511: Identity, Self-Care, and the Future of College Admission w/ NACAC CEO Angel Pérez
The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Release Date: 06/27/2024
The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Hi friends, and welcome back to the podcast. This one’s going to be short—and honestly, it’s an episode I didn’t think I was going to record. Why? Well, if you’ve been following along with Cassidy’s journey over the past year, you know we’ve covered a lot: from brainstorming her personal statement, to revising her supplements, to weighing her college acceptances. And when we wrapped Part 5, I figured we could leave it there. I thought it might be enough to know she had some great options. Silly me. You wrote in. You wanted to know: Where did she end up? So here we are: the final...
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info_outlineThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Hi friends, and welcome back to the podcast! Many of you have been following Cassidy, a current high school senior, as she navigates the college application process. We've walked through her brainstorming exercises, her personal statement writing, and her supplemental essays. And now, at long last, Cassidy has received her college acceptances. Rather than reading the email she sent me, I replied, "Hey, I know you got your acceptances. What if we do a live reveal on the podcast?" So, I genuinely don’t know yet where she's been accepted. Huge shoutout to Cassidy for agreeing to do this live!...
info_outlineIn today's episode, Ethan connects with Angel Pérez (CEO of the National Association of College Admission Counselors) to discuss identity, his personal journey with self-care, and where he sees the college admission profession heading.
On the episode, you’ll hear Angel and Ethan discuss:
- Angel’s brainstorming work for his own imagined college essay (yes, really)
- What Angel’s core values have to do with his self-care journey
- Strategies and techniques Angel (and Ethan) use for self care
- How does Angel see the US college landscape (and/or admissions process) changing in the next 5 years?
Fun fact: You’ll find the YouTube video version of this podcast on the College Essay Guy YouTube channel.
Check out last year’s conversation, CEG Podcast Episode 401: Self-care for counselors, leaders, and professionals in helping roles.
If you haven’t met Angel Pérez, he is CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). In this role, he represents more than 25,000 admission and counseling professionals worldwide committed to postsecondary access and success. Named by a Forbes article in 2019 as the most influential voice in college admissions, he strives to build an educational ecosystem that better represents today’s society. Prior to joining NACAC in July of 2020, Dr. Pérez served in secondary and higher education leadership positions across America, most recently, as Vice President for Enrollment and Student Success at Trinity College in Connecticut. He is an advocate for counselors everywhere, an important ally in the work of increasing access to higher education, and I’m so lucky to call him my friend…
Hope you enjoy this episode.
Play-by-Play
- 2:43 - Introductions and welcome
- 4:15 - Values Exercise
- 9:13 - Social Identities Exercise
- 11:47 - What life experiences have influenced Angel’s identities?
- 19:58 - How do Angel’s core values connect to identity?
- 22:46 - How has self-care for Angel and Ethan evolved since their conversation last year?
- 27:06 - What are Angel and Ethan still working on for self-care?
- 33:39 - Accountability, pausing, and intention in self-care
- 39:24 - How does Angel see the US college landscape (and/or admissions process) changing in the next 5 years?
- 44:14 - How has the ban on race-conscious admission impacted students?
- 46:07 - Advice for students
- 48:20 - Is college still worth the cost?
- 50:56 - Advice for counselors and admission professionals
- 53:23 - Closing thoughts
Resources
- YouTube video version of this episode (511)
- Values Exercise
- Social Identities Exercise
- Counting Up vs. Counting Down by Duncan Sabien
- 30-Day Phone Breakup Course (Catherine Price)
- Rocket Fuel by Mark C. Winters, Gino Wickman
- CEG Podcast Episode 401: Self-care for counselors, leaders, and professionals in helping roles
- CEG Podcast Episode 406: Why You Don’t Have to Write about Trauma in Your College Essay to Stand Out—and What You Can Do Instead