NuVu Summer Coach

  • Part-time

Company Description

NuVu is an innovation school for middle and high school students whose pedagogy is based on the Studio model and geared around multi-disciplinary collaborative projects. We are located in Central Square in Cambridge, MA and are a fun team of MIT alums who love creative education.

What makes us unique? 

No Courses: Instead, we have studios. Around 12 kids work closely with their 2 coaches on solving big (and small) open-ended problems. 

No Subjects: Instead, everything is fused together. Students find themselves moving between a studio that requires them to design a telepresence robot to another that requires them to re-imagine Boston with a cable car system. 

No Classrooms: Instead, we have an open space that changes all the time to adapt to the needs of every studio.  

No One-Hour Schedule: Instead, students spend two weeks from 9-3 solving one problem.  

No Grades: Instead, we have portfolios that document students' design decisions and show their final products.

Job Description

Employment Dates: July 5-August 18, 2017
Training Period from July 5 to 7, 2017
Summer Sessions from July 10, 2017 to August 18, 2017

NuVu Coaches lead or assist 2-week long hands-on, multidisciplinary studios based around a topic or challenge designed by the Coach and the larger NuVu Team. In each studio, middle and high school students undergo a series of graduated problems, exploring, inventing and prototyping in collaborative teams under the guidance of the NuVu Coach who constantly assesses and offers feedback to the students.

For our upcoming Summer 2017 Program, we are seeking a number of motivated and skilled NuVu Coaches to lead 2-week studios on various topics. Our theme for the Summer 2017 Program is “Human++,” and we are offering 18 different studios based around this theme that can be found at https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/terms/summer-2017. Each 2-week studio runs from Monday-Friday, 9am-3pm.

NuVu Coaches should be available for a training session from July 5 to 7, 2017. NuVu Coaches can apply to lead a studio in one, two or all three of the Sessions based on their skills and expertise in the studio topic.

NuVu Coaches take responsibility and ownership of the following part of NuVu's programming: 

  • Help and guide student teams in developing project ideas within a specified framework.
  • Support student teams in designing and building prototypes of their projects.
  • Help students in utilizing resources such as NuVu's tool shop, laser cutter and 3D printers as well as software programs for 3D modeling, programming or other applications.
  • Guide student teams in building their final project.
  • Advice and support student teams in creating a series of images and a pitch as part of a presentation to showcase their final project to an audience of parents, community, and educators at the end of the studio. Coach students on how to deliver a memorable and professional 5-minute presentation about their final project and the process leading to the final prototype.
  • Wrap up the studio by helping students write the process and product summary for the portfolio piece on NuVu's website.

NuVu Coaches are paid a stipend for their services.

Qualifications

NuVu Coaches come from a range of backgrounds and bring a diversity of expertise. Past NuVu Coaches have included PhD students at MIT and Harvard, entrepreneurs who have their own companies, artists who work around the world, professionals developing innovative products in various fields, architecture and engineering graduate students, industrial designers, filmmakers, and video game designers.

Required Qualifications:

  • Current Graduate or PhD Student, Professional, Entrepreneur, Technologist, Engineer, Roboticist, Architect, Designer or some combination of these
  • Expert in respective field
  • Mentor
  • Problem solver

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Background in design or an understanding of the design process
  • Proficiency in skills (at least 2 from the list below):
  1. Digital fabrication and use of fabrication tools (Laser Cutter, 3d Printer)
  2. 2d and 3d Modeling (Rhino, Solidworks, Fusion 360)
  3. Robotics (Arduino)
  4. Sensors and Actuators
  5. Adobe Photoshop
  6. Adobe Illustrator
  7. 3d Studio Max or Maya
  8. Unity 3D
  9. Adobe After Effects
  10. Final Cut Pro
  11. Digital Photography and/or Filmmaking and Production
  12. Sewing
  13. Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Platforms
  14. Processing and Computer-Generated Graphics

Additional Information

Here are some wonderful things that may happen to you as a NuVu Coach…

  • You'll watch interesting ideas from students turn into a real project (in less than 2 weeks!).
  • You’ll get to meet some very cool people (students, NuVu Team, and fellow NuVu Coaches).
  • You'll help students push themselves beyond their comfort zone and feel the joy of seeing a project develop from an idea to a product.
  • You’ll practice thinking on your toes and being a problem solver.
  • You’ll be inspired.