By Amelia Wonder
For Ms. Hua, the start of the school year is all about College Applications. They can be daunting. They are time-consuming on top of other school work and extracurriculars that seniors are juggling.
Fortunately for our seniors, there are college counselors like Ms. Hua to help them keep the balls in the air. I sat down with Ms. Hua in her office in the college counseling suite. While many embarked on thrilling vacations or simply relaxed at home over the summer, Lovett’s college counseling department was hard at work making improvements for the new school year.
“We are 12-month employees,” she said, “so we actually held a lot of application workshops, writing workshops, and invited a bunch of admissions representatives on campus throughout the summer.”.
Lovett actually hosted 6 different events specifically centered around college admissions during the break, “so it was a busy one.”
When she did get some time off, she was primarily focused on her daughter, who celebrated her second birthday over the summer. Given her age, it “was mostly adults but still very fun for her,” she gushed. They also managed to squeeze in a trip to Disney World, making great memories in the “happiest place on Earth.”
Now that the year has started, she’s actually very excited to be here. “I think the beginning of school historically has always been my favorite time of year at Lovett,” she said. “We pour so much energy into the excitement of starting anew.”
She also has a senior advisory, so she is “excited to watch them step into a new leadership role in the school.”
This is Ms. Hua’s twelfth year at Lovett. She has always been in the college counseling office. She previously worked in college admissions, which, she said, is true for most of her colleagues.
She explained that her career was something she “fell into,” as in she never had roles as “a tour guide” in college, for example. She actually heard about a job opening at Lovett from a friend, but didn’t pursue a job here for another seven years..
And if she wasn’t a college counselor? She said she might be a yogi, pursuing the art of crystals, meditation, etc, which I found to be very interesting.
Being a sophomore as well as a new student, I wasn’t entirely clear on how college counseling sessions would typically go. She told me that the 10th grade year is when a college counselor would be assigned to a student and is typically “aligned with the course registration process” so that you can have someone to lean on with any questions about your four-year plan.”
According to Ms. Hua, building a relationship with a student is the most important goal for meetings aside from the typical college questions.
No matter how stressful things seem during the college application process, she advises all of us to “take it slow” and “don’t forget to breathe.” Maybe she’s kind of a yogi after all.
