Initially a physics major, Alex graduated with a BA in English from Rice University (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa). Subsequently, he earned his PhD in English Literature from Rutgers, and his dissertation project was awarded the prestigious Dan David Prize in Literature by an...

Alison grew up in Concord, MA, known for its literary and revolutionary history (Henry David Thoreau inspired the name of her first dog Walden). Alison has always loved reading and writing; at Brown University, she studied Comparative Literature and Italian Studies. While studying abroad for a...

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Alyssa is happy to once again call Brooklyn home.  Alyssa attended Saint Ann’s in Brooklyn Heights and then Williams College, where she majored in English and wrote a collection of short stories for her Honors Thesis, one of which won the Wainwright Award for best...

Andrew received his bachelor’s degree in American History and English Literature from the College of William and Mary, holds a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, and is currently finishing up his Ph.D. on the history of non-profit philanthropic foundations at Columbia University in...

Andy grew up around punk music and alternative theatre in the Great American West.  After graduating from Arizona School for the Arts, he attended Harvard College, where he studied American History and Literature, wrote and produced six plays, recorded and performed original music, lived in a...

Annabel’s educational journey began with homeschooling in Southport, Connecticut and taking online courses through Stanford University’s Educated Program for Gifted Youth. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, with a BA in English and minors in...

Ariel was born in Santa Monica, CA but has lived in New York City since she was twelve and considers herself a proud New Yorker. She attended Professional Children’s School (to accommodate her schedule at the School of American Ballet) where she discovered her love of literature, writing,...

Audrey was raised in Arlington, VA and graduated from Northeastern University with a major in international affairs and a minor in Arabic. During her time at Northeastern, she studied Arabic in Jordan and conflict resolution in the Balkans. She also spent six months working with a freelance...

Becca holds a B.A. in philosophy (summa cum laude) from Dartmouth College and an MPhil in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. She is currently in the fourth year of her PhD in philosophy at Harvard, where she has been the recipient of the prestigious Bowdoin...

Until recently, Ben has been a Teaching Fellow at Columbia University, where he earned a PhD in English with a concentration on Shakespearean drama and economic history. In more than five years as an instructor at Columbia, Ben was repeatedly honored for teaching and mentorship. Not only does he...

Benjamin graduated summa cum laude with a 3.95 GPA from NYU, where his senior thesis earned him the Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Academic Achievement Award. Benjamin was also student editor of Mercer Street, a collection of NYU’s best undergraduate writing, and a writing tutor at NYU...

Blythe is a member of the Yurok Tribe; she is originally from McKinleyville, CA, and currently lives in Los Angeles. Blythe graduated from Dartmouth College in 2012 with a BA in Sociology. At Dartmouth, she was a Mellon Mays Fellow, won the national Beinecke scholarship as a junior and was one...

Bryan grew up in Akron, OH where he cultivated a taste for exploring the wider world and has spent most of his life in Chicago and New York City. Bryan is a Ph.D. candidate in British Atlantic and Early American History at Columbia University. He earned his BA from the City College of New York...

Caroline Dell is a Senior Associate Consultant in Bain & Company’s New York office. She joined Bain full-time in September 2013, after an internship during the summer of 2012.

Caroline graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Economics and Public Policy. While at Brown, she was...

Catherine is a graduate student pursuing a PhD in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. She has an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, where she spent endless months counting Zebras on the plains of Africa and trees in...

Charlotte was born in Utah, grew up in England, and has lived in Mexico, Peru, and Chile. She holds a B.A. with first class honors and distinction in English and Spanish from Oxford University, an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from Brown, and a postgraduate certificate in translation from the...

Chris grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, where he developed an appreciation for the finer things in life, especially the music of Bruce Springsteen, the invaluable service of gas station attendants, and mozzarella cheese (pronounced “mootz-ah-rell,” or simply “muhtz”), though he has since...

