Student Advocate

Job Description

Job Description

Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) — a world-renowned education and poverty-fighting organization based in New York — seeks an enthusiastic, dedicated, and mission-aligned Student Advocate to support our After-School programs.

The Student Advocate works directly with high school scholars to provide individualized support that promotes academic achievement, personal development, health and wellness, and college, career, and life readiness.

Each Student Advocate manages a caseload of approximately 30–35 high school scholars, serving as a primary point of connection, support, and accountability. Advocates build strong relationships with scholars and families, assess individual needs, develop and monitor action plans, and collaborate with schools and HCZ teams to ensure scholars receive the appropriate supports and interventions to thrive.

The ideal candidate will be able to develop individualized action plans to help students achieve academic, social, and personal success.

For more information, check out Want to Work at Harlem Children’s Zone? Here’s 7 Things You Need to Know.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• At least one year of experience working with youth in an educational, youth development, counseling, case management, or community-based setting.
• Knowledge of the New York City school system.
• Strong communication, organization, relationship-building, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, maintain accurate documentation, and follow through in a fast-paced environment.

Who you are

The ideal Student Advocate demonstrates strength across five core priorities:

• Relationship Building with Scholars: A natural relationship-builder who develops authentic, trusting relationships with scholars and creates a culture of belonging, accountability, and growth.
• Collaboration & Relationship Building with Peers: An effective collaborator who builds strong partnerships with colleagues, families, schools, and community stakeholders to ensure coordinated scholar support.
• Student Needs Assessment: A thoughtful and proactive advocate who identifies scholar strengths, academic and social-emotional needs, barriers, and opportunities and translates those insights into meaningful support strategies.
• Organization, Progress Monitoring & Action Planning: A highly organized professional who can manage a dynamic caseload, establish measurable goals, maintain accurate documentation, monitor progress, and adjust interventions as scholar needs evolve.
• Emotional Intelligence & Student Advocacy: An empathetic, self-aware, and resilient advocate who demonstrates sound judgment, navigates challenging situations effectively, balances support with accountability, and advocates for scholar needs.

• Serve as the primary Advocate and mentor for a caseload of approximately 30–35 high school scholars, building meaningful relationships that support their academic, social, and personal success.
• Conduct regular one-on-one advising, coaching, and support sessions to establish goals, monitor progress, celebrate successes, and address challenges.
• Assess scholars’ academic, health, social-emotional, and personal development needs and identify barriers that may impact their progress.
• Develop, implement, and regularly monitor individualized Action Plans and SMART Goals related to academic achievement, wellness, personal development, and college, career, and life readiness.
• Maintain a current understanding of scholars’ academic standing, including grades, credits, school attendance, assessment performance, and progress toward graduation.
• Monitor scholar program attendance, engagement, and retention and conduct timely scholar and family outreach when patterns of disengagement emerge.
• Utilize scholar data, observations, and feedback to prioritize caseload needs, evaluate progress, and adjust intervention strategies as necessary.
• Maintain accurate and timely student records, case notes, progress reports, intervention plans, and other required documentation.
• Conduct school visits and collaborate with teachers, guidance counselors, families, and other stakeholders to ensure scholars receive coordinated and comprehensive support.
• Maintain proactive partnerships with families and engage them as partners in scholar goal-setting, progress, and success.
• Collaborate with Academic Support, Healthy Harlem, Social Work, College Success, Program staff, and other HCZ teams to connect scholars with appropriate resources and interventions.
• Maintain ownership of scholar follow-through after referrals are made, ensuring identified needs are addressed, monitored, or appropriately escalated.
• Plan and facilitate engaging grade-level Seminar classes, workshops, leadership development activities, and group experiences focused on academic readiness, self-advocacy, communication, college and career exploration, and life skills.
• Support community service projects, college and career exposure opportunities, special events, trips, and other program activities.
• Contribute to a collaborative team culture and support agency-wide initiatives, events, and programming that advance HCZ’s mission.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

School Year

• Monday–Thursday: 12:00 PM–8:00 PM
• Friday: 10:00 AM–6:00 PM

Summer

• Monday–Friday: 8:00 AM–4:00 PM

The Student Advocate role requires flexibility to participate in school visits, family meetings, special events, trips, professional development, and other program or organizational activities as needed.

Benefits

As a member of the Harlem Children's Zone team, you will join a supportive and inclusive community dedicated to helping children, families — and our staff — thrive. We offer highly competitive salaries, a comprehensive benefits package, and opportunities for growth.

Our exceptional full- time benefits include: 

• Highly competitive base salaries
• Paid time off 
• Employee referral bonus 
• Career advancement
• No-cost health insurance
• Life Insurance
• Short-and long-term disability
• Additional voluntary benefits
• Wellness discounts
• Commuter benefits
• Financial wellness perks
• Additional Benefits (Discounts on flights, hotels, theme parks, concert tickets, and more.)

The salary range for this position is $45,000-$50,000 per year. To be considered, interested applicants can apply directly through the posting. No telephone inquiries or recruiters, please. Replies will only be sent to qualified applicants. Harlem Children’s Zone is an EOE.