Campus Life

Texas A&M College Advising Corps Expands Reach With New Bryan High Center

October 9, 2017

Bryan High Ribbon Cutting
Kara Von Schnackenberg, Bryan High College Advising Corps adviser and class of 2017 Texas A&M graduate, is one of 50 recent Texas A&M graduates serving in the College Advising Corps around the state.
By Sam Peshek, Texas A&M University Marketing and Communications

Texas A&M University is now able to help more high school students in the Bryan-College Station area pursue a college degree with the opening of a new College Center at Bryan High School.

The center at Bryan High’s Silver Campus, which opened its doors this week with financial support from the Greater Texas Foundation, will be staffed full-time by a recent Texas A&M graduate through Texas A&M’s Advise TX program, a chapter of the College Advising Corps.

“It’s one thing to tell students what they need to do, but it’s a completely different thing to be able to say ‘let’s sit down and do this together,’ and that really facilitates their ability to apply for school, financial aid, scholarships, signing up for the SAT, whatever it is they need to do,” Bryan High College Advising Corps adviser and class of 2017 Texas A&M graduate Kara Von Schnackenberg said.

By placing recent graduates as advisers in underserved high schools, College Advising Corps works in communities across Texas to provide the advising and the encouragement that students need to navigate the college admissions process.

Bryan High Ribbon Cutting
Sue McMillan, Greater Texas Foundation President and CEO, cuts a ribbon outside of the College Center at Bryan High.

Texas A&M began its inaugural College Advising Corps in 2011 with 32 advisers, increasing to 50 advisers serving 49 high schools across the state in Dallas, Houston-Gulf Coast, San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley during the 2016-2017 school year. The Texas A&M Advising Corps is the largest in Texas and one of the largest in the country.

Greater Texas Foundation President and CEO Sue McMillan said the “near peer” counseling high school students receive from recent graduates is invaluable at a time when many high schools around the country face a 400-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio.

“It is really wonderful to have that sort of focused attention, to have someone who can guide you, McMillan said. “I think they’ll be much better prepared when they have advice over a four-year period.” Marcus Cooper, associate director of admissions and senior program director for the Advise Texas College Advising Corps at Texas A&M, said the school’s core values are aligned with the national Advising Corps program.

“I think the reason why this program fits at Texas A&M is because it’s selfless service,” Cooper said. “The people that graduate from Texas A&M and come to work for us really see this as a way to help students go to college and find their best fit. It’s about identifying what the students want to do and where they see themselves.”

Visit the Texas A&M Admissions website to learn more about the Texas A&M College Advising Corps.

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Media contact: Marcus Cooper, Associate Director of Admissions and Senior Program Director for Advise TX, College Advising Corps, Office of Admissions, Division of Academic Affairs, Texas A&M University, 979-458-0969, jmcooper@tamu.edu.

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