Chief Education Officer, Older Youth & Pathways (Volunteer)

Chief Education Officer, Older Youth & Pathways (Volunteer)

PromiseRise | Older Youth Education, Postsecondary Readiness & Pathways to Adulthood

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromiseRise

Location: Fully Remote — United States, with NYC-based collaboration as needed

Type: Volunteer Executive Leadership

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6 months

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Works Closely With: Chief of Career Readiness & Pathways, Chief of Youth Development & Leadership, Chief of Education, PromiseLearning, PromisePrograms, PromiseRooted, PromiseConnects, PromiseMeasure, PromiseBridge, PromiseInnovation, and Executive Leadership

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, literacy, social-emotional learning, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.

MAP believes education should expand as young people grow.

Older youth need more than an extension of children's programming. They need increasingly sophisticated opportunities to think critically, develop independence, understand their options, practice decision-making, build practical skills, experience the professional world, and begin shaping what comes next.

About PromiseRise

PromiseRise is MAP's youth leadership, career readiness, professional growth, and pathways division.

PromiseRise helps older youth move from exploration toward increasing independence by connecting education with leadership, career development, financial capability, postsecondary preparation, experiential learning, mentorship, internships, and meaningful opportunities.

The goal is not simply to prepare young people to get jobs.

It is to help young people develop the knowledge, skills, judgment, confidence, and experiences necessary to begin building futures of their own choosing.

Role Overview

The Chief Education Officer, Older Youth & Pathways leads MAP's educational strategy for adolescents and older youth within PromiseRise.

This executive role is responsible for designing the educational architecture that prepares young people for increasing independence, postsecondary choices, careers, leadership, and adulthood.

The Chief will connect academic development with practical learning, financial capability, technology, career exploration, leadership, communication, self-advocacy, postsecondary preparation, and real-world experiences.

This is not simply a career-readiness role.

It is an education leadership role focused on one of the most consequential transitions in a young person's development: moving from an educational world largely structured by adults toward a life in which they will increasingly be expected to make decisions for themselves.

The central question is:

What should young people have opportunities to learn, practice, experience, and understand before they are expected to navigate adulthood more independently?

Older Youth Education Strategy

Develop and lead a comprehensive educational strategy for older youth within PromiseRise.

Build learning experiences across areas such as:

• Academic development
• Independent learning
• Critical thinking
• Research and information literacy
• Communication
• Financial capability
• Digital literacy
• Artificial intelligence literacy
• Leadership
• Career exploration
• Postsecondary preparation
• Entrepreneurship
• Professional development
• Civic learning
• Decision-making
• Self-advocacy
• Problem-solving
• Practical life skills
• Creative learning

The objective is not to create a collection of disconnected workshops.

The objective is to create a pathway.

The PromiseRise Learning Pathway

Develop an educational progression that moves young people toward increasing independence:

Explore → Discover → Learn → Practice → Experience → Decide → Lead → Advance

As young people grow, MAP should intentionally increase:

• Choice
• Complexity
• Responsibility
• Application
• Independence
• Leadership
• Exposure to the world beyond MAP

MAP should not simply offer more activities as young people get older.

The opportunities should grow with them.

Adolescent Learning

Help MAP recognize adolescence as a distinct educational stage.

Older youth are developing stronger identities, greater independence, deeper social awareness, more sophisticated interests, and increasingly consequential questions about their futures.

Build educational environments where young people can:

• Question
• Debate
• Investigate
• Create
• Experiment
• Collaborate
• Make decisions
• Experience appropriate failure
• Reflect
• Try again
• Lead

Young people should increasingly become participants in designing their education rather than simply recipients of it.

Academic Development & Independent Learning

Strengthen educational opportunities that help older youth become increasingly capable learners.

Support learning involving:

• Reading comprehension
• Writing
• Research
• Quantitative reasoning
• Study strategies
• Academic planning
• Presentation
• Discussion
• Argumentation
• Media literacy
• Information evaluation
• Goal-setting
• Independent learning

Academic support should not simply help a young person complete tonight's assignment.

