Paula Friedman has been hired as the new College and Career Counselor as of the 2019-20 school year, replacing the recently retired Jean Hawkins.

“She had all the qualities that we were looking for in terms of experience, knowledge and demeanor — those type things,” Buchanan said.

Friedman’s interest in college counseling grew after unofficially assisting with college applications. She practiced private college counseling prior to being a college counselor at public high schools.

“I was helping my son’s friends with their college essays and applications about 10 or 12 years ago and realized I had a real passion for, interest and skill for doing that and I decided to go back to school. I went to UCLA and started taking classes in the college counseling certificate program,” Friedman said. “And the more courses I took the more I realized this was the right field for me. So, I finished that program in 2011 and started working with students right away.”

Friedman entered the college counseling field after growing tired of balancing her job in the corporate world in her position as a market researcher and being a private college counselor.

“I got tired of really long hours and traveling a lot in my corporate job and I decided when I went into college counseling that I would have a lot more flexibility and work-family balance,” Friedman said.

Friedman describes her transition into Oak Park High School as follows.

“I have had incredible support here at Oak Park High School from the counselors, teachers, staff members, administration, students, and parents. They’ve been very welcoming.”

Friedman has brought a couple of new ideas such as Learn-it Lunches.

“So, for example, next Tuesday, September 10, and the following Tuesday, September 17, we’re going to go over the Naviance tasks seniors have to do in order to have their meeting with their counselor,” Friedman said. “Soon after that, we’re going to have a workshop on the UC application, the Common App application, essays, resumes, extracurricular activities, so a lot of topics that are very relevant, especially for seniors.”

She has also introduced ‘Big Essay Ideas,’ cards, which is a deck of cards with questions on them to brainstorm essay topics.

“It’s a tool where students will answer, not all 50, but maybe a majority of the questions. They can come and talk to me about their answers and I will help them identify some distinctive and compelling topics that they can then write their college essays about,” Friedman said.

According to junior Felicity Gonzalez, Friedman was very “helpful when [she] went in to talk to her about when different SAT exams were.”

“She was super sweet and patient with our load of questions,” Gonzalez said