Shari Steele - Founder

Operating as Success Prep Partners, LLC, a NJ limited liability company

Shari Steele works with college students and college graduates to help them implement successful job search strategies to secure internships and full-time employment. Her services include helping clients develop targeted job search plans, create compelling resumes, cover letters and social profiles, write clear and effective emails to potential employers, build a network of useful contacts, conduct industry and company research, and prepare for interviews. Shari also applies her writing expertise to assist current and prospective college and graduate students with job and school application essay editing. 

Shari has been a human resources professional for the past 28 years. For the first 17 years of her career she was a human resources consultant for the Hay Group, an international consulting firm, developing recruiting, compensation, training, performance management, and organizational effectiveness solutions for companies across a broad range of industries. Following her work at Hay, Shari was the Chief Human Resources Officer at SRS Health, a medical software company, where she was responsible for all aspects of human resources including recruiting, training, employee relations, culture, compensation, benefits, and HR policies. During this time, Shari was a key member of the company's leadership team, helping the company grow from 20 to 180 employees. She is now VP of Human Resources at rater8, a healthcare reputation management company.

For the past ten years, Shari has volunteered as an alumni interviewer for the University of Pennsylvania, helping the admissions team at her alma mater evaluate prospective students. Since 2015, Shari has applied her human resources expertise to help college students, new college grads, and adults with internship and job placement.

Shari received a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 and an MBA from New York University in 1996. She lives in New Jersey with her husband Evan. Her daughter graduated from Tufts University and her son graduated from Northeastern University.

Ellen Hoffman - Founder

Operating as Success Prep Partners, LLC, a CT limited liability company

Ellen Hoffman has a passion for helping students reach their highest potential in middle school and high school. Through this support, Ellen can put students on a path to becoming better learners, more involved members of the community, and ultimately, stronger candidates for college admissions. Ellen’s passion began while working with her own two children, both of whom gained admission into the country’s top universities. Today, she works with middle school and high school students on improving organization and time management skills as well as work/study habits, determining and implementing meaningful community service projects, expanding vocabulary, and identifying contest, scholarship, extracurricular, employment, and summer opportunities. Ellen also assists students with high school and college applications, standardized test planning, and interview preparation.

Ellen spent the past quarter century in the job placement/career services field. After practicing as a litigator in large law firms in both New York City and Connecticut, Ellen founded Ellen Hoffman Esq., LLC in 1993, an attorney placement firm which sources top legal talent for law firms and corporations throughout the Northeast. Ellen has advised hundreds of professionals over the years in connection with their job searches, including in the areas of resume preparation, interview counseling, and salary/benefits negotiations. She has also counseled numerous organizations on hiring strategy, the legal market, and attorney salaries. 

Ellen volunteers her time at Covenant Prep (a tuition-free, independent day school for boys in grades 5-8) and Capitol Squash (an after school program based out of Trinity College for elementary school students), providing assistance to students with applications to high school, interview prep, and time management and study skills.

Ellen received a BA from SUNY Binghamton in 1984 and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1987. She lives in Connecticut with her husband Hank. Her son and daughter were accepted to and attended top Ivy League schools.

Cynthia Whipple - Founder

Cynthia Whipple is an educational consultant working with middle school and high school students. She assists middle school students in the secondary school process, maximizing their chances of acceptance to their top choice schools. Cynthia also works with high school students, guiding them in every aspect of college planning up to and through the application and essay process. Strong writing and finding one’s voice are the key to crafting competitive applications and essays in Cynthia's view. She spends time with her students brainstorming ideas, creating a solid structure for the writing piece, and encouraging their editing and revising of their writing. Cynthia has a true passion for writing and has pursued it in many different areas as a litigator, a children’s book author, and a college writing professor.

With her years of experience as a Secondary School Placement Director, Cynthia is committed to helping students find the ideal secondary day and/or boarding school which is the best fit for them. She is fully knowledgeable about the unique qualities of most secondary schools and understands what admissions officers are seeking in an applicant. Cynthia guides the student in every facet of the secondary school process from list development and testing strategies to application and essay completion.

