Head of Public Purpose Pathways - Rising Generation

Position Summary

Teach For All is incubating a new organization, “Rising Generation,” whose mission is to foster the collective action needed to create an environment that inspires and enables the leaders in the next generation of university graduates to make early career choices that put them on a trajectory to tackle the world’s greatest challenges. This effort will both (a) foster global learning and community around this pursuit and (b) contribute to experimentation and action towards this end in the U.S.  

Even as the world's challenges—from global conflict to inequity, polarization to environmental devastation—have become more visible, and despite evidence that many in the next generation are deeply committed to tackling social and economic injustices, we’re not seeing more of the leaders in the rising generation of university graduates making early career choices that put them in close proximity with these issues. While Teach For All’s network continues to tackle the challenges involved in recruiting the next generation to our work, we want to incubate a new organization to help create an environment that enables and inspires many more people to make values-based, intentional early career choices that bring them close to societal challenges so they can make an impact against them and gain the foundational insights and mindsets that will fuel impactful careers. We believe this will benefit Teach For All’s own efforts and many other efforts to tackle major societal issues.

In its initial pilot phase, Rising Generation will focus on several interconnected priorities to tackle this issue in the U.S.:

University Community & Learning

We will build relationships with university presidents, career service directors, administrators, and professors who are committed to the goals of Rising Generation and build community among them to encourage and inspire efforts to foster intentional, values-based early career choices among graduates. Moreover, we will invest in the leadership development of students interested in organizing student movements to encourage values-based job choices.

Public Purpose Pathways

We will expand “public purpose” options and grow the accessibility and scale of existing options which enable recent university graduates to gain significant responsibility for tackling societal issues while engaging in the relationship building and deep learning that comes from working to make an impact in close proximity to these challenges. This involves developing new public, private, and social sector partnerships, and identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs in launching and scaling public service programs.

Data, Research & Strategy

We need to build out the fact base and understand how early job choices differ across campus segments and student demographics; learn how university students and recent grads form their impressions of post-college pathways and what influences their decisions; develop and evolve the strategy for influencing these decisions; and build out the initiative’s measures of success.

Influencing Young People 

We will develop a strategy for influencing young people directly, including by developing a film that can be used as a tool by high schools and career service offices among others.  Moreover, we will contribute to the public discussion on this issue in an effort to reach the teachers, parents, and others who influence young people.

Given the scale and ambition of Rising Generation, we are forming a Founding Team of four individuals to work full-time on Rising Generation, together with several other Teach For All staff members who will dedicate a percentage of their time to this. We are looking for entrepreneurial, U.S.-based leaders who bring passion and insight about the importance of this issue, outstanding leadership, strategic, and interpersonal skills, and a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each team member will own particular areas of the endeavor and will also have cross-cutting responsibilities, particularly focused on advancing the initiative in their home geographies.

The Head of Public Purpose Pathways will be a key member of the team, responsible for catalyzing and supporting the growth of the ecosystem of opportunities enabling recent college graduates to work in proximity with social challenges and make a difference against them. This is a role that requires entrepreneurial, relationship-building, and motivational skills needed to envision new possibilities; generate public, private, and social sector partnerships to bring them into existence; and inspire and support social entrepreneurs to launch and scale them. The person serving in this role will be a key driver of Rising Generation’s overall success, contributing actively to its overall strategy and developm