Success Stories
MADISON
Our student, Madison (not her real name!), had years of experience in band β but she wanted to be a museum curator. How does a drum major demonstrate interest in museum curating? High schools don't offer these courses!
We helped her think about how she could transition from music to museums. The skills she'd developed in band and other musical activities were transferrable; she just needed some help demonstrating that. Leadership, working in and for a community, and determination all served her well in band β and would serve her equally well in curation.
We helped her find online courses to take (and certificates to earn) from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, and the Sorbonne in Paris. We also helped her create a website that detailed current and upcoming shows and events at her local museums and cultural societies. She also shadowed her county's Director of Cultural Affairs.
With targeted enrichment courses, essays highlighting her love of museums and learning, and an activity list that demonstrated her leadership and community involvement, Madison presented a compelling case for the direction she wanted to go. This compelling case allowed her to do better than her numbers might've suggested β leapfrogging over applicants with better scores and GPAs.
She was accepted at all but one of the colleges she applied to, schools that were absolute reaches for her. Colleges found her interesting, and they offered her not just a place on campus but money to get there. Madison received more than one personalized note from admissions counselors and directors of honors programs. She ended up selecting an out-of-state school that offered her significant merit β but more importantly, they had a great museum curatorship program and allowed her to play in the marching band.
She now has an internship at one of the museums where she took an online course, and she's excited to see where she'll ultimately land.
DAVID
David (not his real name!) played football. He was a top player in his small high school β but he wasn't recruitable at the college level. He loved the game, though, and he also loved the idea of going into business. We considered his interest in exercise and nutrition, his love of the game, and his desire to keep football in his life in some way.
We helped him find courses in sports analytics and statistics, both of which tied together the ideas of sports and business. He developed a website exploring the business of sports: the financial considerations, the importance of running backs, and how salary caps and recruiting impact any particular team.
As he was thinking about these issues, he was exploring and identifying his real interests. The research he did to support a website served as a proof of concept β after all, how could he know what sort of "business + sports" career he wanted coming straight out of high school?
David did some career exploration with us, which helped him decide what sort of "business + sports" career he wanted. He decided that sports management was a viable career direction. After considering the schools that could get him there, David had one very specific school he wanted to attend β a D1 school that had the sports management program he thought would serve him well.
It was his dream school, and while we often counsel against "dream schools," David got into his. He's managing one of his school's club teams, and he's hoping to parlay that experience into a spot helping to manage one of the school's D1 teams.
