NYSACAC conference

The New York State Association for Admissions Counseling annual conference was held last week at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. The conference is held every year at a different New York State college and is a great opportunity for admissions counselors and guidance counselors/college advisers to see one another, network and make new friends. The "NizzyACAC" conference is what I look forward to at the end of every year; kinda like the prom:) The conference keynote speaker was Jonathan Kozol, a highly regarded educator/author. I was very interested to hear about the work he is doing with the Barrack Obama regarding education policy.

One of my favorite aspects of the conference is the chance to see another college campus. I inevitably fall in love with the host institution every conference and Manhattanville was no exception. The student workers we met were incredible ( I bonded with the Hawaiian students), the facilities were impressive and the professors I met were very impressive. Conference participants also have the "luxury" of staying in the dorms!


A picture from inside the "castle" at Manhattanville


Most of the Skidmore crew inside our dorm room


Dalton Conley addressed the conference on Tuesday night. I asked him to sign my copy of his book, Honky.

College Connect Conference

Marisa, Dean and I just got back from the CFES College Connect Conference. This year the conference focused on helping underserved students in rural areas and Lake Placid was an ideal meeting place.

Fact: Only one percent of philanthropist dollars (in education) went towards underserved rural populations!

There were twenty-one colleges represented and even more elementary, middle and high schools from rural areas present! Some participants drove more than seven hours to be at the conference.

The conference connects schools with underserved populations with/to Colleges. The partnership then shares ideas and comes up with a program to present at the end of the conference. CFES provides funding for the programs each team comes up with! Skidmore worked with a CFES program manager and outlined an incredible day to take place later this spring.

Student Summit 2008; A Skidmore Snapshot will bring one hundred (100) underserved students from the Adirondacks (from at least five different schools) to campus in late April! The 6th-8th graders will meet a number of Skidmore students and work with them to complete a "scavenger hunt." Each team of 10 Adirondack scholars (and Skidmore mentors) will be given a disposable camera. Each team will need to take a photo of specific items and people on all around campus in order to check off items off their scavenger hunt list! The Adirondack scholars will walk away with photo albums to remember their day on a college campus (not to mention lunch in the awesome dining hall!)

The Olympic Center

Marisa writes down our ideas to share with the group

Everyone shares their ideas at the end of the conference

Skidmore in NYC

Some of the admissions office is in New York City tonight for an admissions event on Saturday.

We were able to catch up with my former director John Young, now the director at Hobart William Smith. We also had the chance to have dinner with a former Head Ambassador (tour guide) from our office who now works in Admissions for Parsons! Go Sarah!

Marisa, Peter, Dean, Sarah, Shardae, Cathy and John!

Marisa and Sarah talking shop!

SUCH festivus party

A huge round of applause to Hamilton College for organizing a great SUCH party. The party this year had a "festivus" theme based on a Seinfeld episode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-wm9N0KiAs

We were all instructed to send in some festivus grievances- or something that drives us crazy (relating to the admissions process). The top ten grievances were read while standing at the festivus pole.

We all knew Hamilton had something up their sleeves for the "feats of strength" portion of the program after dinner. This turned out to be an admissions related trivia contest. Our emcee was Dave Lyons, a former Hamilton admissions counselor who now is a college advisor at The Rivers School. Dave did a fantastic job of coming up with all of the admissions related trivia questions!

Kyle from Hamilton with Marisa from Skidmore. Dave Lyons played the part of emcee for the SUCH party
The Deans of the SUCH schools
Seating placards

The Colgate team busy at work

Hamilton busy at work
The Union team trying to figure out the maximum allowable display height at a NACAC college fair
One question every team answered incorrectly

Picture Round. One point to match the school to the picture. One more point to name the Director of College Guidance at the school.

More Gore = More Sore

Skidmore has an ideal location in so many ways. We are three hours from some incredible cities like New York City, Boston and Montreal (not to mention being in Saratoga Springs). We are at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and we are close to some great ski mountains!

Skidmore is:

90 miles from Mount Snow

87.2 miles from Killington Ski Resort

64.2 miles from Stratton Mountain

61.9 miles from Gore Mountain

19.4 miles to West Mountain

Peter and I decided to go to Gore for the day. He has a season pass at Gore (which he got for $300 because of his young age:)) and I buy the Price Chopper pass books (3 tickets + a couple companion tickets for $105). We had an awesome day of skiing and boarding. Peter cut out early but I continued to board until closing (and I am really feeling it today)! Peter is really tall and I am really short (and Peter was standing on a pile of snow)

Peter is happy because Gore has gondola

Permanent smile from the cold

Great Conference!

I had the opportunity to attend the cFES National Conference last weekend! It was an incredible conference for many reasons; networking (Aloha to my new friends from Hawaii), professional development, and brainstorming were all very easy to do at the conference. I don't think I've been to a conference so chock full of speakers who challenged, provoked and inspired educators to continue in our efforts to promote early college awareness in under served populations across the United States.

The Mario Pena Award was given out to two very hard-working people. Phil Smith, Dean of Admission Emeritus at Williams College, and our very own Mary Lou Bates, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Skidmore College!

I forgot to mention the conference was held just north of Saratoga Springs at the Sagamore Resort.

The view from our room
Another pic from our room

Trek to MUWCI

I was driven to the airport shortly after my breakfast to catch my flight to Pune. My airline had no record of my reservation even though I showed them my confirmation email and number. After purchasing (another) seat on the plane, I had to rush to catch my plane.

