In
the News
Good Counsel By Ruth Lando
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL), Style Magazine, Feb 2005
Susan Samson is the first person I've interviewed "At Lunch"
who never touched her food. I worried that my questions were too disruptive
to allow my intelligent, consummately elegant guest to enjoy her food
and talk at the same time. But she assured me that she was just "too
energized" to eat; too deep in thought and concentrated on each
answer to be able to give her food the attention it deserved. She
took everything home intact and promised to tackle it later.
This is a woman who clearly thinks and feels fervently about everything
she undertakes, whether serving as an independent educational consultant
to teens and their families; entertaining guests in the stunningly
modern and artistic home she shares with her South African-born, vascular
surgeon husband, Russell; or parenting her children, Andrew, 25, and
Paige, 22.Since moving to Sarasota from Scarsdale, N.Y., 18 years
ago, the 5-foot-8-inch former Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdale's
floor model has been known as an effective and dedicated Pine View
school volunteer. For years, she used her dual master's degrees in
education and applied human development and counseling from Columbia
University Teachers College in New York to advise and be an advocate
for her own children, who went on to the University of Pennsylvania
(Andrew) and Emory (Paige).
Now that Andrew has graduated and started a career in television writing
in Los Angeles and Paige is a senior at Emory majoring in psychology,
Samson wants every child and parent tackling the tough decisions and
preparations for college to benefit from her education, research and
personal family experience. Working alongside her own children, Samson
saw that "the application process for college had become more
complex and demanding than ever ... That's when I decided to dedicate
myself to helping other parents survive this tedious but ultimately
gratifying journey." |
Samson has a knack for establishing an easy rapport with teenagers,
who sense her efforts to "meet them where they're at ..."
Amazingly, she says, they'll listen to her when the same advice
from a parent might be completely ignored. When she counsels a confused
high school senior to get organized, follow certain guidelines for
a "self-inventory" or to check out colleges that he or
she might not have considered, they generally follow through. She
might advise a new strategy for tackling the ACT or SAT tests, help
sharpen a resume and polish the dreaded college admissions essays,
or even suggest taking a "gap" year off before continuing
on to higher education. Not all of her clients see her because they
want a leg up applying to a prestigious school, however. Some will
go to community college, get a job or attend vocational school after
high school; but all will have given their futures a lot more careful
consideration, Samson says.
"Parents want peace of mind, I think. You can never guarantee
that ... but you can do your research. There's so much that the
parents can access on the Internet that with just a little bit of
coaching it can become their thing too ... and of course, there's
that dynamic of having a third person involved ... I like to be
part of the team." She also collaborates with a clinical psychologist
to provide coaching and test-taking strategies for students with
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
For Samson, helping parents to better understand their children
before they ship them off to the "real world" is a valuable
service. "I've always felt that before you send your child
away to school you should know who they are mentally," she
says. "You wouldn't NOT give your child a physical every year.
And yet we're so quick to send our kids away and not really know
(who they are) on a psycho-educational level. All of their safety
nets are taken away when we send the student away, not really knowing
what they are capable of or how they're going to be affected by
a different lifestyle and leaving home ..."
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