Michelle Hung ’91 exits a meeting in the Office of Admission on the North Faring Road campus.

“Let’s go sit outside and get a snack,” she says.  Two minutes later, Rice Krispie treat and water in hand, she sits down on the terrace overlooking the lower lawn and the skeleton of the new building. 
“It’s such a nice campus,” she says fondly.

Hung, the New Assistant Director of Admission, was a member of the last class of Westlake School.

Hung contacted the school nearly four years ago through the Alumni Phone-a-thons. 

She became the Alumni Co-Chair of Annual Giving, after which Director of Admissions Elizabeth Gregory encouraged her to apply for her current job.

Hung worked as an admissions director for Yale University and Hampshire College and then went to graduate school at UCLA to finish her MFA in the film-directing program. 

Her short film “Chinese Dumplings,” about two girls trying to get out of violin practice, has been featured in more than 30 film festivals. Hung spent the last year traveling and promoting her film, so the job came at a “good time.”

Hung is very content with her new job.

“I’m really won over by the students, and I’m not easily impressed,” she insists as middle school students head to the shuttle bus.  She waves to one girl, who smiles and waves enthusiastically in return.

As part of her new job, she heads the Student Ambassador Program, leading 375 students who guide and answer questions for prospective families.She hopes to help the student ambassadors feel “relaxed and confident enough to be truthful” addressing families intimidated by the school’s image. 

She plans to pair younger ambassadors with older ones, so they can establish their own “skills, style and substance.”  As there is no standard student, there is no standard way to be a good ambassador, she says. 

“Ms. Hung has brought a lot of new ideas and energy to the whole program.  She’s someone who is just easy and fun to work with,” said Senior Co-Chair Alex Wittenberg.

“It’s nice to work at my old school,” Hung remarks.

“I used to eat lunch on the ground between the AD Building and the library,” she recalls.  Hung was a debater and editor of the Westlake paper.

Looking around she says, “This is definitely a middle school campus, but it’s grown so much as a school.  We were under a lot of pressure when I went here, but now it’s even more impressive.”