Meet The Member: Beth Drake, UTP High Schools

Beth Drake is Director of Marketing and Business development for UTP High Schools, which helps facilitate arrangements for international students wishing to come to the United States to attend high school.

UTP High Schools is New York based and has about 1,000 foreign students currently enrolled in eight private high schools in New York, Florida, Arizona, California, and here in New Hampshire.

High schools in the Granite State partnering with UTP High Schools include St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover and Bishop Guertin in Nashua.

“They attend our high schools, and we have an on-campus team at all of the schools where we have a contract,” said Beth. “We manage the host family program for our students and teach them ESL (English as a Second Language).”

Students may come for an academic year or semester on an exchange program, or they may come with the purpose of getting their degree from the school then going onto college in the United States.

The company says it simplifies international student programming at its partner schools. A multilingual team markets the schools at education fairs around the world, then the company works with the student, the student’s parents, and the institution to achieve the best possible outcome for the time the student is enrolled.

“We’re actually a young company; we’re only five years old,” said Beth. “And we have a lot of young team members, as well.

Beth heads up the marketing and business development team based in Portsmouth at the Cooperative Venture Workspace at 36 Maplewood Avenue.

She’s been working for UTP High Schools for three years, having come to the area 10 years ago with her husband, a native New Englander.

Beth has a resume of experience with marketing and international recruitment. She lived for a time in Australia where she worked in international marketing for universities and, before that, recruiting foreign workers for seasonal jobs. For example, ski resorts in New Zealand hire college students from the United States because while it’s winter in New Zealand, it’s summer vacation time in the U.S.

The work has grown enough that Beth in March hired two members to her team — Mary McNamara as Business Development Manager and Kelly Casey as Marketing Manager. Part of her team is also based in Manhattan.

“When I hired them in the spring, I knew we’d need some shared working space,” said Beth.

The Class A office space at the Workspace — with its high-end amenities — offered exactly the kind of flexibility she needed. There is space for individual work and for collaborative work in an environment that supports and encourages innovation.
“It’s been great,” she said. “We mostly work at home, but this gets us here to be together. The facilities are great, and we’re very happy.