Counselor of the Month

Walter Pineda, Miami Country Day School

Walter Pineda is paying it forward. The Associate Director of College Counseling at Miami Country Day School in Miami, Florida, is a first-generation college graduate who attended college through the help of a counselor. When his family emigrated to the United States when he was four years old, “I was at a disadvantage from other students,” says Pineda. “How to apply, what does it take, how to pay for it, what you do to pay for it – it was foreign to all of us. It was the help of a counselor and resources I could find in the library that enabled me to apply.”

After graduating from University of Rochester, Pineda began his own career in college counseling at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Five years ago, he joined the staff at Miami Country Day, a diverse coeducational K through 12 school with approximately 975 students. The upper school has a strong college preparatory program that includes a commitment to community service — a culture that Pineda says he particularly appreciates.

As our Counselor of the Month, Pineda shares his advice for students and families here in our Q&A:

Ralph Figueroa, Albuquerque Academy

Ralph Figueroa is Director of College Guidance at Albuquerque Academy in New Mexico, an independent day school serving approximately 1,100 students in grades six through twelve. As Figueroa describes it, Albuquerque Academy provides its students with the high-powered college preparatory education of a selective school but with the less anxious attitude that typifies New Mexico. “It’s not high-pressure,” he says. “It’s not frenetic about the college process, kids are much more open to opportunities and options and there aren’t the huge family pressures you sometimes see other places.”

Elsa Heydenreich Clark, Immaculate Heart High School

Elsa Heydenreich Clark is the Director of College Counseling at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, California, a private Catholic college preparatory school for 555 young women in grades 9 through 12.  A graduate of the University of Southern California, Clark also holds a Master of Science in School Counseling from California State University, Los Angeles.

Since 1988, Clark has counseled juniors and seniors at Immaculate Heart, a unique institution with a storied history in Los Angeles. Founded in 1906, today the school ‘s student body includes many who are the daughters and granddaughters of graduates. It is also known for its diversity, reflecting the demographics of the Los Angeles population — two-thirds of those attending are students of color and many are first generation.

Tre Hadrick, Eisenhower Science and Technology Leadership Academy

This month's Counselor of the Month is actually not a high school college counselor. Ernest "Tre" Hadrick, III, is a guidance counselor at Eisenhower Science and Technology Leadership Academy, a middle school in Norristown, Pennsylvania. But one of his priorities is encouraging the students at Eisenhower -- many of whom would be the first in their families to attend college -- to strive for a college education.  Such students have a different timetable for the college application process -- they must be extremely purposeful as early as middle school. And in Tre Hadrick, they have a lot of what is needed to achieve the goal of a college education -- a mentor.

Charlene Aguilar, Lakeside School

Charlene Aguilar is Director of College Counseling at Lakeside School, an independent day school for grades 5 through 12 in Seattle, Washington.  A graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, Aguilar has worked both sides of the desk in college admissions during her career.  She began as an admissions counselor at her alma mater in Santa Barbara and served as Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission at Stanford and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Santa Clara University.  For ten years prior to coming to Lakeside, she was Director of College Counseling and Dean of the junior class at Castilleja School, an all-girls independent school in Palo Alto, California.

Chat Leonard, Metro Academic and Classical High School

Chat Leonard is Director of College Counseling at Metro Academic & Classical High School, a magnet school in the St. Louis University neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. She joined the administration of the school she calls "one of the gems of the St. Louis public school system" last year, after 13 years as a College Counselor at Clayton High School. Named one of the top 100 public schools in the nation by Newsweek magazine, Metro prides itself on its diverse ethnic and socioeconomic student body, where 50% of the 326 enrolled students are African American who live within the St. Louis city limits. In Ms. Leonard's first year as Director, 100% of her students went on to attend four-year colleges.

Patricia Cleary, Stuyvesant High School

Our first Counselor of the Month for 2012 is Patricia Cleary of Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. Stuyvesant, known as "Stuy," is a public high school with a twist. Run by the New York City Department of Education, it is one of seven specialized schools where admission is determined by a competitive exam. With an enrollment of 3,317 students, its mission is to develop students' talent in mathematics, science, and technology. Ms. Cleary's mission is to help guide approximately 800 Stuy students through the college application process every year.

Marcia Hunt, Pine Crest School

Marcia Hunt, Director of College Counseling at Florida's Pine Crest School, joins us this month to share her advice and insight on everything from her favorite resources for students and parents to some do's and don'ts that will help them get the most from the relationship with their counselors.

Hunt has been counseling students for twenty-nine years at Pine Crest School, which has about 2,600 students, pre-K through 12th grade, on campuses in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. A graduate of Syracuse University, where she was a political science major, she also holds a masters in counseling from Canisius College.

Married to an attorney and mother to two children, now grown, at one point, Ms. Hunt was also ranked in women's doubles tennis in Florida. We think she should write a book on time management!

James Conroy, New Trier Township High School, Winnetka, Illinois

Each month we feature a high school college counselor so you can get to know them -- their pet peeves and personal heroes -- but also so you can learn something from all that they know about applying to college.

This month we welcome James Conroy, Chair of the Post-High School Counseling Department at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois. A graduate of Michigan State University, where he received a B.S. in political science, Conroy also holds a Masters in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Born just outside Boston, Conroy later moved with his family to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, but a trace of the Bay State remains in his speech. Conroy and his staff counsel about 2,000 juniors and seniors each year at New Trier, where he has been a tireless -- and bracingly honest, we suspect -- advocate for college applicants for the last twenty-six years. 

Jayne Caflin Fonash, Academy of Science, Loudoun County, Virginia

Each month we feature a high school college counselor -- so you can get to know them and benefit from what they know about applying to college! In our Q & A, you'll find out about their pet peeves, real life heroes, and best advice for students and parents.

This month we welcome Jayne Caflin Fonash, Director of Guidance for the Academy of Science (AOS) in Loudoun County, Virginia, a Magnet program, whose mission is to integrate science, math, writing, and communication skills into research and experimentation.

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