In this episode of Highway to Higher Ed, Alex talks to Nina Berler of unCommon Apps. Nina advises high school students and their families, focusing on how applicants can differentiate themselves in the admissions process. Previously, Nina was college counselor and curriculum consultant at The Hudson School in Hoboken, New Jersey. She has also advised educational startups. Prior to transitioning to K-12 education, Nina directed the Executive Education business for KPMG. Nina is a Professional Member, Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), and a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Her blogs and articles have appeared in forbes.com, Parentology, College Confidential and LINK for Counselors. In this episode Nina and Alex talk about; Nina’s background, how she got into college counseling, some of her challenges, how student should prepare for college interviews, suggestions for things to do after the interviews, how the process has changed, trends parents should be aware of and some parting advice for parent of students partaking in college interviews.

In this episode of Highway to Higher Ed, Alex talks to Hamzah Henshaw of Five Before College. Born and raised in Boston, he accepted Islam in 1994 while attending St. Mark’s, a suburban boarding school in Southborough, MA. He graduated from Harvard College, where he

concentrated in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations with a minor in economics. He began his career in the field of Islamic Finance, working for Rockefeller in New York and Saudi Arabia. Hamza transitioned to the field of education and got various opportunities to teach at the top institutes around the world. He has been Dean of students at Al-Noor Academy overseeing the dual enrollment program, and serving as the college/guidance counselor for the high school. During COVID, when everything shutdown and whole the world turned to online, he began to share his experiences online and helped thousands of students in various parts of the world with diverse backgrounds. That became a stepping stone for his current initiative: Five Before College. Alex and Hamzah discuss; Hamzah’s background and path into teaching, how he transition into college counselling, methodology in his consulting, helping Islamic students pursue higher education while remaining true to their faith, his impressions of the landscape evolution in the current age and finally shares a story of a students college essay which got him a call from the President of Mexico.

In this episode of Highway to Higher Ed, Alex talks to Melissa Bildner of Live Better Training. With almost 20 years of experience living with and parenting kids with ADHD and executive function challenges, this unique situation has empowered Melissa to develop a unique and practical set of skills and strategies to living with kids who have ADHD. Formally trained as a Certified Professional Coach, an ADHD Parent Coach and Personal Trainer, Melissa also has training in Collaborative Problem Solving from Dr. Stuart Ablon at Think Kids. Her personal experiences combined with her formal training make her uniquely qualified to provide an authentically supportive and empathetic coaching experience, allowing parents to feel heard and understood and combine this feeling with offering practical strategies that parents can easily implement into their own parenting style. In this episode Alex and Melissa discuss; her background, how having kids and a husband with ADHD has helped her be more effective, the challengers she’s faced balancing business and being a parent, listing different parts of her practice, sharing success stories and changes and also sharing advise for parents of students she coaches.