I arrived in Pune a short twenty minutes later and found the driver from MUWCI (Mahindra United World College India). Little did I know I was on the same flight as two other college representatives from College of the Atlantic also traveling to MUWCI. All three of us crammed into a "Jeep" and hung on for a nearly two hour ride (due to traffic) through the Indian countryside. MUWCI, like all UWC schools, is an incredible place because of it's location. It is located among the poorest villages in India and this impacts the "community interaction" projects available to students.













I arrived at MUWCI where Mike McGahan, the college advisor, showed me to my "residence house." The accommodations were much nicer than I expected and I was excited
to spend the next 20 hours at MUWCI.

The front of my residence at MUWCI
My room at MUWCI. Thanks again Mike!

The view from MUWCI

A pathway on MUWCI's campus



I had lunch in the dining hall and got to feel the energy the students on campus exude. I appreciated the opportunity to be able to spend a prolonged period of time on campus (at all my school visits) because I'm able to really experience the daily culture of the school.

One of my three meals at MUWCI


After a wholesome lunch, I presented to a much larger group of students than I expected. Many students that were not necessarily interested in Skidmore came to the my presentation to see a video (youtube link coming soon) they had heard about. Shortly before leaving for India, I was able to catch two MUWCI alums who are first-year students at Skidmore. We filmed a video greeting to their classmates. (Thanks again to Matt in the Media Lab for help with the video!!)

I met with a couple of students individually after my presentation and suddenly it was time for me to go on my "community interaction" trip. I met 14 MUWCI students at the Social Center. We squeezed into two jeeps and headed down the road to a local orphanage. We spent the late afternoon playing and socializing with local orphans. I was prohibited from taking photos but I'm sure you can imagine the scene. Some of the MUWCI students have been visiting this orphanage for two years but even the newer MUWCI students had a great impact on the orphans.MUWCI students posing in front of the orphanage

Breakfast in the hotel

I woke up early after a much needed sleep in my hotel room. I rushed downstairs to enjoy the buffet breakfast. I didn't know when the next time I would get to eat so I quickly put my eating skills to the test.


Assorted fruit juices
Bhaji (but I don't know if this dish was correctly marked)
Poori

India!

I arrived in Mumbai late at night and locate the driver from the hotel. This was my first confirmation of finally being in India! The ride to the hotel was a mix of horn-honking, pedestrian-dodging, breath-holding and overall a great cultural introduction to India. I still haven't slowed down enough to formulate my thoughts on the driving in India but I do know it definitely is not for the faint of heart!

India, I'm almost (maybe) there!

I could add another long post about more trials and tribulations in order to get to India, but instead, I'll just give you the abridged "poetic" version (tribute to Darren Drabek).

Inclement Weather
Five hours in Albany Airport
Remarkable Sprint
Out of breath
Flightless
Howard Johnson Hotel overnight
Day two, Check in and spend Eight hours in the Airport
Flight leaves
Fifteen hours straight
Touchdown Mumbai

India, here I (maybe) come

I have been planning to visit India for the past two years. Last year's trip was canceled at the last minute because I did not have the visa needed to enter the country. This year, I started the visa process as soon as I got back from my early trip to Asia (see first few posts in my blog). I needed to renew my passport inorder to get a visa (because it was within six months of expiration). The morning arrived for me to turn in my paper work and I arrived to the Counsulate General's Office to find out India has decided to outsource their visa service. This meant an entirely different application (online only) and different photo requirements (two of the same picture instead of one). To make a painfully long story short, after several day trips to New York City, I finally received my visa. If anyone is considering a trip to India, feel free to contact me for some tips in securing your visa.

One week in NYC

I just returned from one full week in New York City. I am accustomed to spending up to three weeks in the big apple so my trip felt a bit rushed. My colleague, Dean Mendes, and I shared a hotel room and were able to double the number of schools I would have been able to do in one week alone. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for the entire week and it made my daily walks to schools much more pleasant!

On Saturday, I participated in a workshop organized by the Peter Jay Sharp foundation. The program is intended for students who are disadvantaged (socioeconomically and educationally) in the college application process. I participated in a College Essay Writing workshop with Peter Jay Sharp Foundation this past summer, and was excited to help students and families learn more about the entire college process on this particular day. I was teamed up with two guidance counselors and we specifically covered the "common application."

Here is my team member explaining the general timeline for college applications

On Sunday, I went to two different street fairs. The first was right outside our hotel on Lexington Avenue. It was filled with great food and shopping bargains. I then met some of my friends in Brooklyn for "Atlantic Antic." It was larger and more diverse in the food choices, shopping and people present. As always, I had some great food!

The scene on Lexington Ave.

Bryant, and I started off with sausage and peppers (No we didn't plan to both wear pink t-shirts)

Bryant, James and I sit down for some seafood. I went with the raw clams!

This band was jamming!

Mmmmm.

A new friend.

A glimpse of the scene in Brooklyn.

Kid with cool hair waiting to get his face painted.A reluctant friend

Back in Saratoga!

I'm back in Saratoga and the energy on campus is amazing! Here is a post about this past Monday, September 10th, our last day together as a group.

We flew to Maui in the morning and arrived just in time to get to H.P Baldwin High School. We met some students interested in leaving the islands for school on the mainland.Steve puts on his game face!

Jennifer loved this student's t-shirt

Maui High School was next on our schedule. We met some enthusiastic students and a great counseling staff!

Picture for the blog behind the blog

We ended our trip together with a visit to Seabury Hall. It has arguably one of the most picturesque campuses in the world, and it was a great ending point to a fantastic trip. After meeting with students, we were invited to the headmaster's house for a home-cooked meal! Thanks to everyone at Seabury Hall for making our visit so special.

Our last group picture (at Seabury Hall)!