Meet Coach Mira
Welcome and thank you for taking time to learn more about ways to assist your child with the college process. My name is Mira Simon and I am a professionally trained coach from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), who specializes in helping high school students who are talented and bright but may feel overwhelmed and pressured about their future and all of the choices that are involved. I help them to discover and develop their vision for the future, design the path to get there, and choose a college that will help them to continue to uncover their path in life, and create opportunities for their future.
I absolutely loved college and the entire college experience and am a lifelong “learner". So much so, that in addition to being a proud graduate of UCLA, I went back to school 15 years later take classes at Cal State Long Beach and then at San Diego State University. In all of my college experiences, the pressure of making the “wrong” choice was almost non-existent because it was much more affordable, it was much easier to get accepted, and you could graduate with a reasonable amount of debt that could be paid off within 5-6 years. Not so anymore. The combination of rising college costs, the ever-increasing competition to gain entrance and the pressure to make the “right” choice or get into the “best” college led several close friends to reach out to me to talk to their children. They explained how this pressure was causing their children to pull back from the process – to feel lost, overwhelmed, frustrated – which was creating frustration for my friends. The more, as parents, they would try to help by urging them to move forward, the more their child would be annoyed, upset, roll their eyes and procrastinate.
I offered to talk to their children and we began by focusing less on “which college are you looking at” and more on their thoughts, goals, and visions. The more we talked about who they were, what they loved and how they could integrate and expand on that through their college experience, the more college became something fun that they choose to do, rather than something scary that they had to do. The more the pressure of making the “wrong” choice, or “going to the best college” was replaced with the opportunity to discover what was perfect for THEM, the more excited and engaged they became in the process.
This combination of my love for college and the college experience, my passion for coaching, and the joy of supporting young adults to make one of the first big decisions of their entrance into adulthood led to the creation of Pathway to College. I am committed to helping your child know and understand that there is no “perfect” college, no “right” major, no “one size fits all” approach to the college pathway - thoughts that may cause your child to procrastinate on taking the actions needed to move them forward or withdraw from the process altogether. I coach them to understand that what they are going through is 100% normal, to discover and embrace who they are and what they love, and use that to move forward, make major life decisions with confidence and create a plan for the future that includes a fulfilling and successful college experience.
When I am not coaching my clients to uncover their pathway to college, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, and my Labrador, Dexter.
