Allison is 2005 graduate of the University of Redlands where she studied English and creative writing.  As an undergraduate, she began working in the admissions office and decided that the world of college admissions was her calling.  She spent two years after graduation as a University of Redlands admissions officer where she personally reviewed over 1,000 college applications, then joined Collegewise as a college counselor in 2007.  In college, Allison had a part time job as a barista at Starbucks.  And let's just say that along with great information about college, Collegewise families now enjoy vanilla lattes (with or without whip, and with or without foam) at our Saturday morning seminars.  Allison is also a Taylor Swift fanatic, though she does admit (reluctantly) that Taylor's performance and choice of attire at the 2010 Grammy's were both disappointing.  It's hard for a true fan to say that, but as Allison intends to tell Taylor, "Best friends are honest with each other."   

Margot is a 2005 graduate of Pomona College where she volunteered in the admissions office and gave tours to prospective students and parents.  After graduation, Margot completed UCLA’s "College Counseling Certification Program" and brought her college knowledge to Collegewise in February, 2007.  A former member of the Pomona College tennis team, Margot can serve a tennis ball with deadly accuracy.   She is also the only Collegewise counselor to have ever pole vaulted and once held the girls’ pole-vaulting record at her high school back in Pennsylvania.  That was the first year the school had ever allowed girls to pole vault, so the record came more from a willingness to try new things than it did from pole vaulting proficiency.  Still, she held the record.  In February, 2010, Margot earned her Collegewise "Master Counselor Certification," an honor bestowed on our most experienced counselors who have helped at least 100 students apply to college.  She also runs marathons, bakes cookies (lots of them) and still serves the ol' tennis ball in an adult tennis league.   

Stefanie is a black belt in Karate and has been since age 12.  She's not at all intimidating or confrontational, but even if she were, we would never say so, no sir, not with that black belt accreditation (and her ability to break boards).  Before joining Collegewise in 2010, Stefanie was an assistant director of admissions at USC (University of Southern California) where she personally evaluated over 5,000 applications and conducted over 400 student interviews.  Before that, she was an admissions intern at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis where she earned a degree in psychology.  Before that, she was a high school kid and a--not one, not two--but three time spelling bee champ (she can spell words like "bougainvillea," "dachshund" and "triskaidekaphobia)."  And before that, she was a child model who appeared in diaper commercials.  That's about as far back as we can go for Stefanie.  Getting back to the present day, she is recently engaged and planning a wedding that conveniently will take place in the summer of 2011 before college application season begins.  Yes, college counseling instincts run deep with Stefanie. 

Tyler has a pet chinchilla named Tim.  Tim Finnegan.  This isn’t the type of thing we usually bring up this early in a bio, but when someone has a chinchilla with both a first and last name, well, you’ve just got to lead with that.  A 2003 graduate of Cal State Long Beach (Tyler, not Tim) with a degree in comparative literature, Tyler went on to Chapman University where he earned both a masters in English literature and an MFA in creative writing.  Tyler considers himself a lifelong student of writing, communication, and debate, and he intends to earn his PhD in comparative literature (a program in which Tyler swears he will not be a lifelong student, but rather, an eventual lifelong graduate).  He is also a teacher, more specifically, a creative writing instructor at the Orange County High School for the Arts, and a rabid Red Sox fan who brings a baseball glove to games in the hopes of nabbing the elusive foul ball (not unlike his attempts to nab the elusive PhD).  It’s not easy to catch a foul ball, but now that the Red Sox have won two World Series rings, Tyler believes that anything is possible.     

Mamie is a graduate of UC Riverside, where she earned both a B.A. and M.F.A. in creative writing.  She’s held several jobs in her lifetime—dance instructor, news clerk, wedding coordinator, and copy editor are a few of the hats she’s worn—but she most enjoys her annual “summer job” at Collegewise, where she helps students find their best stories for college application essays.  Having written hundreds of essays herself, Mamie was thrilled to join the Collegewise team in 2007 and has since worked with more than 120 students.  If you have a brainstorming session with Mamie, she’ll likely ask you to describe yourself in 3-5 words and list your birth order.  If she were asked to do the same, Mamie, a typical first-born, would choose the words animated, imaginative, and grammatically correct.  "Grammatically correct" is putting it lightly, by the way; she once shielded her young daughter's eyes in punctuation horror while passing a local shop whose sign above the door read, “Jean’s Gift’s.”  Mamie also memorized Walt Disney’s opening day speech when she was eight years old and can still recite it on command, but please don’t ask her to recite the Gettysburg Address.

Jessica is a 2004 graduate of California State  University, Long Beach where she majored in English education. She later earned her masters in English and an MFA in creative writing at Chapman University where she also co-founded “The Pub Club,” a club that encouraged fellow students to not only write, but also to send work out for publication. When Jessica isn’t at Collegewise brainstorming with students or editing essays, she’s either at the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce where she holds the title of Public Affairs Director, or out shooting weddings.  And just to be clear, “Shooting” is artsy-speak for “taking pictures” (yes, Jessica is also a photographer).  Aside from public affairs directing, college essay editing and wedding photographing, Jessica also enjoys writing fiction; so much so that she’s determined to write a novel that will make it into Oprah’s Book Club one day, an accomplishment that will either make her former Pub Clubbers incredibly proud or incredibly ravaged by Oprah’s-Book-Club envy.  Fiction is apparently quite a tough business and not for the faint of heart. 

Kevin started Collegewise in 1999 and did all of the counseling himself for the first 18 months.  The rest of the counselors marvel daily at the success of Kevin’s original business idea in light of the fact that he has no recognizable organization skills.  He does, however, have a knack for public speaking and appears regularly at local high schools to discuss the process of finding and getting accepted to the right colleges.  As long as the speeches don’t require that he keep track of important paperwork, he always does a bang-up job.  Today, Kevin no longer counsels students (see aforementioned lack of organizational skills), but he guest stars at Collegewise seminars (and expects a hero’s welcome when he does).  A 1994 graduate of UC Irvine with majors in English and history where he answered, “What are you going to do with THOSE majors?” approximately 783 times. Kevin also preaches about the Collegewise way of doing things, hires our counselors, and writes paragraphs of text like this one.