Whenever possible, it should help them become more capable of approaching tomorrow's challenge independently.

Postsecondary Readiness

Build educational pathways that help young people understand the range of opportunities available after high school.

These may include:

College → Community College → Career & Technical Education → Certifications → Apprenticeships → Skilled Trades → Public Service → Entrepreneurship → Creative Careers → Workforce

MAP should not define success through one postsecondary destination.

Young people should understand that different futures require different forms of preparation.

The responsibility is to help them understand their choices, investigate those choices, and develop the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.

Career-Connected Learning

Partner closely with PromiseRise career-readiness leadership to connect education with career exploration and workforce development.

Maintain clear ownership.

The Chief Education Officer, Older Youth & Pathways develops the educational foundation supporting knowledge, skills, reflection, and preparation.

The Chief of Career Readiness & Pathways leads career exploration, workforce preparation, internships, employer engagement, professional development, and pathways into opportunity.

Together:

Learning → Preparation → Practice → Experience → Opportunity → Advancement

An internship should never simply be somewhere MAP places a young person.

It should become something the young person learns from.

Experiential Learning

Expand opportunities for young people to learn through doing.

Support educational models involving:

• Projects
• Simulations
• Case studies
• Career challenges
• Entrepreneurship
• Creative production
• Community problem-solving
• Workplace exposure
• Internships
• Job shadowing
• Mentorship
• Youth-led initiatives
• Presentations
• Portfolio development

Older youth should increasingly encounter learning where knowledge has consequences beyond completing an assignment.

Financial Capability

Develop practical financial education that prepares young people for increasingly independent financial decisions.

Learning may address:

• Budgeting
• Banking
• Saving
• Credit
• Debt
• Taxes
• Employment compensation
• Financial aid
• College costs
• Consumer decisions
• Recurring expenses
• Entrepreneurship
• Financial goals

Financial education should help young people make decisions—not simply memorize vocabulary.

Digital & AI Literacy

Prepare young people to participate thoughtfully in an increasingly technological world.

Develop educational approaches addressing:

• Digital literacy
• Artificial intelligence
• Responsible AI use
• Information verification
• Online research
• Digital citizenship
• Privacy
• Cybersecurity awareness
• Productivity tools
• Creative technology
• Technology careers

Young people should learn not simply how to use technology, but how to question it, understand its limitations, evaluate information, and decide when technology should and should not be used.

Leadership Education

Develop educational experiences that strengthen:

• Communication
• Confidence
• Decision-making
• Collaboration
• Problem-solving
• Accountability
• Initiative
• Self-advocacy
• Conflict navigation
• Public speaking
• Professionalism
• Community responsibility

Leadership should not be defined by who speaks the loudest.

Young people should understand that leadership can involve listening, preparation, service, judgment, responsibility, creativity, courage, and follow-through.

Youth Voice & Choice

Ensure young people meaningfully influence the educational experiences created for them.

Develop opportunities for youth to:

• Recommend learning topics
• Evaluate programs
• Help design experiences
• Lead discussions
• Teach peers
• Present projects
• Participate in advisory structures
• Develop youth-led initiatives
• Provide feedback to organizational leadership

Young people should not simply be invited into rooms where adults have already made every important decision.

Mentorship as Education

Strengthen mentorship as part of the PromiseRise learning environment.

Mentors can help older youth develop:

• Curiosity
• Confidence
• Persistence
• Communication
• Goal-setting
• Problem-solving
• Academic engagement
• Career awareness
• Professional understanding
• Self-advocacy
• Reflection

Mentors are not substitutes for teachers, counselors, clinicians, or parents.

They are consistent adults who can help young people think through possibilities.

Curriculum & Learning Design

Establish standards for older-youth learning experiences.

Use a consistent architecture:

Need → Learner → Learning Goal → Experience → Practice → Application → Assessment → Reflection → Next Opportunity

Ensure educational experiences have clear purposes without becoming unnecessarily rigid.