Cynthia’s  strong writing background as both an attorney and creative writer helps her guide the students in presenting their best application and essays to highlight their unique voice which will speak to the admissions officers.

She can also assist middle school and high school students with any aspect of the writing process, making them stronger and more articulate writers in their classroom assignments.

Cynthia received a BA from Trinity College in 1988 and her JD from New York Law School in 1991. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children. She has one son who graduated from Tufts University, another who attends the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and daughter who is currently a high school student.

Maricele Riemann

Maricele Riemann is passionate about the unique education students receive when they enroll at private, independent schools. She is dedicated to helping students and their families navigate each stage of the secondary school application process. Whether they are in the early stages of exploring independent school options, considering a move from public to private, thinking about reclassifying or repeating years, playing a sport or contemplating a post-graduate year, Maricele builds genuine relationships with students and assists them with crafting targeted lists of schools, completing applications, writing and editing essays and managing decisions. Her focus is on helping students achieve their long-term educational goals by telling their stories to admissions counselors in a way that makes their applications come to life.

As a secondary school placement director, Maricele has developed a robust secondary school counseling program, worked with diverse populations and formed solid collaborative relationships with admissions and financial aid counselors at independent day and boarding schools throughout the Northeast. Maricele has first hand teaching experience at both the middle school and university levels, and this makes her adept at helping students identify personal strengths, future goals and individual needs while providing guidance through the application process. She works with her students to isolate that particular combination of variables that make a school their “best fit”, a place where they will thrive academically and socially and where they will be nurtured and challenged to become their best selves.

Maricele received a B.A. in Politics, with a minor in Fine Arts, from New York University in 1994 and her M.A. (1997) and M.Phil. (1999) in Political Science and Quantitative Methods from Columbia University, where she was a Ph.D. candidate. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Charles, and four children.

Lara LoBrutto - Essay Coach

Lara LoBrutto loves helping students develop with a sustainable creative process and develop their authentic voice through their writing. For the past two years, she has served with College Advising Corps-BU at a BPS high school, Boston Arts Academy. In this role, she worked closely with high school juniors and seniors on all elements of the college application process with a particular focus on the personal and supplemental essays. During this time, she co-led a professional development workshop at a national conference for college advisors entitled “Advising on the College Essay: Cultivating Student Voice.” Bringing her work beyond the school, she also works as a Writing and Executive Function tutor for Lotus Learning, a Boston-based tutoring company, where she assists students with their college essays, the SAT essays, and academic research papers.

Before her college advising work, she dedicated three years to the Writing Fellowship Program at Tufts University, where she guided undergraduate students through their writing process as they wrote academic research papers in a wide variety of disciplines. It was here that she developed her pedagogy as a tutor, which includes guiding questions and active listening. In her sessions, Lara enjoys guiding students towards an “aha!” moment, in which an idea that they were struggling with finally clicks or they are inspired to take their writing in a new direction.

Lara graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations with a minor in Chinese. She is currently pursuing her MPH at Boston University’s School of Public Health.

Sara Kase - Essay Coach

Sara is a test prep and academic tutor and actress based in New York City. She graduated Cum Laude from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a strong focus on creative writing and French language studies. Throughout her schooling, she found that she responded best to teachers with a passion for what they teach, the ability to tailor their teaching style to support each student’s unique strengths and obstacles, and a supportive and patient nature. She prides herself on bringing these same attributes to her own tutoring, making sure her students always feel encouraged and safe when working with her. 

Sara spent the last year tutoring with one of the top tutoring companies in the NYC area providing Verbal SAT/ACT/ISEE/SSAT support to middle and high schoolers as well as academic Writing, Reading, History, and French support. She is also passionate about proofreading/editing essays, particularly college application short answer and essay responses. Not too long ago, she applied and was accepted to several top universities in the country and understands what today’s colleges are looking for in a successful application. She loves to help students infuse their own unique voices and life perspectives into their responses.

