My name is Xiaobo (Percy) Jiang, and I write you from Keystone Academy, a private boarding school in Beijing. With a great pleasure, I am introducing my colleague at Beijing National Day School (BNDS) before I joined Keystone, Mr. David McCauley.
 
I am a Chinese Mainlander and had been working here at BNDS for 15 years. The first nine years at BNDS, I taught students the English language from 7th grade to 12th. In 2010, I started to work as a college counselor at College Counselling Centre(CCC) when BNDS launched its college counseling project. I have been a member of NACAC, International ACAC since 2010 and sat on Executive Board in 2017. I have known David in a variety of capacities for several years. 

When BNDS started the CCC, David was recommended by Wasatch Academy in Utah, a BNDS’ partner school. He came to join the position of Director of the CCC in October 2010. With his leadership, initiatives, and diligence, David helped BNDS build the College Counseling Centre in both routines and the team. He always gave selflessly of his time and effort to provide his wisdom and resource for BNDS and its students. Due to his experience working as an admission officer in Colby College, RPI and Hamilton College, David has a sound understanding of admission of those competitive schools and also, he maintains good connections with those admission officers in prestigious colleges and universities, like Bowdoin, Middlebury, Princeton, Cornell, Duke, Queen’s U, Waterloo, UBC, and even some UK schools, etc. Thanks to his connections, each year BNDS has received more than 100 college and university visitors.

 

Working with his Chinese colleagues closely, David led the CCC to host BNDS 2011, 2012 and 2013 Liberal Arts College Tours and University Tours, including Linden Tours, College That Change Lives (CTCL) Tours and Council of International Schools (CIS) Tours.

​

David loved his students very much and worked so hard to help their college applications. His knowledge and patience had won him so much support from BNDS community. Students liked to talk with him about their applications and of course, they were educated in many ways. David worked closely with his students on their college search, selection, essays, and applications. He was so dedicated to his work that for many work days, he left office very late even though he lived far from the school. To advocate BNDS students, he often worked late communicating with overseas admission officers.

 

Other than students’ counseling, every semester, David presented in school parent meetings several times, introducing the CCC and its service. With his presentations and help, BNDS parents and students in different grade (grade 10 -12) now have a much better understanding of western education, application and different types of schools.

 

David is very ambitious and more than willing to provide his best to the community. As Director of the CCC, he started 11th-grade Seminar for counseling and organized students to visit US schools in June of 2012, and 2013, which was welcomed by those schools and also an excellent opportunity for the students to be exposed in front of admission officers. Believing that he worked for both high school and colleges, David tried his best to help BNDS and other top high schools in China start professional counseling and connect with overseas colleges. His hardworking and persistence impressed many people around him.
 
As a local Chinese counselor, I have learned a lot from him. To some extent, he was my mentor in college counseling. At the very beginning, he taught me in counseling as much as he could and later when we attended some college fairs or OACAC conferences, he warmly introduced me to everyone he met. After I was appointed to the Chinese Director of the CCC, we worked together. On the one hand, it is my responsibility to help him know the local culture and communicate with Chinese students and parents when it was necessary. On the other hand, his professionalism, dedication, and righteousness influenced the CCC and me. 

Even though David was regarded as a top professional by BNDS, he was very humble to learn things that he didn’t think he knew. For many times, he invited me to discuss with him about his counselees, local reality, and BNDS work philosophy, etc.

 

In summary, references are often vehicles for overstatement but in this case, I enthusiastically recommend Mr. David McCauley to any school or institution wishing to employ a professional and highly knowledgeable counselor. 

​

​