Davion Fleming, the current Associate Director of Admissions for The Nueva Schools’ Upper School, has been hired as Lick-Wilmerding’s new Director of Admissions. He is replacing Cristal Ogletree, who is departing from LWHS at the end of this school year to move closer to her childhood home of Texas.
Fleming, who is a Southern California native, is excited to step into his new role and become a part of the LWHS community and everything it represents. “I really love the mission. There’s something to going a little bit deeper in saying that we want to change the world,” he said.
Fleming has lived in the Bay Area since 2016, when he started working for Nueva. Before that, he worked in the undergraduate admissions office of his alma mater, Northwestern University. He began working as an Admissions Counselor while he was an undergraduate student studying philosophy and religion. One of Fleming’s teammates on the varsity football team had mentioned that he might enjoy working in admissions. He ended up staying in the office for almost seven years. He was moved to help kids attend Northwestern who reminded him of himself — a first-generation Black student.
While reading applications to Northwestern, Fleming was consistently impressed with both private school applicants and their schools and decided to find a job in high school admissions where he could be more involved in education.
At Nueva, Fleming has worked as a college counselor, ninth-grade dean and teacher. He firmly believes that private schools, despite their flaws, are an enormous opportunity to model best practice education. “This is the future of education,” he said.
LWHS held interviews with the final four candidates for the Director of Admissions job, including Fleming, this March. Each interview was a full-day affair: candidates met with Ogletree, the current Director of Enrollment Management; the business team; a faculty and staff panel; the administrative leadership team; a student panel; and the search committee.
The search committee, which was responsible for reviewing the initial applications, held the first round of interviews, whittled candidates down to four and made the final decision. The members of the committee were Anne Condren, LWHS’ Director of Human Resources; Dee Johnson, the Dean of Adult Equity and Inclusion; Andrew Manansala, the Admissions Events and Operations Coordinator; Yanni Velasquez, Center for Civic Engagement Associate; Christine Godinez-Jackson, the Director of The Center for Civic Engagement; Brian Driscoll, the Director of Development; and Eric Temple, the Head of School. Between the search committee and the interview groups, candidates met with diverse groups of people that reflect the many areas of the LWHS community with whom the new director will work.
LWHS initially intended to hire a new Director of Enrollment Management, Ogletree’s current title. The Director of Enrollment Management directs both Admissions and the Communication Department, a more expansive role than the Director of Admissions. As this is Fleming’s first director position, the search committee decided the Director of Admissions role was more appropriate. Lisa Wu, who left the LWHS community three years ago, and Ogletree were each Director of Admissions before they became Director of Enrollment Management. “I want to make sure whomever we hire is successful,” said Eric Temple.
The student panel, which represented the needs of the student community, was composed of students who work closely with admissions such as Lick-Wilmerding Admissions Interns (LWAIs), who help organize events and run projects, and Tiger Ambassadors, who regularly volunteer at admission’s events. Kaya Shin-Sherman ’23, a Tiger Ambassador, said their work on the panel was fulfilling. It made her feel “empowered and in a position to help shape Lick into what I and the rest of the students need and care about.”
The student panel and every other interview group developed their own questions and filled out feedback forms at the end of each interview. During the final decision phase, the feedback forms were taken into consideration by the search committee. The student panel emphasized the importance of finding someone who will interact with the student community.
“I think the relationship between the students and the members of the admissions office is what makes it so special,” said Kyler Miyashita ’21, an LWAI on the panel. When school is on campus, “kids go there to enjoy a cup of tea or just to hang out with them or just to have a place to relax and get away from their school day. It’s a safe haven for a lot of students.”
Miyashita’s job as an intern is to talk to eighth-graders about his own experience in the LWHS community. He believes maintaining the relationship of the admissions office with students is core to admissions work itself. “You can’t sell a product if you don’t know the product itself,” he said.
Temple echoed this idea in explaining why Fleming was chosen. Due to his work outside of admissions at Nueva, “he understands the youngest student and the oldest student — so, that lifecycle of a student.”
Fleming is already demonstrating his commitment to the student body. He is considering how he can build connections with students through the classroom, advising and elsewhere. “I want to make sure I’m serving students in the best ways that I can and to be helpful to the community,” he said.
As a current member of the Admissions Department, Manansala was hoping for a Director of Enrollment Management who would enable the team to continue completing their heavy workload in a more sustainable and enjoyable way. Fleming cited this as one of his goals. “During the course of the admissions season it’s hard, it’s taxing, it’s really draining for folks and I think that we have to continue to find ways to find the joy in our work, the purpose in our work,” he said.
Manansala looks forward to a Director of Enrollment Management that will help the department “reach out to and attract, and then enroll, and then retain mission-fit families.” The Admissions Department has become increasingly focused on admitting “mission-fit” students, kids who can thrive and who embody LWHS’s mission: “A private school with public purpose, Lick-Wilmerding High School develops the head, heart, and hands of highly motivated students from all walks of life, inspiring them to become lifelong learners who contribute to the world with confidence and compassion.”
Manansala is hoping that Fleming will use his position to not only help admit “mission-fit” kids but help ensure that the mission’s values are a lived reality in the LWHS community.
Temple plans on working with the new director to ensure the LWHS mission is core to admissions decisions and student outcomes. “We want our students to use their privilege of a good education to impact the world in as positive a way as possible” he said.
According to Manansala, the emphasis on mission-driven admissions in the past couple of years has been accompanied by an increased focus on admissions’ place in the work of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at LWHS.
Increased DEI work in admissions mirrors a school-wide push for more DEI work, which has forced the LWHS administration to reckon with large problems on an institutional level. “By definition, we are not equitable because we charge tuition and we also are biased in the fact that we take highly abled students,” said Temple. He was quick to acknowledge that one hire will not solve such significant problems, so he was looking for a candidate who could simply bring their perspective to the table as both admissions and the administration engage in DEI work.
Fleming, who has taught a class on systems of oppression, is ready to dive into DEI work in regards to admissions. “Schools really need to commit themselves to use their resources to welcome students of color, students that are from historically underrepresented backgrounds in independent schools,” he said.
On the student panel, Michael DeLaurier ’21 evaluated candidates’ commitment to DEI by asking them about the difference between diversity and inclusion. DeLaurier was looking for candidates committed to expanding not only accessibility but inclusion as a part of their DEI work. Miyashita was also searching for a candidate that valued inclusion in their DEI work. “It’s one thing to have diversity in the school — it’s another for everyone in that diversity to be included,” he said.
According to Manansala, the same conversation about DEI in admissions was not as present four years ago when the school hired Ogletree as a replacement for Wu. He’s glad it’s occurring this time around. “Really, if we want to be who we are as a community, then everyone needs to be an advocate for DEI work,” he said.
The reality is that DEI work in predominantly white spaces is most often placed on people of color. While Fleming agrees that DEI is everyone’s job, he also grapples with who the burden is being placed on. “Yet again we’re kind of doing this unpaid labor for white folks to do the work that they so desperately need; it’s great that they want it but at the same time it had become the expectation for folks who look like me who share some identities with me to do that work to train and to constantly give and give and give when it’s not always being reciprocated,” he said.
Fleming’s hiring as the new Director of Admissions, which coincides with LWHS’ current Head of School search, turns a new page for LWHS, expanding the role of the Admissions Department and committing the school to diversity, equity and inclusion like never before. “We’re not just talking about admissions as admitting the student,” Manansala said. “We view our work as enrolling them and supporting them throughout their four years here.”
