ALP: The Admissions Leadership Podcast

James Miller, Assistant Vice Provost and Dean of Admission at Seattle University, reflects on the value of self-reflection in your own decision-making, the power of pausing when you're "in the grip," and why "relaxed is fast, slow is relaxed" and "slow is fast." (Also, there's randomly like 11 minutes of silence after the bumper music ... consider it an invitation for reflection. 😉)
Rapid Descent

• Walkout song: Saving Grace by Tom Petty
• Best recent read: In Conversation: Honoring Ideological Divides On and Off Campus (by Lisa A. Kloppenberg, Vincent D. Rougeau, and Eduardo M. Peñalver)
• Eager to read next: something non work, like Tom Clancy
• Favorite podcast(s): The Daily and Still Processing (like a warm hug and a stern lecture) New York Times
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: "Some kind of stew or roast beef, something that takes a long time with really cheap ingredients that tastes better than the price suggests."
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Leuchtturm notebooks and a fountain pen
• Memorable bit of advice: "If it doesn't scare you a little bit, it's probably not worth doing."
• Bucket list: Go to Cuba.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Ken chats with Rick Clark (Twitter, LinkedIn), Director of Undergraduate Admission at Georgia Tech and the voice behind the Georgia Tech Admission Blog. Learn about the power of a midnight run, what an English Premiere League soccer player has to do with a rising admission staffer, and where he and his team get their best ideas for staff engagement and renewal.

Links and lists

• The Truth About College Admission by Rick Clark and Brennan Barnard (published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
• Rick also mentioned a video they were working on that plays on the Delta pre-flight safety video. He was kind enough to share it with me so I can share it with you. (Spoiler: it’s genius.)

Rapid Descent

• Rick's walkout song: We Ready by Archie Eversole
• Best thing he's read lately: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story by Donald Miller
• What he's eager to read next: The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
• What he uses to take and keep notes: voice records into his phone, also "a ton of flip paper"
• Memorable bit of advice: We don’t have to do this; we get to do this… The interruptions are your job—when the problems come, we should be excited about tackling them. They’re not a disruption.
• Bucket list: Hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro—he was on his way there to do it, but contracted malaria in Botswana

Season Finale: Vern Granger, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Connecticut AND the Chair of the Board for the National Association for College Admission Counseling shares what it takes to manage two jobs that, in themselves, are more than full-time jobs. We also discuss Vern's World Cup predictions, the finer points of bacon, proper peanut butter choices, and the virtue of the handwritten note.
Rapid Descent

• Walkout songs: Big Poppa by the Notorious B.I.G. and Sumthin' Sumthin' by Maxwell
• Best recent read: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Eager to read next: Stealing Home: Los Angeles, The Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum
• Favorite podcast: The 2 Robbies with Robbie Mustoe and Robbie Earle
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: PB&J, BLT, and/or Chicken Parmesan
• What he uses to take and keep notes: paper and pen (but, to be clear, it's a fountain pen).
• Memorable bit of advice: "If you're going to hoot with the owls, you better know how to crow with the roosters."
• Bucket list: Travel to South Africa.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Robert Gould, Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management at Augsburg University (Minneapolis), offers a deep dive into an approach to college admission that is turning the process on its head and—in the process—not only fostering a greater sense of belonging for students, but for the admission professionals who work with them.
Could it be an antidote to the Great Resignation?
Notes

• Augsburg Applies to You
• Power of You program (Augsburg partnership with Minneapolis Community and Technical College and Saint Paul College)
• John Doerr's Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
• Harriet Tubman Effect Institute
• Nicole Johnson, creator of EDIFY, "a 5 step dismantling systemic oppression program that is designed to shift culture in institutions, schools and artistic organizations."
• Wise Mind
• The Power of Forgiveness—Minneapolis

Rapid Descent

• Walkout songs: "anything by Bobby Sanchez, like Changing Landscapes ..."
• Best recent read: Forgive For Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness by Frederic Luskin, and Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr.
• Eager to read next: Irish Untold History
• Favorite podcast: Edify Justice Advocates Podcast
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Dark roast decaf coffee and vegetable juice
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Rhodia Notebook
• Memorable bit of advice: Life is a balance of holding on and letting go —Rumi
• Bucket list: "I would like the entire system of admissions in higher education to be changed."

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.
Many thanks to the National Association for College Admission Counseling for supporting this podcast through the NACAC Podcast Network.

The ALP is supported by RHB. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Peaches Valdes, Dean of Admission at Hamilton College, joins Ken for a conversation that spans everything from taking the path less taken and the importance of having a board of mentors, to the magic of super soft stationery and storytelling without notes. Much hilarity ensues.
Alternative episode title: "Paths, Pearls, Pickups, Pens, and Paper."
Rapid Descent

• Walkout song: Tilted , Christine and the Queens
• Best recent read: The Farm: A Novel by Joanne Ramos
• Eager to read next: A Promised Land by Barack Obama
• Podcast: The Moth.
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Filipino food, especially eggrolls, which she makes with her mother and sisters
• What she uses to take and keep notes: Peaches and Ken go on a major sidequest about unlined paper and ultra fine point pens, including erasables because, as Peaches says, "I like making mistakes." So many tips about pens and paper purveyors: like OOLY fountain pens Ivy League Stationers and Muji, who make "super soft" paper. Don't forget about Clairefontaine paper.
• Memorable bit of advice: "Be open to possibilities."
• Bucket list: Go on the Moth.

The ALP is supported by RHB. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment