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2007-2008 School Year Success Stories

High School: Drury High School
College: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Adviser: Denise Wiseman
Student: Brett

Brett was the first student who came into my office on his own accord; apparently my cohort of students had been talking about me. It was roughly ten minutes into the lunch period when I first saw him bouncing into the Guidance Office headed straight for my door. "Miss Wiseman" he queried expectantly. "Yessssssssss." I welcomed him to a chair and he began: "You know Ronin? Well, he told me that you've helped him out a lot, so I was wondering if you could help me get into college." I chuckled a bit at his request because students always came to me demanding the same result: Get me into college. Forget the past three years of work they had completed and the standardized tests for which they had studied. Their respective melodrama always led them to believe that I had the magic touch, the magical essay waiting for them, or the ability to sway an admissions decision.

As we began to speak about his past few years at Drury High School, Brett explained to me that he just knew that his only route was a two-year institution since he had performed at an average level in his math classes and on the SAT. His transcript clearly showed that while he did struggle his freshman and sophomore years, his grades had improved tremendously since then and he certainly seemed willing to put in extra work. He was extremely weary of the college application process, being a first-generation student to a working class, single mother, but after speaking with him over the course of a few visits and completing the necessary applications for the nearby Community College, I began to discuss with him the possibility of looking at some four-year institutions. I explained to him the sliding scale used in admissions offices for state colleges such as nearby , by which he had lived for most of his life and had dreamed of attending, but he still didn't believe he would meet their standards or that he could ever craft an essay worthy of their eyes.

As we reviewed his college preparatory course load and discussed his goal of becoming a psychologist, I realized that his fear was not of the application process, but instead it was of being rejected. It took some time and a personal anecdote about my journey to Tufts, but Brett soon realized that he would never know if he could reach his full potential unless he tried.

Brett has since become a permanent figure in my office, coming to me for help in assuring that all his materials for LA are in order as he prepares to enter this coming fall. He has matured into a young man who believes in his abilities and understands what steps he will have to take in order to combat his self-proclaimed "math idiocy." Further, we have created a financial plan to ensure that bursar bills will not be in the forefront of his worries for the next four years. Although he will jokingly tell you that I got him into college, he knows that it is his own hard work that got him to where he is.

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