Meet the Team
Chris Mercer
Higher Education Advisor/Counsellor
Chris joined GIS in March 2022. His experience guiding students through the tangled web of careers and university choices began on the other side of the desk where he received and shortlisted applications for university places. Chris switched focus and began to work with A Level students in the pursuit of their educational and career goals during his time at Hurtwood House School in Surrey, UK.
Chris is a firm believer that the skills gained from (almost) any course can be applied to (almost) any career - there is, after all, a reason that financial institutions crave History graduates in addition to those from Mathematics or Economics backgrounds. Estimates suggest that 65% of today’s young children will be employed in careers that do not yet exist and the best way to prepare them for this is to encourage an open mindset to course and university choice.
Renie Leng
Higher Education Advisor/Counsellor
Miss Leng joined GIS 23 years ago when the hills behind the school were verdant and there was a lake in the trails where Verve Suites now stands. Her prior experience as a private banker taught her that parents treat their children as investments and it is with that ethos, that every child under her care is crucially important, a delicate portfolio with their future in her hands.
A passionate English teacher, she has been a 6th form tutor, editor of the poetry magazine MUSE, acting deputy head of English and creative writing lead but Higher Education remains her passion having seen through two daughters go off to university.
She believes that studying what you love is important, and everyone should be always always learning something new in this mutable global world that we live in. She is keen to guide and counsel post-16 students through their choices and options. Reading should always be on everyone’s to do list every day and a good sense of humour is imperative!
