For 25 years, Cathy Longstreet sat in the lead counselor’s chair at a high school in Michigan, guiding hundreds of students, from “where do I even start?” all the way to their acceptance letters. She knows this process from the inside, and one-on-one is where she does her best work. She listens first, gets to know the student behind the transcript, and builds a plan around who they are rather than where they rank.

Now based in the San Diego area, with her roots still firmly planted in Michigan, Cathy meets with students in person in Southern California and works online with students across the country. Through her work with Bovard Scholars and ScholarMatch, she has guided high-achieving, under-resourced students from across the country into highly selective colleges, including many who have earned QuestBridge scholarships. Her conviction is simple: an ambitious, well-supported student can come from anywhere and secure placement at institutions they previously believed were beyond their reach.

Cathy was named School Counselor of the Year by the Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) and was the only school counselor appointed to Michigan’s Governor’s Educator Advisory Council in its seven years of existence.

A member of the inaugural cohort of the MCAN/SDSU School Counselor Fellowship in Michigan, she now trains the Fellows in both its Michigan and National cohorts while also providing professional development to school counselors across the country.

She has served on the Executive Board of the Michigan Association for College Admission Counseling and on several advisory boards. She recently earned her doctorate, researching how school counselor support shapes college outcomes for rural, first-generation students. She is also Chief Program Officer of Center NOVA, a national nonprofit built on the idea that student and family voice belongs at the center of college and career advising.

Cathy knows the parent’s side of this, too. She was the college counselor for her own two sons, walking each of them through the process and cheering them on to Harvard and Kalamazoo College. She established Longstreet Consulting, LLC, as the steady, honest advocate in every student’s corner, and she is delighted to be part of ROOT.