New associate director is dedicated to supporting 9th and 10th graders and their families

While applying to college has never been a worry-free process, competition has increased exponentially in recent years, and families are feeling the anxiety earlier and earlier. To better support young Spartans at the beginning of their college admissions journey, the St. Stephen’s College Counseling office knew they needed to find a specialist who could focus exclusively on 9th and 10th grade students. Luckily, the ideal candidate was in their backyard. Well, almost.

In June, Laura Harris joined St. Stephen’s robust college counseling program as associate director of 9th and 10th grade. The expanded department now includes five counselors and an office manager, providing stronger support for younger students without compromising their dedication to 11th and 12th graders.

Harris brings a deep background in both admissions and college counseling. After attending Vanderbilt University for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Harris spent five years as an admissions counselor for her alma mater.

“Being an admissions counselor for Vanderbilt gave me a boots-on-the-ground, insider perspective of what colleges are looking for when they evaluate students,” said Harris, from her new office on the second floor of the Booth Student Center. 

That viewpoint informed her work as a college counselor for Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, one of Atlanta’s top independent schools recognized for strong college matriculation outcomes. While there, she helped redesign the school’s college counseling curriculum, creating their 9th and 10th grade programming from the ground up. After moving to Austin, Harris counseled some 50 international high school students through the college search and application process. Both experiences will be valuable in her new role serving St. Stephen’s diverse student body.

She was also very familiar with St. Stephen’s, having lived on campus with her husband, Upper School Theology Department Chair Wyatt Harris Ph.D., for the past three years. Her new office is decorated with photographs of students she has previously counseled, and Harris is excited to build new relationships on The Hill.

“It's really encouraging, humbling and gratifying to meet a 9th grader and to watch them progress in all the ways that high school students progress — academically, personally, socially — and then leave this place to go to their next best fit,” she said.

Harris’ warmth and depth of knowledge will help students and their families build relationships with the College Counseling office well before beginning the “nerve-wracking” college application process, said Kim Garey, associate head of school for academics and student programs (and parent of three Spartan alumni). While St. Stephen’s 1:30 counselor-to-student ratio is exceptional, today's admissions landscape is far more complex and daunting than what most parents experienced — families often seek guidance in early high school and even middle school.

“We let families know earlier who their college counselor was, and we tried to offer more programming for younger students and their families,” said Garey, but the department couldn’t continue to expand services for 10th graders and below without pulling focus from 11th and 12th graders. “Laura’s role is totally focused on younger kids. She is available not only to students, but also their parents, who may have all kinds of questions.”

Harris joins College Counseling co-directors Maj Dergham, Claire Fenton ’93, Bea Hodavdekar and Frank Smith, as well as department office manager Karla Enloe. Collectively the team offers unlimited meetings with students, family conferences as needed, grade-level appropriate programming for parents, test preparation tools and individualized advice on course and extracurricular selection. Additionally, in 11th grade, all Spartans are required to complete workshops covering college and scholarship research, resume building, standardized testing logistics, essay brainstorming and drafting, and the completion of major college applications like the Common App. Rising seniors can consult with the counselors remotely during summer break. Each fall, College Counseling hosts more than 120 college representatives on campus to visit with 11th and 12th graders. This attention helped the Class of 2026 matriculate to 77 colleges in 27 states and four international campuses, half of which were early decision applications. Nearly the entire class applied on or before December 1, 2025.

Harris will augment College Counseling’s existing programming by meeting with every 10th grader (parents welcome), hosting skills and strengths workshops for 9th and 10th grade students, and convening admissions-focused virtual panels and book clubs for their parents. She will also work closely with Garey on course selection.

“What we don’t want to do is pressure students by having them worry about things in 9th grade that they don’t need to begin thinking about until 11th grade,” said Harris. “My goal is to shepherd them through these beginning conversations so that they feel educated and empowered by the time they get to their assigned college counselor [in the Spring semester of 10th grade], and the work that we’ve begun is continued in a more earnest and intensified way.”

This approach complements the department’s philosophy for upper grades. “The mission is finding the best fit and the best fit looks really different to different kids,” said Garey. “It's why we call it ‘college counseling’ and not ‘college placement.’ We're not selling that we're going to place a student in the most elite college. We’re going to counsel them through what is an incredibly important, valuable and challenging process.”

To learn more about College Counseling at St. Stephen’s, including upcoming events, visit their webpage. Current parents and students can also learn more on the MySSES College Counseling tile. Feel free to drop by Harris’ office in the Booth Student Center to introduce yourself, or reach out via email at lharris@sstx.org.