Empowerly Student Speaks From the Heart

The upcoming generation is full of talented thinkers, innovators, and learners. They show great potential in various academic, sports, or business fields. These young individuals give us hope for the future, shedding light on the path ahead with their intelligence and promise. Our Empowerly students inspire us all as they strive for excellence, undertaking projects and embarking on journeys that will shape their lives and future endeavors.

Today, we wanted to share the achievements of one of our stellar Empowerly students, Isabella, and how Empowerly's comprehensive college counseling services supported her in gaining admission to her current university, UC Berkeley!

Interested in learning more about how we supported her with personalized guidance, essay editing, and application strategy planning? Then read on!

Isabella began her journey with Empowerly the summer between her 11th and 12th grade years. She expressed to us that she was looking for guidance regarding her college applications and essays. She was interested in applying to the University of California (UC) schools and sought guidance around strengthening her application, personal and academic achievements, and writing compelling responses for the UC Personal Insight Questions. 

Before joining Empowerly, Isabella had already taken charge within her community, including founding the Asian American Pacific Islander Solidarity Club at her high school (and even expanding it districtwide!) and helping to renew Chinatown within her local community! Additionally, she came to us with a 3.8 Unweighted GPA, was in the top 10% of her class, and had participated in 9 AP courses, demonstrating her academic prowess and leadership skills. 

Her counselor, Stephanie, noted:

“Isabella started with Empowerly in July before senior year, so her achievements were already realized and my role was to help her convey the impact of her achievements through her writing and activities sections in her application.”

As Isabella embarked on her journey with Empowerly, she began to transform. With the guidance of her counselor, Stephanie, she gained confidence and navigated the complexities of the college admissions process with ease.

Isabella noted:

“I think Empowerly helped me so much just by creating a much easier and less stressful process.

I know it can be so hard, especially for seniors with procrastination, but they helped me with that so much. They helped me set deadlines and they helped me set up goals and a better structure for this process that I think I couldn't have done myself.”

Additionally, since Isabella wanted to focus on building out her essay strategies more, her counselor worked with her to create a plan that set Isabella up for success when it came to writing the real pieces:

“They helped me set deadlines for essays and helped me turn in things on time and get my notes done, and it just helped this application process be way less stressful as I got things in much earlier, and I started things much earlier and just made things so much easier for me, which I really enjoyed and I know it made this process so much better for me.”

Given her emphasis on essay strengthening, her counselor, Stephanie, helped to make the process as simple and fun as possible, supporting her student, Isabella, as she planned out her narratives and found her unique voice in her writing. Isabella mentioned,

“I think she brought out my voice and helped me bring out memories and details that I think I wouldn't have thought of myself and overall I just think she was so amazing and so sweet and so understanding and she helped me so much throughout this process. She was such a good counselor.”

“She helped me start my application way earlier than I would have she helped me with the sign in from everything from the sign in process to  the very end which was reviewing all my stuff and, and helping me come up with my activities list and helping me come up with my topics and choosing from each topic for which one's the best.”

“I know Empowerly gave me,  especially when signing up, they gave me a lot of resources to help me with my application process. One resource that I really enjoyed was seeing, um, the accepted essays. It helped me set a structure for my essay and helped me know what I was supposed to look for, what I was supposed to write, or just, you Um,  Using those accepted essays to sort of base my essays off of and help me create a better structure for mine.”

“I never really thought of, um, safety schools or top reach schools, but they really helped me see where my resume could take me and,  uh, basically how far I could go with all that I've done. And it also helped me see how strong each part of my resume, or each part of my application, to see how high any of my activities ranked, or how certain topics differ from the others.”

Isabella’s success story is a testament to the belief we hold at Empowerly: every student has the potential to achieve greatness. We are here to provide the guidance and support needed to unlock that potential. Our team of counselors, former admissions officers, and comprehensive toolbox of resources are ready to support your family through the challenges of the competitive admissions process and help you find your fit at your best-fit university. Your potential is our inspiration.