Susan has been an essay coach for 8+ years but has, at her core, been a writer, storyteller and lover of language(s) since she was very small (possibly earlier). Susan earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In between, she spent a year teaching English in Grenoble, France on a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship; she also spent a summer in Tashkent, Uzbekistan during her Harvard studies. After several early career changes, Susan finally came to realize that she could in fact make storytelling into a unique professional path for herself. Since 2000, she has been infusing her writing and editing skills into businesses across a wide range of industries: cybersecurity, software, entertainment, healthcare, law, and education, among others. She has particularly enjoyed working closely with students to find and express their own authentic stories in their application essays. Susan loves the moment when students discover themselves on the page — and are able to then see themselves in a new and empowering light. Susan has helped these students earn admissions to a wide range of programs at highly selective colleges, including: U Penn, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, USC, UCLA and UC Berkeley — and more.
Story-generating, question-asking facilitator and strategizer; Enthusiastically observant mentor and student advocate; Life-long deeply curious learner.
Here are a few of {first}’s answers to some of CEG’s brainstorming exercises (which you can look forward to at the start of our process!):