It's time for Collegewise to take a bite out of the Big Apple, and we've just hired Jennifer Bridges to open our new office in New York City next month.
Who's Jennifer?
Jennifer (who goes by "Jenn," so I'll make the shift now) may be the first counselor we've ever hired to have experience in business, admissions and counseling. She has spent nearly eight years as a senior marketing associate at Higher Edge, a Princeton Review partner, working directly with enrollment managers and admissions directors to create marketing and advertising opportunities. That's the business side. She's also worked as an admissions counselor at Pace University and as an assistant director of admission at NYU. There's the admissions side. And she worked as a guidance counselor at a public school in North Carolina where she had a caseload of over 400 students. That's the counseling side.
Jenn is also an East Carolina University Pirate, where she got a bachelors in psychology and a masters in counseling. And in her spare time, she runs marathons and organizes fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A Princeton Review executive who knows her described Jenn to me as, "a real good egg with solid admissions chops." That's the kind of person we want to work with.
Why are Jenn and Collegewise a good fit?
New York City is a tough marketplace. There's a lot of competition. Students and parents have high expectations (as they should) when they entrust you with their education. But working hard to make customers happy while providing them with great guidance is something Jenn has been doing in all of her professional roles. She has a thick skin from her time in sales and marketing. She's got admissions savvy having read all those applications at Pace and NYU. And she's got those great, intangible counseling characteristics to know when one student needs encouragement while another might need tough love.
But what really set Jenn apart to me through our multiple interviews was how thoughtful she was about this position. She thought a lot about the market in New York City, the need for Collegewise, and how she might help us fill it. She also thought about her potential weaknesses and was comfortable acknowledging them (note to college and job applicants–we all have weaknesses. The most confident and capable people acknowledge theirs and find appropriate workarounds). And it was so apparent to me that Jenn didn't want a different job–she wanted this job. At every turn in our interview process, it was clear just how much time she'd spent reading our website and blog just to better understand our story and how she might fit into it. What Jenn did with her job search is exactly how students should approach their college search. Think about what you want, find the places that fit, and then communicate the match.
A New York state of mind
Jenn will be starting on June 3. Before then, she'll be diving into our pre-reading material for training (and she'll probably be logging as many running miles as I'll be logging in my car). We can't wait for her to join us and to bring Collegewise to the Big Apple.
Welcome, Jenn!