College Counselors Attend SACAC

Last month, Mrs. Leshin and Mrs. Goldberg attended Southern Association of College Admission Counseling Conference (SACAC) in Raleigh, NC. We connected with colleagues across the profession including admission officers, college counselors at public and independent schools, as well as vendors supporting our field. Our conversations were full of collaboration and excitement for the work we all do to support our students in their college aspirations.

We listened to the Director of Admissions from the University of Florida present on going beyond the published data that universities share and encouraging students and families to ask themselves, do your values align with the data points independent groups are utilizing to assess rankings? We learned about HBCUs and how to empower students to research why these schools might be amazing opportunities for our students. We learned how three similar schools to Benjamin achieve “Programs that Pop: Connecting the dots between school culture and effective programming.” We already tweaked one of the ideas and Mrs. Leshin incorporated it into her lesson plan for the 10th grade English class visits on Monday, April 8th. We also attended a session on incorporating AI into the college essay writing process. 

Mrs. Goldberg partnered with three admission officers: Tara Nelan from Hampden-Sydney College, David Le from American University, and Carol Conchar from George Washington University to present a session titled: Portfolios & Pre-screenings & Auditions: Support & Celebrating Performing & Visual Arts Students. This session included practical information but also went beyond the details of the highly nuanced area of artistic admissions to empower counselors to support this specialized group of students by leaning into the skills counselors already possess. 

One of the last events we attended was a networking college fair and this gave us the opportunity to connect with so many of the representatives that visit The Benjamin School each fall. We returned to school with renewed energy, having cultivated meaningful connections, and with a plethora of ideas to implement.