We have arrived in Columbus, Ohio for NACAC 2016!

     Today was filled with airports and travel.  We landed in Ohio around 4:30 PM, CST and took a cab to our hotel which is adjacent to the Columbus Convention Center in a bustling, downtown metroplex. Tonight, Dr. Vargas-Lew and I had the distinct pleasure of dining at Mitchell's Steakhouse on 3rd Street, courtesy of NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghi.  Here is a video which highlights NYU Abu Dhabi.
     The networks and connections made at our table tonight were hands down, amazing.  I was seated next to Jonathan Williams, Associate Dean and Director of Admissions.  He talked a lot about the NYU campus and asked us our thoughts on the Coalition for Access and Affordability Application. We all had a lot to say about this new platform for students to apply to college and the opportunity that this application may provide students and compared it to the Common Application.  Then, we talked about the Abu Dhabi and Shanghi campuses and he talked about counselor visits.  For NYU Abu Dhabi, flight is covered by the university and it is about 14 hours out of NYC, based on conversations of some of the other high school counselors at the table, who have already been on the trip.  I gave Jonathan my card, as he stated that he would connect with me when the opportunity for counselor tours happen again, so that our counselors may take the tour to see NYU Abu Dhabi, which I think would be amazing!
     Seated at my table were two other interesting fellows, Sanjay from inner city Washington DC and Gunnar from a boarding school in Hudson, OH.  I learned a whole lot from the dynamics of both of these folks, as the student populations they serve were unsimilar.
     Sanjay's school does a lot of work on college fit and having his kids find the colleges based on where they fall percentage wise in relation to college admit profiles and not necessarily Top 9.  In fact, he talked about eliminating the "safety, reach and target"  language.  He also had some great ideas about incorporating the student's families into the college selection process.  He talked about innovative ideas to help his first generation population such as a "letting go"  college drop off simulation weekend for family and talking to college reps about graduation rates in relation to their specific school and not what the national graduation numbers say.  When I asked Gunnar from the boarding school, about how he gets his population of students to apply to colleges, he quoted a famous NACAC past president. Frank Sachs' philosophy that “college is a match to be made, not a prize to be won.” 
     He also talked about how his boarding school recently moved away from offering AP courses and how they allow teachers to teach and if they'd like to administer the AP test at the end of the course, they can. He also shared TONS of college tours offered for counselors that are FREE including paid flights such as: Decemberfest and Centerpoint college tours which are well known and other counselors at the table seemed to highly agree!  

From L-R:  Gunnar, Sanjay, Patrick and me at the NYU event at Mitchell's in Columbus. 

     Overall it was a really great night. We ended the night talking to Daniela Segrove, the South region's rep for NYU Abu Dhabi.  She talked to us about an undocumented high achieving student with every obstacle in front of her, who broke the barrier to attend college and is now at NYU Abu Dhabi.  She will be sending us a video to share that she uses for counselor and student recruiting purposes. I will look at that and share on the SAISD website.
     I must mention that Linda was whisked away the first part of supper to a different event at a different restaurant in Columbus where she had a personal meet and greet with David Coleman, President of the College Board.  She was able to give him an earful on the topics that are pertinent to to the population we serve.  She appreciated his transparency and sincerity and appreciation for counselors and staff who are working daily with students.  They talked about college waivers, PSAT, Khan Academy linking and reports and a whole lot of other great College Board topics.

Dr. Vargas-Lew with College Board President Coleman and former Dean of Undergrad Admissions at Stanford University turned Chief of Membership, Governance and Global Higher Education with the College Board, Jim Montoya

We have had a great start to the conference and are looking forward to Day Two!