Dear SSIS Parents –
Part of our commitments emanating from last year’s three-year strategic plan was to raise the profile and the investment of SSIS in the college and university application process. Ms. Kris Bumpus and Ms. Erin Hawkins, and those who came before them like Mr. Tom Goetz, have built a great University Guidance Office here at SSIS. We host upwards to 300 schools a year and our students file hundreds and hundreds of applications each year to great schools around the world. While the applications remain predominant skewed towards North America in general, and the United States in particular, the emerging trend is a truly world-wide list of colleges and universities.
The SSIS Board has authorised the creation of a new Level II Admin position, reporting directly to the Head of School, as Director of University Guidance. We have engaged Mr. Terry Giffen, who some of you may recall from his visit to SSIS last Spring, to serve as our consultant in this search. The plan is to narrow a list of candidates by mid- to late-fall of this year, inviting our top finalists to visit our campus shortly thereafter. The new position will begin with the 2016-2017 academic year.
The new Director of University Guidance will supervise a second counselor and the office administrative assistant (so the size of the office will not change). Additional changes will include even greater investments in outreach and networking for the Director and the second counselor, again to increase our visibility, and that of our students, for universities and colleges the world over.
Mark Sylte, Head of School
