Program Coordinator

Canada/USA Mathcamp is a residential academic summer camp for talented high school students. We are hiring a full-time, year-round Program Coordinator for a position with a fall 2023 start date.

The details of the role and the application process are all on this page; you may also download the description as a PDF.

About the Role

Every summer, mathy kids come together—from Azerbaijan and Australia, from Alberta and Alabama—to study serious math in a relaxing, joyful atmosphere with a vibrant culture. And every summer, the students tell us that this experience has changed their lives. Decades later, Mathcampers are still connected to their friends from those summers. Your job? Make that life-changing program happen.

About the Program

Mathcamp is a 5-week summer immersion in mathematics for 120 incredible high school students from all over the world. For 30+ years, our goal at camp has been to help students follow their curiosity to explore deep, fascinating mathematical ideas with a true peer group: fellow students from all walks of life who share a common love of math. Read more about Mathcamp.

About the Organization

Mathcamp is the flagship program of the Mathematics Foundation of America; we're a 501(c)(3) non-profit, primarily supported by the Mathcamp community, and our mission is education, inspiration, and community-building in mathematics. We strive to make our programs accessible, inclusive, and actively welcoming to a diverse group of participants, and to challenge ourselves and our peer programs to work to address the big equity challenges in STEM education and outreach. Read more about MFOA.

About the Team

The Program Coordinator is one of three full-time, year-round staff at Mathcamp, along with the Executive Director and Assistant Director / Technical Lead. The yearround staff is fully remote, but collaborates frequently. The position reports to the Executive Director, and provides mentorship and support to the staff and volunteers who fill seasonal roles (e.g. Mathcamp's JCs and Mentors), temporary roles (e.g. Quiz graders and Hiring committee members), and part-time roles (e.g. Mathcamp's Academic Coordinators) at MFOA, so you'll be working both on a small team and at the center of a large community.

Key Responsibilities

In this role, you'll coordinate all the pieces that need to come together to make an amazing summer experience for students. Here's how we're envisioning it.

The Academic Year (approximately Sept 1 to June 30)

As a Program Coordinator, we expect approximately 65% of your time will be allocated to:

• Making the mechanics of the summer run smoothly
  • Acquire a host campus; attend to the many details of our stay
  • Act as a liaison with our accounting team; approve invoices and reimbursement requests for contractors and staff
  • Arrange visas for international staff and students
• Coordinating relationships with (current and future) community members
  • Advertise the program to prospective students and staff
  • Answer questions from potential applicants and their families via email and phone
  • Anticipate and accommodate the needs of a diverse population
• Spearheading or supporting seasonal projects with staff and students
  • Assemble committees (JC Hiring, Mentor Hiring, QQ creation, QQ grading, Admissions); appoint chairs; and aid committees with logistical work
  • Announce admissions and financial aid decisions to applicants by email, with special attention to connecting students with relevant resources
  • Assist families of admitted students with the registration and travel planning process
• Presenting the public persona of Mathcamp
  • Adapt the mathcamp.org website to keep it up to date
  • Author the program report at the end of the summer
  • Act as a representative of Mathcamp to the outside world

Then approximately 5% of your time is allocated to:

• Arrange the annual alumni reunion(s) in January
• Add alumni programming and support as time permits

The remaining (approximately) 30% of your time is flexible: Mathcamp is a small organization where everyone pitches into everything, and we believe that staff should be able to decide how they want to grow their skills and spend their time, so long as it's aligned with where Mathcamp is going. In your ~30% time, you might take on solo projects, or work in collaboration with other staff; the focus might be logistical, creative, technical; the time horizon might be short or long. For example:

• Building better behind-the-scenes systems to make the organization run more smoothly
• Collecting and analyzing data about Mathcamp and Mathcampers
• Developing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
• Engaging with alumni in new ways, from writing a newsletter to helping alums start math circles in their home communities
• Fundraising through fun, inventive campaigns
• Graphic design, drawing, photography – any artistic skills can find a home here
• Hacking on technical projects (we have a long wishlist; work on that or add your own!)
• Identifying synergies between your hobbies / talents and Mathcamp projects – if you love writing puzzles, let's find a way to make that a part of your job!

The ~30% time is an opportunity for you to really shape the role to make use of your skills and experience, and tackle projects that will be meaningful for you and for the organization. Relatedly, if there are skills you want to build through your ~30% time, we can provide mentorship on a wide variety of topics, and provide access to external professional development opportunities. (And you can then use your new superpowers to make Mathcamp better.)

Camp (approximately July 1 – Aug 15)

Here's where you'll get to see the fruits of your labor! Here are some key aspects of the summer role:

• You're the face of the organization, and you'll continue taking the lead in communicating with our host campus, parents, visiting veterans, and so on.
• You'll continue to manage the logistical aspects of camp that you've been setting up throughout the year, from visa-related paperwork to liaising with the accounting team to running database queries.
• You'll play a role on the summer leadership team, which works together to handle emergencies, make decisions, and support the summer staff in their work.
• You'll be a staff member like anyone else: Mathcamp's summer staff is highly collaborative, and you'll share in the behind-the-scenes tasks and interact with students alongside the JCs, Mentors, and others on the Mathcamp staff. We call this approach "creative anarchy": we're all pitching in.

