Why I Belong: Noah Nemitoff-Bresler

“Have you thought about joining ah-yee-kuh?” he asked me from across his oversized executive desk. I was teaching middle school math at a private school in Los Angeles at the time, and I had just told the head of school that I wanted to change my career trajectory and start advising students in the college planning and application process. Years later, thinking back on that experience, I realized that he was referring to IECA, although I’d never heard it sounded out phonetically (nor have I since, thankfully). I ended up finding my own way to IECA, but I’m grateful to that head of school for trying to point me in the right direction.

Growing up as a 2e learner, a term for gifted students with learning differences, I had experienced firsthand the impact that the right educators and learning environment can have on a student’s life—not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and holistically. However, the supportive private high school that I was fortunate to attend didn’t equip me with the self-awareness or self-advocacy skills I needed to succeed in college. Furthermore, I didn’t have guidance during the college planning process to ensure I ended up at a college that was the right fit for me. I ended up attending a large public research university where it was easy to slip through the cracks. I started off in the honors program but found myself on academic probation by junior year. After taking time off from college to travel and volunteer abroad, I came back with renewed insight into myself and what I needed to succeed. I graduated with a major in cognitive science specializing in neuroscience, and although I didn’t have a career path in mind, it helped me to understand myself better, as well as how my students learn and think.

During the decade after college, I bounced around between jobs: neuroscience researcher, tutor, Hebrew school teacher, summer camp nature specialist and ropes course instructor, tutoring company owner, and eventually classroom teacher. When I met my wife, we were both living in Los Angeles where I was teaching and running a tutoring company and she was in grad school. As things got serious between us, I knew that we’d likely be moving wherever she got a job after grad school, so I started thinking about my own career path. As much as I liked the challenge and reward of classroom teaching, after six years I realized that it wasn’t where I saw myself long term. Thinking back to my own educational experience, I decided that I wanted to provide students and families with the guidance that I wish I had when I went through the college application process all those years ago.

With a burst of motivation following this big life decision, I signed up for the UCSD College Counseling Certificate program. After a conversation with one of my professors (shoutout to Steven Mercer), I decided to attend the IECA Summer Training Institute (STI) that year held at Claremont McKenna College. Looking back, STI was the perfect first taste of IECA because I got to experience some of the best IECA has to offer in a more intimate setting. I learned from some of the greats of our profession and bonded with an amazing cohort of other new IECs. I still refer back to that giant binder of valuable resources on a regular basis. As coincidence would have it, the IECA conference that fall was in Los Angeles. The conference was sensory overload in the best way possible but having a group of colleagues from STI to sit next to in breakout sessions, share notes with, and socialize with made it feel more manageable. Leaving that first conference, I felt like I had found my true path in life for the first time.

When my wife and I moved to Connecticut in 2019 for her work, it was the first time I had lived anywhere outside of Southern California. I immediately had local IECA members reaching out to me, adding me to group chats, inviting me to college tours, and referring students to me. IECA was my support system, professionally as well as personally. Over the last five years, I’ve continued attending conferences, expanding my professional network, growing as an IEC, and making lifelong friends in the process. I joined the Outreach Committee, helping spread the good word about IECA for the third year in a row now. This year I also joined the LD/ND (Learning Differences and Neurodiversity) Committee, which has been a great opportunity to delve deeper into the work I do with the student populations I primarily serve, and I’m honored to serve on the Ethics Committee.

Over the years, I’ve held several positions in and around education, but none of them felt like “the one” until I found IECA. I see being an IEC as the culmination of all my previous experiences, but I don’t think I would have found my footing or stuck with it long enough to learn that if it hadn’t been for IECA. The personal and professional connections I’ve developed, learning opportunities I’ve taken advantage of, and the feeling of being accepted for who I am have made this not just a job, not just a career, but a calling.

By Noah Nemitoff-Bresler, IECA Associate (CT)