Claire graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and honors in nonfiction writing. She now holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the New York Academy of Art.

Claire has taught English literature at a high school in Athens, Greece, and...

Connor is a cofounder of an upcoming cryptography software project and the sole proprietor of a novel-in-progress. He grew up in Wyoming—his true loyalties are with the forests of the Snowy Range and the rock formations of Vedauwoo. He graduated from Duke in 2012 as an Angier B. Duke Memorial...

Daniel is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of five books of literary nonfiction.  He specializes in coaching students on their personal statements and other application essays, whether the goal is getting into a great college, grad school, or medical...

David grew up in Acton, MA, former home to Steve Carell and Big Bird (really—look it up!), where he also teaches. He’s a passionate parent, runner, musician, learner, reader, and writer. David has been a freelance writer for 15 years, interviewing people like Sia, Elvis Costello, and “Weird Al”...

Austin, TX is Devin’s hometown: when he was young, his family moved there from Orlando, FL because they realized they had finally finished seeing every part of Disney World. He got his BA in philosophy at Yale, where he graduated magna cum laude and won 1st prize in the Yale Public Speaking...

Duncan is an Affiliated Fellow of the Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College and holds a D.Phil in English from the University of Oxford, an MA from University College London and BA from Cambridge University. He moved to the United States in the summer of 2012 after a decade...

Elizabeth was born in the boonies of Appalachia. She attended the University of North Carolina, double-majoring in dramatic art and English and graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She was awarded the Joseph Adler Award in Dramatic Art and the Whitfield Award for her work in...

Originally from Connecticut, Elizabeth graduated cum laude from Harvard College with a BA in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and a language citation in German. While at Harvard, she participated extensively in the performing arts scene, earning the David McCord Prize for Unusual...

Emily is a theatre kid from Jersey turned writing coach, educator, and interdisciplinary humanities scholar. She received her PhD from Columbia University in Theatre and Performance, a subcommittee of the English and Comparative Literature department, in Spring 2020. Building off her...

Emma grew up in a household of readers, and still remembers when her mother established the rule “No Reading When You’re Walking” after a bad fall (caused by reading while walking down stairs) resulted in a sprained ankle. Emma attended Sarah Lawrence, where she earned a BA in Liberal Arts with...

Emma hails from rural Minnesota, where she frequented her local library to the point that her parents were forced to threaten returning her literary spoils as a form of disciplinary leverage. After graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2014...

Eric grew up in Wisconsin, and double majored in history and English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where occasional rumors that the school had a football team (“Badgers?”) reached him while he was getting hooked on the writing of Joyce, Faulkner, Eliot and Woolf. He...

Erin Bartnett received her Masters in modern & contemporary literature from the University of Virginia, a certificate in publishing from NYU, and her Bachelors in English Literature with a concentration in Women's Literature from Rutgers University, summa cum laude, high honors.  She has...

Evan’s enthusiasm for helping others with their writing began in the second grade, when he coached his friend Michael through the writing and illustration of a short book about a society of friendly rodents who lived beneath the stairs of a house. Evan attended The Evergreen State College in...

Evander Price hails from the southwesternmost corner of America—sunny San Diego—from where he has since been transplanted to the northeastern city of Cambridge, MA, learning through slow attrition to brave the bitter New England winters.

At Vassar College, he double-majored in Art...

Hana Goldstone was born and raised in Southern California. She moved to New York City to attend Columbia University and has lived here ever since. As an undergraduate at Columbia, Hana double majored in sociology and dance. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and her...

Helena was born in New York City and then raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Raised by parents who are both teachers (at the high school she attended, no less), she has been engaged with reading, writing, and education quite literally since she can remember. She studied at Columbia University...

Despite her major, Janet did not learn how to speak English until she was 5-years-old when she moved to the United States from Taiwan. Janet graduated from Wellesley College with a dual major in Art History and English. After Wellseley, she went on to complete an MA in art history from the...

