Fostering strength and resilience: How Eve uses August to prioritize student support and facilitate collaboration
When you speak with Eve Kulbieda, Head of Upper Campus at Pinewood, it’s immediately clear how deeply she cares about her students. Her thoughtful, reflective approach is rooted in years of working with students from all walks of life. From rural Australia to founding a sports academy on the East Coast, Eve's experience is vast, but her focus remains steady: student resilience, growth, and belonging.
"It's so important for me to keep students safe. And that for me means safe from themselves, safe from the harms of the community, and the world they're growing up in."
For Eve, safety isn't just about physical wellbeing. It's about building internal resilience—identity, self-confidence, and clarity of values. The way she describes it,
"Can you stand strong in who you are as a person and that you know your own values well enough that you can stand by them?"
This philosophy has shaped her work with students and families alike.
Eve and her team support students from 7th-12th grade. Consistency, especially for students who have been at Pinewood since kindergarten, is crucial.
"When I came to Pinewood, we wanted to have a system where we could document because we think long-term data and consistent care are really important...We do cross-campus transition meetings for student support, and now with August we can see that data. It not only shows where support is needed, but it also shows where there’s been growth."
The platform allows for documentation that is both comprehensive and secure.
"We love how it partitions off so the counselors have their partitioned environment where they can hold their counseling notes but that they can tag other student support team members where relevant."
With August, Eve finds she spends less time chasing updates or setting meetings, and more time truly understanding what students need.
"I feel like I do less follow up, less popping over to follow up on student x or y, because I can just go into August and I can see the work that's being done in different areas."
From discipline follow-ups to makeup work plans, everything is in one place.
"It streamlines collaboration."
One of the most powerful aspects of August for Eve is the ability to use data to advocate for staffing and programming.
"We just actually increased our academic support department by a full-time personnel member because we were able to show using August data that we actually do have this need."
Pinewood's team already had rigorous documentation practices in place. What August offered was a secure, seamless way to continue those workflows.
"I have an incredible team, now we just have security knowing that we can keep this data and we're not worried about whose hands it might fall into."
And that sense of security matters.
"It was a very natural adoption for us in that now we had this place to actually do our work securely and feel much better about the privacy piece."
For Eve, August isn’t just about documentation. It’s about keeping students at the center of the work.
"Just to be able to show the arc of support to a family and a student and to be really clear with the dates and the times and the interventions that were put in place, that has been the biggest benefit to me."
That clarity has a human impact.
"It makes those conversations a little bit more data based. And I find that that objectivity is easier for parents and students."
Would Eve recommend August?
"Yes, I would definitely recommend August to other schools. It has so much that it can do, but the simplicity of the way it folds into just a normal day-to-day documentation process is it's beauty I think."
With August, Eve and her team are empowered to do what they do best: build resilient students, support whole families, and create a culture of collaboration that lifts the entire Pinewood community.