California, Here I Come

California, Here I Come… (Written while on a Boeing 737 somewhere between Seattle, WA and Sacramento, CA) I left Boston on Wednesday last week to head for the West Coast. After an early morning trip to the Manchester, NH airport (that 4:00 am alarm seemed just way to early) I arrived in Seattle in time to go to our Central Meeting there hosted by Dean of Admissions, Stuart Schmill ’86. We had a great group of students and families who attended (one young woman came all the way from Hawaii) and a terrific group of Educational Counselors (ECs) too. The Seattle/Tacoma group of ECs obviously enjoy their interviews each year and they were out in force that night working with the staff members in attendance to check in the students, answer questions and just generally be helpful. One of the ECs, Gregg Lobdell also took some great pictures that night, but I cant share them until I figure out to upload them to the blog :-( On Saturday (yesterday) those same ECs spent their afternoon finding out how to be even more effective as ECs on behalf of the Admissions Office and of course, the students they meet. To give up a gorgeous weekend afternoon to sit in a meeting room in a library says a lot about their commitment to the process and what being an EC means to them. So, I’ve spent the last several days in Seattle, WA at a national conference for admissions officers and high school counselors among others. I’ve learned from those at other schools about their experiences and tried to talk especially to those who run alumni programs within their offices like I do. Not all schools use their alumni/ae volunteers the same way we do but I’m proud of our program and feel it works well for us. One by one I’ve said goodbye to colleagues as we’ve gone our separate ways to continue our travels to meet all of you on the road as well as old friends who were at the conference too. So now I find myself on an airplane in the early morning heading to Sacramento for the first central meeting of my California trip. Over the next ten days I’ll be in Sacramento, San Francisco, Lafayette, and San Jose doing public meetings. I’ll also be stopping in to visit high schools in those same cities as well as in Stockton, Modesto, and Palo Alto to name a few. It’s kind of a whirlwind tour but I’m excited about my trip because I’ll get to meet lots of you in the process. I know I’m going to enjoy being in California and I look forward to seeing you there!