To me, Team Culture is about how we show up for each other—not just with ideas, but with respect, curiosity, and a willingness to grow together. It means building positive, supportive relationships where everyone feels valued (and yes, where it’s safe to ask for help with the printer). We look to one another for fresh perspectives, share our favorite life hacks, and say “yes” to keep learning as a team. It’s a culture that says
Let’s Taco ‘Bout Teamwork
One of the favorite parts of my job is getting to connect with people—both inside the Admissions Team and beyond. It’s like where everyone brings their own taco ingredient to build the perfect bite! Whether it’s teaming up on a project, swapping ideas, seeking advice, or sharing what we’ve learned along the way. It’s in these everyday moments of teamwork that we grow, problem-solve, and yes—sometimes laugh at the inevitable, uncontrollable moments.
Behind Every Great Event Is a Great Facilities Team
When it comes to pulling off a successful event, the magic really starts behind the scenes—and that’s where our incredible Facilities Team comes in. I’ll share a few snapshots of collaborating with the Facilities Team to demonstrate how I develop relationships with team members and actively collaborate.
Events: Throughout the year, I have the pleasure of working closely with Facilities on everything from big 300+ guest events to smaller community events. Their hard work turns plans on paper into memorable experiences.
- Admissions Preview Events
These events are all-hands-on-deck, and Facilities is a key player from start to finish. I coordinate setup for spaces like the LPC and Theatre, send detailed FMX requests (complete with room layouts and floor maps), and work with the team to ensure parking runs smoothly. We even time landscaping work so that everything feels fresh and guest-ready the moment families arrive.
- Admissions Testing Days (SSAT/ISEE)
Testing days are all about keeping the calm. I partner with Facilities to ensure testing spaces like the theatre and designated classrooms are set up to the guidelines provided by the testing companies. Quiet, clean spaces, and the right number of desks—it all adds up to reducing stress for students.
Communication
One improvement we introduced this year is scheduling pre-event check-ins. These brief but focused meetings ensure we’re on the same page. After each event, we also take time to share what worked well and where we can make small tweaks next time.
I try to submit FMX requests as early as possible to support Facilities in planning and scheduling. If anything changes (as it often does), I follow up with an email outlining the changes.
Teamwork
On event days, the Admissions Team works shoulder to shoulder with Facilities, helping with setup and staying until the last table is folded and the final tablecloth is bagged. This partnership is a reflection of our shared commitment to showing up, pitching in, and making each event something we can all be proud of.
Working with Facilities is more than task management; it’s about trust, communication, and shared goals with a side of hustle and the occasional last-minute table shuffle.
Girl Meets Coding!
(Where are my 90s kids at?!?)
The life lesson of this episode: Trying something new outside your comfort zone and asking for help AKA my take on seeks opinions of others for guidance.
My Mr. Feeny: Jonathon Briggs
We all know how big Admissions Preview Days are! One of the key tasks is organizing the sample classes and creating student groups for 100 students (x2 a day x 3 Saturdays). I wish I could say I went into this opportunity with a “can do attitude. The truth? I cautiously decided to try my hand at coding an Excel document that pulled from different Excel forms and to sort student groups and classes.
Enter Mr. Feeny AKA Jonathan Briggs- Who better to learn from than Briggs! He graciously offered to walk me through a crash course in programming. It wasn’t quite “Coding 101.” More like “Coding for Toddlers” — and to be clear, most toddlers might’ve had a head start on me. Full transparency, I had to retake Coding 101; Coding and I did not click at first. But Jonathan, with the patience of a saint, broke everything down into digestible bits and walked me through it again — slower, simpler, and with more examples.
We began with the basics — understanding how Python and Visual Studio work. While that was helpful, I quickly realized I do not speak “computer.” The next step was a surprise to me. We used Chat GPT to help write the code! To come full circle, it was kind of like communicating with a toddler.
- Break down each step and each detail, do not assume Chat GPT knows what you want.
- When you get the result back, share what was good about the results and follow up with any adjustments, again using details and being specific.
(I wish I had the weeklong conversation I has with Chat GPT but it did not save in my history)
Once we had the code suggestions from Chat GPT, we added it to the Visual Studio to test run the code. After many, many versions of the code and back and forth with Chat GPT, it ended with:
But the real magic? Watching Jonathan step in when the code went rogue. Instead of just fixing it, he patiently explained why things weren’t working and how he approached the solution. Seeing the logic unfold in real time — the step-by-step problem-solving, the little aha moments — turned something that once felt overwhelming into something surprisingly interesting… and, honestly, kind of fun.
With Great Knowledge Comes Great Responsibility
Learning is an adventure, not a destination. Why not travel with friends and see what we can learn together?! I’ll share a few examples of sharing knowledge in meetings and facilitating and promoting PDD.
Meetings
Could it have been an email? Maybe. But meetings offer something email can’t — live, active back-and-forth that sparks new ideas, creates out-of-the-box solutions, and leads to meaningful interactions. Plus, let’s be honest… sometimes there’s free coffee and snacks. That counts for something.
Administrative Staff Council (ASC) Meetings
As the Admissions Team rep for the Administrative Staff Council (ASC), I get to share what’s happening in admissions and bring useful information back to our team. Occasionally, I’ve even helped facilitate a meeting or two (which mostly means running the PowerPoint that Randi expertly assembles and keeping things on track).
