aboutme

Passionate About Inspiring Teens To Achieve Their Academic and Career Goals

Melissa Ryan, M.A., is a seasoned educational counseling professional with 27 years of experience as an educational, college, and career counselor.  Melissa has worked in both the high school setting as a secondary school counselor and in a post-secondary setting as an academic and career counselor as well as Director of the WIA Youth Success Program.

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As a high school counselor, Melissa served students in grades nine through twelve working with them in all facets of their educational journey. She has advised thousands of students in selecting and applying to colleges throughout the country. 

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Melissa's success in working with students from a high poverty school district has been recognized by several state publications. She is respected for her ability to motivate students to achieve at their highest level.  Her high school had the greatest percentage increase in college enrollments of any school in the state. Close to 100% of her students complete the FAFSA each year and 100% complete college applications.

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As a former AP coordinator, Melissa was instrumental in securing the A+ College Ready Grant.  The AP courses in her school grew from one to nine with close to 30% of the students taking AP classes.  The AP program was the first program to be recognized by the A+ College Ready Grant in its statewide publicity campaign.

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Understanding the importance of standardized testing, Melissa has extensive experience both personally and professionally in providing resources and monitoring student progress in preparing for these exams. Everyone is aware of the importance of the ACT and SAT and the impact performance on these tests has on admission to selective and highly selective colleges as well as the scholarship dollars a student is eligible for.

The importance of the PSAT is often overlooked. Both as a mother as well as a high school counselor, Melissa stressed the importance of preparing for the PSAT for this is the precursor to students qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship Program.  National Merit Scholar is the most prestigious designation a high school student can receive.  Melissa witnessed first hand the value of the National Merit Scholar designation as scholarship dollars were awarded to her own sons as a result of this designation.

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Melissa also has an extensive background in dual enrollment/dual credit serving as the coordinator of the program when DE/DC was in its infancy. Melissa grew the program to one of the largest in the state of Alabama.

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Serving on state and district workforce development boards for youth and adults, Melissa has a well-rounded perspective of the demands of the labor market of the future.  She has extensive experience advising students in career decision making and helping students to understand the relationship between their academic and career goals.

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Melissa has been a guest speaker for numerous groups and organizations. She has presented at school counseling forums and presented at Alabama Counseling Association Conferences as well as State of Alabama Workforce Development Conferences.

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Active in her community. Melissa is most proud of the work of her and her husband in the early years of their marriage with the United Methodist Children's Home. They served as houseparents for three years at a newly established group home.They were parents to ten children at the group home, and this is when Melissa's love for working with children and youth was born.

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Melissa is the proud mother of four sons. Her oldest son, Clay, is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alabama System.  Nathan and Mitchell are both practicing attorneys and operate their own law firms in Florence, Alabama. Her youngest son, Andrew, is Vice-president of SAP Business Solutions based in San Francisco, California.  The office for which Andrew is responsible operates in Birmingham, Alabama. All four sons earned scholarships to pay for their college educations. She has three fabulous daughters-in-law and her 11 grandchildren are the light of her life! You can read more about Melissa's career in this Times Daily article.