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I graduated from college with a B.A. (not in education) this year and am still struggling to figure out what I want to do in life. I'm not saying this idea is it, but I wanted to explore it, and that brought me here.
In high school, I was president of a few clubs and my interests lay in fundraising (bake and craft sales, etc) and directing others to achieve our club's goals (one year I organized a cancer awareness day with speakers and whatnot). However, I found that some clubs suffered greatly from lack of adult oversight. While Mock Trials were lead by volunteering (or maybe minimally compensated) lawyers, and Model U.N. had strong faculty support, other clubs had very low participation because of lack of structure and support. For example, as a junior, I resigned as co-president (there were about 5 of us) of the community service club because one of the senior presidents didn't really care to provide as many opportunities for the students as possible. She would more often simply select opportunities that fell into her lap even though I was saying I'd coordinate some new ideas I had. I had a vision of having volunteer opportunities going on every single weekend, which I could have executed, whereas she was content with a mere few days per month. In that case, there weren't enough opportunities to choose from -- sometimes certain things would have too much interest and students would be left out, or sometimes certain things wouldn't be of interest to particular students, leaving them to not participate, either. The advisor of the club had very little time to dedicate to paying any attention to us. To boot, he was the teacher who you had to ask to have a bake sale, no matter what club you were in, and he didn't seem as though he particularly wanted the job, or got anything out of it, that's just what he did.
I think we can all agree how important extracurricular activities are in high school. Firstly, for building the college resume. But secondly, I know for sure I'll remember the things that I chose to participate in, versus that English class I was required to take. And I think some schools have stronger programs for kids than others.
I think I'd be a great HS activities director, who oversaw things like clubs, fundraising, budgets, volunteering and other extracurricular activities. But this position doesn't seem to be a common one at many schools for obvious (budgetary) reasons, and if it does exist, either it is a position that is rarely vacant, or the qualifications vary greatly from school system to school system, so it would be difficult to get a position like that at this age, rather than as a 5-10 year veteran.
So I came on here for feedback to inquire about what the qualifications may be. Should I, for example, look into a masters program? Would I need experience in anything in particular? Has anyone on here ever had a position like this? Do school systems ever create jobs when they are approached by qualified (not me) individuals? In my search, I have seen on school systems' employment websites the specific mention of the fact that they have created a new position, so it does seem as though sometimes this does happen.
I'm really interested in secondary education, but not as a subject teacher. In my high school, there was a theatre director who did teach 1-2 classes per year, but his job was to organize and produce all 10-13 productions we put on per year, so that's an example of a somewhat solely extracurricular position. I don't want that position, but what I want is somewhat similar in scope.
You might want to look at something like Americorps/VISTA. I know that many colleges and universities have Americorps staff (who are admittedly not well-paid, in the way of many non-profits) who coordinate volunteer hours and opportunities for those students. It's a year appointment, but that might open doors for you that might otherwise be completely unknown.
This isn't what you're after, but if you're interested even peripherally in fundraising it might help to take a job in the development field for a year or two while you investigate your school options; bake sales and the like aren't really fundraising. They raise some money, yes, (and sometimes much-needed money) but usually it's pretty small potatoes, and the larger benefits are the community-building impacts and not the financial elements. If you want to get a job based at all on the ability to bring in money for a program you should try to get some more significant fundraising experience under your belt. Working with donors, writing grants, budgets, that kind of thing. Many schools are, unfortunately, having to depend more and more on outside sources of funds, so it could potentially be a useful skill to have.
You may also want to explore the nonprofit sector in general. There are many organizations out there that might overlap with your interests. Parks departments, too, might have something relevant. Organizations of that sort often have affiliations with the schools. Some school districts have community education divisions within the district, which also sometimes help facilitate volunteer activities and efforts.
This isn't what you're after, but if you're interested even peripherally in fundraising it might help to take a job in the development field for a year or two while you investigate your school options; bake sales and the like aren't really fundraising. They raise some money, yes, (and sometimes much-needed money) but usually it's pretty small potatoes, and the larger benefits are the community-building impacts and not the financial elements. If you want to get a job based at all on the ability to bring in money for a program you should try to get some more significant fundraising experience under your belt. Working with donors, writing grants, budgets, that kind of thing. Many schools are, unfortunately, having to depend more and more on outside sources of funds, so it could potentially be a useful skill to have..