The Chief does not need to personally write every lesson.

The responsibility is to build a system in which strong learning experiences can be created consistently by many people.

Accessibility & Inclusive Learning

Ensure PromiseRise education is accessible to young people with different abilities, learning needs, communication styles, backgrounds, and educational experiences.

Promote Universal Design for Learning and inclusive educational practices.

Accessibility is not about lowering expectations.

It is about removing unnecessary barriers so meaningful expectations become genuinely reachable.

Relationship With PromiseLearning

Maintain a strong partnership with PromiseLearning while preserving clear organizational ownership.

PromiseLearning leads MAP's broader educational philosophy, curriculum and instruction, learning design, educational quality, and learning systems.

PromiseRise leads the older-youth pathway toward leadership, careers, postsecondary opportunities, and increasing independence.

The Chief Education Officer, Older Youth & Pathways operates at the intersection.

PromiseLearning asks:

How should MAP design excellent learning?

PromiseRise asks:

How does that learning prepare an older young person for what comes next?

The divisions should complement one another without creating parallel systems.

Educational Outcomes & PromiseMeasure

Partner with PromiseMeasure to identify and understand meaningful outcomes for older youth.

Potential areas may include:

• Academic confidence
• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Financial capability
• Digital literacy
• Career awareness
• Postsecondary knowledge
• Leadership
• Self-advocacy
• Goal-setting
• Problem-solving
• Independent learning

Use a continuous-learning cycle:

Teach → Observe → Assess → Understand → Discuss → Adapt → Teach Again

Assessment should help improve learning—not simply generate numbers.

PromiseRise and PromiseLearning help establish what young people should have opportunities to learn and develop.

PromiseMeasure establishes responsible standards for measuring, evaluating, and interpreting outcomes.

Cross-Divisional Leadership

Build alignment across MAP.

Work with PromiseLearning on curriculum, instructional quality, and learning design.

Work with PromisePrograms on older-youth experiences within PromiseRooted and PromiseConnects.

Work with PromiseMeasure on outcomes and evaluation.

Work with PromiseBridge on colleges, employers, training providers, and educational partners.

Work with PromiseInnovation on emerging learning models.

Work with PromiseStack on educational technology.

Work with PromiseStudios and PromisePages on creative and project-based learning.

The young person's experience should feel connected even when multiple MAP divisions contribute to it.

Team & Organizational Leadership

Build and develop the team necessary to execute MAP's older-youth educational strategy.

Recruit, mentor, and support educators, instructional designers, curriculum professionals, facilitators, advisors, and other volunteers as appropriate.

Establish clear ownership, expectations, communication, and accountability.

The Chief should not become MAP's most overworked teacher.

The Chief should build an educational organization capable of developing excellent teachers, facilitators, curricula, and learning experiences.

Executive Leadership Expectations

As a MAP Chief, the Chief Education Officer will:

• Participate consistently in weekly Chiefs meetings.
• Maintain regular communication with the CEO.
• Establish priorities and measurable commitments for the function.
• Communicate regularly with direct reports and collaborating leaders.
• Recruit, develop, and retain strong volunteer leaders.
• Identify risks, barriers, and opportunities early.
• Bring evidence and youth perspectives into executive discussions.
• Collaborate across divisions.
• Follow through on organizational commitments.
• Model accountability, sound judgment, collaboration, and integrity.

Executive leadership at MAP is not defined by title.

It is demonstrated through ownership.

First-Year Priorities

During the first year, the Chief should help MAP:

• Establish an organization-wide strategy for older-youth education within PromiseRise.
• Define MAP's approach to adolescent learning.
• Map the learning journey through age 18.
• Identify gaps in existing older-youth opportunities.
• Establish curriculum and learning standards.
• Strengthen academic-development opportunities.
• Build postsecondary-readiness education.
• Strengthen financial capability education.
• Develop digital and AI literacy.
• Connect education with career and leadership pathways.
• Expand experiential and project-based learning.
• Establish meaningful mechanisms for youth voice.
• Define educational outcomes with PromiseMeasure.
• Strengthen alignment between PromiseRise and PromiseLearning.
• Build a sustainable older-youth education leadership structure.

