What is your role at Oliver Scholars? What did you do before joining the staff?

My role is to ensure that our Scholars get into, and out of, college successfully. As the Director of College Counseling, I provide guidance to our high school Scholars to ensure that each student is making well-informed decisions with regard to their college choices. The goal is for them to find the best fit academically, financially, and socially.

Our College Scholars often need to connect to key resources on their college campuses such as career services, the writing center, peer tutoring, and counseling support. My role is help them identify what they need and how to find it. At the same time, I’m always looking toward their futures. I seek out professional skills-development and networking opportunities for Scholars throughout their four years at college, and help them to apply for internships that position them for professional success after graduation.

Prior to joining Oliver, I ran a Los Angeles-based independent college counseling business that provided college guidance to students from the U.S., France, China, and Italy. I studied closely colleges’ admissions processes and analyzed admissions data to develop a deep understanding of what motivates colleges to admit some students and deny many others. I am integrating that kind of data-driven approach into my work at Oliver to help our Scholars zero in on the schools that will want them.

What experience (short- or long-term) has shaped you most in your life?

I’m confident that my life path would have been very different had I not attended Hamilton College. Growing up in a small, blue-collar town in upstate New York where less than 20 percent of my graduating class attended a four-year college, I never imagined that I would end up leaving there to work in large cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and New York. The relationships I developed through the Hamilton network – both as a student and an alumnus – introduced me to worlds I never knew existed and opened doors of opportunity at critical points in my career. My first internship and job offer came from a Hamilton connection. I received invaluable guidance from the Hamilton network as I transitioned from working in financial services to the field of education. A Hamilton alumnus even invested in my college counseling business. And it was through my college roommate, who is now the assistant head of school at Poly Prep Country Day School, that I was connected with Oliver Scholars.

In fact, I work in the field of college counseling because of the long-lasting impact of my Hamilton experience – I want to play a role in helping other students to find a school that will change the trajectory of their lives just as Hamilton did for me.

What is one piece of advice that you would give to a new Scholar or newly graduated Alum about taking that next step?

There is no single piece of advice that will change everything. I would say that the best one-two punch of career advice is to develop a strong network and remain forever ambitious. The best part is that those two will build off each other.

In building a strong network, yes, you want to have many contacts. But it’s more important to have quality contacts. Build a tight inner-circle – there may be only two or three people who share your ambition and are willing to be brutally honest with you. That circle is extremely valuable for identifying areas for improvement in your life. My lifelong best friend won’t tell me what he thinks will make me feel better – he’s a guy who tells me what he thinks will make me better. Jim Rohn famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Don’t allow yourself to get dragged down or held back by complacent peers.

Maintaining ambition throughout your life is also crucial. The world changes so fast. If you aren’t constantly working to improve, eventually your skills will become obsolete. I think Oliver’s 2018 theme captures this always-be-improving mindset: “Growth Every Day, In Every Way.”

What are your top three favorite books and why?

How College Works by Chambliss & Takacs: Although the book focuses on how colleges can create a more meaningful experience for their students, I think it can be beneficial for students applying to college and navigating their college careers. The big takeaway from the book is that that the value students derive from the college experience comes in large part through the quality of their relationships with both their classmates and professors.

11/22/63 by Stephen King: I really enjoyed this story, but it makes my list more because of how I came to read it. After college, I spent the vast majority of my reading time focused on non-fiction work that was related to my professional pursuits. My father, who I believe has read every Stephen King book, gave me this book for Christmas in 2011. It was the first work of fiction I’d read in quite some time and it reminded me that reading for “pleasure” can be as meaningful as reading for “value.”

What Do I Teach Readers Tomorrow? by Gravity Goldberg & Renee Houser: To be honest, I haven’t read the whole two-book series, but my wife wrote it, so it’s a favorite. It was incredibly informative to have a bird’s-eye-view on how much work goes into publishing a professional text.