Rebecca A. Railsback - Middle School and High School Advisor

Rebecca began her professional career as a School Counselor at the high school level. During this time she had the opportunity to work with students on managing post-secondary demands such as standardized testing, college application requirements and submissions, scholarship/ grant availability and mandates, career exploration, time management, organizational skills, and building a strong community service portfolio. Rebecca was very successful at assisting parents and school staff with understanding and meeting the unique circumstances of her students and their individual needs. In addition to supporting academic requirements, a weekly rotation of individual counseling sessions was provided to support her students through family, societal, environmental, social-emotional, and peer-to-peer challenges.

After six years at the secondary level and three small babies of her own, Rebecca transferred to the local elementary school to be closer to home.  Being at the elementary level has allowed her to provide more one-on-one, small group, and classroom counseling sessions regarding the social-emotional health of her students.  Rebecca has also become a clinical therapist with a local agency to provide therapy and support to not only students but also to families within the community.  Topics often addressed with her clients include social skills, anxiety, grief/loss of a loved one, divorce in the home, conflict resolution, peer relations, self-esteem, stress reduction, building and repairing relationships, and behavior management in the home and classroom setting. 

Rebecca received her BS from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida.  She immediately continued her education progression by earning a Masters of Counseling from Stetson University in Deland, Florida.  She resides in her hometown of Ormond Beach, Florida with her husband, their three kids, and new puppy Maggie.  Family time is spent at the beach and boating in the Florida sunshine.

Michael M. - Essay Coach

Michael is a Ph.D. student at Harvard studying biology. He graduated from Cornell University, where he studied Biology and English. Over the past six years, Michael has helped over thirty local and international students write college, masters, Ph.D., and fellowship application essays. When Michael was in high school, he remembers the great challenge of defining his academic and extracurricular interests through a story on his common app essay. As a writing advisor, he works with students to communicate a personal narrative that conveys each student’s blooming passions. Additionally, Michael works with students to identify the best schools/programs for their interests. He is also a  biology and chemistry tutor and is actively engaged in local outreach. 

Amanda Turen - Essay Coach

Amanda is a NYC-based tutor, essay coach, actor, and banjo player. She graduated with honors from NYU, where she first discovered her passion for editing other people’s essays! After two semesters of being her friends’ (and their friends’, and their friends’ friends’) go-to paper reviewer, Amanda began work as an essay tutor for Manhattan’s rising seniors while completing her degree. She has since expanded her tutoring to most subjects and standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, SHSAT, ISEE, and SSAT, all of which she tutored at one of New York’s premier test prep companies.

Amanda’s favorite part of writing tutoring is helping a student craft an essay that not only expounds on their personal narrative, but also reveals who they are through their singular writing style. In addition to helping students discover what they want to say, she loves to explore with them how they want to say it; she finds that helping students utilize all of their linguistic tools to express their identity is not only illuminating for their applications, but lays long-term groundwork for the student to develop their own voice in future written work. Plus, it’s fun!

When not pouring over essays, Amanda can be seen and heard on television, in several national commercials and animated series. She has performed across the country with TheatreworksUSA, in Chile with Acciona, and in Japan with the pop group Nogizaka46, but prefers her home in New York to anywhere else. She even had one of her poems about New York City published in the New York Times collection, “New York City Haiku.” 

Eva Lewandowski - Essay Coach

Eva is an NYC-based graduate student currently pursuing a master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics at NYU. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2017 with a degree in economics. While at Princeton, she tutored middle- and high-school students in a range of classes including AP Biology, AP English Literature, and AP US History, as well as for the SAT and ACT. She also helped juniors and seniors with their college essays and applications. 

Eva finds joy in helping students find their own unique voice in their writing. In her view, a great essay is one in which you get to know the writer. She is excited to support students on their college admissions journey and can’t wait to be their personal cheerleader as they navigate the process.

