Details
Posted: 13-Jan-23
Location: Washington, Connecticut
Type: Full Time
Categories:
Other
Required Education:
4 Year Degree
Students who graduate from the Frederick Gunn School know and believe that their calling is to be a force for good. What Frederick and Abigail knew, which stays with us today, is that our students will both imagine and build the future.
Frederick Gunn was an entrepreneur. In the town of Washington, he built a school, a library, a drama society, started the first summer camp, as well as hosting informal gatherings of townspeople. He challenged convention whenever he deemed it an impediment to achieving noble goals. He embraced more traditional means when he deemed them good and effective. He was known for his public stance on abolition and put that position into action by leading the Underground Railroad in town. He worked collaboratively with partners in everything.
When Frederick and his wife Abigail founded this school in 1850, they built an experiential educational model where students take risks and have an imagination for innovation. His educational innovations were authentic outgrowths of this vision. For example, he founded the American camping movement not because he set out to achieve that goal but because he was constantly testing his theory and purpose of education against evidence in the lives of students—so, at the start of the Civil War, he led a co-ed group of students on a two-week camping trip to the Connecticut shore.
At the Frederick Gunn School, we view entrepreneurship as a mindset and a skill set.
An entrepreneurial mindset is defined by:
- Risk taking
- Independent mindedness
- Willingness to disrupt—but not for disruption’s sake
An entrepreneurial skill set is defined by:
- Flexibility and iteration, ie innovation
- Resilience and perseverance
- Collaborative leadership
A Vision for the Program
An entrepreneur might be a hoodie-wearing, visionary founder of a high-flying tech start-up, but they might equally be:
- the local politician who launches an after-school arts program in an under-used part of town hall
- the film-director who founds his own production company to make a film rejected by established studios
- the third-generation farmer who transitions the family operations into organics
- the teacher who builds a new entrepreneurship program within a 170 year old boarding school
Current Program
- Honors Entrepreneurship Seminar. This full-year course sees students build actual business proposals and find national platforms to pursue funding.
- Investment Club
Ideas for the Future
- Curriculum
- Introduction to Innovation: This one term class would be co-listed with the IDEAS Lab and will serve as an introductory course to our Entrepreneurship, Engineering, and Computer Science courses.
- Leadership, Strategy, and Operations: This full-year course would teach the essentials of leadership, strategy, and operations upon which entrepreneurial enterprises are built.
- Programming
- Build a co-curricular program that takes students into local communities for internships and service opportunities.
- Design the School Challenge: What better way to learn entrepreneurship than by making a lasting impact here at the Frederick Gunn School? Building on the Design the School Winterim Course, the Design the School Challenge would allow student-teams to propose a substantive change to the Frederick Gunn School that gets presented to a panel of Administrators and Board Members who commit to implementing the winning proposal.
- Partnership with the Speaker Series
- Winterim Course(s) and travel opportunities
The Frederick Gunn School seeks a full-time, imaginative and enthusiastic Director of the Entrepreneurship Program. The ideal candidate will be an experienced entrepreneur or innovator capable of building a school-wide program that integrates authentically with this 172-year-old school, our strategic priorities, and the passions of our students. As the first Director of the Entrepreneurship Program, this person will build upon a popular course (Honors Entrepreneurship Seminar), Investment Club, and an underground group of student entrepreneurs (currently building businesses and brands). This person will also build upon the successes of our IDEAS program, which is a robust engineering and robotics curriculum.
Teaching digital natives means leading students to understand technologies as key tools for innovation. Our teacher within IDEAS will be a key interdisciplinary partner. The Director will build upon this work by developing a curriculum, budget, and a plan of execution for a four-year experiential and curricular progression for students.
