Shows
The Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastIt's a Zig-Zag Path, with Greg MarchGreg March is the Business Development Manager for ImpactHK, an NGO that seeks to bring an awareness to the struggles of the homeless population in Hong Kong. Our conversation focused on Greg’s long journey to Impact HK and how it wasn't anything close to a straight line. And as I think is common, at least in terms of the people I have spoken to, after working for a number of years as a professional in the events management industry, Greg's inner voice encouraged him to do something that would be more personally meaningful while also making a positive diff...
2022-04-1125 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastTEDI London Does Engineering Differently, with Matthew WilksOn this week's episode, I am joined by Matthew Wilkes of TEDI London, a new engineering school that formed out of a partnership with University of New South Wales, Arizona State University, and Kings College London. TEDI aims to do things differently, deploying a Project Base learning model that is principally delivered through maker space engineering labs where students are learning by doing, that is, working on real world projects alongside an academic. They also intend to admit students differently, seeking to diversify the field of engineers so that individuals who are design engineers are representative of the people f...
2022-04-0425 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastThe Seemingly Innocuous Elevator Conversation - Ines KaempferThis episode features Ines Kaempfer, the CEO of The Centre for Child Rights and Business. Our conversation focuses on navigating a career and how sometimes a random conversation in an elevator can change your life. Growing up in Switzerland and not being particularly driven toward any one professional goal, Ines mostly let her interests inform the direction of her life and it seems to have paid for her. Her bio is below. Ines Kaempfer brings over 15 years of experience in supply chain sustainability where she has been deeply engaged in issues related to child rights and business in t...
2022-03-1122 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastRevisiting Harvey MuddIn the spring of 2020, I had a conversation with the Vice President of Admission and Financial Aid at Harvey Mudd. That conversation predates the launch of this podcast on Anchor, so I wanted to make that available now. I hope you enjoy.
2022-02-2825 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastRevisiting Scripps CollegeThe following episode was released internally to the THS community during the winter of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. At the time, I had yet to make our podcast public. As we are now starting the college/university search and selection process at our school, I thought it would be good to revisit, and make public, some of these internal episodes that are more specific to this time of year. Scripps College is located about one hour east of Los Angeles and is part of the Claremont Colleges Consortium. It is such a unique institution, and perh...
2022-02-0720 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastYat Siu - Divergent Thinking and Creative CapitalFor the first episode of our second season, I interviewed Hong Kong entrepreneur, Yat Siu. As someone who was groomed to be a professional musician at a conservatory in Vienna, it's quite surprising to see where Yat is currently situated in his professional life considering that it's so tech heavy. More than that, hearing how synchronistic and atypical his path has been was a real affirmation for me in my work, in particular, trying to hammer home the reality of the changing/changed landscape of the 21st century labour market and the flow of following your interests. Although quite suc...
2022-01-0428 min
The Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastTalking Goucher College w/alumnus Tony ToTony To is a Hong Kong native who attended Goucher College, a small liberal arts college in Baltimore, MD. We spoke about the advantages of attending a small school and how Goucher empowered him to pursue a graduate degree in economics at Georgetown which led to his current job at the World Bank. Tony also spoke to the importance of being able to apply thinking broadly outside of one's domain of specialty, as well as perspective taking in a labor market that is increasingly becoming more and more culturally diverse.
2021-05-2824 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastIvy League and Highly Selective Admissions with Ally IpAlly Ip is the Director of Research for Quantum Prep, a college admissions consulting firm here in Hong Kong. Having attended MIT for her undergraduate degree and Harvard Graduate School for her masters, Ally has some keen insights on the admission practices of highly selective institutions. But more than that, Ally is a kindred spirit who is student focused, pulls no punches when speaking to the sheer madness involved in our profession, and employs an irreverent approach that most likely draws on her experience as a top gunner in the US military.
2021-04-2737 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastThe Oracle at Oracle, Emilio Reyes Le BlancEmilio is a Principle Solution Engineer at Oracle who currently lives and works in San Francisco. What makes Emilio's story so interesting, and his perspective so valuable, is that he studied music and philosophy at the University of Toronto yet finds himself in the center of the tech world working for one of its biggest players. His own unique recipe seems to be a willingness to reimagine who he is in the world, actively seek out feedback, look for situations where opportunities are likely to emerge, and then a willingness to say yes in the face of those opportunities ev...
