an infrequent basis.

Preferred Qualifications:

Compensation and Benefits
To attract and retain the most talented individuals, Wheaton College maintains a flexible and competitive staff compensation and benefits program.

When determining and establishing hiring rates or recruitment ranges for a position, the College considers a number of factors including the budget for the position, the range of the grade, the external market for the position or similar positions, level and scope of responsibilities, required education, skills and relevant experience as well as internal equity. All salary offers must have the prior approval of the Office of Human Resources.

The salary for this position will be commensurate with the qualifications, education and experience.

Physical Demands

ADA Statement:
Individuals must possess these knowledges, skills and abilities or be able to explain and demonstrate that the individual can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, using some other combination of skills and abilities.

Eeo Statement
Wheaton College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and does not discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, race, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, or disability. In a continuing effort to maintain and enrich an intellectually diverse learning environment, the Department and the College actively encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented groups.

Wheaton's core belief is that valuing diversity is pivotal to personal development, intellectual expansion, and societal equity. Our community is united by a shared dedication to equity and access that is essential to providing a transformative education in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.