It's funny you say that. I suppose I didn't write in my OP but I have said to friends, I specifically do NOT want a job where I am seeking large amounts of money from people. As someone who did this in high school, not much is more gratifying than fundraising on that "small potatoes" scale at that age. It was precisely the experience of baking your own cupcakes that you sell to your friends who allow you to donate $800, which isn't chump change to a 15 year old, to cancer research. It's the kind of learning experience that shapes people who may want to one day help the American Cancer Society raise millions. I myself am not interested in raising that kind of dough. I'm interested in the impact it has on your life to make and sell something yourself that helps you and others. On a small scale. And also with providing kids the opportunity to volunteer. Start small. I'm interested in tapping into the feeling I had when I was a teenager that I was doing important work, and help bring that to the lives of other teens. It's funny the way high schools work. It's just like a microuniverse, but a very safe and comforting one. Sometimes the thought of how these huge companies raise money and operate is daunting, I imagine it is for them, too. But doing what I did in high school was amazing, and duplicable. Hope that makes sense. I'm not interested really in the business side of it, I'm interested in providing opportunities for kids to have great extracurriculars.
Every school around here has an activities director, more commonly known as the athletic director, but they oversee clubs as well. In larger schools you may find a position, most likely part time, for schools that need more than one activities director. I am sure most activities directors would be happy to turn over the club oversight to someone else.
Another avenue to explore is a fund raising position at a college/university. Usually they have a title of "Director of Development" or something along those lines. Many colleges will also have someone that oversees their clubs as part of their job as well.
I can't think of a single activity in our high school, or any school we have been involved with in some way, that doesn't have a faculty supervisor.
There has never been in such a position in any of the schools I have taught at in NJ, MA or elsewhere. Second, (not secondly just fyi) in the current political climate where the clubs themselves are being cut left and right in our states (I see you are in NY) it is highly unlikely that you are going to find such a position available let alone being given to someone unwilling to teach as well.
I know that makes me the naysayer here but you really should not be hoping for such a position in lieu of taking an actual job. Its great that you know you do not want to teach instead of finding out a few months in as so many people do, but you really need to pick a more realistic job goal.
Absolutely look into the non-profit sector. That's where you'll shine it sounds like. Stay away from education in general. It will just frustrate you to death.
If you truly want to work in a school, I would try to get into teaching first. The sort of job you're describing sounds like a luxury. I'm not saying it wouldn't do some good, but at every school I've taught at, the sort of position you're describing is done by many different people--all of them teachers who teach a full class load. They pick an area where they have an interest. One teacher oversees the student council. Another oversees NHS. One teacher oversees the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The German teacher oversees German Club.
I think the difference between the Theatre teaching job you mentioned and what you're suggesting is that the production/teaching job directly oversaw and correlated with actual classes. What he did directly supplemented and benefited those fine arts classes taught during the school day (which are classified as "co-curricular" by most schools, not extra-curricular.) What you are proposing would be entirely outside the school day (as in, you would have no students assigned to any "class" you might teach, because you would teach no classes.)
I'm not sure what to guide you in as far as continuing education, except to say that I think you would need work experience in the real world, some sort of experience in education, and that it's always risky to try to plan for positions that don't really exist. Is it possible one opens up? Of course. But I have a feeling that if/when school budgets start fattening up again, they will first get back to priorities--shrinking class sizes, bringing back traditional electives like art and music, rather than hiring on full-time employees who wouldn't teach a single class.
Honestly, I would go nonprofit, and probably do a volunteer year (Americorps or otherwise, lots and lots of 'em exist) at first to get my foot in the door. These types of roles are more easily found in nonprofits who work with schools than in schools themselves. I did basically this, myself, right out of college (had a secondary ed certificate and no desire to do classroom teaching), and was able to parlay my volunteer year into a great youth outreach job after my commitment was over.
TabulaRasa, How about looking at large companies that give back to the community? Some companies, have HR people that spend much of their time figuring out how to contribute- scholarships, money and employees time. Target would be one example and I know Crayola has a person too. I work for a non-profit and we spend quite a bit our time applying for grants, often from large companies. Or a foundation, like the Bill Gates foundation?
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