Over time, I’ve shared a few handy tips — like how to save an EPS color palette in Microsoft programs or how to accept a calendar invite without sending a response email. Little things that make work life smoother.
I also helped revive our Staff OneNote — a shared space where we can collect time-saving tricks, favorite best practices, and even sprinkle in some personal favorites like great reads or go-to recipes.
The ASC Team is a great way for those of us who don’t typically get to work together to connect, share, and learn from each other. It’s a group full of problem solvers, helpers, organizers, and note-takers — basically, people who make things happen behind the scenes.
I’d love to see us carve out more time to learn about what each person does day-to-day and explore ways we can team up and collaborate more.
Weekly Admissions Team Meetings
I genuinely look forward to our weekly team meetings. During the busy season, we’re all in go-mode, so it’s nice to have that regular time to catch up, ask questions, get help, or just take a breather together.
Over the years, I’ve gotten more comfortable asking “why” and chiming in with a different perspective when it feels helpful.
I’ll often bring up topics for discussion based on what we’re hearing from families in the inbox or give friendly timeline reminders — it’s a good way to keep our conversations on track with what families are asking.
I would love to see us to continue to find ways for each of us to use our strengths and interests to facilitate parts of our meetings, brining a bit of each of us to our time together.
Ravenna Advisory Council
Ravenna is our admissions application system, and after six years of working closely with it, I’ve earned the unofficial title of Ravenna Power User. I have a solid grasp of how things work on the admissions side, and each year, I even submit a test application to walk through the process like a family would — it’s a great way to understand their experience firsthand.
I also do not shy away from offering thoughtful feedback and solution-oriented ideas to improve the user experience. So, when Community Brands (Ravenna’s parent company) introduced Customer Success Managers, I didn’t hesitate to reach out to ours, Jill.
After collaborating with Jill on a document upload issue affecting schools and families, Jill sent me a message about a new Ravenna Advisory Council, saying, “We are looking for folks just like yourself with extensive Ravenna knowledge from all perspectives to be a part of our council! I will advocate for your participation with my leadership team.”
I’m now part of that council and share feedback and ideas from both the school and family point of view at each quarterly meeting.
Professional Development
Professional Development opportunities are all around us. From PDD days to LLL (Live, Laugh, Learn), to meetings, there are always new things to learn, new ways to collaborate and share knowledge and experiences.
Participation in Professional Development
I really enjoy the LLL sessions (Lunch, Learn & Laugh) and am always encouraging people to attend them. I have participated in all the sessions except the walking sessions (which is a goal of mine for next year to go to those as well.)
I attend all staff required sessions of PDDs, and when available, I will even pop into non-required sessions, like ADIG, division meetings, EICL, and Evo sessions (love those).
I enjoyed Josefa’s Evo presentations so much, I suggested to Cheryl that we need to recreate the feeling of Josefa’s video of students in Spanish class, for families. I did not help with the actual video creation, but we have the coolest Spanish Program available for families to see. I would love to see videos like this for all disciplines!
Facilitate & Promote Professional Development Opportunities
When it comes to Professional Development Days (PDDs), the focus has usually been on faculty—which makes total sense. We’re a school, and supporting our teachers is super important.
But planning PDDs for staff? That’s a bit trickier. While a lot of our job skills overlap, they’re also really different. We all have unique strengths, different tools we use, and areas we’d like to grow in. So, creating sessions that work for everyone is a bit of a puzzle.
In the past, that’s led to more wellness-style sessions—flower arranging, cooking lessons, paint and sip. And honestly? Those have been great. Mental health and downtime are important too.
In 2023, we tried something new: a “choose-your-own-session” format. Staff could pick from Time Management, Planning Your Workflow, or Boosting Communication. It was nice to have options that felt more directly helpful for the day-to-day.
This year, we added something new again: LLL (Live, Laugh, Learn) sessions, one Thursday a month. These are more casual, peer-led sessions where we share systems or tools that work for us. Angie’s post-it note and file system inspired an idea, and I co-hosted a session with Katie Meredith where we showed how we each use OneNote.
I’ve offered suggestions for both LLL and Staff PDD sessions. I might not be the facilitator for these sessions, and I cannot take credit for any of the work that went into them. A few recent highlights include:
- Cheryl’s Star Chart Reading during the May PDD, which welcomed both staff and faculty.
- An upcoming Radical Candor session next year, focused on honest communication.
Moving forward, I hope we can continue to develop professional learning experiences for staff that are both practical and personalized—while still keeping space for fun, creative, and community-building sessions.
Reflection
For me, team culture starts with how we show up for one another—with curiosity, kindness, and a willingness to learn (and occasionally a laugh, when things go haywire). As someone who values people but sometimes feels drained by social energy, the people we collaborate with are just as important as the tasks we tackle.
I believe that learning doesn’t have to be overly formal to be meaningful. Sometimes the best professional growth happens in hallway chats or an impromptu lunch conversation.
At the heart of all this is a belief that every one of us brings something to the table. And when we show up—whether with a new tool, a fresh perspective, or a willingness to lend a hand, we’re building a stronger, more connected team.