SPOTLIGHT
BY CARL-MARTIN NELSON DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Melanie Brennand, UWC-USA’s new director of Admissions and College Counseling, remembers playing soccer on the fields below the Castle as a middle school and high school student. “I remember looking up at the Castle and thinking what a magical place New Mexico is,” she recounts. “I never thought I would end up working at UWCUSA with an office in the Castle someday.” Melanie grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and while she has lived, studied, and worked in New England since she graduated from St. Michael’s High School in the mid90s, she has long felt the pull of the Southwest and was eager to come back. “People in Boston would ask me what I miss most about New Mexico, and I would always say the openness and the sky—the night sky in particular,” Melanie says. When the chance to return to New Mexico and work at UWC-USA presented itself, she was thrilled to pursue the opportunity. 16
After leaving New Mexico almost 20 years ago, Melanie studied American history and literature as an undergraduate at Harvard College, eventually earning a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. After working as a senior Admissions and Financial Aid officer at Harvard until 2009, Melanie began work at City Year Inc., a program dedicated to increasing educational opportunities and the graduation rate for students in high-poverty
Melanie Brennand provides students with gentle guidance and good ideas.
communities. As vice president for Recruitment and Admissions, she managed and directed the national recruitment and selection strategy for 3,000 AmericCorps volunteers and managed a team of 100 staff members across more than 26 locations. Head of School Martina Moetz is pleased that Melanie joined UWC-USA. “Melanie is, first and foremost, a person who has the best interests of students at heart,” Martina says. “She quickly became an important part of our community by driving students to activities, providing a supportive ear to concerned college applicants, and bringing the wealth of her experience to bear on this institution.” At UWC-USA, she works with a smaller budget, has fewer direct reports, but enjoys spending more time directly with students. “A major focus of my career so far has been connecting students to opportunities, and this is a fantastic place to continue this work,” Melanie says. Her particular focus throughout the fall and winter has been on college counseling, which is tremendously
important to students as they look ahead to their time after UWC. Melanie likes to emphasize the word counseling rather than the word college in her position description. She argues that it’s important for students to recognize where they’ve come from, to take stock of how they have changed at UWC-USA, and then thoughtfully plan the next, logical step. “For some, that might be an Ivy League school, while for others, it might be a school that has a program that is a perfect match for their interests,” she says. “And though many might find it slightly heretical, for some it might be different kinds of training or experience.” Students can find themselves swept up in a bit of a furor to get into the most prestigious school, she claims, and they often are pulled in a direction that might not be the most helpful or productive. When she begins the conversation with students at the beginning of the college counseling cycle, Melanie offers a piece of advice that she often returns to throughout the process: “Be authentic and true to yourself, and be