50 for 50: Christopher Miller

Christopher Miller

Co-Director of College Counseling

Glenelg Country School (MD)

 

How long have you been in your current position at Glenelg Country School? How long have you been in college counseling?

 

This is my third year at Glenelg Country School and my eleventh year as a college counselor.  I spent my first three years after graduating from college working in admissions.

 

How did you get started in college counseling/admissions?

 

My career in college admissions and counseling actually started with a simple favor for a friend.  When I began my first semester as a student at Oberlin, I already had a close relationship with one of the admission officers because she and her husband worked at my high school for a few years and one day she asked me if I was free to help her with an evening “phone-a-thon,” calling prospective students and answering their questions about Oberlin.  It sounded like it would be fun (and it was!).  From that point on, the rest pretty much fell in line.  I helped coordinate special campus visits programs and events for the next few years and I eventually worked as an intern in the office.  I even had the chance to represent Oberlin at a few NACAC fairs.  It felt natural to try out the college admission profession full-time after graduation.   Still, there was a part of me that wanted to teach and work in a high school, and I knew that I would make that transition at some point.  So after working in admissions for a few years, I moved over to counseling.

 

What's your favorite admissions/counseling memory?

 

This is a really tough question because there are so many “favorites.”  However, here is a moment that stands out from two years ago.  After counseling so many students and attending so many graduation parties year after year, I finally got the chance to invite a few former students to my graduation party when I finished graduate school.  This was the first time that they and their parents had the chance to meet my parents and extended family.  It was great for me to see these two worlds come together (because most of my family lives in NJ and they don’t visit that much) and it was a lot of fun.  What caught me completely by surprise, though, was how complimentary and effusive my students and their parents were to my parents regarding the impression I made on them while they were in high school and how my counseling made a difference for them.  This profession is not one where you seek tons of gratitude, nor should you expect it, but when you do get it, it can mean a lot more than you can fully explain.

 

What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue leadership in PCACAC and/or NACAC?

 

Think about all of the advice that you give to students regarding leadership and start following some of it!  It doesn’t matter where you start or what you get involved in, you just need to be sincere about wanting to make a difference and start doing it.  Talk to people, ask lots of questions, and listen.  There are plenty of great people doing lots of great work.  They share the same interests you do and they want to work with you.

 

If not working in admissions/college counseling, what else could you see yourself pursuing? 

 

This is the easiest question on here: Acting!  I would love to be on stage or on camera working with other artists.  I acted in high school and I should have done more of it in college.  I would love to come back to it if I get the chance.

 

What's one thing that most people don't know about you?

 

 I was one of the founding members of a step team in high school.  Our mentors were all members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and it led me toward joining the fraternity.

 

 What's a current trend or future issue you're passionate about right now? And why?

 

I am not sure if I can use the word “passionate” yet but my interest in this topic continues to grow.  Every so often, I see investigative news reports or documentaries that highlight disparities between the expectations of college athletes in their respective sports and in their academic coursework.  I find it particularly troublesome when some of the colleges and universities mentioned in these reports are schools we regard for having high academic standards and offering quality learning environments for all of its students.  In short, these athletes are being admitted to college to get an education and contribute to the social fervor of the greater community, but they are not graduating at high rates nor getting the academic, leadership, or career guidance necessary for them to successful in life after college.  These stories tend to hit close to home because many of the students at the center of these stories are young men of color, particularly African-American men, which are most often associated with recruitment for the biggest revenue-generating sports, such as basketball and football.  As an African-American male, I understand the history and the barriers that exist for my population to earn a college education (especially at low-cost to the family) and I think it is fantastic that opportunities like college athletics exist to afford these students the chance at higher education.  But I also think that we can do better as counselors and higher education administrators to make the recruitment of college athletes more transparent and legitimate by truly putting the student first and by giving them quality academic support and career advising so that their retention and graduation rates increase.

 

 

*** To Celebrate Potomac Chesapeake's 50th Conference Anniversary, we're highlighting some of our current members. Each week until the conference at The Homestead in Spring 2015, a new member will be posted. Interested in participating? Email Aundra Weissert at aweissert2@washcoll.edu to get started.***