Experiential Education Teaching Fellowship

Overview

Albuquerque Academy seeks a cohort of teaching fellows for the 2025-26 academic year. Albuquerque Academy is looking to engage candidates who embrace a growth mindset in their approach to education and will bring that perspective to teaching in our 6-12 program. We are looking for someone who is patient, engaging, and inspires a love of the outdoors and the natural world in all students, works well with colleagues, and enjoys thinking about the art of teaching outdoor and leadership education. In addition to co-teaching a class, candidates will teach as part of an instructor team for the department’s array of experiential education trips. Diversity is a core value at Albuquerque Academy, and we seek candidates who demonstrate an abiding commitment to equity and belonging.

The teaching fellow position in the Experiential Education Department requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Competence in outdoor living skills, outdoor travel and navigation, and judgment and decision-making is required. Familiarity with technical skills such as rock climbing is preferred. The Albuquerque Academy Experiential Education Department supports and enhances the school’s rigorous college-preparatory curriculum and experiential education trips are required for students in grades 6-9. Students in grades 10-12 can elect to take classroom-based electives that include a field component. Programs are offered throughout New Mexico and the Four Corners region. For more information, see the department website: https://www.aa.edu/academics/departments/.

Additionally, Teaching Fellows will participate as teachers and advisers in the Academy’s “Bridge Program,” an academic and social preparation and orientation experience for rising sixth-grade students that takes place right before school begins in early August. Teaching fellows will have flexibility in terms of their presence on campus before August, when they will need to be physically present to participate in training and then work with students. July should be used for preparation and planning for the start of the school year, to include some meetings (can be remote) to work with their mentor-teacher and department chair. The stipend for the Fellows program is $25,000; fellows are considered full-time employees (40 hours per week) and are therefore eligible for the full array of benefits. Fellows should expect to be on campus during the school day, and sometimes after and before school for meetings. The experiential education department’s hours may extend beyond the typical work day during the field season. Time off for the Teaching Fellow in January into early February reflects the extra time commitment during the field season. This position runs from August 5, 2024- May 24, 2025.

Tagged as: Backcountry Skills

Qualifications:

Competent in outdoor living skills, including: tent use; whisperlite stove use; finding, purifying and transporting water in desert and mountain environments; campsite selection and management; self-care including nutrition, first aid and staying warm and dry; Leave No Trace ethics.
Familiar with navigation, map and compass use and route finding; some experience with off-trail travel is preferred.

Required Skills:

Personal and/ or professional wilderness backpacking experience is required.

Preferred Skills:

Prior experience teaching and/ or working with adolescents is preferred.
Basic competence or interest in one or more technical skills such as rock climbing, river kayaking, mountain biking, and survival skills is preferred.
Prior experience being a part of a leadership team and communicating around goals, decision- making and risk management is preferred.