Junior Faculty, BEAM Summer Away

This summer, change the lives of underserved students with exceptional potential in math!

Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM), a project of the Art of Problem Solving Initiative, Inc., is seeking enthusiastic mathematics instructors for a month-long residential summer camp, BEAM Summer Away. This camp is a foundational piece of our mission as it represents the beginning of a 10-year support commitment (Pathway Program) for our students. At BEAM Summer Away, Junior Faculty teach their own courses to curious middle school students from low-income and historically marginalized communities and help us to build a community of math-lovers. Ideal candidates for Junior Faculty include graduate students and early career middle or high school teachers with strong mathematical backgrounds. Faculty positions are also available for more experienced teachers and college or university professors. 

Covid-19 Note:  While our intention is to hold our programs in person, we reserve the right to hold our programs virtually for the Summer of 2024 depending on community spread of COVID-19. We will continue to monitor the situation and give updates as needed. All employees that work in-person at Summer Away sites must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to their first day of work  as a term and condition of employment at BEAM.  In addition to being fully vaccinated, BEAM requires all eligible employees to receive a booster. Proof of vaccination will be required.

For more information, please review our Safety Policies. Note that the Safety Policies currently linked is our plan from 2022, we will follow much of the same guidelines and protocol for 2024. We will have the link updated on our website by January 5th, 2024 to reflect the 2024 Safety Policies. 

What You’ll Do:

As a Junior Faculty member, you are a key component of the structure of our program. It is important to us that students are presented with challenging mathematical topics and that they are at the center of the math that happens in the classroom. Our students are inquisitive and enjoy working hands-on, discovering deep mathematics to grow as mathematicians. In a BEAM classroom, students work to discover patterns, connect with each other over their discoveries, make conjectures, and share arguments in favor of or against those conjectures with classmates and their instructor. You’ll support that by:

• Teaching interesting mathematics courses to engaged middle school students. Courses at BEAM Summer Away can be:

  • Pure math such as number theory, combinatorics, graph theory, or logic;

  • Applied math such as circuit design, programming, astrophysics, or genetics; or

  • Problem solving, either Strategic Math Thinking or Solving Big Problems

• Preparing class materials that allow students to do mathematics (rather than hear about mathematics)  

• Leading classes designed to provoke student curiosity and inquiry; ideally, this would be done via activities built to allow students to explore/develop the math directly through their work (as opposed to copying examples and applying them) and where students are given time and space to  productively struggle and to get through that struggle 

• Supporting student learning, growth, and love of mathematics by being an engaged member of the community during camp, including but not limited to:

  • Supporting evening free time, independent study, relays, and other camp activities typically at least 4 days a week

  • Eating meals with students and colleagues to support community building and fostering strong relationships between staff and students

  • Attending a field trip (such as a hiking trip, field day, or day at Six Flags!)

• Attending staff meetings (typically 2-3 times a week) that include time for building community amongst summer staff, engaging in professional development, and aligning on upcoming priorities

• Attending the pre-program Course Planning Training to work on lesson plans/materials, begin working collaboratively with a mentor (your mentor will work with you during camp as well), and receive feedback on draft materials

BEAM Summer Away is a camp, so it isn't a typical office or teaching job, but we think that's one of the great things about working with us! Our faculty live onsite and enjoy meals and evening free time with their students: this fosters a strong, positive relationship between enthusiastic learners and faculty who get to share their love of mathematics with them each day.

Who You Are:

Strong candidates will work well on a close-knit team and will be able to bring unique curriculum perspectives to the program. Experience with mathematics curriculum design for middle school audiences, with students from low-income or historically marginalized backgrounds or at Title 1 schools, and with other extracurricular outreach programs (such as math summer programs or math circles, MATHCOUNTS, programming workshops, or similar) are all beneficial. We will provide mentorship, textbooks, and other resources as needed. Beyond the classroom, we expect that faculty will create a fun and inclusive community with the students.

We’re interested in hiring people who are committed to growth. Junior Faculty often return to work with us for multiple summers, and the feedback we get is that working for us allows them to identify and tackle growth opportunities that translate to their year-round jobs. We believe that we have as much to learn from our students as they do from us! 

Details:

Location: Faculty live on a college campus near NYC or LA with the students, counselors, and other program staff for the duration of the program. 

Program dates:

• The CA dates (for our LA students) will be June 21 - July 19, 2024

• The NY dates (for our NYC students) will be July 5 - August 2, 2024

• All BEAM Summer Away Faculty are also required to attend a pre-program Course Planning Training to be held over Zoom on May 4th. Asynchronous materials to complete before the live Zoom meeting will be available in late April.

Compensation: $5,100 for Junior Faculty for the time that the program runs.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the US. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visa at this time. International graduate students able to obtain CPT or OPT are welcome to apply. 

Application Process and Deadline:

The initial step is to submit your application, including resumé and responses to a few short application questions, via our online portal. When your application is complete, we will follow up with next steps.

 Next steps in our process will include an initial interview, submitting a course proposal that outlines the objectives and a sample lesson from a course you would like to teach at BEAM this summer,  and a final interview with the hiring lead for Faculty positions. 

The priority deadline for Faculty applications is February 2nd, 2024. We will follow-up with candidates that have submitted their application materials on or before that deadline by February 16th. We will continue to accept Faculty applications and review on an ongoing basis until our regular deadline of March 1st, 2024 or until positions are still open.

For more information and the application, contact us at Bruce@beammath.org or visit our website at beammath.org/beam-summer-away-faculty-info. For information on working at our non-residential summer day camps in both Los Angeles and New York City, check out our BEAM Discovery postings!

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