Missy Yavasile

After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree, Missy started her teaching career in Pleasanton, California, where she spent 2 years teaching dance and PE. She and her husband moved to Visalia in 1975 where they began serving the students and community of Visalia. Missy taught at Mineral King and Willow Glen and then moved to Green Acres where she spent the next 13 years. Having a strong desire to work as a counselor with students, she received her school counseling credential (Pupil Personnel Services-PPS) and her Masters Degree in Counseling and Administration from Fresno Pacific University in 1989.

In addition to being a middle school and high school counselor, she spent 10 years teaching Biology, Life Science,  Health and acting as the Science Department Chairman at Redwood High School. It was at this time that she fell in love with high school students. In 2004, she wrote the charter petition and founded Visalia Charter Independent Study. As the principal/counselor there, she was able to build the school to over 400 high school students in 5 years. The school is WASC accredited and University of California A-G approved. In 2009, Missy was selected as Administrator of the Year  by the Association of California School Administrators and was also inducted into Visalia Unified School District’s PTA Hall of Fame.

Missy retired from VUSD in 2009. After she retired, she spent two and a half years helping with the development of a new charter school, Valley Life Charter School. Her 39 year career in education has provided Missy with many experiences and tools to assist her SOAR students in their college quest.

In 2010, Missy founded SOAR because of the great need for college planning she observed in the Central Valley. She had a strong desire to assist families in the college admissions and funding process. Missy is anxious to help the young adults and busy parents in our community navigate an overwhelming and constantly changing landscape, juggle the myriad of decisions about location and opportunities, and cut through the noise to manage application deadlines and financial aid. She looks forward to helping students identify their perfect college fit and reach their full potential. She works tirelessly toward her vision of developing the means to offer advanced college planning to all students in the community. Through a combination of one-on-one counseling, free workshops, and articles in the media – she hopes to reach all families in the community that are in need of guidance.

Missy stays current on changes to the process, by being an active member in several professional organizations. She attends conferences and webinars to stay up to date. She uses a dynamic and engaging college planning curriculum (TRACK IT!) to offer students a proven method of discovery to assist in fulfilling their college dreams.   She also uses multiple online programs to help students with career and major selection, college selection, SAT/ACT preparation and tracking the application and essay progress. She also writes locally for Raise Magazine, a local community publication.

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Professional Experience:

• Started teaching in Pleasanton, CA, 1973

• Moved to Visalia and taught at Mineral King and Willow Glen, 1975

• Taught at Green Acres for 13 years

• Moved to Redwood as a high school counselor

• Became the head counselor at Divisadero Middle School

• Moved back to Redwood to teach science (primary subject, Biology)

• Science Department Chairman

• Founder, Visalia Unified School District  high school dance programs

• College of the Sequoias Dance Instructor, 10 years

• Founder/Counselor/Principal of Visalia Charter Independent Study, 2004

• Founding member/Board member Valley Life Charter School, 2010

• Founder of SOAR College Planning and Consulting, 2010

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Community Involvement:

• Founder, Visalia Dance Center, 1979. Director 10 years

• Miss Tulare County Producer, Talent Development, 20 years

• Redwood Football supporter, (36 years)

• First Presbyterian Church, Worship Team, 8 years

• First Assembly, Worship Dance Director, 2009-10

• Writer, Raise Magazine (College Planning)

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Honors and Awards:

• PTA Teacher of the Year, 1985

• High School Teacher of the Year, 2004

• Visalia Unified School District, Educational Options Administrator of the Year, 2009

• Association of California School Administrators, Administrator of the Year, 2009

• Inducted into Visalia Unified School District’s  PTA Hall of Fame, 2009

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Professional Organizations and Training:

Member:

• Western Association of College Admission Counseling (WACAC)

• Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA)

• College Funding Solutions (CFS)

• Certified College Advisors (CCA)
• National College Advocacy Group (NCAG) Board of Directors

Training:

• WOW Writing Workshop

• College Board

• National College Advocacy Group (NCAG)

• Shrinking the Cost of College Workshop, Lynn O’Shaughnessy

• University of California/CSU

• Guided Path/MyCCA

• College Funding Solutions

• College Planning Relief

• Circle of Neighbors, College Planning
• Annual WACAC and HECA Conferences

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