Williston Northampton School is welcoming a new member of the Admission staff, with Devin LaSane joining the team as the Director of Admission & Financial Aid.
LaSane comes to Williston with a wealth of experience in preparatory schools and admissions, having worked at several schools in New York City, most recently at Allen-Stevenson, a TK-8 all-boys school. She arrives at Williston along with her husband, Kendall, and two kids.
Having attended boarding school herself—spending five years at Groton School—LaSane brings an intimate knowledge of what makes the boarding school experience unique.
To help introduce LaSane to the community, we sat down to ask her a few questions:
Q) Start first by telling us a bit about yourself and your background
DL: I’m a true New Yorker. I grew up on the Upper East Side before going to boarding school for high school. I went to Groton, and that was a really pivotal part of my life. I’m still extremely close with my friends from Groton and text daily. After Groton, I went off to college at Wellesley, and upon graduating I went back to New York. It was there, that I started working at a K-12 independent school, Trinity, and fell in love with teaching and being around children.
Q) What drew you into pursuing a career in education?
DL: Honestly, I never thought I would be in education! I thought I was going to go to law school. But I graduated from Wellesley in 2008 during the recession, went back home to New York and happened upon teaching because there was a job opening. I did have a stint at Comedy Central’s Business and Legal Affairs Department and got a bit of a taste of what being an entertainment lawyer would be like. But I realized it wasn’t what I ultimately wanted to do, and in fact it helped me realize how much I missed working with kids. So, instead of a law degree, I pursued my master’s in educational leadership.
Q) When did you first get into admission work?
DL: When I transitioned to Allen-Stevenson. I taught third grade at first, the same grade I had taught previously and I really fell in love with boys’ education. I saw firsthand the impact that a program tailored to boys had on my students. It was something that I wanted everyone to know, and those conversations start in the admissions office. I’ve been doing admissions work for the last 10 years and have seen the profession change as we think about what parents need, what students need, and also how schools evolve amidst these changes. Being in admissions is about guiding parents, but also helping students navigate this world, too.
Q) What do you think is important for people to consider when looking at a school like Williston?
DL: My hope is that education exposes kids to a variety of different things. I think, in this world, we want students to know how to advocate for themselves—to have those critical thinking skills, which independent schools do so well. It’s not just, ‘Hey, I’m going to teach you this and this is how you have to learn it.’ Rather, it’s, ‘I want you to engage in this work along with me.’ I think independent schools also really help kids understand metacognitively who they are as learners. And if we’re thinking specifically of a boarding school environment , you get to see your teachers all the time. That’s something really special because the connections and relationships that you build with students in general is really foundational—And I think that’s what helps students thrive.
Q) Tell us a bit about how you arrived here at Williston; What attracted you to this position?
DL: First and foremost, I like how the school thinks of students as multi-dimensional beings. I loved that on my tour, the tour guide that showed me around told me she did a ‘couple things’ on campus, and then she listed everything under the sun. That is what I think students should be encouraged to do. And then walking around campus and seeing how the kids were connecting to each other. The fact that there’s a no cell phone policy really reminded me of my days at Groton, as we would walk around and say hello to each other. You do make a connection, and in a time where you could very much be anonymous, I loved that there was that little connection happening here. These are the nuances that people don’t necessarily realize make a difference in the environment, but they really do. And then, coming from a TK-8 boys school, I was looking for something similar in the bones of the place—meaning kids that are really engaged in their education, engaged in their extracurriculars. I felt like I was picking up on that at Williston as I got to know it more and more.
Q) What something you enjoy about being in an admissions role?
I hope that when families and students sit down with me, that they find me disarming- that some of the nerves and stress dissipate. I think that meeting with admission officers can feel like people have to be their perfect self and can’t show who they really are. I would like for people to be authentically themselves with me and feel comfortable within this setting—I want them to feel like they can not only get to know Williston, but they can get to know me. The admissions process should be accessible, because it’s a daunting process—I don’t want that to be their experience here at Williston. That’s what I enjoy, when folks feel like they can ask those candid questions and can feel comfortable not only with me, but then Williston when they make the transition.