Jobs

Beaver Country Day School—an independent day school located just outside of Boston, serving grades 6-12—seeks a creative, innovative, and forward-thinking Director of College Counseling. This is a full-time, 12-month position for the 2024-2025 school year that will report directly to the Director of the Upper School.

About Our School & Our People:

We are not your typical independent school – we are known as an outlier in education and we are proud of that. While education is not traditionally seen as forward-thinking, Beaver’s model of education is designed to expand the nature of school for students. Our curriculum is rigorous and responsive, rather than rigorous and rote. We welcome change and seek feedback to continuously evolve. The Beaver mindset (more on that below)  and our approach to teaching and learning places our students at the center of their educational experiences in all settings, curricular and co-curricular. 

As an independent school, we have more opportunity and agility to explore what school can look like. We take the role of educating future thinkers, doers, and leaders seriously: our business is providing a future-focused education rooted in real-world context and experience, and our clients are our students. We look outward to form strategic partnerships with industry experts, we are invited to present our work around the country and across the globe, and we launched our own educational conference, Future FocusED as a way to bring together educators from across the country representing public and private schools to engage together in not just conversations, but in doing the work of expanding education.

Who We Are:

• Our students are interesting and passionate individuals, who are genuinely happy to be at Beaver. We know happy students thrive, and we prioritize creating an environment to cultivate that. We believe our students are going to be tomorrow’s changemakers,  so central to our approach is creating opportunities for them to be co-creators of their learning– making it a deeper, more meaningful experience.  Our teachers and educational leaders are committed to—and excited about— expanding the nature of school, and igniting and fueling the passions of all our students. Our “next practice” approach to teaching and learning encourages continuous improvements and innovative teaching practices so that we can meet all our students where they are.
• Our mindset is to make excellent mistakes, launch/test/refine, define and redefine The New Basics, and not be defined by binary thinking. Instead, we look to approach things from a both/and outlook: tradeoffs don’t have to be the answer and instead, that’s where creativity comes in and promotes strategic thinking, flexibility, risk-taking, open-mindedness, and innovation. 
• Our values include collaboration, partnership, and above all, creating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment for our community. This work is a priority and steadfast commitment. It is never “done”, and we will always make decisions with this at the core of who we are. For all Beaver students to feel a sense of belonging, it’s important that they see themselves reflected in the community, curriculum, and all our programming. 
• Our goal every day is to create a school that is making an impact – for our students, and for education as a whole. We don’t take that work lightly, we need people who are relentlessly committed to it and excited to do this work—together. 

The successful candidate will have a commitment to the BVR Priorities and:

• Aligning the work to the BVR Mindset and New Basics as critical to the Beaver Student Experience
• A future-focused education with an understanding of the complexity and ever-changing nature of the world our students are inheriting
• A “next practice” mindset that understands how teaching and learning are changing and how practices should adapt 
• Student-centered, culturally proactive, and responsive pedagogy in which all students are met where they are, and see themselves represented and valued

About the Position:
Beaver Country Day School seeks a Director of College Counseling to work with students in grades 9-12 in the Upper School.

We are looking for someone who will:

• Shape the vision for the college counseling program from 9-12 to meet the ever-evolving needs of the college application landscape while maintaining a student-centric, healthy, and future-focused approach.
• Lean into an authentic message to deliver to students, families, and colleagues across the desk, and be willing to embrace changes that could positively influence school culture on an even more global scale.
• Translate our innovative pedagogical initiatives that focus on student-first, hands-on, experiential learning to a wider audience.
• Help to actively foster an inclusive community and commit to implementing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice practices and to ongoing growth in this area.
• Maintain and nurture relationships with a wide and diverse network of college admissions representatives and foster additional ones based on the interests and needs of our students.
• Counsel about 25-30 juniors and 25-30 seniors each year, providing individualized guidance to both students and their families, in both group and one-on-one settings.
• Help students tell their own stories and translate their unique Beaver experiences into compelling narratives.
• Communicate effectively with students, faculty, and parents/caregivers.
• Teach a college counseling class and work individually with students on essay and narrative writing.
• Actively participate in conversations with the US Director and the Director of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation about innovative curriculum development, project-based learning, portfolios, assessment, and scheduling.
• Write creative, thoughtful, and compelling letters of recommendation.
• Collaborate and plan with colleagues across departments in the Upper School.
• Provide training, support, and oversight for faculty writing letters of recommendation and oversight for letters and other communication from members of the College Counseling Office.
• Lead, collaborate with, and support two other members of the College Counseling Office; and oversee, assess, and innovate the methods, approaches, and programming of the College Counseling Office.
• Actively participate in professional learning opportunities, as well as in regional and national associations relevant to the college counseling profession.
• Remain knowledgeable of current trends in college admissions and higher education.
• Participate fully in the community.
• Advise a group of 6-8 students.
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Additional things to know: 

• Generous Benefits (Health, Dental, and more). For more information, visit our website.
• Breakfast and lunch are provided, as well as coffee and snacks.
• Free parking and close to the MBTA Green Line D.