Kerry Folan

Kerry Folan is an independent college consultant and founder of Kerry Folan College Consulting, which she established in February 2023 in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an experienced educator with a history of leadership working in education and nonprofits, serving as an active community volunteer, nonprofit board member and advocate for equity in education. Since August 2020, she has worked as a Community Education Advocate and Volunteer, serving as an active volunteer, fundraiser and advocate for equity in education across various initiatives. From January 2021 to January 2024, she worked as an Independent Educational Consultant at College Calm, guiding students through the college application process, including developing college lists, essay writing, activities and extracurriculars while helping students express themselves, stay on track and remain calm and positive through the process.?

Kerry brings extensive teaching and program management experience to her college counseling practice. She worked as Program Manager at Foothill College from 1997 to 2006, where she facilitated an annual internship program for college students, managed short-term training programs for international professionals, developed and implemented program orientation, curriculum, cultural activities and housing, traveled extensively in Europe, South America and Asia to train coordinators and recruit students, mediated cross-cultural conflicts and marketed international student programs abroad. From 2013 to 2019, she served as Lead Teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Preschool, teaching both Twos/Young Threes and Pre-K classes at a parent cooperative preschool where she developed and implemented classroom curriculum, observed and assessed students throughout the year, held parent conferences, documented student learning, worked closely with co-oping parents and families, led regular parent education workshops, moderated staff and parent book clubs, and supervised and mentored classroom aides and practicum students. She also taught at All Five in Menlo Park from 2019 to 2020 in a diverse, play-based, child-centered preschool where she collaborated with colleagues to plan emergent curriculum based on children's developing interests and assisted in grant writing and workshop development for staff training. In 2020, she worked as a Pre-K Specialist at Crescent Park Child Development Center in Palo Alto, designing, developing and leading a new Pre-K program within a Reggio Emilia-inspired multi-age school, teaching small group Pre-K classes both in person and via daily Zoom sessions, and designing curriculum to engage children in developmentally appropriate early literacy, math and social-emotional learning.

Services Offered

• Independent college admissions consulting
• College list development based on student interests and goals
• Essay writing guidance and coaching
• Activities and extracurricular planning
• Support for staying on track with deadlines
• Guidance to help students remain calm and positive throughout the process
• Student self-expression and personal narrative development
• Holistic approach informed by educational equity principles
• Support for international students with cross-cultural experience
• Community education advocacy and volunteer coordination