News Detail
REimagination in Action
When Jason Locke joined Ransom Everglades as Executive Director of College Counseling last summer, the school’s college counseling office occupied about half of the second floor of Cameron Hall. Not even a full year later, after a summer of planning, a fall of outreach and a winter of appointments, RE’s college counseling office has expanded to fill the entire floor. The space is brimming with college counselors – and optimism. RE attracted seven new college counselors and an essay writing specialist in a wave of hiring announced in mid-January. All began work this spring.
Locke dubbed the transformation of the school’s college counseling office the REimagination. After 23 years working in admission and enrollment management at Cornell University, Locke understood the increasingly competitive national landscape. He had a front-row seat in Ithaca, N.Y., as applications soared, consideration of standardized test scores waned, and university priorities shifted.
Locke believed he could best address the challenges by bringing to RE a team of counselors who shared his understanding of the college admission process. He would supplement with counselors possessing a deep knowledge of RE’s academic and co-curricular programs, and the finishing touch would be adding expertise in essay writing. That led him on a cross-country search that proved as successful as it was wide.
RE’s January announcement made more than a few jaws drop.
Ransom Everglades landed four new associate directors of college counseling: Francisco Herrera, came from the admission offices of Brown University and Dartmouth College; Kate Fetterman, Kenyon College; China Hutchins, Washington University, St. Louis; and Marty Elkins, the former Director of College Counseling at Ransom Everglades. The school also brought in Ann Parks, a former colleague of Locke at Cornell as the office’s director of communications; and Christina Iglesias, who taught writing at Columbia University as an essay-writing specialist. The icing on the cake: Brandon King, the Dean of the 11th Grade, and Marlen Nuñez de Varela, a STEM Department faculty member, joined the team as faculty college counselors.
Fetterman, Parks and Elkins are working remotely with occasional visits to campus. The others joined Locke, Director of College Counseling Patrick Tassoni, Senior Associate Director Claudia Jolivert and Coordinator of Student-Athlete College Recruitment Roger Caron on the second floor of Cameron Hall.
“One of our most important roles is identifying those unique experiences and events that tell a story – in essence, finding the headline for each RE student.”
Jason Locke, Executive Director of College Counseling
“With the new additions, our college counseling office will become an even more vibrant campus center for college counseling, application resources and individualized attention,” Interim Head of School Rachel Rodriguez said in her announcement to the RE community. “We will be dramatically reducing our student-to-counselor ratio and thereby providing more one-on-one college counseling and allowing us the time to develop each student’s unique story.”
Though a stellar academic foundation remains the core of a strong application, the best applications are no longer a recitation of superior accomplishments. Students who make a successful case for their candidacies find ways – as Locke frequently says – to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. They are, in a sense, able to write their own headlines (another Locke-ism).
“One of our most important roles,” Locke said, “is identifying those unique experiences and events that tell a story – in essence, finding the headline for each RE student.”
The story doesn’t end there. Locke and his team are professionalizing the office: improving resources, reaching out to families earlier, and adding opportunities to learn and connect. They are developing a timeline designed to integrate the college journey into the upper school academic experience in a way that is efficient, effective and engaging rather than stressful. They are teeing up a host of workshops – on essay-writing, portfolio-production, interview-preparation – that will help students in practical ways. Key parts of the process will be helping students and their families expand their universe of potential colleges and universities while building strong student-counselor relationships. The hope is to ensure that students land at colleges and universities that are right for them.
The REimagination is roaring.
“We are taking a bold step in the reimagining of the college counseling office,” Locke said, “one that promises to elevate RE students through a more personalized and strategic college counseling experience.”
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.