Special Guest: Sydney Montgomery
Counseling Is Her Calling
When Sydney was eight, she was determined to convince her parents to foster a child so that she could have an older sibling. Rather than just push, she did the math...if just one-quarter of the country could foster one child, no child would be left without the support they deserve. She researched the options, laid out a plan, and learned what it would take to make fostering a reality for her family, framing her determination to become a family lawyer. Nothing Sydney does is halfway.
At the young age of 26, despite some incredible odds, Sydney has racked up a list of achievements that most would say point undeniably to “success”....first in her family to attend college directly after high school, Princeton undergraduate, Harvard Law School, and family law attorney to name a few. But what struck me most when talking to Sydney was that she is at peace with the pivot she has taken from the classic path of her classmates. Her confidence in her choices is inspiring. She is not shy about sharing that counseling, and working with students is her calling. That was her motivation in founding S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting.
While my original motivation in interviewing Sydney was to learn more about how she used Corsava with her students, what I got out of our one hour was a lot more.
Sydney’s story is beautifully told on her website, I encourage you to read it. Her faith has brought her through some tough times, and she is eager to share that with her students if that is something they value, building yet another community for students to support one another. She works with both high school and law school applicants and is passionate about racial equity, affordability, and accessibility, particularly supporting first-gen, Black, and Latina women. This goes hand-in-hand with her mission to build community before students head off to college or graduate school, ensuring a support network is in place before students even consider joining organizations on campus. Undermatching and social shifting drive the new programming she is launching this fall, Barrier Breakers.
Sydney worked with students during her time at both Princeton and Harvard Law and has learned a lot along the way that she shares with students in her work and on her YouTube channel. She considered working in admissions after practicing law for a certain period of time, but she knew that this path would take her away from working one-on-one with students and she loves them too much. While an undergraduate and graduate student, Sydney continued to follow her passion by working as a peer tutor for what eventually became Aristotle Circle Peers, ultimately becoming the HR manager while still in school.
Because of her age, while visiting colleges many tour guides assume she is a student, so she gets very candid responses to her questions like, “what do students here complain about the most”, and “who doesn’t fit in here?”. Sydney looks beyond the percentages to understand the experience her students will get, focusing on the availability of mentorship and smaller classes, knowing that this will benefit her students. She loves to bring this feedback into her conversations of life on campus, using Corsava to launch these critical conversations.
Sydney first heard about Corsava in her UC Irvine IEC Certificate course. Her students love Corsava. She had some great insight into the ways Corsava Cards engage her students, sharing ideas about how each card drives a discussion of personal values and initiates discussions of how welcoming a campus will be. Sometimes the values that come from a card are more important to a student than the card itself. Students may conflate something they desire with their assumptions about a particular card, so conversations help unpack the connections they are making between the environment/experience they are seeking and the cards they associate with that environment/experience.
She asks her students to complete the card sort before her virtual meetings so that they can go through the results together. Sydney uses a research assignment to help students narrow their lists, including majors, net price, clubs they are interested in, then asks how many of their Must Have and Would Be Nice attributes each school has. Sometimes, this means revisiting what is a Must Have versus a Would Be Nice choice, especially if a particular school resonates deeply with her student, but does not appear to be stacking up. She later has them go through their cards when making final decisions, again tying their preferences to their choice.
I was excited to hear that one of the motivating factors in building Corsava happened organically with someone like Sydney, and being a part of helping engage her students meant a lot. Our conversation reminded me that one of the key factors that lead to student success in college and beyond is mentorship, inspiring me to add Availability of Mentorship to our new card list for the future!
While ultimately her family said no to the older sibling, Sydney later gained a younger sister 11 years her junior and is doing all of the things she can to help mentor, support, and empower her students, embodying the qualities she hoped for in an older sibling for others. Sydney’s tremendous drive to give back is the common thread that runs through everything she does. Knowing oneself the way she does is a gift, and the world is a better place with Sydney growing her community.