Qualifications

Strong candidates may bring senior experience in adolescent education, secondary education, educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, youth development, higher education access, college and career readiness, learning sciences, workforce education, experiential learning, nonprofit education, or related fields.

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Strong understanding of adolescent development and learning.
• Experience developing educational strategies, programs, or learning pathways.
• Knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and experiential learning.
• Understanding of college, career, vocational, and alternative postsecondary pathways.
• Ability to connect education with practical preparation for adulthood.
• Experience leading educators, volunteers, or multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong strategic and organizational judgment.
• Ability to translate educational research into practical decisions.
• Commitment to youth voice and agency.
• Understanding of inclusive and trauma-informed educational practice.
• Strong communication and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Alignment with MAP's mission and values.
• Residence in the United States.

Advanced education in education, educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, adolescent development, learning sciences, psychology, youth development, or a related discipline is welcomed, but substantial professional experience may demonstrate equivalent expertise.

What Success Looks Like

MAP has a clear educational strategy for older youth.

Adolescents encounter learning designed for their developmental stage rather than an extension of younger-child programming.

Educational experiences become progressively more challenging, practical, and independent.

Young people understand a wider range of postsecondary possibilities.

Academic learning connects to real-world application.

Career experiences become learning experiences rather than placements alone.

Financial, digital, professional, leadership, and practical capabilities become part of preparation for adulthood.

Youth have meaningful influence over their learning.

PromiseRise and PromiseLearning operate as complementary parts of a coherent educational ecosystem.

And older youth leave MAP with more knowledge, stronger judgment, greater confidence, broader choices, and a clearer understanding of what they can do next.

Why This Role Matters

There comes a point in a young person's life when the questions begin to change.

What am I good at?

What do I care about?

Should I go to college?

What other paths exist?

How does money work?

What kind of work could I do?

How do I advocate for myself?

How do I know whether information is trustworthy?

What happens when I make the wrong decision?

What kind of life do I want to build?

MAP should not answer those questions for young people.

We should help prepare them to answer those questions for themselves.

The goal is not simply college readiness.

It is not simply career readiness.

It is readiness for increasing independence.

Volunteer Commitment

This is an unpaid executive volunteer position requiring approximately 5–10 hours per week with a minimum six-month commitment.

Consistent participation in executive leadership, regular communication with the CEO and organizational leaders, team development, strategic planning, and reliable follow-through are essential.

Volunteers should provide at least two weeks' notice when ending their service whenever possible.

What You'll Gain

This role provides the opportunity to build an older-youth educational strategy at the organizational level, lead interdisciplinary educational innovation, develop emerging education leaders, connect education with career and postsecondary pathways, and shape how MAP prepares adolescents for increasingly independent lives.

How to Apply

Please apply through Idealist only and submit:

• A current résumé
• A cover letter explaining your interest in Mentor A Promise and older-youth education

Please highlight relevant experience in adolescent education, educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, youth development, postsecondary readiness, experiential learning, workforce education, or related fields.

Applications submitted without both a résumé and cover letter may not be considered.

At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.

Acknowledgment of Role

By accepting this position, the volunteer acknowledges that this is an unpaid executive leadership role requiring approximately 5–10 hours per week for a minimum of six months, consistent leadership participation, responsible stewardship of organizational and participant information, and adherence to MAP's safeguarding, confidentiality, accessibility, trauma-informed, professional-boundary, and youth-protection standards.

Build an education that grows with the young person. Make the questions harder. Give them greater responsibility and meaningful choices. Connect learning to life. Create opportunities to practice independence before independence is demanded of them. And help ensure that when a young person begins asking, “What comes next?” MAP has helped them develop the knowledge, judgment, confidence, and agency to begin answering that question for themselves.