I still remember the moment I finished my Common App essay, that mix of relief and "wait, does this actually sound like me?" That question is the heart of what I do now.

I graduated with highest distinction from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in Public Policy and Global Studies and a minor in English. My creative writing has been published in Walter Magazine, and finding the right words (and cutting the wrong ones) has been a constant thread through everything I've done.

I’ve also spent a lot of time with teenagers who are figuring out who they are and where they want to go in life. Five summers as a counselor at Camp Seafarer, two summers as a Trip Leader with Moondance Adventures in Thailand and Tanzania & Zanzibar, and a semester as a faculty member at The Island School in the Bahamas have taught me how to sit with a 16- or 17-year-old and ask the kind of questions that get past the rehearsed answer, and focus on the ones that surface what actually matters to them. That skill turns out to be exactly what a great college essay requires—putting who you are and what matters to you into words.

I also know this process from the inside. I applied for and interviewed for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC, the Park Scholarship at NC State, and the Belk Scholarship at Davidson College. I know what it feels like to sit across from someone whose job is to figure out who you really are in twenty minutes, and how much a well-articulated sense of self can carry you through that experience.

Every student has a genuinely great story in them, it’s just often buried under what they think they're supposed to say. I help dig it out. My favorite part is the moment a student stops writing what they think sounds impressive and starts writing what's true, and you can feel the difference on the page. That's the essay that sets them apart, not because it's clever or curated, but because it's real.