College Transition Advisor Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Location : Berea
Job Type: Full-Time
Remote Employment: Flexible/Hybrid
Division: Strategic Initiatives
Department: Berea Bridge
Opening Date: 07/27/2026
FLSA: Exempt
Salary Grade: 10
Labor Supervisor?: Yes
Please note that references provided at the time of application for staff positions will not be contacted until the applicant has been offered the position.
Description:
The Director of First-Year Experience provides visionary leadership and strategic direction for Berea College's comprehensive first-year student success ecosystem, including new student orientation; summer transition programming, including Summer Bridge; the First-Year Summit; and first-year academic success initiatives. Reporting to the Executive Director of Student Success, this position serves as a key architect of the College's approach to supporting students from enrollment through their successful transition into the academic, social, and campus life experience. The Director leads the design, implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement of high-impact practices that promote student belonging, academic achievement, persistence, and retention. This position integrates advising, teaching, mentoring, and transition programming to create a seamless first-year experience aligned with Berea College's mission, Great Commitments, and institutional student success priorities.
The Director serves as a strategic collaborator across campus, partnering with Academic Affairs, the Office of Advising and Retention Strategy, Admissions, Student Affairs, the Labor Program Office, Athletics, and other campus stakeholders to ensure first-year students experience intentional support, meaningful engagement, and coordinated pathways to success. The Director will bring expertise in first-year student development, academic advising, transition programming, curriculum design, and student success assessment. This individual will serve as both a strategic leader and practitioner, teaching first-year courses, advising students, developing educators and mentors, and using data-informed practices to enhance the student experience.
Following long-standing tradition and practice at Berea College, this position includes responsibility for supervising, mentoring, and developing students in the College's integrated Work College Program. This supports student learning, career readiness, and the program's learning goals and outcomes. The Work College Program provides a developmental framework that guides student learning while creating a structured mentorship opportunity, with role-specific training that equips faculty and staff mentors to support student development. Faculty and staff mentors play an essential part in helping students connect their work-learning-service experiences with broader academic, professional, and personal development. For faculty, this aligns with Berea's tenure and promotion criteria.
Your Key Responsibilities:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Regular and predictable attendance is essential. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• First-Year Experience Leadership and Strategic Design (30%) Provide strategic leadership for the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of a comprehensive first-year experience that connects orientation, transition programming, academic advising, student engagement, career exploration, and retention initiatives with institutional priorities and student needs.

• New Student Orientation and Transition Programs (20%) Provide vision and leadership for new student orientation and direct the Summer Bridge Program, including program design, campus coordination, student-staff supervision, curriculum support, assessment, and continued engagement with participants throughout their first year.

• First-Year Summit and First-Year Seminar Leadership (15%) Lead the development, implementation, and assessment of the First-Year Summit curriculum and learning outcomes. Recruit, train, and develop Summit Guides and instructors, provide ongoing professional development, and serve as a Summit Guide or instructor for designated sections.

• Academic Advising and Student Success Coaching (10%) Provide proactive academic advising and student-success coaching to an assigned caseload of first-year students. Use student information and assessment findings to identify barriers, coordinate referrals, support academic planning, and contribute to advising models that promote persistence and equitable student achievement.

• Teaching, Curriculum Development, and Student Learning (10%) Teach assigned first-year experience courses and collaborate with faculty and staff to develop engaging curriculum and learning experiences focused on college transition, academic success, belonging, and student development.

• Assessment, Data-Informed Decision Making, and Continuous Improvement (5%) Develop and implement assessment plans, analyze student retention, engagement, participation, and academic outcomes, and prepare reports and recommendations that guide program improvement and innovation.

• Campus Collaboration and Partnerships (5%) Build partnerships across the College to coordinate first-year student support, strengthen connections among academic and student-success initiatives, and represent First-Year Experience on committees, working groups, and institutional projects.

• Student Labor Supervision (5%) Recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate student employees supporting First-Year Experience programs, including teaching assistants and resident assistants. Schedule and assign work, approve time, assess performance, provide feedback, and support students' workplace development.

