As Academic Life Coaching has grown, so has our website.
The information on this site is still great, and we keep it running because the site works so well on search engines. However, here's our current site www.academiclifecoaching.com.
Thank you so much for your interest in our mission to empower youth with skills and knowledge to be fulfilled, effective adults.
Sincerely yours,
The Academic Life Coaching Team
Our Team:
John Williams | Gina Halsted | Rawan Albina | Wayne McNaught
John Williams
About five years ago I first heard of Life Coaching when my wife, Amois, overheard a woman talking about it and a workshop she was giving. Amois became inspired and enrolled in a training program. At the time I was teaching high school Latin. As I learned more about the concepts, I decided to enroll in the training myself. (You can visit Amois's site by clicking here.)
I remember sitting in the Life Coaching course wondering, "Why did it take so long for me to learn this stuff?" and "What if every high schooler could learn how to apply these skills?"
I quickly realized I could add tremendous value to high school students by developing programs designed to give them cutting-edge concepts of personal excellence, communication, and leadership.
I started integrating the concepts in my teaching style. I started taking private clients. I started giving workshops. I developed a 10-session course that targets the most essential concepts and skills students need but aren't normally taught.
The reaction was immediate: students loved to learn these skills. It wasn't long before I realized that my clients were not only doing better in school and performing better on the field, but they were also getting into their colleges of choice and getting good financial packages.
Over the past three years, I've worked with over a hundred students and given approximately eighty workshops. I know the program and the concepts work. I've seen tremendous results. And I have a vision that every high school student will someday be required to receive basic training in these skills.
I graduated from Brown University in 2003 with a degree in Classics and taught middle and high school Latin for 6 years. I became a certified coach (CPCC) through The Coaches Training Institute based in San Rafael, California. While teaching at St. Mary's School in southern Oregon, I developed the ten session curriculum and coaching techniques specifically tailored to middle and high school students. In September 2008 I moved to Portland, Oregon. I am blessed with a beautiful wife, Amois, a 2 year old daughter, Paloma (who has nicknamed herself "Nezzie"), another baby due January 2010, and a chocolate brown mini-daschund named Ninja.
Gina Halsted
Gina Halsted brings years of business, educational and coaching experience to Academic Leadership Consulting. She focuses this knowledge to help students build a strong foundation for success in navigating high school and beyond.
After graduating from Tufts University with a degree in Psychology, Gina spent nearly twenty years with IBM in a career of sales and marketing management. She left the corporate world to spend more time with her children, which led to a curiosity about education, learning styles and the impact of diversity in schools.
Pursuing this interest, Gina earned a master's degree in Education from Harvard University and completed an extensive coach's training program with The Coachs' Training Institute. Gina is a member of the International Coach Federation.
Gina lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons, who are 17 and 16. She enjoys cooking, gardening and skiing and has never seen an antique home she didn't love.
Rawan Albina
Rawan Albina was born in Lebanese, raised in the Middle East, and has soaked-in the cultural diversity and richness of the region. She holds a BA in Business Administration is proficient in 3 languages, Arabic, French and English. Through numerous activities she has nurtured many talents that have enriched the person she is today.
Rawan graduated with a BA in Business Administration from Haigazian University, an American university in Beirut, Lebanon. During her career, she has worked with multinationals Tetra Pak and Nestle for 10 years after which she decided to take the Leap and do what she loves best: working with people to help them make the changes they want in order to create a truly fulfilling life that they love.
Today, Rawan is a CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) certified and accredited by the Coaches Training Institute and the International Coach Federation. She has so far worked with individuals on work-life balance issues, personal growth as well as their health and wellness. She is also a mentor for other coaches who are looking to start their own coaching business.
She is the owner and director of Leap Coaching and Consultancy in Dubai, UAE and has, throughout her coaching career, worked with clients from many different backgrounds and cultures, 18 different nationalities to be exact and has over 400 hours of coaching experience.
Rawan is also a licensed college consultant with Academic Leadership Consulting and Ivy League Coaches in the USA. She works with teenagers to help them understand their personality and that of others; create structure around their life and studies and basically acquire the life skills they need to succeed later in life.
Rawan is married and is the proud mother of 2-year old Matteo. She lives with her family in Dubai.
Wayne McNaught
Wayne was born in Oxfordshire, England, and was educated overseas. He came to the United States at 17 and graduated from Southern Oregon University in 1995 with a Masters Degree in Teaching. After teaching for 12 years, he left education to work with a Las Vegas based corporate leadership training company coaching individuals to personal effectiveness. From this experience he discovered that his purpose is to be a powerful agent of change, teaching and empowering individuals to take responsibility and action for their lives, helping them cross the chasm of where they are to where they want to be.
Wayne is in the process of facilitating the Personal Effectiveness Seminar for WINGS Seminars based in Eugene, Oregon, and is currently working on his Masters in Administration from Concordia University. His plans are to help teachers and administrators incorporate the vast amount of knowledge on learning styles and emotional intelligence into their school culture. After years in public education, Wayne has a unique understanding of what students need to succeed in our ever changing world.
Wayne resides in Medford, Oregon, with his beautiful wife Tiffany, his only son, Connor, and 4 little girls- Mallaig, Baelian, Kintyre, and Rannoch.
