KIM GALLAGHER
Award-winning creative director & copywriter, essayist, storyteller
University of Virginia, BA English and German
Mother of 4
“My college essay was about being a military brat, with a talent for making friends with a lamp post anywhere I traveled. Naively, I scribbled it in ballpoint pen in the back of study hall.”
KARA COSBY
Consumer and healthcare marketing and corporate communications writer, speechwriter, qualitative market researcher
University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce, BS Commerce
UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, MBA
Mother of 2
“Against the backdrop of my older brother’s 1,000-point basketball game, I wrote about my evolution from envy to an “expanding the pie” mindset and how witnessing his behind-the-scenes work ethic ultimately inspired me toward my own achievements (my essay also made him cry).”
GIBSON McMAHON
Professional writer, copy editor, novelist
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, BA Journalism
Mother of 3
“My college essay was about sailing with my Dad and the life lessons learned while starting to trim my own sails.”
NICOLE BORGHARD
Veteran high school Social Studies teacher specializing in Leadership and AVID, a college and career readiness program.
University of Virginia
BA Government - American Politics
Master's Teaching - Secondary Social Studies Education
Cat Mother of 2, Teacher Mother of hundreds
“My college essay repurposed the speech I wrote to run for junior class president and walked the reader through the difficult decision I made to run against a good friend. I won, but the friendship didn't survive. Lessons learned.”
GLEN SCHORR
Named “Baltimore's Best College Professor” in Baltimore Magazine; non-profit Executive Director, lifelong storyteller.
Miami of Ohio University
BFA, Art
Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, Certificate, Integrated Marketing Communications
Father of 3
“I am the poster child for how not to write your college essay. My "personal" essay was on the threat of steel imports to the American economy. My dad wrote the first draft. I did not get into my first choice of colleges. “