Math Mentor

Pay: $50/hour for sessions and planning/feedback time

Status: Part-time

Location: Remote, but must be authorized to work in the United States

Who We Are: National Math Stars ensures mathematically extraordinary students from all communities have the resources they need to reach the frontiers of math and science. Once a student becomes a National Math Star, we work closely with them and their families over a 10-year journey, from elementary through high school, to provide them with extraordinary scholarships, individualized guidance, and mentoring to achieve exceptional outcomes. We are launching our first cohort of 50-60 students from across Texas this Fall and plan on launching in new states and adding additional cohorts in Texas annually.

Role Overview: A core part of our program experience for our Stars is individual or small group weekly math mentoring sessions with their math mentors. Math mentors are individuals who deeply appreciate mathematics, enjoy spending time with challenging problems, and see the beauty in patterns, proofs, and mathematical concepts. These virtual sessions foster deep problem-solving, exploration of mathematical concepts, and creative thinking through posing mathematical questions and playing mathematical games.

You are someone who is passionate about working with mathematically extraordinary children and believes that young children are deeply capable of understanding complex mathematical concepts. You are excited to work alongside a team of talented mathematicians to design and conduct virtual math mentoring sessions that challenge and engage our Stars and provide them with opportunities to be mathematicians themselves.

We anticipate the start date for this role to be in late August to early September and for sessions to take place after school hours on weekdays or on weekends. We would prefer for mentors to commit to working with at least two groups (between 1-3 students) weekly which would be approximately 4-6 hours worth of planning and sessions per week, however, we understand if you have limited time and can only commit to one group at this time.

Key Responsibilities:

The math mentors key responsibilities fall under the following categories:

1) Designing, Conducting, and Recording Virtual Math Mentoring Sessions

* Design math mentoring sessions aligned with your groups interests and background knowledge in mathematics
* As needed, collaborate with the math mentor coach on the design and approach to future sessions
* Conduct 30-60 minute weekly, virtual math mentoring sessions with small groups of 1-3 students
* Collect and document each Stars growth in these sessions
* Contribute to National Math Stars database of ideas and resources for math mentoring sessions
* Record and upload math mentoring sessions to National Math Stars database

2) Math Development Progress for our Stars

* Communicate each Stars progress in their math mentoring sessions with the Stars family advisor
* Attend school meetings for our Stars, as appropriate, to share their progress in mathematics with teachers or administrators
* Support family advisors in identifying STEM enrichment and summer opportunities for our Stars based on their strengths and interests
* Support Stars in applications and filling out letters of recommendation for enrichment and summer opportunities

3) Training and Development
* Participate in onboarding and training with the math mentor coach
* Observe and learn from the community of math mentors
* Meet with the math mentor coach monthly to discuss areas of growth and success
* Participate in discussions with the team of math mentors and the math mentor coach to continue to develop our vision for math mentoring

Skills and Experience:

* At minimum pursuing a Bachelors degree in mathematics or a related STEM field such as computer science; advanced degrees are preferred
* Experience in mentoring or teaching mathematics to children of all ages
* Passion for and experience with working with mathematically extraordinary children
* A strong belief that young children are deeply capable of learning
* Ability to work evenings and/or weekends
* An understanding of the depth and breadth of the field of mathematics, including knowledge of advanced mathematical concepts and their applications
* Strong communication skills
* Excitement for our mission and goals
* Experience supporting students with learning differences (e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, etc.) is preferred but not required
* Experience contributing to the field of mathematics (e.g. published papers, contributions to mathematical databases, etc.) is preferred but not required
* Experience teaching and coaching in virtual formats is preferred but not required
* Knowledge of and experience teaching computer science is preferred but not required

We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.