Rachel Rivera
“When we see our children’s names in the Yale Daily News and other spaces on campus, we are always looking at them with joy; they’re taking advantage of everything that Yale has to offer.” This might sound like a typical proud parent of a Yale student, but it isn’t. It’s Dara Norwood, associate director of admissions for Yale College.
Dara enjoys getting to know students through their creative writing, portfolios, and interviews. After a prospective student submits their application, Dara says, “Their regional admissions officer does the first read. Most applications get a second read, and after that, it comes back to me … and I decide who is going to be presented to the committee. It is my job to make the case for the applicants I reviewed in front of the committee, and then the committee makes the final decision considering my comments.” She added that while she doesn’t make final decisions in admitting students, she does get an influential say in the overall process.
Dara began working as an admissions officer 11 years ago after pursuing a degree in higher education administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her main objective was to find a way to think more deeply about higher education. Before Harvard, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and pursued a degree in English and cinema studies. “I always knew I was going to be an English major — reading and writing is what I love to do most,” says Dara. Her job as an admissions officer feeds her profound love for reading as she gets a glimpse of students’ lives through their carefully constructed applications.
Throughout her childhood, her parents always emphasized the importance of education. Her father, a Brooklyn native, was a stay-at-home dad. Her mom, an immigrant from Jamaica, was a 911 operator. They lived in Brooklyn, and she was raised in her father’s childhood home. In New York City, she was part of the Prep for Prep 9 Branch, a program that “prepares minority students to attend private schools in the northeast.” Through Prep for Prep, she attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Choate gave her the support she needed to be successful in the college application cycle, and she wants to give back to those who don’t have the same opportunities and privileges.
Dara’s heart is warmed when she gets the opportunity to meet the students in real life and see the potential she’s opening up. She says, “I don’t want to ever feel like ‘Oh my god! I’m the one changing lives,’ but you do see the lives of the students you’re bringing in and their diversity.” She always beams with joy whenever she connects with students, especially FGLI students because education changed the trajectory of her life.
Dara explains that her passion for easier access to higher education originated from her experience — aside from Prep for Prep and Choate — with the Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit organization with a mentoring program that helps FGLI students with the college application process. In her early 20s, she mentored a first-generation/low-income student whose parents were from Colombia. This was one of her first experiences working with an FGLI student. “Being 17 and having to apply to college,” she says, “that aspect of a person’s life is just fascinating to me. At that age, you’re asked to plan out your whole life.” Dara’s fascination and eagerness from this interaction inspired her to search for jobs as an admissions officer. She wanted to understand “what it takes for students to make it to these places.”
Dara is surrounded by co-workers who share with her the same goal of increasing diversity in incoming student bodies. With her recent new role of Director of Multicultural Recruitment, Dara is excited to exercise the values she’s been working to enforce throughout her career. Her responsibilities include looking into ways to better diversify the incoming Yale community. “Diversity is not just about race and ethnicity. We’re looking at geography, we’re looking at religion and thought and perspective. We’re trying to make sure we are bringing a group of students that will challenge the University and what it means to be a student at Yale,” Dara says.
She agrees that having amazing co-workers, all with the same attitude can often counter the stress of the job. “It’s very rare to get to say that you get to work in a place where you really love the people,” she says, “but I love coming in and hanging out with the people I work with. It’s a group of people who really care about Yale and the work that we do.”
Dara has also gotten to learn so much about how environments shape students’ perspectives and how they grow up. “It’s a really insightful job, and you get to see what’s going on across the world” she explains about the current admission cycle, “the most jarring thing, right now, is seeing how students are trying to process the pandemic and how they’re trying to figure out their way in the world at a really important part of their adolescence.”
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I am an FGLI student who went through the application cycle without a fancy college counselor. I was lucky to have Dara as my regional admissions officer. Before I committed to Yale, Dara sent emails and letters communicating her excitement for me to join the Yale community. I felt an immediate connection with her from the first email interaction. When we met for the first time after I matriculated, she said to me, beaming with pride, that I’m one of her “children” taking an active role on campus. In a particular letter to me, she wrote: “Rachel, your tenacity and passion stood out to me. I cannot wait to see you take advantage of Yale’s extensive research opportunities and vouch for change through the Yale College Council.” Speaking with her over the phone makes me feel a stronger sense of belonging at Yale. Despite the overwhelming reality of being FGLI at a predominantly white institution, I feel extremely comforted, knowing that Dara is here for me, actively vouching for our representation on campus.
Aside from me and her other “children” at Yale, she has two of her own, Aria, who is five, and Leila, who is two. Her and her husband’s daily routine consists of raising these two bundles of joy, whom she describes as “very energetic people.” Aria is the most active; she spends most of her time at the local American Ninja Warrior gym while also learning to swim. Leila is also active but hasn’t quite discovered her interests as she’s only two years old.
Dara’s role as an admissions officer has influenced her life beyond understanding students’ struggles. It has also influenced her perspective on parenting. Dara says, “I think a lot about the systems that surround our education system, that allow students to be able to focus on school. Do they have enough to eat? Shelter? Do they have parents who have time or the ability to help them with their homework? That’s something I always want to keep in mind as my kids go through school. And that’s something that has made me conscious of different situations.”