Enrollment & Outreach Manager

Founded in 1994, Outward Bound Costa Rica offers a range of experiential education programs to high school and college students that promise challenging physical activities across Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama with a focus on personal development, leadership, and cultural immersion.

The Communications Office is a small, collaborative team responsible for all communications, sales, marketing and customer service tasks organization-wide. Staffers are charged with increasing course participation across all target audiences and ensuring excellent customer service communication to prospective students and families, to families of students currently on course, to alumni and partners.

The Enrollment & Outreach Manager plays a crucial role in the Communications Office and is responsible for successfully marketing Outward Bound Costa Rica and its programs internationally through various outreach methods, maintaining relationships with and cultivating new referral sources, counseling students and their parents in choosing the right course, leading students through the enrollment process, maintaining accurate admissions, medical and financial records for each student, and ensuring that students arrive/depart safely to/from our base.

This role focuses on extensive external communication and essential administrative duties. Candidates must have excellent written and verbal English skills, be conversant in Spanish, have strong attention to detail, and proven success in sales, data entry and administrative tasks. 

This position requires relocating to Costa Rica.

The Enrollment & Outreach Manager reports directly to the Director of Marketing & Communications. Hours are 9am to 5pm, some weekends during our high season (June – August) and limited travel.

·        Serve as the point person for all inquiry, enrollment, preparation, and on course communication with students and parents for all Open Enrollment summer and OBCR Girl Scout Destination courses

·        Continuously pitch and execute creative outreach ideas and strategies toward meeting enrollment goals for Open Enrollment summer and OBCR Girl Scout Destination courses

·        Respond accurately and timely to all student/parent inquiries within established parameters

·        Answer and make frequent phone calls for outreach and follow-up purposes to interested participants

·        Manage all administrative tasks associated with enrollment—including but not limited to medical screening, passport copies, flight itineraries, payments, refunds, and financial reporting to our Accountant

·        Ensure all participants and parents are properly informed about what they can expect from an OBCR course and convey the course policies including payment instructions, academic credit information, and the Code of Conduct

·        Serve as liaison between students, their families and OBCR

·        Manage and maintain the student enrollment database (Salesforce) and all enrollment documents stored in the server per each recruitment cycle

·        Distribute logistics information regarding arrival and departure information of participants to other staff members

·        Distribute and brief important student information to course instructors and the Director of Programming

·        Administer course evaluations to students and compile feedback to drive the improvement of future courses

·        Contribute to planning/strategy meetings with the Communications Team

·        Rotate on-call and flight responsibilities throughout the year (especially during the summer high season)

·        Superb attention to detail

·        Direct experience in sales and marketing

·        Superior communication skills (Excellent written and verbal English, conversant in Spanish)

·        Proven customer service and administration skills

·        Experience with Salesforce, Microsoft Word, Excel and Adobe InDesign

·        Ability to multi-task and stay focused despite regular interruption

·        Strong time management skills

·        At least one year living, working or studying outside of home country

·        Preferred degree in Communications, Marketing, Outdoor Recreation, Education, or another relevant field

·        Demonstrated cultural sensitivity

·        Positive attitude and good work ethic

·        Sense of humor

·        Personal interest in the outdoors and the mission of Outward Bound Costa Rica

·        Willingness and ability to live and work in close quarters with a small group of people

·        Tenacity and flexibility

·        Salary plus bonus

·        30 days paid vacation plus 4 days throughout each year for visa renewal, comp days during weekend coverage in high season

·        Travel insurance coverage (WorldNomads), preventative medical stipend, additional coverage through INS, the insurance provider of Outward Bound Costa Rica

·        Round trip airfare to Costa Rica

·        Private bedroom in a furnished 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house on the OBCR main base located SE of San Jose in San Ramon de Tres Rios

·        All utilities included (water, electricity, phone, cable TV, wireless internet)

·        Access to Outward Bound Costa Rica courses and equipment for personal use when available

·        Use of Manuel Antonio beach base when approved by the Director of Programming and Director of Communications

Submit cover letter and resume to Brynna Rao at CommDirector@OutwardBoundCR.org. Specify “Enrollment & Outreach Manager” in the subject line. Be sure to include details on your availability, both for interviews and ultimate start date.

No phone calls please.