Other roles/duties will be assigned as necessary to assist the College in the attainment of the goals set forth and the enhancement of a constructive learning environment for all staff, faculty and students.
What You'll Bring:
Education required to ensure success in this position:

• Master's degree required

Experience required to ensure success in this position:

• Demonstrated success in teaching and training
• At least three years of relevant experience in student success, first-year programming, advising, retention, or related program administration.
• A record of outstanding student success programming direction and a commitment to access
• Experience working with students and diverse populations
• Classroom experience in postsecondary or K-12 education preferred

Special skills, knowledge and abilities:

• Knowledge of best practices for supporting the unique needs of first-year students
• Essential qualities include initiative, flexibility, creativity, and commitment to collaboration
• Evidence of strong leadership as well as organization and communication skills
• Excellent oral/written communication and superior interpersonal skills with the ability to work constructively and collaboratively in a team setting
• Strong organizational skills and capacity to set priorities and attention to detail.
• Three or more years of experience in program planning, coordination, and evaluation.
• Demonstrated aptitude for analyzing data and applying findings to direct student success programming, track student success, and implement continuous improvement efforts.
• Computer skills
• Ability to maintain confidentiality

License, certification, or registration necessary:

• Driver's license

Physical requirements:

• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods while working at a computer or attending meetings.
• Ability to use regular office equipment.

Environmental conditions:

• Fast-paced indoor office environment, interactions across campus and in public venues
• Professional office environment with interruptions and noise due to frequent visitors, students, staff and faculty
• Occasional travel required for meetings, conferences, etc.

Ability to operate the following vehicles or equipment:

• Standard office equipment: computer, photocopier/scanner, phone, etc.
• Ability to drive a van for student outings as part of the Bridge program

Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 44 states and U.S. territories and more than 60 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides every enrolled student with a fully funded degree that covers 100% of tuition, housing, food, supplies, and fees without loans, for all four years. Berea's students excel in the College's supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only 10 federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus, building professional skills in a real-world learning environment. Washington Monthly ranked Berea College the #1 Best College for your Tuition and Tax Dollars, 2025. Berea also ranks #1 in educational access by The New York Times, 2023 and #1 for lowest educational debt by U.S. News and World Report, 2025 and 2026. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2026.
Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 17,000) lies 40 miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at
Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.
Our Benefits:
Berea College offers a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees and their families including health care, dental, vision, retirement, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability and an Employee Assistance Program. The benefit package also includes access to the for children of College Staff, ages 6 weeks to 6 years, Membership, Staff Development Funds and Tuition Reimbursement.
Eligible staff employees also receive paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave.
Part-time employees who work an average of twenty-four hours per week over the course of a year, receive benefits on a pro-rated basis.
To learn more details, visit our benefits page at
Our Unique Culture:
Berea College strives to be a place where people with various Christian interpretations, different religious traditions, and no religious traditions work together in support of
Over the past century, various leaders of the College have applied the College's inclusive scriptural foundation and spirit to their expanding world and welcomed those whose beliefs were consistent with the Christian gospel of impartial love. Therefore, Berea College today affirms its inclusive Christian tradition even as it respects the traditions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, as well as other faiths, and those holding no religious beliefs. We strive not to ignore our differences, but rather seek to understand each other honestly and respectfully, and together create a climate where anyone can openly discuss what they believe without fear of sanction. To that end, all persons who are willing to share in the spirit and the work of the Great Commitments as shaped by its preamble are welcome to study, to teach, and to work at Berea
Labor Supervision:
In support of Berea College's great commitments, staff and faculty serve as labor supervisors. Our fourth great commitment, The Dignity of Labor, promotes learning and serving in community through the student Labor Program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done. Student Labor Supervision includes scheduling, assigning, and approving student work, developing students' workplace acumen, and providing tangible work experience. To learn more about the labor program office please see the following link