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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Ashley Davenport is the new college counselor at Homewood High School.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Students in Kelly Reaves’ AP Chemistry class work through a lesson on peaks and electron sub-shells for elements, like neon, on the periodic table at Homewood High School.
Homewood High School created a new college counselor position for the 2023-24 school, and its new hire, Ashley Davenport, said this is her dream job.
Davenport, who just finished her 14th year as a counselor, said being a college counselor has been her favorite aspect of her professional career.
She previously served in this role at John Carroll Catholic High School. She also worked as a school counselor at The Altamont School and Hoover High School, as well as being a licensed professional counselor.
“College counseling was by far my favorite type of counseling that I’ve had experience with. … It’s so positive, and it’s goal directed,” Davenport said. “There’s kind of this big puzzle that you have to help students put together, which is really fun and exciting to me.”
Drawing from her own personal experience in college, Davenport, a graduate of Altamont, said it is important to “find the right fit” for students. She started at the University of Pennsylvania but transferred to Birmingham-Southern College after her first semester.
“UPenn was a really great school, but it was not a very good fit for me personally, and so I feel strongly about helping students find the best fit for them,” she said. “That may not be a big name school, but you’ve got to find the right one for the right kid and the right thing for the family as well.
I’m pretty passionate about that — helping them find what is best for them and their circumstances — and that can be pretty complicated.”
Taking into consideration their family finances, distance from home and what a student wants to study are all important aspects of choosing the right school for any given student, Davenport added.
With a son who graduated from Homewood and a daughter currently enrolled there, Davenport is familiar with the school and its administration. She said working alongside the other counselors is something she is looking forward to doing.
“They do a great job at Homewood, and I’m excited to join the team,” she said. “This new position will help students in many ways, including giving the senior counselor a chance to focus more on other things, like curriculum and mental health issues.”
Davenport said making the college counseling program at Homewood more comprehensive and interacting not just with juniors and seniors, but all the way to middle schoolers, is a main goal for her.
“Starting early to prepare them and educate them about the college admissions process is important,” she said. “So much of it is just educating families and students about this whole process, and you can start really early with that.”
Mindy McBride, Homewood High’s assistant principal for instruction, said the goal for the new position is to be comprehensive, reaching more students and teaching them at a younger age.
“We feel the college counselor position was something we needed,” McBride said. “Homewood had a college counselor many years ago, but it has been a long time. Ashley really impressed us in the interview process. She has experience as a college counselor and had done the things that we hope to see in our school.”
Davenport said she sees a college counselor as a “middle man” between students and colleges.
“I’ll get information from programs in schools and then relay that information, or help to do that with the families and kind of break it down for them,” she said. “There’s just so much information out there that it can be very overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.”
Starting early to prepare them and educate them about the college admissions process is important. So much of it is just educating families and students about this whole process, and you can start really early with that.
Ashley Davenport
If students are interested in specific programs, Davenport said she will have the research and information for those students. Since she only started the job on July 5, Davenport said getting to know the seniors will be her first priority.
“Once I get to know them and find out what they are interested in doing in the future, that’s when I can become that middle man,” she said.
Often, she may know about a program that the students do not, because their focus is on “just trying to get their grades up, be a teenager and all those things.”
Davenport said one of her favorite aspects of college counseling is helping students who are unsure if they can get into any school.
“It’s really satisfying to work with the students who don’t think they have the GPA or don’t think they can work hard enough to get their GPA up high enough, but they can,” she said. “Working with those students is when a college counselor can definitely change lives. That is when the work can change people’s futures forever. If you give them a little bit of information and a little bit of encouragement, you can change their outlook and their lives.”
Working with students who already have a high GPA and have done a lot of the legwork for college admissions themselves can also be rewarding, Davenport said, but in a different way.
“A lot of college counseling is working with the students who are going to get into the really hard, selective schools,” she said. “Those students are already rock stars, and I might have to help them with how they present themselves to the college.”
Davenport said part of her job is also to find opportunities for students who may not be interested in a four-year university. She said the school’s recent summer road trips to area community colleges were a great way to introduce students to what two-year colleges can offer.
Fine arts students will also be a focus for Davenport. She said learning how to present those talents is important. She attended some professional development on that subject in July at University of North Carolina – Charlotte.
Meeting with college representatives is another part of her role, Davenport said.
“There as so many aspects to the position, and I’m excited to meet our students and begin to start putting those puzzles together to find the right places for each of them,” she said.
