Jillian Greenspan is the newest addition to Westborough High School and is already a big asset to the guidance department.

Greenspan grew up in Northborough, Massachusetts and attended Algonquin Regional High School. She often visited WHS as she was involved in the fine arts growing up. 

She had a passion for drama growing up, leading her to audition for school plays and musicals. Greenspan participated in musicals put on by the Westborough Players Club and Calliope Productions, as well as through the school. Her favorite role ever played was playing Lucy, at 11 years old, in the production of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.

Greenspan was also very involved in choir. She went to districts, All-State, and the All-Eastern conference. She was even a part of a choir, based out of Boston, through the New England Conservatory.

After her extensive high school accomplishments, she went on to graduate ARHS in 2013 and attended college at Skidmore College, located in Saratoga Springs, New York. 

Originally, her major was biochemistry after expressing a love for AP Biology in high school. However, she went on to find sitting in a lab, alone, was not her preferred setting. Instead, she longed to be in a more social atmosphere so she switched her major to counseling.

She graduated from Skidmore in 2017 with a degree in Biochemistry and attended Harvard Graduate School of Education for her Master’s and her Certificate of Advanced Study. She received her degrees for counseling in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

Her love for school and talking to students brought her back to WHS, where she got a position as a guidance counselor for the 2022-23 school year. 

Greenspan describes guidance counselors as ones who do a bunch of different things or “wear a lot of different hats.” She works with students in many scenarios, such as academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and college/career.

With academics, she helps students with course selection and making sure they are in all the right level classes and classes that they are interested in. 

For social-emotional, she works with students’ mental health. If a student comes in and they are not feeling their best, she tailors her emotions to fit the students’ needs. 

With college and career, Greenspan is able to provide knowledge to students about how the application process works because of her past experience, working as a college admissions advisor, between attending Skidmore and Harvard. She thoroughly enjoys working with students on what they want to do and who they want to be.

Greenspan commented, “Our job here is to make it a little bit easier and a little bit more manageable and to help you through the process.”

While working in counseling, she finds that it is a good fit for her. She loves having conversations with adolescents and helping them through the college admissions process. However, she feels that there isn’t a chance to form relationships because she meets with students only a handful of times.

Greenspan feels as though these interactions through the admissions project are “one-off interactions.” However, in her position at WHS, she is able to meet with them for a longer period of time and is able to connect with students. She is able to give her students more of a support network.

Greenspan remarked her favorite part of her job is: “every single day is different. It doesn’t get boring.” 

When she first came to WHS, she was amazed by both the students and her fellow co-worker. She feels as though both are very enjoyable to work with and watch them do what they are passionate about. 

However, a big part of her life occurs outside of school. Greenspan is an avid knitter and loves walking her dog. She attends a sheep and wool festival each fall with her friends, where they show all the projects they have been working on.

Greenspan has so many talents and attributes that she brings to the work setting. We are very fortunate to have her as part of the WHS community.