After 41 years in the admission and enrollment field, with the last 11 years at Santa Clara University, Mike Sexton retired in July 2020. He spent much of his early career on the East Coast. He taught high school math, coached soccer, and was an Upward Bound instructor in New Hampshire. He has slowly migrated west, working at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, Rhodes College in Tennessee, and Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, where he remained for 18 years before arriving at Santa Clara University in 2009. A Buffalo, NY native, Mike graduated from Buffalo State University and went on to receive his Master’s in College Student Personnel from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
In addition to being responsible for over a quarter million applications at his own institutions, Mike was also a reader for numerous years for both the National Merit and Coca Cola Scholarship competitions. Mike has been involved in numerous regional and national associations and a frequent presenter at professional conferences. He was on the faculty of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) Advanced School Counselor Institute and co-directed the NACAC Admission Mid-Management Institute. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Exemplary Service Award from the Pacific Northwest Association for College Admission Counseling. Mike was on the College Board’s College Planning Advisory Board for the “Big Future” website. His admission work took him to 47 states and 35 countries. He was a faculty member of the College Board International School Counselor Institute and traveled to American embassies and international schools on behalf of the US State Department’s Overseas Travelers’ Project Guidance Committee.