President’s Update: Happy 2011!

I love this time of year!! I just read an application essay that brought me to tears, and an incredibly well-crafted recommendation that made me laugh out loud. (The dog raised his eyebrow in response.) For those of us lucky enough to be involved in college admissions (on the college side), we are racing to meet our reading deadlines, while responding to nervous applicants who want to make sure their application is complete and, on second thought, would like to add an admissions interview to their file. We take a deep breath, open up our calendars and make room for another hour spent at Starbucks (where thankfully my favorite barista, who I sometimes see more than my family, greets me with a smile)!

The days are frenetic, the atmosphere is one of great anticipation and more than anything else, I feel incredibly blessed:

• Blessed to be the “keeper” of so many high school seniors’ hopes and stories.

• Blessed to be able to revel in the eloquence of high school teachers and counselors who write to tell us about their remarkable students.

• Blessed to be surrounded by colleagues who are passionate about their work with students – at Lawrence, in their communities, and in the nation’s capital!

• Blessed to have the opportunity to learn something new every day (who knew that in Bolivia the word for “poor” has an entirely different meaning than here in the U.S.: more devastating, but hospitable – so explained a prospective student I met last week).

• And blessed to NOT be the main event in this – our second edition of the new IACAC online newsletter, because so many others doing good work on our association’s behalf have offered to update you on the work of their committee.

You will find fabulous news about great work being done by various IACAC Committees: Admission Practices, Ad Hoc Committee on Board Structure, Media Communications – to name a few – in this newsletter. I could give you more information about these different committees, but instead I encourage you to spend a few minutes hearing from the IACAC individuals focusing their attention on these various projects – they are the experts. Enjoy!!!!

Carin Smith
IACAC President