The Fat Lady

Today I went to the regional finalists auditions for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It was rather inspiring to see these young, talented people so clearly full of hopes and dreams. It was also, honestly, a bit intimidating. How they put themselves out there for everyone else to judge is beyond me. It’s very raw, intimate and personal, even on a stage in front of an auditorium full of amateur judges—and three professional judges.

Each candidate came with a repertoire of five arias. The first one they sang was of their own choosing, presumably the one with the most difficulty while still showcasing their strongest talents. For the second number, the three judges elected what they wanted to hear of the remaining four choices, often asking for only a certain section of the piece. Although they know not what they will be asked to sing, these artists determine their own repertoire so presumably they’re comfortable with any of the judges’ choices.

Their talent, their career ambition and their dream are all focused with laser-like precision: I want to be a mezzo-soprano at the Met! It struck me as the antithesis of what we ask of our applicants. I bet a lot of those candidates on the stage today belting out Puccini or Mozart couldn’t begin to work their way through a high school chemistry lab or a textbook for advanced functions. But they don’t need to; that’s not where their laser is focused.

But we expect that. We expect our applicants to be across-the-board capable and strong. We don’t forgive a failing grade in one subject as long as they have laser-like focus and success in another subject. We want strong students across the curriculum and they better also come with a special talent or passion or skill because just being smart isn’t good enough. If you can’t make a team, cut the auditions for drama, or write for the newspaper, you may find yourself doing the doggy paddle in the wait pool. Good grades in all subjects isn’t enough for your local admissions committee. What else you got to offer?

When is it okay to pursue one thing at the expense of all the others? I don’t know. It’s not even university, is it? The first year or two of university is filled with required 101 this and 101 that. We’re still being stretched and not yet allowed to focus. I guess it really comes at graduate school when you can finally hone in on that MBA or M.Ed. or counseling degree. But why is that finally deemed the appropriate time?

All I can guess is that the talent and passion and vulnerability I saw today would most likely not have been possible if those young people were not allowed their passion and their laser-like focus. You don’t get that talented and you don’t get to be a finalist for the Met when you’re trying to be equally good at everything.

But why don’t we nurture that? Instead, we just deny admission to that.

Welcome, Heather!

So Heather Hoerle at NAIS is our new leader of SSATB. Congratulations to the search committee. None of these volunteers imagined the firestorm of this fall when they kindly agreed to serve on the board of our professional organization. They have all put in more hours than they ever planned or desired. No good deed goes unpunished, right?

I imagine this will be like taking the cork off the bottle that holds hostage the genie. Or I hope it is. Heather has been the lone voice crying in the admissions wilderness at NAIS, an organization that gives little regard to our industry or the work we do. (Do you know, for example, that in its training for new heads, NAIS provides no time for admissions but two days for development??)

It is a challenging time in our business. Some smaller schools are closing due to decreasing enrolments and medium-sized schools are scrambling, with immeasurable pressure on the admissions office but little additional resources or manpower to deliver. Meanwhile, we are top-heavy with a number of senior members of our fraternity recently retired, announcing retirement this year, or contemplating retirement. And/or wishing the balance in their TIAA-CREF accounts would have let them retired when they had planned.

Demands for financial aid are growing, technology makes us feel like the hamster running on the wheel to nowhere, and everyone at our school looks to us to save the financial day. In my two decades in admissions there has never been a greater need for national leadership and voice for our work and our people. Let us hope that unshackled from NAIS that Heather can be just that beacon.

Welcome, Heather. We have been waiting for you.

Ahhh...Vacation!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you got to enjoy some time away, if not geographically then at least from your office, desk, co-workers, in-box, email account, headmaster, etc. I’m writing to share a lesson I’ve already learned on my first day back in the office.

What I did this Christmas break that I’ve probably never done before in my career is truly and earnestly stepped away from work, mentally and physically. When in Canada I did not stop by the office and did not check my mail. I put an away message on my email and was (relatively) disciplined about ignoring it. And even when I did check it, I let about 99% of the messages go unanswered until last night or this morning.

So, into the office I strolled this morning with a certain cloud of dread hanging over my head. There are two immediate international trips to finalize, another the first week in February, and a big luncheon with the headmaster in mid-February to execute. And then there is the meeting with the chairman of the Board next Monday. GASP! What was I thinking doing nothing about all of these things for the last ten days??!!

So after saying hi to everyone, meeting briefly with the headmaster and catching up with my staff, I sat down to desk and email with a very specific “to do” list for the day. There were things that I was going to do today, come hell or high water, no matter how late I stayed.

Wasn’t there a previous marketing campaign of the U.S. Army that went something like, “We do more by 10am than you do all day”? Well, today I’m an army of one. What I set aside the day to hopefully accomplish I had done by lunchtime. This is work I had started and stopped before break with little to show for my efforts.

Amazing what some time away—mentally if not physically—can do to clear out the cobwebs, re-charge the batteries, and focus the mind. The world didn’t end because I ignored email for a week and the mountain of mail awaiting my arrival was hardly arduous. It’s a good lesson learned. I bet I got more accomplished this morning than I probably would have if I’d tried working halfheartedly on it over break.

Me: an army of one! Well, for today at least.