Welcome to College Talk For Moms
I am so glad you are here!
I know the traditional “about me” pages
are more of a place to let readers know about your accomplishments and accolades as a way to wow your audience, but we’re a bit different here!
Here’s for you to truly get to know how College Talk For Moms came about.
While my academic achievements include a Master of Social Work (MSW) from UPenn, a Master of Education at Harvard (yup, Harvard), my Certificate in College Counseling from UC Irvine, and countless hours of professional development and topics ranging from adolescent development to parent coaching, as well as how thankful I am for my professional experiences, traveling for my national sorority to talk to young women across the country, working at Bentley University in the office of Student Affairs, and of course the last 20 years as an independent college admissions specialist make me uniquely qualified to understand this process from many different angles…
...Yet, ultimately, it is the role of “mom” to three of my own children, along with being a “bonus” mom to “my village’s” children, that provide me with a special and unique perspective on college-bound students and their parents, that is what I’d like to showcase here at College Talk for Moms.
As a college advisor to my students and my children
I have witnessed and advised thousands of parents whose children were applying to college. In my spare time, I have read hundreds of college-related books and articles, walked hundreds of miles listening to various podcasts, and journaled and blogged about the college search, application, and admissions process.
I slowly crafted and honed my approach to managing the chaos, reducing the stress, and actually enjoying the college search, application, and admissions process.
Now I want to share how you can do so too.
Through blogs, emails, newsletters, and speaking engagements, I will share how I:
- Meet students where they are, understanding when and how they will best “hear” the information we need to discuss AND working with their level of accountability (learning whether they are self-studiers or not)
- Embrace how they approach this process and give them tools to help manage the chaos. (Even if their approach is different than mine!)
- Keep the whole family in mind, taking a family systems approach - remembering we’re all the team, but for this game, the child is the captain.
- Channel my enthusiasm to guide students to uncover answers they may not have ever explored on their own without taking over the process.
- Embrace failure and model growth from the lessons learned.
- Safely ask the hard questions (thank you, MSW, for that!)
- Give students space and autonomy to figure things out for themselves.
- Understand when my students (and children) just need me to listen and not offer advice.
MOST of all…
Manage my own disappointments, frustrations, and sadness.
AND
Learn to celebrate the process, not the outcome.
I can’t wait to start sharing my experience, knowledge, and insights with you!
Make sure to sign up for our mailing list to stay in the know!
Grab the Official Guide to Talking About College with Your Teenager
This guide is full of tips and the approach I believe we ALL need when it comes to talking about college as a family. Trust me, when I say I know because I’ve been right where you are, it comes straight from my experiences!