Jeb grew up on a beautiful, bucolic island near Seattle. Long commutes into the city to attend school gave him ample time to read and write, and he became a lover of books and developed an interest in English grammar and language at an early age. He received his B.A. in international relations...

Jenna grew up outside of Philadelphia, spending most of her childhood with her fingers glued to a fantasy novel or a video game controller. She attended Tufts University, where she majored in English and fostered a passion for fantasies written in the middle ages. At Tufts, she graduated summa...

Jingyu completed her undergraduate work in mainland China in Chinese language and literature. She holds an MA from Harvard University in Regional Studies of East Asia and an MPhil from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Chinese Studies. She is currently a PhD candidate at Harvard University...

Originally from the midwest, John learned to teach and tutor while earning his doctorate in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. In his graduate program, he studied race and the slave trade in the literature of the Europe and the Americas, with an emphasis on Brazil. He...

Jon realized that he wanted to study literature and writing while working his first (and so far only) office job, when he found himself often hiding to read Dover Thrift Editions of the works of Shakespeare and Blake.  So, he got a BA in English at The George Washington University, writing a...

Julia may have left England at the tender age of 5, but she has never gotten over her first loves – good English tea and great English literature. In fact, she holds a B.A. from Princeton University in the subject (English, not tea), with certificates in Theater and Music Theater. At Princeton,...

For the last three years of elementary school, Kannan fell asleep to a book-on-tape about a barn owl named Plop; maybe that explains how prose got inside his subconscious.  Kannan did his B.A. at the University of Chicago, where he studied the history of science, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and...

Kate is extremely grateful to everyone in her life who embraces her philosopher’s tendency to respond to just about everything with “but wait, why do you think that?”. Kate developed this annoying habit at Gettysburg College, where she majored in Philosophy and English Literature. Reaching the...

When Keating read Suetonius’ biographies of the Roman emperors in high school, he realized that the ancient world was where he needed to be; barring a time machine, Classics offered the best means of entry. Keating went on to pursue his undergraduate studies in Classics at Columbia and Cambridge...

Kristen splits her time between central Connecticut and Princeton, New Jersey. After graduating from Colby College as salutatorian in 2014, with Honors in English and distinction in Sociology, Kristen decided to pursue a Ph.D. in English at Princeton, where she is currently working on a...

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Lana attended Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in International and Area Studies with a double minor in Korean and Russian. She graduated summa cum laude, going on to pursue a Master’s in Humanities at the University of Chicago and subsequently entering...

Lucina is not embarrassed to admit that some of her earliest memories are of playing ‘school’ with her friends and family. Years later, she entered Princeton University with vague scientific aspirations and left it a zealot for her major, English Literature, graduating summa cum laude,...

Mallory grew up in New Jersey, which means she grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen and eating pizza on Long Beach Island. She carried her Jersey pride with her to Connecticut, where she attended The Hotchkiss School. There, she wrote and directed her first play, “A Slice of Life”. She gave...

Mariam has been writing for almost as long as she’s been reading, ever since first grade, when the PTA moms at her Midwestern school started “publishing” student work—a.k.a., typing up the kids’ handwritten copy and binding the stapled pages in cereal boxes and wallpaper. At Princeton for...

Molly was born to Texan parents, but grew up near Boston, MA (she’s still trying to find good Tex-Mex in Boston). She attended Harvard College, where she studied History and Literature and Social Anthropology. Her interests in international studies and human rights led her to focus on the Middle...

Nell is a born and bred New Yorker who spent her formative years in Prospect Park. She attended Wesleyan University where she double-majored in Art History and English (Creative Writing). While at Wesleyan, Nell was a member of the Women’s Varsity Squash Team, elected Captain her Senior year,...

Nora Isacoff, PhD, is a professor in the Psychology departments at both Columbia University and New York University, and a former National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow. She has many years of experience working directly with students of all ages, from elementary school through adults. Her...

