South Asia Researcher Jobs (NOW HIRING)

SAT & SHSAT Instructor, Elmhurst Center, Queens & CQA Middle, Elmhurst (Part-time Position) South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA)

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA) is committed to providing its employees opportunities for growth in a supportive community environment. With a flexible schedule and generous benefits package, SAYA provides its employees a healthy work-life balance in a youth development nonprofit.

SAYA: Belong. Grow. Thrive.

Organization Description:

South Asian Youth Action (SAYA) is an inclusive, South Asian-focused 501(c)3 youth development organization. Through our innovative, holistic approach, we work toward educational equity by providing opportunities and resources to less privileged New York City youth, ensuring they are empowered academically, emotionally, and socially to become engaged community members.

Established in 1996, SAYA provides valuable life skills and holistic, impactful programming to underserved New York City youth. As one of the first South Asian organizations created in the United States, SAYA is the only organization of its kind in the NYC metropolitan area providing inclusive and secular comprehensive youth development services while centering our community’s experiences. Today, SAYA provides programming at ten elementary, middle, and high schools in Queens and Brooklyn, along with our Elmhurst-based community center - serving a growing number of youth across all sites each year.

A key tenet of our work is cultivating vital social and emotional learning (SEL) skills such as belonging, confidence, and self-efficacy through intentionally designed, research-based curricula. Across our organization, services tailored for different age groups include leadership and identity development, academic support that bridges learning gaps, comprehensive college preparation, and activities that nurture creativity and build positive peer connections.

Position Summary:

The SAT & SHSAT Instructor will provide instruction and facilitation for SAYA’s test preparation programs serving middle and high school students. The instructor will guide students through test taking strategies and practice, answer questions, administer and grade practice exams, and monitor student progress. The instructor will create and implement interactive lessons and activities to best prepare students for the SAT and/or SHSAT exams.

SAYA’s high school and college programming aims to help youth navigate their complex and layered personal and social identities; practice self-care; develop positive relationships with family members, peers, and school staff; navigate youths’ postsecondary landscape; and receive mentorship. The skills we help our youth build are transferable in other areas of their lives and in the future, including succeeding in high school, post-secondary opportunities, and career. SAYA’s goal is to raise their critical consciousness so that they will be better equipped to navigate their own lives, offer peer support to others and become advocates for themselves and their communities.

Supervisor: Co-Director of High School and College Programs

Responsibilities:

• Ensure a safe, structured environment for youth learning

• Prepare SAT and SHSAT curriculum for a classroom setting and facilitate weekly SAT sessions

• Appropriately scaffold curriculum to different academic levels and responsively alter curriculum plans as is necessary

• Familiarize youth with exam format, timing, types of questions and test taking strategies 

• Administer and grade mock SAT and SHSAT exams

• Capture and update necessary data to monitor student progress including taking attendance and enter it in our data systems

• Communicate with youth, parents, and staff regarding class expectations, progress, and follow up

• Serve as a positive role model and uphold professional behavior

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree plus minimum of two years of experience in preparing students for the SAT/SHSAT

• Experience with group facilitation, tutoring or teaching, paid or unpaid 

• Knowledge and understanding of youth development, after school and public education arenas specifically in New York City

• Strong knowledge of middle and high school-level reading, writing, and math

• Familiarity with SAT and/or SHSAT test preparation materials, practice exams, and online resources

• Excellent public speaking, presentation, and communication skills

• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills

Compensation: Starting at $25 an hour, commensurate with experience and qualifications. This is an in-person position for the summer from July through August with potential to rehire for the school year which runs from September through June.

Additional Information

• This position is in-person at our Elmhurst Center on Saturdays from 10am-12pm, and at our CQA Middle School location on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:10pm - 5:45pm, and Fridays from 1:45pm - 5:45pm.

• Must be able to work with youth of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.