OAL HESD Graduate Assistantships

This graduate assistantship works at Wheaton College’s main campus, leading Wheaton Passage: Wheaton College’s Outdoor and Adventure Orientation Program (OOP) that welcomes 550 incoming Wheaton College undergraduates each year in August. Throughout the academic year, this assistantship continues supporting Passage by facilitating campus outdoor and adventure recreation activities as a platform for student leader recruitment and development. Wheaton Campus Adventure Coordinators recruit, train, and invest in the lives of over 100 student leaders. Expect to organize and carry out large portions of Passage, intensive activities at HoneyRock, weekend retreats, and day-long excursions. Activities offered include climbing, canoeing, gravel biking, paddle boarding, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, and ice climbing. In this role, you can expect to visit HoneyRock and Chicago on a routine and sometimes extended basis. This role aspires to prepare a graduate assistant for a role in Higher Education as an Outdoor Orientation Program Leader, an Outdoor Recreation Coordinator, or a similar outdoor and adventure education leader in the outdoor industry. 

The Chase Leadership Program is a 3-4 year undergraduate program that includes 20 hours of coursework, resulting in a leadership certificate, along with coaching, mentoring, retreats and multiple leadership-oriented practicums that happen outside the classroom. The Graduate Assistants (GAs) working with the Chase Leadership Program will organize the co-curricular activities of the Chase program while investing in and discipling the Chase participants. Chase students are engaged in leadership across campus or in the surrounding community and will spend at least one summer in a HoneyRock Leadership School. These GAs are based in Wheaton during the school year but will spend a portion of their summer at HoneyRock.

Two positions available. 

This position will co-lead the Vanguard Gap Year Program under the supervision of the School Year Program Director. Graduate assistants in this position will be responsible for program planning, program execution, ongoing discipleship of Vanguard students, and working within a collaborative team of Vanguard Coordinators and Seasonal Program staff (Fellows). Additionally, Vanguard Coordinators will assist in the recruitment of future Vanguard students. Applicants must be willing to participate in the appropriate understudying roles beginning in early May.

Positions Available for 2023-2024: 3