Mark StuckerMark Stucker (mark@schoolmatch4u.com) has 25 years of full-time experience in college and boarding school admissions, and in college counseling. He’s worked with private day, boarding, charter, and public-school students, as well as private clients. He is extremely passionate about finding the right college for every student and ensuring that the college selected is affordable for the family.
Hillary Dickman (hdickman@coloradocollege.edu) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and has called Colorado home since 2004. A relative newcomer to the field of college admission, Hillary is known for her transparency and deep desire to help students find their best college fit. She joined the Colorado College Office of Admission in 2021, where she is part of the communications team and manages a territory that includes parts of New England and Colorado’s Western Slope.
Before joining Colorado College, Hillary spent time as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and worked in the Colorado Springs nonprofit sector. Her academic background includes both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Communication, with a focus on Interpersonal and Relational Communication for her bachelor’s and Intercultural Communication for her master’s. During her studies, she broadened her horizons through transformative study abroad experiences with Semester at Sea and later in Nepal while completing her master’s degree. Hillary has always valued global and cultural exploration, and is proud to have passed that curiosity and open-heartedness on to her two daughters.
Hillary’s favorite part of her work is engaging with prospective students and their parents to uncover the questions behind their questions. She’s thrilled to be part of the podcast crew, and thrives on nerdy after-hours conversations about college admissions.
Susan TreeA native New Yorker, Susan Tree moved to New England following her graduation from St. Lawrence University; she spent 12 years at Bates College as Associate Dean of Admissions and earned her MS. Ed in School Counseling at the University of Southern Maine. For more than twenty years, Susan served as the Director of College Counseling at a college prep day and boarding school near Philadelphia, where she worked with students from around the world and, with Mark Stucker, founded the Independent School Multicultural Conference and College Fair. Susan coaches families through their college search and has evaluated applications for a number of selective universities.
Active in the national college admissions profession, Susan served as a founding board member of the Character Collaborative, the Independent Curriculum Group, and the college access organization GoToCollege NYC. She has served on the counselor advisory committees of the College Board, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the Common Application, and has volunteered with the National Association for College Admission Counseling on committees related to admission practices and standardized testing.
A counselor at heart who loves being in the mix with families, Susan’s favorite job is as a mom of twins who are recent college graduates.
AndyStrickler , dean of admission and financial aid, is responsible for determining the overall strategy for recruiting, admitting, matriculating and supporting a diverse and a highly talented student body. He manages a staff dedicated not only to attracting the best students, but also to supporting their full demonstrated financial need.
He works collaboratively with colleagues across campus — in the offices of the dean of the college, the dean of the faculty, the dean of students, the vice president for communications and the vice president for finance — to realize these goals, and to ensure that students at Connecticut College have the best possible experience from inquiry to acceptance to matriculation and beyond.
Formerly dean of admission and financial aid at Guilford College, Strickler developed innovative, data-driven strategies for recruitment and matriculation; overhauled the campus visit program; and championed a new international recruitment plan, leading to the highest percentage of international students in the school’s history.
Strickler holds a bachelor of arts in history from Earlham College and a master of arts in social studies education from Indiana University. He has enjoyed a series of increasingly responsible positions over the last 15 years in the areas of athletics administration, advancement and admission at Kalamazoo College, Beloit College, Ursinus College and Guilford College.
Vince Garcia has 20+ years of experience in college admissions and has evaluated applications for Occidental College, Pomona College, Cal Lutheran, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. Additionally, Vince worked with Belmont High School and Campbell Hall and provided college counseling for College Summit, Gates Millennium Scholarship, Matchlighters, National Hispanic Institute, Posse Foundation, and QuestBridge.
Vince has expertise in admissions in STEM admissions, athletics, learning differences, and the visual and performing arts. Vince has worked with Campus Pride, Dalai Lama Fellows, National H.I.V. Scholarship, Reaching Out MBA, The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, The Point Foundation, and The Schwarzman Scholars. Vince is the co-founder and CEO of Q&A College Admissions.
Julia Esquivel began her admission work during her undergraduate years at Vassar College, working as a student of color intern in the office of admissions. After graduating from Vassar, Julia worked for four years in the admission office of Haverford College, directing the college’s multicultural recruitment efforts and leading transition programming for first-generation students from under-represented backgrounds. Interested in access and justice, Julia enrolled in the Masters in Public Health program at Emory University, where she was also an outside reader for the office of undergraduate admissions. Julia continued her work as an outside reader for Haverford College. She returned to the world of admissions in 2016 as Associate Director of College Counseling for Milton Academy, a half-day, half-boarding independent school outside Boston, Massachusetts.
