Counselor (Hendry/Glades Zone) — AAD Hendry Educational Opportunity Center (AAD HEOC)

Position Summary

The Counselor delivers individualized college-access, financial aid, and workforce-pathway counseling to adults age 19 and older in the rural Hendry/Glades zone of AAD HEOC. Participants include agricultural and food-processing workers, parents, veterans, foster-care alumni, justice-involved adults, adults with disabilities, and limited-English adults. The Counselor serves this zone from intake through the first term of postsecondary enrollment.

The Counselor's work drives the project's four federal objectives: 27% secondary-diploma completion, 42% postsecondary enrollment (including Registered Apprenticeships), 50% financial aid applications, and 38% college admission applications. Every plan the Counselor writes puts college, apprenticeship, and short-term credential options side by side.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Outreach & Recruitment

• Help the Project Director inform residents, schools, and community organizations about the project's goals, services, and eligibility.
• Host monthly bilingual community information nights at satellite sites and through CBI Hub.
• Lead quarterly employer-site information sessions, including at U.S. Sugar Corporation in Clewiston.
• Staff college fairs, festivals, agricultural worker events, faith-based gatherings, and library events in the zone.

Intake & Eligibility

• Collect, screen, and process applications; document eligibility under 34 CFR 644.3 and forward complete files to the Project Director.
• Notify applicants of missing documents and complete eligibility determination within 14 days.

Assessment & Individualized Success Plans

• Conduct the multi-domain needs assessment within 30 days of intake: academic diagnostic, affective and career inventories, and skills-profile construction.
• Write each participant's Individualized Success Plan (ISP) within 30 days; update it at the end of each semester and revise it annually.
• Include in every ISP at least one Registered Apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship pathway and at least one Workforce Pell-aligned credential pathway alongside the college pathway.
• Review AI-drafted ISPs and pathway suggestions before they become part of any plan.

Counseling & Workforce Pathways

• Deliver personal, career, and academic counseling: at least four substantive contacts per participant per year, starting within the first 60 days, plus contacts at each FAFSA, application, admission, and enrollment step.
• Counsel on workforce pathways using Apprenticeship.gov, the Florida Registered Apprenticeship Sponsor Registry, CareerOneStop, Florida CONNECT, and the Credential Engine Credential Finder.
• Help participants document existing credentials and work-acquired skills in a learner-controlled folder.
• Coordinate referrals to CareerSource Southwest Florida and CareerSource Heartland.
• Provide re-entry counseling for adults without a diploma: adult high school, GED/HiSET through Hendry and Glades County adult education, or stackable programs.

Admissions & Financial Aid

• Assist with college and apprenticeship applications, fee waivers, transcripts, essays, recommendations, and test scores.
• Assist with FAFSA, FFAA, and institutional aid; review Student Aid Reports and award letters; coordinate verification.
• Support mixed-status families, adults without recent tax records, foster-care alumni, and justice-involved adults through FAFSA special circumstances.
• Run monthly FAFSA Completion Days at the LaBelle and Clewiston satellite sites; follow up 30 days after each FAFSA submission.

Workshops & Partner Referrals

• Facilitate workshops in person and through CBI Hub on financial literacy, career exploration, admissions, FAFSA, AI literacy, digital literacy, and non-traditional careers.
• Refer participants to Top Score Tutors (two sessions per week; at least 10 sessions for test prep), AI Guys AI-literacy cohorts, and Career Bound Institute non-traditional career cohorts; monitor attendance and progress.
• Run the resource-assessment protocol for adults with disabilities, foster-care alumni, homeless adults, justice-involved adults, and limited-English adults.
• Serve veterans and military families on GI Bill, Yellow Ribbon, and county veterans' service coordination.

Persistence & Data

• Conduct 30/60/90-day follow-up with every participant who enrolls; trigger re-engagement for any participant at risk of stopping out.
• Enter all contacts, services, and attendance in the case management system within five business days.
• Collect data for formative and summative evaluation and the Annual Performance Report.
• Perform other duties as assigned, in compliance with EDGAR and 34 CFR Part 644.