2021-04-2132 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastConnecting the Dots with Pariya RojtanongchaiEpisode eight features Pariya Rojtanongchai, a Hong Kong born and raised Thai National, CIS and Cambridge graduate, former corporate lawyer, and soon to be educator. I am particularly grateful for this conversation. I think it's so important to honestly reflect on, and discuss, why it is we do what we do, share the resulting successes and failures, and fearlessly ride the high wire act of constructive and destructive criticism as we reformulate our path forward. Pariya's willingness to share in her outer and inner journey was a rare opportunity to sit down with someone who has all of the cul...
2021-03-1532 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastFacade Maintenance with Tony LitsterTony Litster and I go way back to our days in kindergarten at Valley View Elementary in Boise, ID. From the outside, Tony's path toward success seemed preordained. He was imbued with natural leadership, high cognitive capacity, and was one of the most driven in our cohort that would stay together through high school graduation. However, internally Tony was a mess and it took a while for things to unravel to a point where he could finally connect with his authentic-self and create a life of purpose. As a highly successful CEO Coach, Tony has keen insights into what make...
2021-02-2427 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastKnowledge Is Easy with Alethea (Thea) BleybergThis episode I sit down with Thea Bleyberg, a local IB educator and University Counselor, to have a wide ranging conversation about university in the UK, the emergence of the liberal arts as a course of study, parents as obstacles and allies, and future skills. Having grown up on the campuses of international schools, where her parents were educators and administrators, Thea's world was shaped to value education, and more specifically, international education. After graduation from high school, she attended Cambridge and studied Social and Political Science at the undergraduate level and then Modern Society and Global Transformation at the g...
2020-11-2627 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastBeing Human with Dean Lily Cho, York UniversityOur guest this episode is Lily Cho, English Professor and Dean of Global and Community Engagement at York University in Toronto. Professor Cho is a first generation, Chinese-Canadian who brings an incredibly valuable perspective to the conversation. We spoke about stumbling your way into a profession and how arbitrary that process can seem, the dignity of international students and the valuable voice they add to the conversation, future skills and the Canadian Governments commission she was part of, and how being human is your best asset.
2020-11-1029 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastFuture Skills with Kate Munroe, KPMG ChinaHave you ever come across the phrase, change is inevitable - growth is optional? That could be a catchphrase for 2020 or the 20th century for that matter. Our guest this week thrives in all of this change, it’s literally her job. Kate Munroe is the Director of Change and Advisory for KPMG China and is a consultant to organizations who are looking to evolve in order to stay relevant in an unprecedented moment in human history. I spoke to Kate about her trajectory, what our students can do to stay relevant during all of this change, what future skills...
2020-10-2127 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastPutting YOU at the Center of the College Application w/Ed DevineThis week we feature a conversation with Ed Devine, a long time admissions professional who always brings interesting and valuable perspectives to the table. Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short by a technology fail, but not without a lot of great insights from the treasure trove of Devine anecdotes. It is telling that the “sticky” stories, the ones that stay with an admissions professional for life, are usually those students believe aren’t worth telling. Yet when the experiential details of the mundane are told through an individual’s unique prism, it somehow becomes compelling in a way that can differe...
2020-10-0717 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastA Conversation with Dr. Jadis BlurtonThis episode features THS Head of School, Dr. Jadis Blurton. Dr. Blurton is not only head of school, but also a developmental psychologist with over 30 years of experience in educational psychology and child development. We took this opportunity to speak about and explore different strategies for parents and students to use when in throes of the confusing teen years, especially as the stress and pressures of this tumultuous period gets amplified by the post graduation planning process.
2020-09-2419 minThe Harbour School College and Career Counseling PodcastProject Wayfinder and THSThis episode features a conversation with Casey Petit, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Project Wayfinder, an organization the seeks to increase adolescent engagement in education through purpose and belonging. To me, purpose is the key missing ingredient for most young people in their post graduation planning process. Without purpose, students can't answer the question "why" in a way that is satisfactory to themselves, and without an adequate why, the external voices take over trying desperately to make them care. The irony is that the more the external voices exert themselves, the less engaged and more stressed out the student bec...
2020-09-1521 min