The summer role has plenty of flexibility to adjust to your interests: for example, the Program Coordinator could teach, mentor other teachers, mentor the JC team, create programming for students – just like in the off-season, there are lots of opportunities to build your skills and contribute to camp.

Alternatively: remote work over the summer, or unpaid time off, are also possibilities; if you prefer a different configuration, get in touch with us and let's talk.

Note that proof of Covid-19 vaccination (and a booster shot when eligible) will be required for all staff working at Mathcamp on site.

End of the summer (approximately Aug 15 – Aug 31)

The yearround staff is winding down from the summer and tying up loose ends; you can expect very light minimum expectations, and plenty of flexibility for taking vacation days. The relaxed end to the summer is a counterbalance to the very busy lead-up before camp.

Skills That Will Help You Succeed In The Role

Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with precise attention to detail and tone, are a must.

Thoughtfulness about approaching work through an equity lens is a core shared value at Mathcamp and at MFOA more broadly, and those habits of mind will both help you carry out the responsibilities in this role and grow as a leader in the organization.

You'll be managing projects that span many months (with milestones along the way); you'll need to keep track of many operational details, think projects through, coordinate groups of volunteers and contractors, plan ahead, and make sure the whole team sticks to deadlines.

Being really comfortable with spreadsheets is key. Our whole operation runs on Google Sheets and Docs, so 'XLOOKUP' and conditional formatting should be your native language. (More snazzy technical skills are an optional plus.)

Navigating bureaucracy (e.g. as part of visa applications, or negotiations with campuses) will be a part of your job, and you need to be comfortable reading complicated government/vendor documents and keeping paperwork on track with external partners.

Creativity is a part of the job! Some of your tasks will be executing a series of precise instructions, but a lot of it will be shaped by your ideas.

Qualifications

We're expecting successful candidates to have a minimum of 2–3 years of work experience. We're also open to candidates with less work experience, but with significant prior event-organizing experience, and can tailor the level of supervision and independence accordingly. (And more experience is an optional plus.) We're hoping to hire someone who will stay with the organization for a long time and grow with us.

It's an optional plus to have related experience with STEM education, STEM outreach, informal enrichment learning, and/or summer camps. Having direct experience as a staff member or student at Mathcamp itself will expedite your progress through the learning curve, but it's not a core requirement of the role (and bringing new people with new ideas into our staff community is an important value for us!).

Mathcamp is, at heart, a mathematics program! If you are a mathy person, there will be frequent opportunities to make use of that background in this role. That's an optional plus for us, but it's not a core requirement: you can succeed as Program Coordinator without a technical background as long as you have strong alignment with the organization's mission and will enjoy working with math enthusiasts.

Training

You bring the prior experience and the relevant skills, and we'll provide the tools to make your work successful! In your first year as Program Coordinator, you'll start by shadowing for the first two months, and then learn by doing – with support both from written documentation (our how-to manuals) and direct mentorship from the rest of the yearround staff team.

Position Details

Start date: Can be as early as Sept 5, 2023 or as late as November 1, 2023. (If the position is filled sufficiently early, we will add the option to add a one-week paid visit to Mathcamp 2023 in July.)

Location: The position is fully remote for most of the year, and on-site at Mathcamp over the summers, with the option for travel to collaborate with key colleagues, attend conferences, or host alumni reunions (typically 1–2 trips per year).

Hours: We are envisioning this as a full time, year-round role (35 hours / week). Our yearround team has extremely flexible working hours (which can easily be set up as e.g. a 4-day work week, or with the flexibility to come and go throughout the day), with very occasional evening or weekend commitments.

If you are very excited about the role but would prefer a different configuration (e.g. 9 months rather than 12 months, or part time rather than full time), get in touch and let's talk.

Salary Range: 65k–85k, depending on experience. The range is wide in order to invite applications from candidates with a range of backgrounds and potential uses for the ~30% time.

Benefits: Unlimited PTO; generous health, dental and vision benefits; room and board for the duration of camp; access to professional development funds; and funding to cover work-related expenses, such as the cost of travel to/from camp or other in-person events. We are planning to add 401(k) or 403(b) Retirement Plan benefits beginning January 2024.

The Application Process

Step 1: To apply, send a PDF resume as an attachment to an accompanying email to Marisa Debowsky. The email doesn't have to be a formal cover letter: please describe (in one paragraph) what makes this job a good next step for you in your career, and (in one paragraph) some initial ideas about how you'd like to use your ~30% time.

Step 2: Some candidates will be invited to a 90-minute interview via video call with the yearround staff team (Marisa and Kevin). We will let each applicant know either way.

Step 3: We will ask finalists for references and do a due diligence check. If we know that you will not be receiving an offer, then we will let you know that, too.

We'll review applications beginning June 7 and continue on a rolling basis until the position is filled; we expect to make a decision by September (for a fall start).

Questions?

If you have questions, please reach out to Marisa Debowsky.