Reed College Admissions: Cris Cambianica, Winter Shadow 2016
I did my winter shadow with Kati Sweaney from Reed’s admission office. I applied for the shadow not knowing much about admissions, but knowing that I am generally interested in institutional diversity and equity. Since I have mostly been involved in these objectives from the student advocacy end and given that I want to do institutional diversity work after graduation, I thought that learning about admissions would be a good way to observe the contested terrain of institutional diversity and equity policies. The experience was generally so positive that I left the winter shadow considering that admissions’ counseling could be a great career path for me after graduation.
Kati very intentionally framed my shadow with my interest in diversity at its heart. She scheduled meetings for me with almost every counselor at Reed so that I could ask questions about working in admissions and the opportunities as well as constraints that the Reed admission team has when trying to advance equity at Reed. I also was able to shadow her while doing many of the different functions of admissions: information sessions with prospective students, outside reader training, outreach work at NAYA, and collaborative meetings between Disability Support Services and admissions. Through this shadow I was really able to see the number of partnerships that admissions has with different parts of campus, the scope of impact it has, and the variety of tasks that any day may bring. Kati was very attentive to making sure that the shadow aligned with my goals and the entire admissions staff was extremely generous in sharing their time with me. The week was an extremely positive experience and I would recommend the shadow to anyone who is interested.
Tags: winter shadow, admissions, higher education, college admission, diversity, equality, equity, institutional diversity