As an eldest child, Paige often wrote plays and taught her siblings how to act them out. This passion for fiction is central to her research and her love of teaching. She earned college honors at the University of California, Santa Cruz, majoring in Women’s Studies before going on to a Master’s...

Pat grew up on Long Island, New York and dreamed of living in a city. She went to college at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and majored in biology and English and then worked as a paralegal in Washington, D.C. while she decided whether to go to law school or graduate school in...

Peter grew up in Southern California and attended the University of California Berkeley, earning his BA in English Literature and graduating Phi Beta Kappa with high honors. He then earned his MA and PhD in English Language and Literatures at Brown University, writing his dissertation on 19th...

Rachel is a tried-and-true Boston transplant. She studied biology as a full-tuition merit scholar at Thiel College, a private liberal arts college that is buried under Pennsylvania snow most of the year. She then earned her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology as a merit scholar at Boston...

Rebecca was raised in the woods of North Carolina, where she learned to love both reading and climbing trees. Rebecca received her A.B. from Harvard, where she designed an independent major in drama and literature and graduated with high honors. Her senior thesis won a Thomas T. Hoopes prize,...

A true Manhattanite from head to toe, Sam attended Horace Mann High School before emigrating, in a fit of wanderlust and questionable judgment, to Ireland to enroll in the English Department of Trinity College Dublin. At Trinity, he earned honors and had his poetry and prose published in a...

Samuel began his college career when most people finish theirs, at 22, when he started taking classes at Shasta College before his evening shifts as a line cook and kitchen manager in the small city of Redding, California. He enjoyed his English class so much that first semester that one day he...

In sixth grade, Sara finally finished her first novel, The Clamorous Medium. Since then, she has thankfully learned to write without a thesaurus. Sara graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California, where she studied English Literature and Political Science as a Trustee...

Sarah was born and raised in New York City, a place steeped in literary history that sparked her love of reading and writing. She attended Dartmouth College, where she majored in English and graduated as Valedictorian, winning the Stanley Prize in English for the most innovative undergraduate...

Shelby is from Wyoming, and he has spent the past decade living in Massachusetts, Colorado, California, and the UK. He has a Master’s in American Studies from the University of Oxford, and he recently received a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of California, Irvine. He spent a...

Sofía grew up in Berkeley, CA, which explains her soft spot for worker-owned cooperatives and her remarkably high burrito standards. She majored in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard College. Upon graduation, Sofía was awarded a Harvard Traveling Fellowship to research...

    Tarek is originally from Beirut, Lebanon and spent most of his formative years in his hometown. He completed his degree in Political Studies, with an emphasis on International Relations and a minor in History, before moving to Sabancı University (Istanbul) for his Masters degree in Ottoman...

Tess is a true Upper Westsider with no plans to leave. She attended Trinity School and then moved north to attend Columbia University, where she majored in English and fenced for the varsity team. After spending a few years working at the Kinetix Group she has returned to Columbia as an MBA...

Tess grew up in northern New Jersey, where, as an enthusiastic user of AOL instant messenger, she first discovered her love of the written word. That love carried her to Yale, where she completed a BA in English Literature and Philosophy, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa,...

Tony grew up in an immigrant family and is fluent in English and Mandarin (and Shanghainese). Tony moved from his home in Brooklyn, NY to Boston for college, attending Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude in Literature in 2008. He began a JD/PhD program at Harvard Law...

Vidya grew up bouncing between India and the US, and has seen her fair share of small towns and sprawling cities.  After graduating from the University of Bombay in India, she went on to receive her MA and MPhil from Columbia in English Literature.  After graduating with two degrees, she decided...

Zoe grew up in the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles, California. She attended Vassar College  where she graduated after four years with a degree with honors in Science, Technology, and Society.  While at Vassar, Zoe was a member and captain of the Varsity Swim Team for all four years.  She was...