Elaine’s Goodbye

adminUncategorized

In the world of careers, when one door opens, the other closes and so will it be for me at the end of the school year when I open a new career door at St. Louis University High School. There, I will be joining a growing team of professional counselors and contributing to a community-wide Design Thinking Process for college counseling — a “Makers” dream job given my training in both engineering and school counseling.

The door more difficult to pivot is the one I close down in the South Building. I feel profound gratitude for privilege I have been given to  work with such gifted educators, professional staff, dedicated parents, engaged students, forward-thinking administrators, and dedicated board of trustees. Together we have achieved so much in our 7 years together that I equate our accomplishments in “dog years” — so thank you for our 49 years together!

While no transition is easy, a college counseling change has the potential to be especially difficult for our juniors and their parents. You all know me as a planner and this year, getting ready for a career transition, is no different. I have met with 75% of junior families and, for parents who have emailed me back the parent survey, I have drafted counselor recommendation letters for your sons/daughters. We have begun drafting resumes and will soon write college application essays in Becky’s class. Over the next 45 days, we will keep up the good work and catch up where needed.

St. Louis is blessed with a rich network of college counselors called the St. Louis Area College Counselors. I am certain that many experienced college counselors will apply for this opening as I have been bragging about Crossroads there for years (and Joan Graviss for many years before me). In addition, I’ve come to find out through my networking that Jason knows someone at every single high school in St. Louis! I’m confident that Jason will find you a great counselor and I will work with the new counselor to assure a smooth transition.

My virtual career counseling door is always open to you, and you can find me over at LinkedIn where I welcome “connect” requests from all.

With great excitement for the future of both Crossroads and St. Louis University High School
— Elaine Todorov