Aarushi Bahadur

NEW IN THE OFFICE. Prior to SPA, admissions officer Anna Northenscold has worked and volunteered in admissions since middle school.

Everyone at SPA goes through the admissions process, but few may know what it’s like from the enrollment side. New SPA enrollment officer Anna Northenscold gives a behind-the-scenes look at her own story and what students might not know about admissions.

Q: How did you first get involved with admissions work?

A: I’ve kind of always been in it, since I’d even say middle school…I always raised my hand to talk about sixth grade and had shadow visitors. And then in high school, I was an ambassador, so I gave tours and I helped host other students in the Upper School. And then when I went to college, at Luther College, for my work study, I worked in the admission department. I worked as the Communications Assistant, and then I also worked as a student ambassador there. I was the girl pointing with my thumb, walking backwards with six families. Yeah, rain, snow, sunshine, all of the weather, temperatures. And I just really enjoyed my time doing it.

Q: You’re new to SPA. How did you end up here?

A: I was job searching in the summertime, and my sister works in education. She’s done 10 years of teaching– she works for the Department of Education…and when I was thinking about, what do I want to do?, she was like, ‘you should try education.’ It could be a really great fit. So we were looking at a lot of independent schools, and I found the job opening for this position.

Q: Can you walk us through how the admissions process works here, from start to finish? What key factors do you use when considering different applications?

A: So usually the process starts with a parent. They contact us…and I kind of take them through, ‘Where are you coming from? And tell me what you’re looking for in a school.’ Then there’s an inquiry form on our website–that’s general background information about the student, information about the family or guardians of the child, and then they get put into our database system. So our enrollment office is able to keep in contact and send updates about different plays that are happening, the pops concert, open house events, things to get them really integrated into the community. Then they give us more details about, ‘Who is your child? What do you see them excelling in? Why are you looking for a new school?’ After that, it opens up into more required documents that we get from the families–there’s two teacher evaluations, the transcripts, and then they fill out a student questionnaire. So those have questions that are more about the personality of the child, to say, ‘what current books are you reading? What do you like to read? How would your friends describe you?’ Things like that. So we’re getting their perspective, too. And then in addition to that, we ask that they come for a tour on campus.

Q: When it comes to evaluating applicants, how do you evaluate them beyond just grades and test scores? Are there specific qualities or characteristics you look for in candidates that you try to match to the school values?

A: I haven’t been through the full admission cycle yet…but from my perspective, we always like to say that we’re excited when students are excited. We’re excited when they’re like, ‘oh, what classroom is this?’ or, ‘oh, I really like German class,’ and they have a kind of hunger for knowledge and learning. They’re a curious individual. They’ll ask questions, they get involved with teachers. Those are the types of students that we look for…and we also look really closely at if we have…what this child and their family are looking for in their educational experience, whether it’s sports, whether it’s arts and music–and academics too. And of course, you mentioned the values, we’ve got those new five core values. And so I think that’s something that’s always in the back of our minds.

Q: Approximately how many people apply to SPA annually?

A: It depends year to year, obviously, but we’re over 400 inquiries for this year, and that number continues to grow because our application is not due until February 1.

Q: Are there any common misconceptions you think students and teachers might have about the admissions process or elements that students might not already know about it?

A: I love drawing on the language that Chris Huebner uses when he’s talking about the design lab and how the design lab is open and integrated and across the curriculum…it’s involving people and having the access there for students who not only might self-select, but might just not even think about, oh, 3D printing could be for me, and I might enjoy that. And so I think about that in the same way for admission–our doors are open to lots of different, diverse experiences, socioeconomic backgrounds…and so I think that reaffirming that independent school education is for everyone, and it’s always open to all families of all backgrounds [is important], and we want to be meeting everyone where they’re at. And we heavily rely on the relationships, not only with our faculty, but also with students, because you guys are the lifeblood, the best marketing for the school. You know you’re living it every day, you’re in the classrooms, you’re you’re the ones that we do this for. So we really enjoy having those relationships, to have you guys be student tour guides, student hosts, coming to the panels, doing kind of everything, everything that we do, alongside with you, too.