College Personal Statement Support: Find Your Story to Strategically Position Yourself as the Ultimate Candidate

Noel earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MEd from NC State University, an MA from UCLA, and is currently pursuing a PhD from UCLA. Noel worked for the international student office at UNC as an essay reader and liaison for newly admitted students and coached students through the admissions process at UCLA, providing feedback on prospective graduate students’ essays. Students Noel has coached have been accepted to Duke, Emory, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UNC at Chapel Hill, among others. 

Through his experience, Noel learned that admission truly is a holistic process—every part of an essay can make a difference. His experience as an essay reader helped him gain much insight into how important these items can be, especially when serving as "tie-breakers" for students with similar GPAs and test scores. Successful students, from his experience, presented themselves confidently and authentically, grounded in their own unique, specific experiences. Noel has been a writing instructor and coach at UCLA in recent years and excels at helping students develop and present themselves and their accomplishments in a memorable way they can be proud of.

Noel’s passion for coaching stems from his love of celebrating the moments when students achieve the goals they have worked so hard for! He loves to see how students grow during the process, learn new things about themselves, and be able to embrace their strengths along the way, even if the process is stressful. He believes we learn from stress as long as it is managed well; Noel hopes to be a stress mitigator and support system for students. 

Noel takes an assets-based approach to student counseling, which focuses on each individual's strengths and accomplishments rather than what they haven't done. He knows it can be easy for students to compare themselves to others and lose sight during competitive processes like admissions. Noel sees his job, first and foremost, as identifying, developing, and helping students present the strengths they already have in the most effective way possible.

Noel’s greatest strength is his positive and pragmatic outlook. His approach helps students build confidence, leading to tangible results on their final application materials and setting them up for success beyond college. While positive, he understands the many complicated steps required for acceptance in the current highly competitive admissions landscape; Noel breaks down these large tasks into more manageable items for students. He delivers honest and direct feedback to push students to develop themselves and their materials in a healthy way, but one that requires work on both ends of the counseling partnership. 

When he’s not coaching, Noel enjoys cooking, running, and hiking, traveling to new places, practicing language skills (French, Spanish, Italian, and a little Arabic), and watching a wide variety of movies.

Emmanuel earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. He has spent the last eight years as a college and career counselor, collegiate seminar teacher, and 12th-grade advisor at Noble Schools, a nonprofit organization running 17 charter public high schools in Chicago. 

With nearly ten years of coaching experience, Emmanuel has helped 1,600+ students navigate their college admissions journeys. Students he has coached have been accepted into Northwestern University, Purdue University, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame, among others.

Emmanuel received Noble Schools' Distinguished Teacher Award for the 2023 cohort and is now a member of the Noble Schools' Board of Directors. He was the first college counselor and college seminar teacher to receive this very selective award, which acknowledges instructors with excellent track records for teaching and results. 

Emmanuel’s passion for coaching stems from his love of helping students and families make informed decisions. He enjoys walking students through the entire application process from beginning to end, including breaking down financial aid award letters for students and their families. His desire is to provide a safe space for students to be vulnerable and build strong, healthy, and trusting relationships with adults. He seeks to learn from students as much as they learn from him, realizing the knowledge and greatness they bring to college communities.

Emmanuel’s greatest strengths are his relationship-building skills, listening, organization, essay editing abilities, problem-solving, FAFSA knowledge, navigating college portals, interpersonal communication, and constructive feedback. Furthermore, he excels at supporting students in graduating from high school and successfully transitioning into college and careers. 

When he’s not working, Emmanuel enjoys a variety of activities. He attends concerts, goes to the movies, bike rides, drives down Dusable Lake Shore Drive, engages in community service, and travels. 

Junior holds a Master’s degree from New York University. He has nearly 20 years of coaching experience and has supported 1,000+ students through their journeys to higher education. Junior served on the  Asia Pacific Leadership Program admissions committee at the University of Hawaii, helping review graduate-level applications. His work included reviewing their application materials, such as the application form, the essay for joining the program, the proposal for GIST (Group Independent Study Travel), and recommendation letters. Junior’s experiences have helped him learn to look at application material objectively while using his own knowledge to gauge the applicant's potential to succeed. 

Junior has also held many support and service roles which have allowed him to support students in grades six through 11 in obtaining internships, getting into STEM related-programs, applying to summer programs, and earning scholarships. Students he has coached have been accepted to top schools, including Duke University, Vanderbilt University, Pomona College, and others. 

Junior is a first-generation college graduate. This means that as a high school student, he could not go to his parents for help, which negatively impacted his college application experience. His journey led him to become a college counselor, working with hundreds of students through the college application process to help ease their anxiety and ensure they had the knowledge and tools needed to make well-informed decisions about their future without getting overwhelmed. Contributing to student success and helping them build confidence makes him passionate about coaching. 

Junior’s greatest power as a coach is his listening skills. Active listening requires empathy and putting one's feelings and opinions aside, allowing the coach to listen to understand—not to respond. Active listening helps him be present and facilitates mutual trust and understanding, leading to a better experience for everyone. Understanding his students' needs, fears, dreams, and aspirations allows him to focus on what's important to them, making it easier for him to help applicants accomplish their goals.

Outside of work, Junior consumes a lot of art and intellectual content. He loves listening to Afrobeats, attending Afrobeats concerts, and reading fiction, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Baldwin, and Salman Rushdie. He also enjoys visiting museums and art shows and saw the Whitney Biennial 2024 and the Met's Costume Institute’s spring 2024 exhibition. Junior also loves watching independent and foreign films, running and hiking in New York's Adirondack Mountains, or traveling to places like Belize, Portugal, and the Dominican Republic.