Russell Althouse began working at Trinity in 2020 as a college counselor and has seen many students through the process of college application during his time here. This year is his last at Trinity.
Althouse previously worked at a high school in New Jersey, but decided to move to Orlando after COVID-19. Before working in college counseling, he worked in college admissions for eleven years at three different universities. He switched from college admissions to college counseling in order to see how the college preparation process worked from a high school perspective.
“One of the things that I like most about the high school side is that I get to work with the students much more closely than I did on the college side,” Althouse said. “On the college counseling side, I know a lot about my students, and I see them in the classroom, out of the classroom and on the athletic fields. I really enjoy having that type of an experience.”
His plans for the future are to move up north and return to his work in college admissions.
“I’m going to go back to Binghamton University, who I worked for previously,” Althouse said. “But I’m going to live in Pennsylvania, and I’m gonna recruit students in all of the Mid Atlantic States.”
He initially decided to move to Florida to work because Trinity was one of the only schools still hiring amidst the pandemic. According to Althouse, Winter Park is an amazing town, but the one thing he will not miss about Florida is the weather.
“I did not love living in Florida,” Althouse said. “It’s an acquired taste.”
Looking back on his time at Trinity, Althouse says the most enjoyable part of his time at Trinity was the students and the connections he got to make with them. He also explained that working with students is his favorite part of college counseling as a whole.
“The thing that I enjoyed the most was the students, hands down,” Althouse said. “Even though I was here for a very short time, there are certain students you get to know really quickly, like you click with each other. And that’s going to be the hardest part about leaving: saying goodbye to those students. But yeah, that was easily the most enjoyable thing about Trinity.”
His time here may have been short, but his impact on students will stay long after he’s gone.
