MEET THE TEAM

Senior Coordinator

Jeannine Palhegyi

Not too long ago, Jeannine’s family faced the challenges of navigating the college planning process for her younger son. Not only does she belong to the HelloCollege Family as a team member, but she was also a client. Her appreciation for the challenges that families face as well as her knowledge of our programs allow her to assist in guiding families on the right path.

Jeannine has more than 20 years of customer service and sales experience. She has an extensive background in administrative services including budget management, personnel support, and client interaction to provide the utmost in customer satisfaction. Her organizational skills, attention to detail, and pleasant personality ensure each family has a successful start in the HelloCollege program.

Additionally, she volunteers with Hope for the Journey, a company that assists senior citizens with organization, decluttering and staging as they prepare to move to a smaller living environments.

Jeannine lives with her husband and youngest son in Chicago. She enjoys time with her family, her three grandchildren and her older son and daughter-in-law. She enjoys singing occasionally with her husband’s band and spending time with her parents and siblings.

She loves being a part of the HelloCollege Team, motivated by her passion for taking care of families.

Student Success Director, College Counselor

Terri C. Houston

Terri Houston is a trainer, partner and mentor of students, college administrators, and business professionals around the country. “Ms. H”, as affectionately known by students she has guided and mentored, most recently served as an independent consultant designing customized inclusive leadership training for colleges and universities.

Terri shares HelloCollege’s goals of helping students and parents navigate the complicated college planning process. Terri’s unique and extensive experience working with college students and universities provides HelloCollege families with unparalleled insight into higher education. For more than 13 years, Terri served as senior director for recruitment and multicultural affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she partnered with admissions, financial aid and orientation departments overseeing pre-enrollment and retention programs for high school juniors, seniors, college freshmen and their parents.

Additionally, she managed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for Portland Oregon’s largest behavioral healthcare organization and directed recruitment, student leadership and career development programs at Iowa State University, Ferris State University and Chicago’s Robert Morris University where she began her higher education career. And although a proud Chicago native, she traveled around the world through the internationally renowned Semester at Sea Program.

Terri holds a Bachelors from Loras College and a Masters from Central Michigan University. She is a certified Life Coach, Safe-zone® trainer and professionally accredited through the Central Association of College and University Business Officers. Terri’s commitment around making college accessible and achievable for students and parents is her number one goal.

Career Success Coach

Colette Tracy

Colette is passionate about inspiring students to seek lifelong education as well as personal growth. Colette aims to work as a mentor with students, helping them navigate their college years and assisting them in strategizing and planning their future careers.

Colette chose to join the team because her values are in line with what HelloCollege endeavors to accomplish. As a first generation college student, she realizes the challenges that come with attending college. She feels very fortunate for her own positive college experiences, career, and great mentors and seeks to pay this forward to the young people trying to make their own way today.

Colette has worked in education for 10 years. She spent 7 years as Director of Operations for Junior Achievement of Chicago where she managed a staff of 8 Operations Managers and was also responsible for fundraising and partnership development. It was at JA she first began her teaching career presenting and developing workshops for K-12 students on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and career readiness. Additionally, Colette has taught for the last 10 years part-time at several universities such as Benedictine, Concordia University of Chicago, HUEB School of Economics and Business University Hebei Province in China, and National Louis University. She has taught undergraduate courses in management, marketing, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and leadership.

Colette has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Communication from DePaul University, a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Lewis University, and a master’s degree in Psychology from National Louis University. She is also a certified Life and Career Coach.

Colette has been married to her high school sweetheart for many years and has two amazing sons, 24 and 17 years old. One of her favorite things to do is to spend time entertaining with family and friends. She loves to cook and bake and thoroughly enjoys music, theater, and books.

Essay Coach

Will Wagner

Will fell in love with the written word his junior year in high school, thanks to an English teacher named Mrs. Kelley. She exposed him to the magic of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and especially John Steinbeck. Just like that, his future came into focus.

And while Will never became the next Steinbeck (darn!), he did go on to have a gratifying career in publishing as a writer and editor for everything from national magazines to websites. He even wrote a book of his own, Wrigley Blues: The Year the Cubs Played Hardball with the Curse (but Lost Anyway), published in 2004 by Taylor Trade. For the past several years, he also has worked as an essay coach at HelloCollege. His goal in this role is simple: to bring a little “Mrs. Kelley” to the game and help students down the path of fulfilling their passions and achieving their dreams.

Essay Coach & Career Success Coach

Sara Walsh

Sara currently serves as an Essay Coach and Career Success Coach at HelloCollege. She has worked as a high school English teacher for the past 15 years, beginning her career at The Dwight School in New York City. Sara later taught at EF Education New York, an international boarding school, where she taught students from more than 49 different nations.

Sara is a graduate of The University of Notre Dame and holds an M.A. in English from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She has been published in The Washingtonian, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Chronogram. As an essay coach at HelloCollege, she is honored to be a witness to the students’ stories. Sara currently lives in Oak Park with her husband, son and Frankie (their terrier).

Essay Coach

Chris Bench

Since he was a child, Chris has known he wanted to teach. Whether it be in his classrooms at the University of Chicago or Roosevelt University or the hundreds of students he’s worked with in his decade of essay coaching, Chris loves helping students find their voice on the page. “It’s an amazing privilege,” he reports, “seeing a student learn who they are as a writer. You’re really watching them discover themselves.”

In his free time, Chris is an avid cook. He particularly enjoys preparing Mexican food, even growing his own chiles for salsas and moles, and every Fourth of July, he throws a pig roast for his friends. An Eagle Scout, Chris also enjoys camping, backpacking, and paddling. He has gone trekking in Glacier, King’s Canyon, Yellowstone, and Gates of the Arctic National Parks. When he’s relaxing, Chris loves music and record collecting, and he’s always excited to learn what’s in his students’ earbuds.

Chris received his A.B. in English Language and Literature from Kenyon College and his M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.