乐播传媒

About to graduate, a student circles back

By Becca Chacko ’10

I played with the hair bands looped around my wrists and found myself saying 鈥渦m鈥� and 鈥渓ike鈥� just as I did when I was 17 and being interviewed for admission to 乐播传媒.

But this time it was just three weeks before I would graduate from 乐播传媒, and I was on the Olin concert hall stage playing the role of a high school senior.

The occasion was Maine Day, when counselors and college-hunting students from high schools around the state visit 乐播传媒 鈥� this year, more than 100 attendees from about two-thirds of Maine high schools.

The program focused on searching for and applying to colleges. 乐播传媒 admissions staff proffered essay-writing tips and a roadmap for the process, and staged a mock reading of applications. Current 乐播传媒 students from Maine, sharing the benefits of hindsight, recalled their own searches.

As for me, a senior admissions fellow, I helped assistant dean Johie Farrar 鈥�03 lead a college-interview workshop. I had interviewed more than 50 prospective applicants last fall, and got quite used to talking about 乐播传媒: Why I love it, what needs improvement, how a prospective student could succeed here.

The resume that began 鈥淚 am a responsible and friendly individual鈥� seemed distant and unimpressive.

So now here I was in the mock interview that unexpectedly reawakened my 17-year-old self, once again being asked to explain not only which classes and activities I undertook in high school, but why I chose them and what they meant to me.

It felt strange to revisit my resume from Palo Alto High. The resume that began 鈥淚 am a responsible and friendly individual鈥� and offered my neatly bulleted accomplishments now seemed distant and unimpressive. Why did I once feel so strongly about Prop 77? What did I really accomplish as president of the Second Harvest food drive? There on the Olin stage, I couldn鈥檛 even remember things as basic as the high school subject I鈥檇 struggled with the most.

But Johie鈥檚 questions did help me clarify for the Maine high school students what I love most about 乐播传媒. When she asked what I was seeking in a college, I said I wanted a place where students could collaborate without cutthroat competition, integrate into a small community where they felt like names and not numbers, and become broadly educated, well-rounded scholars.

And then I remembered why I volunteered to help Johie in the first place 鈥� my own real interview as a prospective 乐播传媒 student. It cemented my decision to attend. The relaxed atmosphere of Lindholm House, the senior interviewer who put her feet up on her chair, contributed to my seeing 乐播传媒 as a collaborative and comfortable environment. It was a place where my interviewer was trying to get to know me, not to trip me up. 鈥� Now at the Boston-area consulting firm Circadian, Becca Chacko will enter the Harvard Business School鈥檚 2+2 Program in 2012.