The Student Guidance Crisis - Siddharth Ashra & Justin Alexander

Guest

Sid Ashra and Justin Alexander

Co-Founders, Acadway

Siddharth Ashra and Justin Alexander are the co-founders of The Acadway, a study-abroad advisory platform that helps students navigate admissions to top universities across the US, Canada, the UK, and beyond, with a track record of a 98% success rate placing clients into their target programs. Siddharth brings a background in strategy consulting and finance - including time at KPMG - alongside an MSc in International Business from Ivey Business School, where he also served as President of the Student Association; he's since mentored over 500 students on turning their academic choices into real career leverage. Justin pairs an unusually varied path - environmental engineering, sustainability consulting, and a stint as a Canadian Armed Forces military officer - with dual master's degrees from Ivey Business School and the Norwegian School of Economics, and brings a particular focus on sustainability and Indigenous reconciliation to his advising. On Decoding Wisdom, the two challenge the conventional wisdom around university rankings, expose how students get taken advantage of by "trusted" counsellors, and talk candidly about mental health, culture shock, and what it actually takes to build a meaningful career studying and working abroad.