By Rachel Williams, NACAC Communications

COLUMBUS, OHIO (Sept. 20, 2025) – On opening day of NACAC Conference 2025, renowned researcher and best-selling author Brené Brown encouraged attendees to lean into vulnerability.

On closing day of the conference, a few NACAC members did just that as they took the stage to share their personal stories of working through tragedy and experiencing triumphs.

Whitney Soule, vice provost and dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, navigated a divorce, successfully battled cancer, mourned the death of her dog, and sold her home in just this past year alone.

“You might think this sounds miserable. It really was,” said Soule. “But that’s not the whole story. The breadth of my life — both close and peripheral — lit up. Way up.”

Her family, friends, and colleagues supported her all the way through.

“I hope you can see your own capacity to prevail,” she said. “Through sweeping challenges like a pandemic and politics, and through deeply personal trials. None of us are exempt.”

Linh Snyder, college and career counselor at Malibu High School (CA), leaned into empathy — the only tool available to her — to help counsel students whose families had lost everything in the recent Palisades Fire. She, too, had been a victim of wildfires.

She’ll never forget waking up in the middle of the night to a fire chief at her window yelling for them to get out. As she closed the front door behind her with her 7-month-old baby in her arms, she thought they and her husband would soon be back. They never returned to that apartment again.

“There was no strategic plan, no checklist for how to counsel students when everything they’ve known is gone. So, we started with what we had: each other. I learned that leadership in that moment … looked like showing up, even when you didn’t know what to say.”

Emmanuel Moses, senior director of college access and success at the Opportunity Network, keeps a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. in the back of his mind: “The ultimate measure of a man, an individual, is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”

During these challenging times, he finds himself asking: “How do I move forward when it feels like I’m not doing enough?”

Through his own therapy journey, he’s come to understand that it’s not about getting it right every time.

“It’s easy to feel like you’re not enough, or feel like you’ll be measured by that one, two, or three instances when you weren’t the first to stand up, yell out, or fight back against that challenge, that controversy. But I’m telling you all, as I’ve been able to tell myself, that it’s not just those singular moments, but rather that it’s the long run that matters, and how we continue to show up and stand up.”

Kristina Dooley, certified educational planner and founder of Estrela Consulting, credits much of her success to Mrs. G.

Mrs. G was the school counselor from the Cleveland Scholarship Program — now called College Now Greater Cleveland — who visited Dooley’s high school once a week to help students through their college journey.

“Here’s the thing: In my school, there weren’t a lot of takers. The median income back then in my community was about $35,000. Three-quarters of us were on free or reduced lunch, and our college-going rate was around 50 percent,” said Dooley, who was one of the students who received free lunch.

She remembers Mrs. G sitting with her as she registered for the ACT, helped her with FAFSA, and identified three colleges that she would later apply to that were supportive of first-generation students with limited funds.

“There I was, sitting in the school counseling office in 1995, thinking: I’m going to college. Not because the system was designed for me — it wasn’t. But because once a week, Mrs. G showed up,” Dooley said. “Not to spoil the ending, but her plan worked out pretty well.”

Tahirah Jordan Crawford, director of multicultural recruitment at Columbia University (NY) and chair-elect of the NACAC Board of Trustees, had a harsh realization in college: She was mediocre.

“My parents, especially my father, always told us we were the best at everything,” Crawford said of her and her two sisters. “I have now come to realize, as the father to three Black girls, he was giving us one of the greatest gifts. The gift of gall and audacity, which I liken to a delusional level of confidence at times.”

In 2023, her beloved father passed away, yet his lessons endure. Even though Crawford felt humbled while in law school for what she called “three very rough years,” she credits her father’s encouragement and enthusiasm to her willingness to lead.

“It gave me the belief that my willingness, passion, and humility were enough to raise my hand to lead right now when so much is at stake.”

Jeremy Branch, director of college counseling at the Haverford School (PA), worried when he was younger that he would never find his purpose.

One day when 20-something-year-olds excitedly shouted “Mr. Branch!” at his father from across the street, and he realized how much of an impact his father had made on their lives as their former middle school teacher, he thought: I want to be impactful like that, too.

“My observant nature and fascination with people turned out to be my greatest superpower, enabling me to look at each student as a soul, not an ID number or future deposit,” he said.

As he helped close out NACAC Conference 2025, he said, “I encourage you to carry these stories with you. Share your own. Let them shape the way you lead, the way you serve, the way you rise. Because in challenging times, the world doesn’t just need professionals who do their jobs. It needs leaders with the courage to rise.”