Bring Your Blog to Work, Vol. 1

My career has taken me from one side of the desk to the other, and back again.  I started out as a public high school counselor and over eight years, worked at three public high schools.  One in a high-powered Boston suburb, one with a hugely diverse population in Portland, Maine, and the third in a very conservative community just a few more miles down the road.  Some of the students I worked with were bound for the Ivy League and some were having babies.  My days were totally unpredictable and no day was like the one before it. While I loved the work, in 2004 I was ready for a change and had the terrific opportunity to join the admissions office at Bates. The professional growth was incredibly valuable, the travel was fun, and I worked with some wonderful people. But after being the student advocate for so long, it was tough to be part of the team sending out rejection letters.  And I missed working with teenagers.  After six years at Bates, it was time to get back into a high school and make the move to the international school scene.  

Now, the end of the first quarter is fast approaching at the American Embassy School.  I have spent the majority of my time working with new students (nearly 25% turnover each year) and seniors, but also a fair number of hours allotted to the rest of my charges, schedule changes, and parent meetings.  While I am utilizing my experience in college admissions every day, there is still a steep learning curve. My liberal arts background is battling the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma regulations and the non-US belief that high school juniors should be decided about their college majors.  The intense students are more competitive and sleep deprived than any I've ever worked with before.  The rest of my students are delightful. All have an interesting story of how they came to live in India and probably as many frequent-flyer miles as the CEO of any Fortune 500 company.

My walk to work takes less than three minutes.  Jonah and I head out together around 7:40am and return home by 5:00.  Some days, I come home for lunch or pick up a kid from school.  It's really a great gig.

Asa and I went out to take some photos of the commute.  Here we are on approach to the high school:

Heading into the high school office:

 

 View out my office window, onto the elementary school field and playground beyond the trees:

Twice a week, school gardeners stop by to refresh this:

And on our way home, we ran into our four-legged neighbor Sally, sporting a tennis ball fuzz bindi: