The Sacred Heart University Undergraduate Admissions Office hired SHU alumna, Lexie Galan, as the new executive director of undergraduate admissions.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in 2014, she went on to complete her master’s in criminal justice in 2015. The same year, she joined the staff at the admissions office on the undergraduate admissions and enrollment management team and supervised the New York and New Jersey recruitment territories.
Lexie Galan, Sacred Heart alumna, has joined the undergraduate admissions team as the new executive director.
Photo by: Tracy Deer-Mirek, Sacred Heart University
Once her master’s in criminal justice was completed, she went on to Long Island University where she completed her master’s in school counseling. Galan
is a certified school counselor in the state of New York, and recently worked as a school counselor and Assistant Director of College Counseling at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington, N.Y, according to a university press release.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for school counselors, being in the weeds and seeing what goes on and understanding the counselors’ needs and the schools’ needs and things like that really brings a different perspective for me now coming back here,” said Galan.
With what she learned while working at St. Anthony’s High School, she has an understanding of what prospective students are looking for and how Sacred Heart admissions can help.
“It is important to have the comfort level of meeting with families, anticipating what their major concerns will be, and being able to proactively plan for that,” said Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Admissions Pamela Pillo. “Even taking a look at our general communication, our website, are we addressing the questions most frequently asked from families who are new to the college admission process? I absolutely know Lexie will be an integral part of carrying us forward.”
In her new role as executive director, she is taking on new responsibilities for the admissions office.
“My main responsibilities are helping prospective students and families and showing them the great things about Sacred Heart, but also helping the staff and empowering them,” said Galan.
Galan commented on the current state of admissions. “We are in a good place. We’re doing great. I think it’s a good energy of the staff, they love talking to families. They are energetic about being in the recruitment process,” said Galan. “I loved my experience applying and getting to know Sacred Heart,” said Anna Riolo, who is in her first year of graduate school in the Occupational Therapy (OT) program at SHU. My tour, and my tour guide were so helpful. I decided to apply early decision here, they had me do an interview and then I was accepted in the accelerated program for OT in December of my senior year.”
There have been changes in the industry of college admissions in the past year and the staff at the Admissions Office has been working to adjust to those changes. One change that was made this year regarded deadlines, which helped get families decisions sooner.
“We have had to be nimble and adjust to those changes, we have a lot of young professionals who work on our staff, and I think it’s almost in a way, turning some of those changes into a positive,” said Pillo.
Galan plans to continue working on communication from the university in her new position.
“Students don’t know things that might seem obvious to me or somebody from admissions. It’s not obvious for a high school student, or first-generation families. I think communication and wording is all something that we can continue to work on in admissions in general,” said Galan.
Galan is looking forward to being back at SHU and helping prospective students.
“Just being back with high energy staff that want to be here, and want to work and just being able to share my experiences with everyone,” said Galan.
