Global Counsellor of the Year – Jeff Neill

How does it feel to win Global Counsellor of the Year at the first ever Global Counsellor Awards?
To be honest, it was an incredible surprise, though, of course, amazingly rewarding to have received this recognition from other practitioners in the field from all around the world. No educator chooses this career for the praise, but it was an amazing experience to receive it.

Furthermore, it was incredibly humbling to have been selected from the amazing slate of finalists. Jenny Tassell, Augusto Neto, and Buket Ayaz are dear friends and wonderful counsellors, so to see them each earn recognition and then to be selected was such a shock.

Tell us a little bit about your career background and how you became a school counsellor.
My pathway to this profession is a little unusual. I was writing a lot of letters of recommendation as an English teacher and for college counsellors early in my career. I was also coach of the girls’ soccer team and the boys’ lacrosse team, where most of my graduates were moving on as recruited athletes. This required me to have an active involvement in their college process.

Eventually, the head of school suggested I move permanently into college counselling. I continued to teach English (and coach) throughout my career, but college counselling really took hold. I have now been working in college counselling for 23 years and have worked at six schools on four continents.

What is the counselling profession like in your region? 
College counselling is not a common occupation in Brazil; few, if any, of the local schools have such people doing this work. However, many of the international schools do, and we have established a very tight network within this group.

The schools in São Paulo, for example, have a WhatsApp group and are regularly tapping each other for guidance and advice as well as sharing resources and opportunities. Just last night, we hosted a handful of universities on our campus for an information session and beforehand, we hosted nearly 50 college counsellors from the region. It is incredibly rewarding to be a part of this active and caring community. 

How can counsellors boost the profile of the profession within their region?
I think the easiest answer to that question is to keep sharing the love. We have an incredibly generous group of individuals in the region (as well as globally), and the more we share with each other, the more all of us and, most importantly, our students benefit. The more we can help our students, the more our profession can be highlighted.

A lot of the work I’ve been doing and talking about with colleagues in the region recently has been to make the work that we do more transparent, even for those who might already know something about the work that we do. One initiative, for example, is week-in-review posts on LinkedIn that show readers all the chaos that goes into the life of a college counselor. Augusto Neto writes amazing ones!

What sort of trends are you seeing in counselling within your region? 
We regularly talk about growing concerns about the cost of attending universities in the US being prohibitive even to wealthy international students. The thought process for many families has been along the lines of whether the education offered is worth it in comparison with universities in Europe.

We have seen significant growth in interest in the UK and continental Europe, especially places such as IE and Bocconi. We suspect there will be continued interest in the Netherlands as well as some relative newcomers such as Spain, Czechia, and elsewhere. We also think that places like the UAE and Turkey will appear regularly on international student lists. High-quality education with significantly lower prices seems to be the growth curve.

What has been the proudest moment in your career so far?

My proudest moment is a hard thing to define. I have so many moments that fit into this bucket: seeing the joy on a student’s face when they get into their dream school, the ecstasy of learning of a financially needy student having earned a scholarship that meets their needs, and even just watching students walk across the stage at graduation.

They are all so memorable and so important. However, my proudest moments all involve students and helping them recognise their own, unique journeys as we help them move on to new horizons. 

What advice would you give to anyone thinking about joining the profession?
Be aware that the best thing and the worst thing about our profession, in my opinion, is that every day is different, which allows it to remain interesting and fresh.

However, there are plenty of days where a little predictability and routine might be nice! This profession is not for everyone, but there is so much that is wonderful about it. I’m not sure it gets much better than to be able to sit down with a young person and help them see the world that they want to be in and help them create it. It’s a pretty amazing honour to be charged with this work.