Staff Spotlight: Ms. Burson-Ryan
Ms. Colleen Burson-Ryan is an assistant director of college counseling at OHS. Prior to coming to OHS in 2018, she also worked in admissions and teaching roles.
A native of San José, California, Ms. Burson-Ryan attended Notre Dame San Jose for high school, followed by UC Davis for her undergraduate studies. Initially not knowing what she wanted to study, she thought of pursuing a combination of “econ, sociology, political science, Spanish, [and] history.” Ultimately, she decided to study Spanish and international relations, noting that her major combination allowed her to explore a wide variety of subjects while graduating early. “[Studying Spanish] allowed me to talk to people that I couldn’t otherwise […] I feel like learning a language in general is a tiny window to the word—a different part of the world that you can’t access otherwise,” she reflects on her decision to study Spanish, and she notes that the international relations of Latin America was a nice combination of Spanish and the other subjects that she was interested in pursuing.
After graduating from UC Davis, Ms. Burson-Ryan began her teaching career through teaching preschool and first grade. Soon afterward, she taught kindergarten to fifth-grade Spanish at the Stratford School for three years and worked at a school in Peru to teach instructors how to use educational technology, “trying to […] use Spanish and learn about the world in any way that [she] could.”
Several years after she began teaching Spanish, Ms. Burson-Ryan brought her international perspective to Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, where she served as the International Program Director and taught Spanish. Part of her role involved managing the international admissions process. She found admissions interesting and later started working part-time as a reader for Stanford Admissions. There, though, she found that she “liked learning about kids on paper but then they’re gone,” and what she enjoyed most about working on the admissions team at Serra was “being able to […] continue to know [students]” during their time at the school after they were admitted. She wanted to be able to continue building long-term relationships with students, so she decided to switch to college counseling to “help kids work toward a goal for a long period of time,” entering OHS as a college counselor in 2018.
At OHS, Ms. Burson-Ryan has particularly enjoyed working with both OHS students and staff. During her interview and throughout her time at OHS, she has found that “[the adults at OHS didn’t] take [themselves] too seriously,” and she enjoys learning new things from the students she works with.
For OHS students applying to college, Ms. Burson-Ryan has the following advice: “Talk to older students who have done it already, whom you trust and who are looking out for you.” In general, Ms. Burson-Ryan recommends OHSers to spend time away from the computer screen, whether by taking a walk or talking to people in real life.
Outside of OHS, Ms. Burson-Ryan enjoys spending time with her family and friends, going outside, hiking, and exercising. Lately, she has been particularly into the TV shows Top Chef and Ted Lasso, which she would recommend to everyone.