Responsibilities are anticipated to include the following:
- Champion the pillar of Risk Taking and Innovation through faculty professional development, interdisciplinary curricular partnership, and co-curricular student activities and experiences
- Build an Entrepreneurship Academic Curriculum, including the Honors Entrepreneurship Seminar
- Build enthusiasm and skills with faculty colleagues so, in time, they can integrate this pillar across the programs that they run
- Connect the school to existing national competitions and programs
- Teach 3-4 sections per term, participate in dormitory supervision, advising, co-curriculars, and other faculty duties (e.g. periodic evening and daytime study hall oversight)
- Co-Lead Civic Changemaker Program with Director of CJD
- Obtain a Connecticut Public Service Driver’s License
Work directly with:
- This position sits on the Leadership Team alongside the Associate Head of School, Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning, Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Director of the Arts, Director of Athletics, Director of the Outdoor Program, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, and Director of College Counseling
- The courses this person champions fall across departments, in particular, but not limited to, history and science; therefore, work with Department Chairs as well as faculty leads is essential
- Alumni and parent networks through the Chief Development Officer
- Reports to Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning
Critical Skills and Dispositions
- Bachelor’s degree required (MBA Preferred)
- Experience working in a secondary or higher ed environment combined with a track record of successfully building and launching businesses (bonus for an equivalent record of failures)
- Demonstrated ability to create and implement new programs and policies
- Ability to collaborate within and across a 172-year-old institution with diplomacy, resilience, and positivity while effecting change over the long term
- Enthusiasm for the school’s founder, Frederick Gunn, and his role as a social entrepreneur a full century before the term was popularized
- Strong organization and planning skills
- Leadership and character development of both peers and students
- Familiarity with boarding school
- Public Speaking acumen
This is a 12-month position. Salary is contingent on experience. Benefits include medical insurance and retirement contributions. While it is not a requirement, we hope the Director will live on campus in school-provided housing.
How to Apply
Please submit a resume, cover letter, and references to hr@frederickgunn.org by March 1, 2023. Include in your cover letter your philosophy of education as it pertains to being Director of the Entrepreneurship Program in a boarding school, and at The Frederick Gunn School in particular. References will not be contacted without a candidate's permission, and the search is confidential until the final round. Interested candidates apply to hr@frederickgunn.org.
Start date: July 1, 2023
Search process: Confidential Phase
- Video interviews
Public Phase
- Final interviews with campus visits as possible
About The Frederick Gunn School
Founded in 1850 by abolitionist and outdoorsman Frederick Gunn, The Frederick Gunn School is a coeducational, college preparatory boarding and day school for students in grades 9 through 12/post-graduate. Dedicated teacher-mentor-coaches challenge students to reach their full potential in a home-like setting where character and citizenship are valued as much as intellect and achievement. Individualized attention and high expectations help young learners develop not only the skills and confidence they will need in college, but also the moral compass and love of learning that will serve them well in life. The school attracts ambitious, academically curious students who will both shine as unique individuals and thrive as contributing members of a deeply connected community. By the time they graduate, FGS students have become well rounded, grounded young adults with a sharpened sense of who they are and who they want to become. At The Frederick Gunn School, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is an institutional value. All employees and students participate in DEI educational initiatives that promote an understanding of inclusion and respect for differences in others.
The Frederick Gunn School is an Equal Opportunity Employer
BACKGROUND SCREENING: The Frederick Gunn School conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer, which includes using a third-party administrator to conduct the checks. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
At The Frederick Gunn School we give our students the lifelong learning and leadership skills they need to be active and responsible citizens, both locally and globally. We prepare our students for what’s next as they continue to learn and grow, in college and in life. It all begins in the classroom, yet because we are a boarding school, it intentionally spans across all of our on-campus experiences.
INNOVATIVE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM
Our timeless educational philosophy, with its emphasis on challenging academics, character development, curiosity, risk-taking, problem solving, and independent thinking, will meet every student where they are, while never letting them stay there. At The Frederick Gunn School, our learning ecosystem champions the interdisciplinary and experiential nature of life and learning, incorporating athletics, arts, and the outdoors into everyday life alongside ambitious academics.
RISK-TAKING AND INNOVATION
Frederick Gunn’s own entrepreneurial mindset is as relevant for our students in the twenty-first century as it was for his students in the nineteenth century. Our new Center for Innovation and Active Citizenship, opening in the Fall of 2023, will house our Entrepreneurship Program alongside our Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy and our IDEAS Lab. This entrepreneurial mindset will be integrated into every one of our programs on campus, as we prepare our students to take risks and to be makers not consumers.
LEARNING YOURSELF AND HOW TO LEARN
The key to 21st century skills is the work for each of our students to understand themselves as integrated human beings who are unique as individuals and as learners. Exemplified in our Center for Academic Excellence, these priorities are found through our advising program, in our Student Progress meetings, as well as in every single classroom at Frederick Gunn.
PUBLIC CHARACTER AND ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
The mission of the Frederick Gunn School is to form active citizens who will have a positive impact here on campus and out in the world. While they learn these principles explicitly through the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, we know that it takes an ecosystem of adults committed to this work to ensure this outcome for our students.
A SENSE OF ROOTEDNESS AND PLACE
Exemplified by Gunn Outdoors, a sense of rootedness and place is important for all Frederick Gunn School programs, as this exemplifies Frederick Gunn’s instincts around place-based and experiential learning, a commitment to the natural world, instincts for sustainable living, and practical, life-skills outcomes for every Frederick Gunn student.