By Mary Katherine Brost

New Upper School college counselor Dona Rehm-Robles always loved the idea of being a college counselor. Her family’s education background led her to counseling and helped her find Collegiate School.

Rehm-Robles was born in New Jersey and attended West Morris Central High School in Chester, New Jersey. Growing up, she enjoyed swimming and running. In high school, she swam year-round and ran cross country and spring track. She was also a Girl Scout and earned the Silver Award. As a Girl Scout, she discovered her love for community service, which would continue throughout college. She would have liked to earn a Gold Award in Girl Scouts, but she was unable to due to her commitment to swimming. 

Rehm-Robles attended Vanderbilt University and became involved in clubs and community service. She was the captain of the running club and was also on the board of the Make-a-Wish Club, which raised money for the foundation. She was also the activities chair of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. As a student, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in Jewish studies. 

After undergrad, she became an admissions counselor at Lafayette College. She recruited students from schools in Long Island, The District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. She frequently visited schools in those areas and read their applications. While working at Lafayette, she met Collegiate college counselor Kim Ball. Not only did she work in admissions, but she was also a part of the events team, ran the ROTC program, and ran the tour guide program. She also met her husband, who was a counselor at Lafayette. The couple later got engaged around Christmas in 2020 and then eventually married in May 2022. 

Rehm-Robles says she knew she always wanted to be involved in the college process. She explained that so many members of her family were teachers, so she had grown up around it. She read books that discussed college admissions, such as Acceptance by David L. Marcus and The Overachiever by Alexandra Robbins. These novels discuss the stress of college admissions and give advice on how to tackle it. 

After six years at Lafayette, she decided to go back to school. She went to graduate school at Harvard University and earned a Master’s in higher education administration. While at Harvard, she worked in the Harvard Law Financial Aid Office.

Photo credit: Erin Breese.

After Harvard, Rehm-Robles began working at Brimmer May School, just outside of Boston. At Brimmer May, she stayed very busy as the Director of Student Life, a college counselor, the Director of Career and Leadership Programs, and the varsity cross-country coach. As the Director of Student Life, she helped put together proms and semi-formals. She also started something called the Brimmer Social Hour, a relaxed activity where students could participate in different arts and crafts or do anything relaxing. 

After three years at Brimmer May, she received a call from Collegiate’s Head of College Counseling Brian Leipheimer, asking her if she would be interested in a job at Collegiate. After interviewing and getting the job, her and her husband packed up and moved to Richmond. She explained that she loved Boston and Brimmer May, but was excited for a new opportunity in a new city. She described that “Boston was too busy and too expensive, but Richmond felt like the perfect size.” 

She has only worked at Collegiate for a few months, but Rehm-Robles already loves it. I asked her which faculty members she has connected to, and she said, “I really love all the new teachers” She explained that she had already known most of the counselors but has enjoyed getting to know them better. While she has not been in Richmond for very long, she looks forward to running outside more often due to the warmer temperatures compared to Boston. 

Rehm-Robles wants Collegiate students to know she is always happy to have visitors and has a very welcoming office. She also told me she would be open to students calling her “Mrs. R Squared.” 

Featured image courtesy of Collegiate School.