The guidance I didn't have — built into everything we do.

I grew up in a household where college was the goal but the path was unclear. My parents immigrated from Taiwan and didn't attend college in the United States. My public school counselor was stretched across hundreds of students. There was no family playbook for navigating American admissions — just ambition and a lot of figuring it out alone.

I got into UC Berkeley for engineering anyway. After graduating, I spent three years at Goodby Silverstein & Partners — one of the most celebrated creative agencies in the world — working on campaigns for the Dali Museum and Cheetos that earned recognition at Cannes Lions. Then nearly seven years at Google leading hardware marketing for Google Store and Google Store Retail. Along the way, I developed a precise set of skills: how to build a compelling narrative, how to position something so it stands out, how to turn genuine work into something the right audience can't ignore.

Four years ago, a family friend asked if I could help their son with his college application. I said yes. He got in. Word spread.

I'm now entering my fifth admissions cycle. In that time, I've watched students discover things about themselves they didn't know were there — a student who learned to see his ADHD as a superpower, a student who became independent enough that his mother felt, for the first time, that he was ready to leave home. The college acceptances matter. But these are the moments that stay with me.

I didn't have a big brother who'd been through this (my older sister went down an art path). I didn't have someone to tell me what was actually worth caring about, what was noise, and what would matter four years later. Most students don't. That's the gap I'm trying to close — not just strategically, but personally. I want every student I work with to feel like someone genuinely has their back through one of the most disorienting experiences of their life.

I work with a small number of students at a time, by design. Every family gets me directly.