Multilingual Student Specialist

Multilingual Student Specialist- Category:
- Professional- Subscribe:
- Department:
- Student Success- Locations:
- Old Westbury, NY- Posted:
- Apr 18, 2024- Closes:
- Open Until Filled- Type:
- Full-time- Position ID:
- 174867**About SUNY Old Westbury**:
The State University of New York at Old Westbury is a dynamic and diverse public liberal arts college that fosters academic excellence through close interaction among students, faculty and staff. Old Westbury weaves the values of integrity, community engagement, and global citizenship into the fabric of its academic programs and campus life. In an environment that cultivates critical thinking, empathy, creativity and intercultural understanding, we endeavor to stimulate a passion for learning and a commitment to building a more just and sustainable world. The University is a community of students, teachers, staff, and alumni bound together in mutual support, respect, and dedication to the Mission.

Since its foundation in 1965, SUNY Old Westbury has been committed to social justice, diversity, and the empowerment of traditionally underserved populations. The University serves a large proportion of non-traditional students and has earned the prestigious Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from Insight into Diversity magazine for six consecutive years.

The Multilingual Support Specialist will support the writing, speaking, and reading needs of multilingual students and provide consultations and professional development programming for faculty and learning center staff on supporting multilingual students. This position may assist in providing managerial administrative support for the University's Learning Centers.

This is a full-time, twelve (12) month, two (2) year, grant funded position.

Reporting to the Assistant Provost, the Multilingual Student Specialist will:

- Teach writing, reading, and speaking skills in person, face to face (F2F) and virtual sessions with individual students and small groups.
- Provide writing support for every stage of the writing process (including brainstorming, outlining, organization, paragraph development, analysis, and sentence-level clarity) and for a wide range of assignments across disciplines as well as personal statements for graduate and professional programs.
- Assess individual learning needs and provide or arrange regular instruction as needed.
- Teach writing, reading, and speaking skills and processes in F2F and virtual workshops and presentations across the disciplines.
- Collaborate with offices and staff across campus to develop and promote academic resources and initiatives to support multilingual students.
- Design and lead professional development trainings in multilingual pedagogy (particularly writing pedagogy) for faculty, staff and learning center personnel.
- Consult with individual faculty and campus committees about supporting multilingual students.
- Assist with Learning Center administration including mentoring peer tutors, maintaining center schedules, and managing day-to-day operations.
- Lead and/or attend all in-house training and professional development meetings.
- Represent the Learning Centers at Campus Open House and other campus events.
- Develop and assist with campus initiatives to support linguistic diversity and justice.
- Pursue professional development in writing center pedagogy and the teaching of English to multilingual students.
- Participate on campus committees as directed.
- Be available to work a flexible schedule, including evenings and occasional weekend hours.

**Requirements**:
**Minimum Qualifications**:

- A minimum of a Master's degree from an accredited university or college (foreign equivalent or higher).
- Multilingual.
- A minimum of three (3) years of full-time experience teaching writing, reading, and/or speaking for academic purposes in the classroom or Writing Center at the secondary or college level, to include working, teaching and/or coaching of students from linguistic backgrounds other than English. (Experience as a student teacher qualifies.)
- Demonstrated experience with assisting students in the composing process - brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising - to develop, organize, and effectively convey ideas and arguments.
- Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion and according to FERPA guidelines.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with various stakeholders throughout the campus.
- Ability and willingness to work evenings and occasional weekends as needed.
- Proficient in online pedagogy and MS Suite.
- Experience working with students from a range of racial, socioeconomic, cultural, national, and linguistic backgrounds.

**Preferred Qualifications**:

- Master's or Ph.D. in TESOL, Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Literacy Education, certification (teaching) in working with students where English is not the prima