Since 2009, Julia has volunteered with College Horizons, the largest college access organization for Native American and Indigenous students. Julia currently lives with her partner of seven years and his ten-year-old daughter. She is a foodie, a beach lover, and loves gabbing about college admissions.
Lisa Rouff, Ph.D.Lisa Rouff, Ph.D. (lisa@schoolmatch4u.com) is a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of practice in the Chicagoland area, and recently relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Lisa has experience in helping teens and young adults recognize their strengths and overcome their anxieties. Working with students to reduce their test and performance anxiety, and to increase their executive functioning skills, Lisa has helped students achieve increased success in school and extracurricular activities. Lisa is also knowledgeable about the mental health issues facing teens and young adults, including depression, anxiety, ADHD, and learning differences, and brings this experience to her college coaching work. Lisa has also helped parents negotiate the school system to obtain the help that their child needs.
In addition to her psychology background, Lisa also has expertise in college coaching. She completed the independent educational consultant certification program at the University of California-Irvine, and is an associate member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). She is volunteer mentor and college coach for several first-generation college students for College Bound Opportunities and ScholarMatch. Lisa loves college visits, and before the pandemic hit, has visited many college campuses throughout the USA. In addition, as the mother of three children, ranging from elementary to college age, Lisa has inside experience with the joys and stressors of the college application process. When she’s not working, Lisa enjoys spending time with her family and taking care of her embarrassing number of pets.
Mark is very excited to have Lisa as a college coach at School Match 4U. Lisa and Mark co-counseled with almost 50 students in 2020. Lisa really brings a lot to the School Match 4U team. Clients really like her personality and find her very easy to work with. Her expertise in helping students work through the mental barriers that keep them from achieving their peak performance is invaluable. I am referring to things like perfectionism, test anxiety and overall anxiety, depression, organizational challenges/executive functioning and learning differences. Lisa is also an ardent student and she has amassed a lot of knowledge about colleges. There are also some young ladies that will thrive more with a female college coach. It is extremely rare to find someone who has the combination of Lisa’s expertise when it comes to implementing effective mental health strategies coupled with her knowledge about college. Dr. Rouff has a very level of integrity. She is extremely bright and well educated but she is unassuming. In a lot of ways, Lisa is the epitome of “Midwestern nice”. The following link will take you to an interview Mark did with Lisa on “Seven mental barriers that keep students from achieving their peak performance“.
Lisa appeared on four episodes of the Your College-Bound Kid podcast in 2020 and the listener feedback was very positive. In 2021 Lisa joined the Your College-Bound Kid podcast team as one of the co-hosts. She will alternate with Anika and partner with Mark by answering questions that listeners send in. Lisa will also do some College Spotlights about colleges where she has expertise. You can listen to the “Your College-Bound Kid” podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google, Stitcher or where ever you listen to podcasts. There is also some unique content that can only be found at: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/.
Kate StricklanKate Stricklan (Katherine.stricklan@colorado.edu) , Associate Director of Application Review at the University of Colorado Boulder, is thrilled to join the YCBK family as co-host, as she has been a loyal listener for years. Growing up in northern Virginia, Kate was lucky to take Latin in high school and went on to major in Classics at Columbia University (Phi Beta Kappa; magna cum laude honors) as well as spend her entire junior year abroad studying Classics at Cambridge University. After college, she taught Latin at boarding schools in the US and England, as well as completing a Master of Arts in Modern Literature and Culture from the University of York (UK.)
Kate met her husband, a Colorado native, while volunteering in India. They ended up living in Egypt, Norway, and Malaysia before settling back in the Centennial State, first in Colorado Springs and then in Boulder. While abroad, Kate was honored to work with refugee resettlement organizations and it is also where she stumbled upon college admissions–both in the form of alumni interviewer for international applicants to Columbia and as an admissions essay editor for two educational consulting companies.
Kate joined the University of Colorado Office of Admissions in July 2021, where she worked as a territory manager and now oversees CU Boulder’s growing application process. Kate is passionate about data-driven strategies, broadening access to college, and global educational opportunities. You might encounter her on the trails in south Boulder listening to an admissions podcast or spending time with her family of four, which includes daughters in fifth and ninth grade.
Kevin Newton is the founder of An Education Abroad, an Independent Educational Consultancy which focuses on helping American students find degree options around the world. Since quite literally the week he returned from his own degree abroad, Kevin has helped students save time and money by getting a degree abroad, all while opening unbelievable professional and personal opportunities.
