Candidate Profile Summary:

You love kids and want to help families find the educational opportunities that all children deserve. You’re passionate about education, social justice, community service and outreach. You’re also extremely organized, and enjoy planning meetings and events both large and small. You’re a team player, who keeps the office running due to your strong skill set in logistics, strategy, and project management. The phrase “service before self,” resonates with you. You’re interested in working for a small nonprofit organization because you care about reaching people and making an impact in this world. You’re looking for a career opportunity that allows for growth and personal fulfillment. You work hard, but you’re fun to work with, and enjoy being social with your work family! If this sounds like you, then the Independent School Alliance might have a dream job for you.

Position Summary:

The Admissions Assistant has specific responsibility for operations, program support, and admissions coordination from candidate inquiry through enrollment. S/he will oversee a wide range of administrative functions within the Independent School Alliance office to support routine operations and to manage special projects and events; arrange events and represent the organization at assigned events as needed. This position has responsibility for coordinating all aspects of candidate files, which includes maintenance of every candidate file and assembly of applicant information for review by the program staff and scheduling counseling sessions. This individual will assist with gathering information, pre-screening and pre-qualifying potential students to ensure an efficient admission process. Finally, this individual will use quantitative data analysis to answer complex questions, discover insights and predictive trends, and support the enrollment management process. The Admissions Assistant is an invaluable operations position within the Independent School Alliance and offers incredible opportunities for personal and career growth.

Essential Areas of Expertise:

Outreach and Admissions Coordination

Represent the Alliance and disseminates appropriate information about the organization to prospective families and other interested parties;
Work with the admissions team in the coordination of recruiting and admissions activities; including but not limited to attendance and participation at recruitment events, fairs, school visitations, and interviewing of candidates;
Manage updates of applicant and admitted files, including letters of recommendation, transcripts, standardized test scores and financial aid documents;
Monitors external program/ process changes and/or policies at ISA member schools and confer regularly with team to plan and coordinate the exchange of information;
Travel to recruitment fairs, other admissions events and represent the Alliance;
Stay abreast of national, local, and regional independent school admissions trends;

Student and Family Services

Advise students and families from communities in Los Angeles that have been traditionally excluded from access to independent schools;
Inform prospective families of the school selection and admissions process, academic programs and financial aid opportunities;
Coordinate and conduct a small number of candidate interviews in coordination with the admissions team;
Ensure that the candidate families have a sophisticated understanding of the independent school process;
Effectively and comfortably communicate and interact with admissions directors and staff at ISA member schools and effectively negotiate on the candidate’s behalf;
Identify best practices in transition counseling to support families new to the independent school world;
Maintain contact with candidate families throughout our admissions process;

Data Analytic Duties

Maintain the integrity of the student database (admissions to permanent records) in order to ensure complete accuracy for donor and compliance reporting;
Correlate, check and correct data as it populates from online inquires to the admissions database; retrieve applicant information from other areas of the database;
Note recurring issues in database flow; assess and recommend short-term and long-term solutions;
Utilize multiple databases and technologies, including Microsoft Office Suite, particularly, Excel and Word, and Donor Perfect database;
Work cooperatively to provide appropriate data preparation, data quality assurance and data structure implementation for purposes of reporting, institutional research, team utilization and institutional effectiveness;
Extract, manipulate, and analyze datasets and create regular database reports upon request for program staff and Executive Director;
Conduct data and statistical analysis to generate insights from various type of admissions data;

Reception and Administrative Duties

Provide excellent customer service as a primary point of contact for the Independent School Alliance office responding to phone calls, inquiries and requests;
Correspond with candidate families to ensure completion of their files. Answer their questions accurately and politely;
Prepare complete and accurate applicant files for presentation to program staff;
Responsible for timely scanning, copying and distribution of applications to member schools;
Prepare mass admissions and programmatic mailings for the office;
Take and relay detailed messages to program staff;
Assist in the updating of office forms, documents for programs, and spreadsheets;
Organize and schedule office volunteers, interns, and temporary employees to assist with the admissions process during peak times;
Respond to telephone, in-person and electronic inquiries providing basic information on established admissions processes, policies, procedures, guidelines, and eligibility requirements;
Inform applicants of due dates and deadlines; provide directions on how to complete the application materials;
Provide data entry of candidate information, transcripts, test scores and other documents into the admissions;
Manage the office calendar and interviewing schedule for all prospective candidates and families;
Arrange candidate files for the next day’s appointments;
Provide exceptional customer service, build excitement, rapport with families and member schools;
Maintain a professional reception area; organize leisure reading materials and activities for young visitors, etc.
Warmly greet and welcome patients and visitors to the office;
Create and email weekly visit schedule to staff;

Essential Characteristics:

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent level of professional experience and educational experience;
Two years of experience as a front desk receptionist, administrative assistant, data entry clerk, data analyst, technology coordinator or equivalent position in an academic or business environment required;
Prior experience working in an admissions office is a plus;
Experience working with data and generating database reports;
Working knowledge of databases and structure;
Working knowledge of statistical methods and tools;
Strong communication and customer service skills with an emphasis on patience and professionalism;
Must work with accuracy and speed with strong attention to detail;
Works independently and knows how to use appropriate resources;
Ability to learn new processes and procedures quickly;
Possess a high degree of professionalism, integrity, confidentiality and initiative;
Must have experience using Microsoft Office Suite;
A strong interest in and commitment to the Alliance’s mission and program;
A pro-active individual that will be able to respond quickly and positively to all manner of situations with poise and quiet efficiency;
Ability to make sound decisions without supervision;
Ability to anticipate or recognize problems and refer them immediately to the right person for resolution. Maintains customer confidence and protects operations by keeping information confidential;
Good interpersonal skills to maintain effective rapport with families, member schools, other staff members and community;
Ability to be empathetic and compassionate with our families;
Flexible under pressure in a fast passed and entrepreneurial environment;
Ability to prioritize work and juggle many projects at once;
Quick study/proactive/willingness to ask questions and push initiatives forward;
Ability to take direction and execute against it;
Upbeat and positive demeanor with a great sense of humor and excellent sense of customer service;
Growth mindset and “can-do attitude” and “do-whatever-it-takes” mentality;
English proficiency required; proficiency in a second language desirable (i.g. Spanish)
Must be lighthearted with a sense of humor!

How to apply:

Please send your resume and cover letter: hr@independentschoolalliance.org.