Brooke Fincke

Ed.M. HE

Brooke Fincke is the Director of Student Services and College Counseling at City on a Hill Charter Public High School in Roxbury, MA City on a Hill emphasizes academic achievement, citizenship, teacher leadership, and public accountability; supporting a student body with a majority of low-income, first-generation college bound students from urban Boston. In addition to overseeing student services at City on a Hill, Brooke's primary responsibilities include counseling students on an expansive range of post-secondary possibilities, assisting them with their college application and financial aid processes, and teaching a course that emphasizes a connection between school and career; helping students find great value in continuing their education at the post secondary level. Brooke is one of the founding members of the Boston Charter School Consortium, a group of College Counselors sharing resources and best practices to ensure that all charter school students are prepared for and have access to a future in higher education, and serves on the Massachusetts Education Financing Authority (MEFA) Guidance Advisory Board, a non-profit state organization providing a wide variety of resources to assist in college financing.

Brooke's interest in closing the achievement gap began with her work as the Assistant Director of Admission at Lake Forest College. It was her work there and interest in issues of college access and affordability for traditionally underrepresented students that brought her to the Higher Education program at HGSE.

"At Harvard, I gained valuable insight from my professors while taking courses exploring the economics of higher education, career development education, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding race based recruitment and retention programs. I was able to apply my coursework to two internships; serving as an Education Advisor at the TERI College Access Center and as a College Coach at the Parkway Academy for Technology and Health through Harvard's COACH program. I continue to spend some time working at the TERI College Access Center, providing free services to clients in need of assistance at any and every stage of post secondary planning."