Kevin studied History and Middle Eastern Studies at the College of William & Mary and has a Master’s degree in Islamic and Chinese law from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He has been widely published on both the geopolitics of the Eastern Hemisphere as well as Islamic finance.
His love of global education, as well as a working knowledge of a half dozen languages, have helped him place students in both undergraduate and graduate programs as varied as the University of Edinburgh, Oxford, HEC Paris, Tsinghua University (in Beijing), and more. Additionally, Kevin has spent time as a classroom teacher, where he taught Roman and medieval history to middle school students.
When he’s not helping his students negotiate international admissions, Kevin enjoys waking up at 4 a.m. to smoke the perfect pulled pork and visiting art museums with his wife/business partner.
Our team focuses on colleges located in the US and Canada, so we are elated to partner with Kevin. We could not be happier to recommend Kevin to any of our clients who want to attend college abroad.
Kevin possesses the highest level of integrity; he cares about the students he works with and is an outstanding communicator. He is also a student of colleges and is always studying and learning so he can serve families with maximal effectiveness.
When there are students who want to look at schools domestically and abroad, our team and Kevin will co-counsel in these instances. Kevin is also a member of the Southern Association for College Admissions Counseling.
Lynda Doepker (lynda@schoolmatch4u.com) is a college coach from Michigan, now based in the St. Louis metro area. She works closely with students to craft application essays that genuinely reflect their authentic voices and unique strengths and believes students should “love their college list.” She guides them through thoughtful research to find schools where they’ll truly feel at home. Her dedication lies in digging deep to find the perfect match for each student.
Beyond college coaching with School Match 4U, she volunteers with the Matchlighters Scholars Program, helping high-achieving, low-income students navigate the college admissions process. She also serves as a scholarship essay reader and interviewer for The Gates Scholarship and the Saginaw Community Foundation and has participated on college scholarship committees. Her experience spans coaching students applying to highly selective universities to advising community college students on transferring to four-year institutions.
Lynda is an active member of the Missouri Association for College Admission Counseling, the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling, and the Independent Educational Consultants Association, where she completed their Summer Training Institute. She has a special interest in working with rural students and understands their unique challenges and perspectives. Her educational background is rooted in Sociology, which she studied at Missouri State University.
Listeners can find her on the Your College-Bound Kid podcast, where she regularly shares insights from her own journey through college admissions with her daughter, a current University of Chicago student, and interviews thought leaders on all aspects of higher education.
Stylianos Dimitriou handles all of our web needs. He is a web developer since 2006 and has worked on several websites and web applications. He designed our website and he does edits, updates and any trouble shooting that we need. We strongly recommend him if you are looking for a webmaster.
Kimberly BlasKimberly Blas is a designer, a creative, and a thinker. Her skills range from print design to designing website mockups, to creating multimedia eLearning presentations, to social media marketing. She is a quick learner, a team player, and has great communication skills. She is intrigued with all things design and loves taking on new projects that help her grow as a designer. She designs all things to be innovative, personal, and conceptual. Kimberly has designed our notebooks, our stationery, our pens, our E-book, and all of our other materials. Kimberly has also done a lot of work for Mark and his company, School Match 4U. If you need a creative and talented designer, Kimberly can be reached at kimberlyblas@hotmail.com.
Joy StuckerJoy Stucker uploads content from the Your College-Bound Kid RSS feed to the website. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in African American studies. Joy is getting her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She is the daughter of the YCBK founder, producer, and co-host, Mark Stucker. Joy enjoys reading sociology books, loves to travel, and really enjoys the beach.
Vladyslav HoncharVladyslav Honchar. Vladyslav is a seasoned photo editor with six years of experience and is renowned for his impeccable image editing and manipulation skills. From an early age, his passion for art and computer graphics paved the way for a successful career. Mastering diverse tools and techniques, he breathes life into images, creating captivating visuals. Vladislav’s work reflects his adaptability, offering precise retouching and imaginative manipulations. He’s serving a wide clientele and leaving an indelible mark on the art of photo editing.
Nemanja MatovicNemanja Matovic, is unquestionably the best sound engineer we have hired. Nemanja does the post-production of our podcast. If you need any services in audio editing, mixing or mastering you can get it touch with him at: nemanjamatovic29@gmail.com or info@podcastvolume.com. We also encourage you to check out his website: https://www.podcastvolume.com/.