Before starting graduate school, Eva worked in finance at an asset management firm for four years. In her spare time, she loves cooking and taking long walks around the city.  

Sally P. Z. Knight - Essay Coach

With four decades of classroom English teaching behind her (including 40 years at the Loomis Chaffee School), Sally now shares her love for all aspects of the written word with young people seeking support, guidance, and encouragement in their individual writing and learning endeavors. She has engaged with students at the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior levels (including a Writing Workshops series and Creative Writing, Journalism,  Contemporary Literature, Shakespeare, Short Story, and Satire electives) and has taught courses in writing and literature to middle and upper school boys at Scotch College in Australia while on a teaching exchange. In harmony with her teaching tenure, Sally also embraced head-coaching boys’ cross country and distance track teams and advising students as dorm parent and affiliate.  

Sally earned both her B.A. and her M.A.L.S from Wesleyan University and earned her  M.A. in Counseling from St. Joseph University. Her early education came in classrooms in the United States and the South Pacific: at a Quaker School in Swarthmore, PA; at a public elementary school in Germantown, PA; at a city primary school in Suva, Fiji; at a middle school in Laguna Beach, CA; and at secondary and high schools in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. 

A student-council-selected Teacher of the Year, Sally launched and directed Loomis Chaffee School’s Writing Initiatives program and Writing Studio. Among her contributions to the school’s extracurricular writing opportunities were Emerging Writers (for students inspired to create summer writing portfolios of poetry, personal narratives, short stories, travel journals, blogs, and even sports scouting reports) and diverse writing competitions (including flash fiction and eco-inspired challenges). 

Working with young writers in the classroom, in the studio, and on the fly, on everything from science lab reports to Scholastic Arts submissions to history research papers to college essay drafts, Sally has loved sharing with students the myriad stages of the writing process.

Over the course of her career, Sally wrote hundreds of college recommendation letters, crafted scores of individual student profiles on behalf of the college guidance office, coordinated efforts by Junior English teachers to assist with students’ college essay writings, served as volunteer college admissions interviewer for her alma mater, and immersed herself in her own ongoing writing aspirations and skills by way of Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. 

A competitive marathoner and triathlete back in the day, Sally now gets her athletic-endeavor highs from cycling, swimming, paddling, and disc-golfing; quiet times find her reading, taking pen to the New York Times crosswords, leading book club discussions, and spearheading her CT shoreline community’s Eco Team efforts. Sally and her husband are parents of two sons, one a graduate of St. Andrew’s University (Scotland), and the other, a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Liz Zhang - International Student Support

Liz is a highly skilled cross-cultural communicator who deeply understands the expectations and concerns of international students and their families. With her strong multicultural and multilingual background, she helps international families better understand the boarding school and university landscape in the United States. Liz provides the knowledge and support to help international students smoothly transition to their new academic environment, setting them up for a more successful school experience.  

Before coming to the United States, Liz studied, worked, and lived in a variety of countries and has held management jobs in several multinational companies including Nike, Panasonic, and Bulgari/LVMH. 

Liz is a life-long learner. She received a BA from the University of Xiamen (China), completed her advanced study at the University of Mannheim (Germany), and received a Micro MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business (USA). 

She lives in Connecticut with her husband and her son, a high school senior. who has received offers from several high-ranking colleges and will be attending Northeastern this fall.

Nicholas Chiu - Intern

Nicholas has always loved helping others. Whether it be with academics or other areas, he enjoys seeing others succeed. He is currently a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy. Before PEA, he attended Taipei American School for eighth and ninth grades. Nicholas is the #1 ranked junior US badminton player and has his sights set on the 2024 Olympics!

Nicholas remembers the stress and anxiety of applying to boarding school, however, he was motivated to apply and attend as he saw himself thriving in a boarding school environment. Nicholas hopes to share his knowledge of the boarding school application process so that other students can learn from him and have a less stressful experience. In addition, having visited many other boarding schools in New England for various interschool events, Nicholas brings a unique perspective on boarding school life and culture that he is excited to share.