Archmere welcomed a new Associate Director of College Counseling to the community this year–Mrs. Suzyn-Elayne Soler.

Mrs. Soler comes from Long Island, NY. She attended Boston University and received a Master’s Degree in Education. With a focus on higher education, Mrs. Soler gained knowledge of the admissions process from the college side of the process. After realizing that she wanted more variety in school representation, she switched to college counseling at the high school level. 

A motivator for her is her own college experience. After experiencing firsthand the negative effects of receiving mediocre college guidance, she aims to help students not make similar mistakes. This experience has shown Mrs. Soler how things work out in the end. She ended up liking Boston University so much that she stayed for graduate school and worked there after graduation, even though she wasn’t too keen on BU in the beginning. 

Her favorite aspect of her job is interacting with people. She likes to learn about people’s interests and passions in order to “give them some great advice that helps them to land in a great school.” Feeling the kindness from our school has helped her transition into this new position and she reflects on the theme of “Every person is sacred” with the hope that she can spread that message into the world, not just at Archmere. 

Some fun facts about Mrs. Soler includes her obsession with purple, her love of traveling, and her interest in museums. Looking around her office, it is easy to spot many purple-colored items. She has traveled to many places for work, including Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. She is also an avid museum-goer. She enjoys supporting the arts in the community and supports many local museums, including the Delaware Art Museum. 

She stands by the advice that there is a perfect school for everyone and not only one correct answer. Success can come from many different places. She states “You get from a college, what you put into a college,”  meaning even if the school is not the perfect fit right away, great things can come if you throw yourself into it and make it what you want. Mrs. Soler believes that nobody knows you better than yourself. She says that we should not hesitate to “step up and self-advocate.” Knowing yourself plays a big role in her advice that we should have a growth mindset so we can find what is best for us. 

Mrs. Soler will have a positive impact on the Archmere community through her thoughtfulness and motivation.