Tanenbaum Director of Partnerships and Social Impact

Employment Terms : Full-Time, 5-Year Contract

Start date : August

End date : June

Since our founding in , Upper Canada College has been committed to developing young people for lives of leadership, service, and impact. As we approach UCC’s third century, we continue to enhance a UCC education to support our students in meeting the needs of a complex future in a way that is aligned with our values of Learning, Community, Service, Wellbeing and Pluralism. We are at an exciting moment in the College’s history with the launch of the Lang Leadership Lab to enhance student leadership development SK-Year 12 and UCC being chosen as one of four schools globally to offer the IB Diploma Programme Systems Transformation Pathway, a pilot pathway to the globally-renowned IB Diploma that offers a transdisciplinary cornerstone course focused on understanding and taking action on complex global challenges using the mindsets and tools of systems thinking, design thinking and digital innovation to shape a better world. UCC has a unique opportunity to achieve broader impact and become a leader in systems transformation education by embedding this approach strategically and in age-appropriate ways across its IB programmes SK-Year 12, including via significant experiential learning opportunities for students created through community engagement and partnerships that leverage the strength of our College community and our location and relationships in Toronto and beyond.

The College sees enhanced partnerships and community engagement initiatives as a key element of our learning program, directly helping to realize the College’s Strategic Directions Towards by serving as a source of transformational learning experiences for students through opportunities for positive engagement beyond our campuses and a means to develop new and dynamic ways of knowing and doing, shaping how the College is known in the broader community and creating opportunities to contribute to research and professional dialogue. Our focus on partnership is grounded in our values of Learning, Service and Community : We desire to learn and therefore seek opportunities for collaboration and feedback. We desire to serve and therefore seek to work with others, to understand our unique qualities in relationship to others, to act with humility and empathy and to create positive change. We desire community and therefore seek to build strong and trusting relationships with others. Partnerships and community engagement initiatives will help us extend our thinking and practice and assist in the development of a leading program, identify and connect to authentic problems needing solutions that can engage our students, find developmentally appropriate mentorship and support for student learning and opportunities for students to extend their learning beyond UCC’s program.

Thanks to the generous philanthropic support from the Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation, we are seeking a passionate and experienced individual to serve as the inaugural Tanenbaum Director of Partnerships and Social Impact at UCC. This is an exceptional opportunity to shape the future of experiential learning, strategic partnership development, as well as leadership and systems transformation education at Upper Canada College. The successful candidate will be a visionary leader with a passion for empowering young people to make a positive difference in the world, fostering student engagement with complex real-world issues, and cultivating partnerships and community engagement that support this learning.

Position Overview :

The Tanenbaum Director of Partnerships and Social Impact champions and enables UCC's mission to educate young people for lives of leadership, service and impact by fostering partnerships and community engagement initiatives that are aligned with the College’s desired learning outcomes. A member of the Learning and Academic Innovation team, the Director will collaborate with the Program Senior Leadership team and faculty leads to understand areas of need and opportunity in the learning program and will provide vision, strategic, and operational direction to create and sustaining a robust network of authentic, intentional partnerships with a range of organization, groups and individuals to ensure the richest possible learning experiences for UCC students and the kind of reciprocal learning- and service-oriented relationships that contribute to the College’s strategic work toward social impact and thought leadership.

In their portfolio, the Director will play an important role in supporting key strategic initiatives, including the enhancement of student leadership development and the development of systems transformation education as a signature aspect of the UCC experience across the IB programmes SK-Year 12, working with program leaders in those spaces and offering specific leadership in the establishment and implementation of a robust offering of vision-aligned experiential learning opportunities for students.

The Director will support the College in cultivating partnerships that leverage the College’s diverse and talented community, its global reach in education and its location in the city of Toronto. The Director will lead and collaborate in the design and implementation of community engagement programming for students, including : experiential learning, mentorship opportunities, experiences found through partnership development with universities and industry, and initiatives focused on systems transformation, sustainability, wellbeing and pluralism. The Director will ensure measurement of the effectiveness and impact of partnerships- both in terms of student outcomes as well as broader community outcomes, and disseminating results in an annual report. The Director will play a pivotal role in fostering a culture that supports student social impact, systems thinking, innovation, and partnership development throughout the College, collaborating with faculty, staff, students, and external partners.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks

Strategic Leadership :

Collaborate with the Senior Leadership Team to develop a long-term vision, intentional strategy and tactical plan to support the development of learning-focused partnerships and social impact initiatives.

• Develop a framework for partnerships, including partnership criteria and a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of social impact programming and partnerships that encompasses a process for regular evaluation and renewal, development of appropriate indicators and mechanisms to measure and track success informed by best practice models and improvements where necessary.
• Develop an annual report on impact of partnerships - both in terms of student learning outcomes and broader community / partner outcomes
• Stay informed and current with research in education, social impact, partnership development, systems thinking, and experiential learning methodologies.
• Represent social impact and partnership initiatives within the College community and with external stakeholders.
• Develop collaborative relationships with key roles, including members of the Senior Leadership Team, the Director of Academics, and other relevant stakeholders to support the College’s student leadership, social impact, systems thinking, wellbeing, pluralism and sustainability-focused objectives.
• Inventory existing learning-focused partnerships active at the College and identifying a range of potential partners including universities, community organizations, nonprofits and startups / incubators / accelerators.

Development and Implementation of Student Programming :

Collaborate to support the implementation of the College’s pioneering IB DP Systems Transformation Pathway in partnership with the International Baccalaureate, focused on innovation for a better world, and support the embedding of related learning in the PYP and MYP.

Partnership Development :

Faculty and Staff Development :

College-Wide Coordination and Leadership :

Administration and Due Diligence :

Other Duties :

Job Requirements

Experience, Knowledge and Competencies :

What We Offer

About UCC

Upper Canada College (UCC) is focused on making the world a more just and inclusive place through dialogue and teamwork. With a commitment to equity and fairness, students learn that what makes us different as individuals makes us stronger as a community. A rigorous academic program is supported by accomplished faculty, exceptional co-curricular programming, and state-of-the-art facilities.

The UCC experience is underpinned by five core values : learning, pluralism, service, community, and well-being. Among its strategic goals is UCC’s ambition to become more diverse and inclusive. This is supported by a recognition that no learning community is whole without the inclusion and amplification of multiple voices; UCC is committed to fostering belonging, striving for jus­­tice and peace among all people, and addressing systemic and structural forms of oppression.