[Resume Drop Only]
WE ARE CURRENTLY NOT ACTIVELY RECRUITING FOR THIS POSITION. IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED IF/WHEN WE RE-OPEN THIS SEARCH, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION:
[Resume Drop] PARTNER, SPARKS FACILITATOR
Role Type:Full time
Title:Partner, Sparks Facilitator
Reports to: Shari Lawrence
Location/ Travel: Flexible; willingness to travel approximately 2-3x monthly. ~30-35% Travel.
Who We Are:
Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 390 schools/partners which collectively serve thousands of students in over 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 120+ teammates and growing. For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this recent article that illuminates the need for this work.
The Opportunity:
The Sparks Team supports communities to create more extraordinary, equitable learning environments by conducting Spark Sessions, which are light-touch engagements that inspire and build the skills necessary to propel communities forward to engage in a school design journey. Spark sessions create an environment or offer a space in which young people and other community members find inspiration, come to “ah-has'' together, and are provoked to think differently than they have before. In this spirit, Spark Facilitators (this role!) are excellent at creating an environment that facilitates reflections, discussions, imagination, and breakthroughs about what is possible in school. We know Spark sessions are successful when our partners want us to return to do more sessions and/or they continue to do school design work on their own or in partnership with Transcend. Spark Facilitators also work on internal-facing projects by providing internal facilitation and design expertise for teammates at Transcend, enhancing internal capacity in facilitation best practices. Examples of Spark workshop (deck + video) are linked here.
In this role, you will get to:
Design Adult Learning & Transformative Experiences
- Design coherent, emotive learning experiences that meet the intended outcomes and are deeply rooted in a community's unique context
- Flex your creativity and design skills to craft and lead truly transformative learning experiences for adults that lead to shifts in thinking and/or action
- Support, and at times, lead the documentation and sharing of our best practices to enhance collective knowledge and support Transcend partners to self-direct their learning
Facilitate
- Facilitate sessions in ways that inspire and constructively provoke others to come to “ah-ha” moments, using strategies such as vulnerability, storytelling, data, inspiration, etc.
- Assess in the moment and during the experience if, and how, the experience will lead to outcomes and adapt in real-time to emerging needs
- Hold safe and brave space for participants to interrogate key themes like DEI, power dynamics, intersectionality of oppression and privilege, and how individual experiences and identities interact with larger systems
Listen and Collaborate Strategically with our Partners
- Work collaboratively with partners -- schools, funders, and other nonprofit partners -- to understand their needs and develop a plan for sessions that meet that need
- Host stakeholder meetings to enable the partner to provide feedback on the session design so they are fully invested in the session, refining and iterating using team and partner feedback until it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold, but just right
- Serve as a key facilitator in decision-making processes, ensuring that decisions are informed, timely, and aligned with project goals and partner expectations
- Follow up with partners and team members to ensure that expectations are clear, and provide progress updates to ensure we are moving in the right direction. And at times, adjusting strategies and plans to address challenges and ensure successful outcomes.
Serve as an internal facilitation and design expert, providing internal capacity around adult learning best practices
- Leverage your design expertise to collaborate and coach cross-functionally with internal teams and teammates (e.g. Transcend Institute) to enhance their ability to design and share engaging content with external stakeholders
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal team members as a coach and thought partner, and create a trusting space that builds their capacity to design transformative adult learning experiences
- Contribute to a strong working relationship as a project team and with external partners, gathering and providing feedback to continuously improve and ensure the success of the relationships and projects.
Who You Are:
You are an expert facilitator and designer of learning experiences and thrive in thinking about how to design sessions with the je ne sais quoi that gets participants to interrogate, imagine, and envision a future of limitless possibilities in their local contexts. You are also a flexible and adaptable coach who skillfully cultivates strong relationships across teammates, guiding them to craft transformative adult-learning experiences in a way that also builds their own capacity and skill set. And, above all, you care deeply about people and are a keen listener with a knack for hearing various inputs and synthesizing key ideas into digestible tools and resources that can be shared both internally and externally.
And you also bring:
- Commitment to Transcend’s mission of transforming education, with a passion for creating innovative school models that generate unprecedented results for all students
- Eagerness to live into Transcend’s core values and support others to do the same
- Strong and demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. You design, coach, and facilitate with an equity lens
- Skillful relationship-building and communication skills, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including school partners, teammates, funders, research partners, etc.
- Passion for facilitation, experience design, and documenting and sharing processes, lessons learned, and best practices to enhance collective knowledge
- Ability to steward a healthy internal team culture, and eagerness to share and learn from your teammates
- Significant experience in adult facilitation, preferably with direct experience with design, innovation, 21st-century skills, change management, and/or “next generation” school models
- Enthusiasm for working in environments that may require pivoting and adapting strategies to meet emergent needs.
- Strong willingness to give and receive feedback as a tool for personal and professional development, actively seeking input from team members and partners, and integrating feedback into practice and decision-making processes
- Detail orientation to anticipate and manage through small details, and ensure strong internal and external collaboration
Perks and Benefits:
Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and a dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. Early in our process, we will share the salary band for the role based on your location as we operate in a fully remote national team and apply a cost-of-labor adjustment by adjusting salaries into 3 geographical bands (geo-bands). These geo-bands help us tailor compensation appropriately based on the specific location of each teammate.
Join Us!
Transcendis an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team, and we encourage candidates from historically under-represented groups to apply.
