Welcome from your counselors

Welcome from your counselors!
At our school, there are about 500 students in the high school.
Each counselor has responsibilities for 150 to 170 students from grades 9 to 12, divided by alphabet. The counselors provide students with personal counseling, help with academic issues, college advising, and other types of support. They also interact frequently with parents and teachers and make regular classroom presentations. Feel free to call, email, or drop by whenever you need our help.

Tim Jacqui Warren

Warren Lavender
wlavender@asij.ac.jp
(Students A-H)
Extension 407

Sheri Neal
sneal@asij.ac.jp
(Students I-P)
Extension 405

Tim Olson
tolson@asij.ac.jp
(Students Q-Z)
Extension 406

Goodbye to
Jacqui Tolin

This is Warren’s third year in the Counseling Department at ASIJ. Previously, he held a number of counseling positions in Kuwait and Western Canada. Warren has also been the Director of Technology at a high school in Kuwait and an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the American University of Kuwait. He has training and experience in college counseling, crisis management, substance abuse, and personal counseling. Warren received his B.Ed. from the University of Calgary in Alberta and his M. Ed from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He received his Graduate Certification in International Counseling from Lehigh University. He has attended professional development seminars in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (Personal Therapy), and Georgetown University (College Counseling). Outside of ASIJ, Warren has coached football for 15 years at the high school and Collegiate levels. He’s also coached Rugby, Basketball and Track. He has been a Senior Class advisor and Commencement Coordinator in a number of schools. Warren’s wife, Julie, is a 2nd Grade teacher at ASIJ.

Welcome to Sheri Neal, who joins us from the American Embassy School in Delhi, India.

where she has been working as a high school and college counselor for the past six years. Prior to India, Sheri taught middle and high school social studies in international schools in both Japan and Holland. Sheri holds degrees in Asian Language and Literature and School Counseling from the University of Iowa and History Education from the University of Northern Iowa.

Sheri is very involved with OACAC (Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling) an organization for international high school college counselors and admissions professionals. She has served on the board for this organization in the role of vice president of professional development for the past three years. She loves visiting college campuses every summer and is active in attending both summer and fall conferences focused on college counseling.

Most recently Sheri has served as a class advisor for student government and the Gay-Straight Alliance, coached girls basketball and served as a faculty representative to the director and school board. Sheri is excited to return to Japan after a 10 year hiatus (she lived in Japan from 1990-2000) and is looking forward to meeting all of her new students and families.

Tim has been a school counselor for eighteen years. He grew up in Japan as the son of Lutheran missionaries attending a local Japanese kindergarten and elementary school for four years and two years at the Hiroshima International School before enrolling at ASIJ as a sixth grader in 1966. Two-thirds of the years since that time have been spent on the Chofu campus as a student, alumni/advancement officer (four years), and now counselor.
Tim received his B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and his M.A. from the University of Minnesota with a specialization in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology.
       Outside of ASIJ, Tim has had four years of experience as a school counselor and university foreign student advisor in Minnesota, and he spent four years in the early 1980's translating Japanese business management textbooks and documents into English.
        At ASIJ, Tim acts as advisor of the 9th grade class and coordinates their three-day JUMP trip to the Fuji area. He oversees the visits to ASIJ by college officials, which each year average over 150 representatives from the U.S., as well as countries such as Japan, Canada, U.K., and Australia. In addition, he is responsible for the administration of the Advanced Placement exams in May and the ACT, and often assists with Japanese-language information programs for parents.
        Tim's wife Marty teaches grade 1 at ASIJ, and he has two sons, Christopher (Class of '04) and Sean ('08).

We will be saying goodbye to Jacqui after twelve years at ASIJ. She will be spending one semester as the College Counselor at the American School Foundation in Monterrey, Mexico and then hopes to pursue independent college counseling. You can contact her at: jtolin@gmail.com