Georgia (Scott) Leasher ’13 does not have to think long about the people and places that have shaped her life. Among them is a setting that’s part of her past, present, and future. “Some of the best years of my life were as a student at Shady Side,” she says. “I found many of my best friends here — friends who I still see today.”

For Leasher, relationships sit at the center of everything, shaping how she experiences the world and the path she has taken through it. That path brought her back to Shady Side, where she is a Counselor in the Middle School. In this role, Leasher moves through the same institution where she was once a student with a new sense of responsibility but the same underlying instinct to connect.

Leasher arrived at Shady Side in ninth grade, following in the footsteps of her father, a member of the Class of 1979, and her two older brothers, who each spent time at the Academy. 
“I had the option of either staying in the Quaker Valley school district or coming to Shady Side, but I wanted to go to school with my brother,” she recalls. “He was a senior, so he was able to drive, and we spent an hour and a half together every day commuting to and from school, just the two of us.”

That daily stretch of time, spent in conversation and sibling companionship, offered a kind of apprenticeship in presence. It set a tone for how she would navigate high school, attentive to the people around her and open to connections.

At Shady Side, Leasher’s relationships expanded as she met classmates who lived in different areas of Pittsburgh. “My best friends both went to school with me here,” she says. “We probably wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for Shady Side.”

In the classroom, language study became another means of connection. “I loved French,” she says. “Learning a new language meant that I could now break down a language barrier with an entirely new group of people.”

Leasher participated in the French exchange program during her senior year. Her family hosted a student from Bordeaux, and Leasher later traveled to France, where she experienced firsthand the way language and relationships can collapse distance. Years later, those connections have endured. “My French exchange student and I are still really close,” she says. “He came to visit over Labor Day weekend last year.”

Looking back, she recognizes what was already taking shape. “I’ve always been somebody who likes to connect with people,” Leasher says. “I think that clearly bleeds into my career today.”

After graduating from Shady Side, Leasher attended the University of Richmond, where she pursued degrees in French and international studies, a direction shaped in no small part by the encouragement of Senior School World Languages Teacher Dr. Carol-Jean McGreevy-Morales. With that foundation, she initially imagined a future abroad, building a life that would allow her to continue bridging cultures and relationships across distance. 

Instead, as her life began to take shape, she chose to return home, drawn by the people who mattered most to her. “My brother started having kids, and I wanted to be present as an aunt,” she says. “I wanted to be close to them.” It was a decision grounded by a consistent thread in her life: the pull toward relationships that feel meaningful.

In Pittsburgh, she joined the Pittsburgh Fellows Program, a faith-based leadership development program that empowers college graduates as they launch their careers. While working there, her direction became clearer.

“My favorite part of the experience was the meetings,” she says. “Afterward, people that I worked with would come over and sit by my desk and just tell me about their lives. That was the best part of my day each day. I wondered, ‘How can I make this my career?’”

That question marked a turning point. It led her to pursue a master’s degree in counseling at Geneva College, focusing on marriage and family, and eventually brought her back to Shady Side.

Now in her fourth year, Leasher’s role brings her into daily contact with Middle School students. Her work is both structured and fluid, shaped by the unpredictability of adolescence and the steady need for connection. “You never really know what your day is going to look like,” she says. “It’s definitely not boring.”

Within that variability, she maintains some consistent practices with her students. “I try to meet with every student at least once a year,” she explains, “to make sure that they know me, know my face, know my voice, know my space, and know where to find me.” These meetings are often short, but they establish a point of connection that returns when it matters. Students recognize that they are seen and known by at least one trusted adult on campus.

“I have lollipops in my office so that kids can leave with something that makes them smile,” she says. 

“When they stop by, I ask them about what’s going on academically and socially.”

Her work extends beyond individual conversations into the broader fabric of the school community as well. Unlike traditional counseling, which can often be isolating, Leasher is deeply embedded in daily school life, and she prefers it that way.

“My work is so community-based,” she says. “That’s a huge gift of this job that is different from traditional counseling work.”

That sense of community is something she recognizes as distinctly Shady Side. “I think Shady Side is unique in the way that it intentionally provides spaces and opportunities to connect that a student might not get in a different school setting,” she says.

Her perspective as both alumna and educator gives her a particular clarity on that point. She has lived the long arc of those connections, from teachers who made a difference to student friendships that have endured into adulthood, and now professional relationships that influence her daily work.

Among the educators who shaped her, one stands out. Leasher took a class with Computer Science Teacher Dave Szlachetka P’16,’19, during a particularly difficult time in her life, when her grandfather passed away. 

“I will never forget how nice he was to me,” she says. “When you’re going through something hard, and you still have to show up at school, you need somebody like that who smiles at you.” 
Now, Leasher is committed to being that person for others. She is not interested in directing students toward a single way of thinking. Instead, she works to help them better appreciate themselves and their principles.

“I help a child understand what their values are, what values they’re getting from their parents at home, and I help them live those values,” she says. “But I’m not trying to change how they see the world.”

It is an approach grounded in respect, closely aligned with the relational teaching framework at the crux of the Shady Side philosophy. 

As she looks ahead, Leasher acknowledges the uncertainty that accompanies any evolving path. Yet her confidence does not come from knowing exactly what comes next or who will be part of the journey.

“It’s easy to look back on your past and to see how you got to where you are now,” she says. “It is a lot harder when you’re looking into the future, and you don’t yet know what your next step is, but I know that whatever it is, it’s going to be great because of the people around me.”