Today, I’m excited to welcome Shantá Lindo to Collegewise as the director of our soon-to-be-opening office in Syosset, Long Island.
Who is Shantá?
Since graduating from Middlebury College in 2010 (where she attended on a full tuition scholarship from the Posse Foundation), Shantá has been working as an assistant director of admissions in Middlebury’s admissions office—an office that evaluates approximately 9,000 applications for 700 spots in the freshman class every year. She managed their Senior Admissions Fellowship Program that recruited and trained Middlebury seniors to deliver information sessions for prospective students. She also developed and ran an overnight program for prospective students from multi-cultural backgrounds.
Shantá has been living in the admissions world for the last three years; now she’s ready to bring what she's learned and help students on the other side of the admissions desk.
Why is the fit so good?
Throughout each of our interviews, Shantá kept coming back to a teaching theme that resonated with me. She wants to share what she’s learned—with students, parents and counselors. She wants to make a complicated process a lot more accessible to people by breaking it down and explaining it clearly. She’s as comfortable presenting to large groups as she is talking with students and parents one-on-one. That’s exactly the kind of teacher and guide that makes a great Collegewise counselor.
But Shantá was also excited about the business side of this job. She told me that she wanted the opportunity to be entrepreneurial and run a business. She wants to work someplace where she can say, “I might have a better way,” and get the green light to try it. It’s easy to say that you’re interested in a job; but it works a lot better when you find a job opening that fits what you’re looking for, not unlike the way that students always have better answers to the “Why this college?” questions when they’re applying to colleges that fit them in the first place.
Shantá is an overachiever, she’s passionate about her work, and she appears to be a great sport. When I completely butchered her name during our first interview (it’s pronounced “Shaun-TAY,)” she just said, “No problem—it’s a conversation starter!”
Ready to get started
Shantá is wrapping up her final season at Middlebury and moving to New York later this month. She’ll join me and our new trainees in Boston the week of June 10th for training, then head back to Long Island to officially launch our Syosset office. We’re really excited to work with her and are so happy she’s joining us.