About Capstone
After a combined 20 years counseling students on our own, in 2019 Carolyn Weirick MPsych, PPS and Shelley Enger PhD, MPH formed Capstone for a simple reason. Together, we could do better! Using holistic and evidence-based methods, we help our students find their true educational path and reduce the stress of the process.
Since then, we have expanded our team, adding outstanding educational consultants who bring expertise in areas that enrich the team and an essay specialist whose background and skills can benefit every one of our students.
Team Approach
Though each student will work individually with a consultant, our team collaborates in the background to support all of our students. We share ideas and information about majors, colleges, news in higher education, and the finer points of admissions that inform our discussions with students and their families. We are also unique in our team approach to students’ essays. While the main consultant guides the student through the process of essay development, our team meets weekly to review early and final drafts of students’ essays, providing a robust critique that the main counselor brings back to the student. This process has served our students very well.
Supportive Process
Planning for and applying to college or graduate school is stressful for students and their families. We have developed a methodical process to guide students at any point in their educational journey, from middle school forward. Our methods become especially helpful while guiding students through their applications. We keep stress levels down by serving as “project managers,” keeping students on track and on time. For students who need more support, we have expertise in house. We help students who need additional support with writing, whether for school or for college or graduate school applications. We also support students with learning differences or ADHD or who suffer from health challenges.
Professional Experience
Capstone’s educational consultants have extensive training and experience working with students regardless of academic or career interests, which means that we are generalists. However, we are also uniquely specialists, given our extensive professional backgrounds in different academic and career fields. Our partnership developed out of a mutual interest in pooling our knowledge and skills, and we intentionally grew our team to include consultants who have real-world expertise that we did not have so that we could increase the breadth and depth of our pooled knowledge and skills. Our unique backgrounds equip us with the information we need to help us guide and mentor our students as they plan for their futures.
(Top) Jaqua Center for Student Athletes, University of Oregon. Photo by Visitor7 at Wikimedia Commons.