YZ: Where did you grow up? Where did you go to college?

Ms. A: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and often you’ll see pictures of Brooklyn behind me. I’m very proud to be from Brooklyn, and I loved growing up there. I then went to Vassar College in upstate New York. 

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YZ: Do you have any hobbies? 

Ms. A: I would say travel. I just love to get out and experience other cultures, visit other places, and be exposed to different kinds of foods and activities. I also like hiking. I’ve never really played a sport in my entire life, but I do like to watch basketball and tennis. However, my favorite hobby would be hanging out with my children and going outdoors with them. 

 

YZ: Did you always want to become a guidance counselor?

Ms. A: I sort of fell into this work, in some regard. I was a Film Studies major in college, and I thought that would be my path. So, after I graduated, I did the starving artist thing, working on artistic projects that were being done in New York. Then, when I was visiting my alma mater, Vassar, I was approached about working in admissions. I said to myself, “Okay, I can do this for a year.” I was going to audit some of the classes with the film professors. After a while, I realized that I loved admissions. I ended up staying there for three years and then moved to New York City and worked in admissions at Columbia University. While working at Columbia University, I realized what I liked the most was interacting with students and getting to know them. In admissions, you get to do that too, but only to a certain extent, which is why I moved to college counseling, and I have been doing that since 2000.

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YZ: What is something no Avenues student knows about you?

Ms. A: It's not that fascinating, but I think I’ve been to thirty-five of the fifty states. The reason is that, when you’re in admissions, you travel a lot for conferences and such. So, because of that, I’ve been to many, many states. And every place is different! I remember visiting Iowa and seeing how spaced out everything was and how much distance there was between towns and even between houses. Growing up in New York City, everyone is in such close proximity and you rub elbows with people all day. I think you also get a different appreciation when you get to see the different ways people live: how there isn’t one way to live your life, whether you’re in a city or in a small town. It was a real gift.

 

YZ: What advice would you give to kids leaving high school and entering the real world in the near future?

Ms. A: I always encourage students to think carefully about all the options. Every student grows up having colleges near them or that they’ve heard of. This causes them to be predisposed to thinking about certain schools or certain types of schools, but I always encourage students to be open to all possibilities, to research schools broadly and then narrow their choices. Also, you want to have no regrets in this process. Ultimately, many students focus on whether a college will accept them or how hard a college may be to get into. What they need to realize is that they are choosing the college just as much as the college is choosing them. So, they should take the time to think about what community best suits them and not what the name of the college is. This community should be a place where they are going to grow, prosper, succeed, and ultimately, expand their minds. 

 

YZ: After college, what do you think is an important step for students to take?

Ms. A: I think it depends on what they are interested in pursuing. Some of that preparation will happen toward the end of college, when they are thinking about whether they’re going to go to graduate school, enter the workforce, or volunteer for a cause. So, a good step after college would be to think about the long term. Everything is changing rapidly. All the reports are saying that the jobs your generation will be exposed to haven't even been created yet. Students need to be flexible and able to adapt to change. 

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YZ: What do you think is the importance of advocacy, such as the BLM movement, in getting rid of the racism in our society?

Ms. A: I feel like there are many layers to institutional

racism, and Black Lives Matter is only fighting one of those

layers. I think it’s so unfortunate that the movement has become so

politicized, because I think it started as a way to bring

attention to the inequities surrounding Black people,

particularly Black men, losing their lives at the hands of

the police. I have a husband who is a Black man and two

sons who are beautiful Black boys; and because of this,

the message really hits home for me. So, I think that

awareness is powerful because, before this

movement, these things happened in isolation. You see

separate cases of such racism, but the Black Lives Matter

movement brought all these cases together to create a

collective awareness that the system is flawed

and unjust. That awareness causes people

to say that’s not okay and then to bring about change.

 

YZ: How does racism affect our education system?

Ms. A: Education is one of the most important systems affected by institutionalized racism. In admissions, you get a clear lens, or a clearer lens, on how inequities in education show up in terms of access and opportunities for students in the amount of support they are given. I’ve worked in independent schools, where the ratio of students to counselors has been thirty to one. Then you think about the public schools, where the ratio is a thousand to one. So, while some kids get to talk to their counselor and plan for their future once a year, others get to do so whenever they want. It’s these inequities that are affected by institutionalized racism and that need to be corrected as soon as possible. It’s these inequities that give more opportunities to a portion of the population while the others have to work twice as hard to get to the same place. However, I am hopeful for a change because of the number of politicians who are coming out and noticing these flaws and trying to do something about them. 

 

YZ: Have you had a personal experience with racism?

Ms. A: Definitely. I think it starts as early as childhood. I remember when I was young, riding a bike in my neighborhood, which was near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and some other kids said the n-word to me. I was probably eleven years old. That was one of the most vivid memories I had as a child, but there have been other instances as an adult. I remember looking at an apartment in Manhattan near Columbia University, and everything was fine on the phone with the real estate agent; but when we met in person, it was a different story. It was pretty clear that they were no longer interested in renting to me, and the only difference was that they had seen me. Those are two of the most obvious experiences, but then there have been other times like when I’m shopping and people start folding things next to me. It’s a lot of those subtle occurrences where you aren’t one hundred percent sure something wrong is happening, but you have an inkling. Often, those things have to do with race.