M A I N F E AT U R E
Connecting with Colleges Priory’s exceptional College Counseling Program is uniquely multi-faceted
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s she planned a trip to the East Coast a few months ago, Priory’s Director of College Counseling, Nikki Hostnik, thought it would be a nice idea to briefly check in with two Priory alumni now attending Yale University in Connecticut. Brett Phelan ’18 is in his second year in a cell biology PhD program at the Ivy League school, and Sami Haddad ’21 is a Yale undergrad pursuing a double major – in economics as well as in statistics and data science. She expected the conversation would take no more than 30 minutes. “I thought, ‘I’ll buy them a cup of coffee and it will be great,’” Hostnik recalls. But upon arriving in New Haven and sitting down with the two alums, Hostnik found that Phelan and Haddad were as grateful for the opportunity to reconnect as she was.
Phelan, who graduated from Princeton University in 2022 and is now in the PhD program at Yale, fondly recalls, “Mrs. Hostnik helped me choose schools which fit my personality and academic interests, advocated for me during the application process, and helped me advocate for myself in essays, interviews, and email correspondence.” Haddad’s memories are similarly positive. “Many schools can prepare a kid academically for college,” he says, “but not many schools have the people to shape the students into the best versions of themselves… Priory did both for me.” Hostnik laughs as she remembers the New Haven get-together. “We had so much fun talking about Priory and St. Louis and their college experiences. I think two or three hours later I said, ‘I have to go! I have appointments!’” “It was just wonderful to see them,” she says.
A Five-Year Series of Important Conversations
“ Many schools can prepare a kid academically for college, but not many schools have the people to shape the students into the best versions of themselves… Priory did both for me.” — Sami Haddad ’21
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It’s no surprise that Priory’s College Counseling team is so positively connected with the school’s alumni. The detailed process of learning about each student and his family – their hopes and dreams, their wants and needs – begins early at Priory. How early? When boys are in their eighthgrade year, the school offers a presentation for their parents to explain the college counseling timeline. The following year, Hostnik and her College Counseling colleague, Susan Lutz, host a college kickoff night for freshmen and their parents. The focus on this evening is not about particular schools or the mechanics of college applications, she says. Rather, Hostnik and Lutz emphasize the life skills Priory seeks to cultivate in the young men
