The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Bly takes reigns as C&CC director

Bly+takes+reigns+as++C%26CC+director

Before taking over the director position at the College and Career Center on May 1, Allison Bly worked at Dougherty Valley, which she considers similar to Piedmont, with the caveat that their freshman class is bigger than the entirety of PHS.

Bly loved her own college experience and alma mater, Bucknell University, because they enabled her to meet new people and make her own decisions.AllisonBly

“I left home as a kid and graduated feeling like an adult,” Bly said. “I want to help all students experience that.”

This enthusiasm eventually lead Bly to her job as a college counselor.

“It was sort of a long road,” said Bly, who began her career as an elementary school teacher and then worked as a recruiter at a community college for almost a decade.

As part of that job, Bly met with high school students and discovered that she enjoyed working with teenagers.

Bly will replace Sandi Brod as C&CC director. She will be in charge of coordinating college visits and leading workshops for students and parents on topics such as financial aid, applying early versus applying regular decision, and essay writing.

“I have get-to-know-you-surveys because everyone needs something different,” Bly said. “I want students to feel comfortable because a lot of this is really personal— grades, test scores, personal history.”

In order to offer helpful suggestions for every type of students, Bly attends college fairs and presentations and coordinates three or four college trips a year, taking pictures and scribbling copious notes, which she uploads into a special database so that she can share them when meeting with parents and students.

“It’s important to individualize the college process a little bit more,” junior Allie Frankel said. “It would be great to have a counselor who asks some questions about what’s actually important to you to try to match you up with a college rather than just matching you up based on grades and test scores.”

Bly enjoys visiting lesser known colleges, and she tries to leave each school with an understanding of what type of student would do well there.

“This is not someone who is just looking in a book,” Principal Brent Daniels said. “This is someone who actually physically has been to [about] 50 schools.”

Bly said that sometimes students focus on schools that they already know about rather than broadening their lists.

“There are thousands of other schools out there for students to explore,” Bly said.  “Just because students have heard of the college doesn’t mean it’s the best college for them.”

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