{"id":1192,"date":"2019-12-16T13:51:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2019-12-17T13:21:19","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T20:21:19","slug":"introducing-rakiya-brown-hillbrooks-director-of-enrollment-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2019\/12\/introducing-rakiya-brown-hillbrooks-director-of-enrollment-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Rakiya Brown, Hillbrook’s Director of Enrollment Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rakiya Brown, Hillbrook\u2019s new Director of Enrollment Management, hasn\u2019t missed a step as she learns her way around our busy school and its dynamic admissions program. Perhaps it’s her background as a kindergarten teacher or her prior experience in school admissions, but Rakiya\u2019s seamless transition into a busy role may also have something to do with her background in dance and theater. Grace under pressure, creative expression and connecting with people comes naturally to Rakiya because she has spent a large part of her life developing those qualities as an actor and modern dancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rakiya grew up in the theater. Her family ran the well-known Arena Players Theater in Baltimore. The theater, which first opened in 1953, is the oldest continually operating African American community theater in the United States. Rakiya\u2019s father was its managing director, and her entire family was involved with it. Growing up in the theater, the demands of live performances were second nature to Rakiya. She gravitated to dance as her chosen expression, specifically modern dance. Rakiya majored in anthropology and minored in dance as an undergrad at Bowdoin, and went on to receive a Masters of Fine Arts in Modern Dance. This expressive style of dance focuses on a dancer’s own interpretations instead of more structured steps, such as you find traditional ballet dancing. Though dance is not a typical path to school administration, Rakiya\u2019s background in modern dancing has developed skills she calls on daily in her work at Hillbrook including discipline, perseverance, creativity, athleticism, communication, improvisation, and adaptability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rakiya was working as Director of Admissions at The Girls\u2019 Middle School of Palo Alto when her friend, Hillbrook\u2019s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Gulliver LaValle, suggested she inquire about an admissions opening at Hillbrook. Rakiya was not interested in a new job at the time but looked into it on Gulliver\u2019s urging. Walking around the Hillbrook campus for the first time, she knew she had found her perfect fit. Rakiya says Hillbrook aligned with her philosophies on education and she was drawn to what she said was a palpable love of learning and a strong sense of community at Hillbrook. She says, \u201cI loved the joy and freedom that I saw in the students; they felt such a sense of belonging at Hillbrook and they were clearly known and loved, as well as respected and challenged. Everywhere I looked from students to teachers, people were happy here. I wanted to be part of that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rakiya says in this first year at Hillbrook she is focusing on learning the ins and outs of the job and really getting to know the school community. She is nimble and a quick study and loves it when prospective parents assume she has been at the school for years because of her knowledge of Hillbrook\u2019s history and program. As Director of Enrollment Management, she will be developing long and short term recruitment and enrollment strategies, overseeing all admissions events\/tours\/open houses\/applicant screenings as well as working with students and parents on our Ambassador Program to help share the essence of Hillbrook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what matters to her, Rakiya says access to quality education, \u201cIn my role, I have the opportunity to meet a diverse group of people and share the value of an independent school education with them. I believe that everybody deserves a good education and in admissions, I open up those doors for people who traditionally could be left out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rakiya\u2019s husband Omar, is also in education teaching history at Woodside Priory. The couple has two dogs they adore, and their weekends are filled with hiking, exploring new restaurants in the Bay Area, motorcycle riding (Omar) and spending time with friends. Rakiya also keeps one pointed toe in the dance world by teaching part-time at Pure Barre in Palo Alto.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans of HBO\u2019s crime drama, \u201cThe Wire\u201d, might recognize Rakiya because she had a recurring role in 2006\/Season 4 playing the teenager Charlene Young. The show was set in her hometown of Baltimore, and when Rakiya was 16 she spent the greater part of a year dividing her time between the demands of high school and acting in this major Hollywood production. The notoriety and glamour clearly did not go to her head. Rakiya is friendly, down-to-earth, and quick to laugh. It is easy to see why prospective parents love working with her because she brings grace and passion to every interaction. And though juggling the pressures of a busy admissions season can be something of a delicate dance, Rakiya Brown is already making it look effortless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook writer Rakiya Brown, Hillbrook\u2019s new Director of Enrollment Management, hasn\u2019t missed a step as she learns her way around our busy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}