College Writing Coach for Students:
Navigating the college application process can be overwhelming, and a strong personal essay can make all the difference.
I specialize in helping high school students develop compelling, authentic narratives that showcase their individuality and stand out in the competitive admissions landscape.
With my guidance, your student will:
- Find Their Voice: I help students articulate their unique experiences, passions, and values in a way that resonates with college admissions teams.
- Craft an Impactful Essay: Together, we’ll create a narrative that highlights not just what they’ve done, but who they are and what they can contribute to a college community.
- Gain Confidence: My one-on-one coaching builds students’ confidence as they refine their essays, ensuring they present the best version of themselves.
Whether your student is just starting out or needs help polishing their final draft, I’m here to guide them through the process.
Why Choose Me?
As a graduate of NYU and UPenn, I understand the importance of storytelling in college admissions. With my extensive background in writing and editing, I’ve helped student get accepted to colleges.
Let’s Collaborate!
Each engagement is a partnership.
Start with a 15-minute complimentary consultation to discuss your student’s goals and needs. From there, we’ll create a personalized plan that ensures they are putting their best foot forward in their applications.
Additional Services for Organizations
For mission-driven businesses and nonprofits, I offer tailored services to help you embrace generosity, refine grant applications, and train your team to succeed in fundraising.
- Grant Writing & Editorial Expertise: With over a decade of experience, I specialize in writing compelling grant proposals for organizations focused on education, youth-led social change, and health system transformation.
- Fundraising Training: Elevate your team’s potential with customized training that equips them with the skills and mindset to effectively grow your support base.
Why Choose a Human Over AI?
- Authenticity and Personalization: AI tools can help with grammar and structure, but they lack the ability to deeply understand a student’s unique story, background, and aspirations. As a coach, I guide students in discovering and expressing their authentic voice. Admissions officers are looking for essays that reflect genuine personality and values—something an AI can’t create or replicate.
- Insightful Feedback: I don’t just edit for clarity and flow; I provide strategic feedback that pushes students to think critically about their experiences and how to present them in a way that resonates with admissions committees. I help students uncover the deeper meaning behind their stories and shape their essays to communicate both impact and personal growth.
- Emotional and Creative Support: Writing a college essay can be stressful and intimidating. I act as a mentor, providing reassurance and emotional support while helping students navigate the often-overwhelming task of self-reflection. AI doesn’t offer encouragement or understanding, and it can’t help students when they’re stuck or feeling unsure about their ideas.
- Tailored Guidance for Specific Schools: Different colleges value different qualities in applicants. As an experienced coach, I tailor my guidance to each student’s target schools, helping them write essays that align with the institution’s values and culture. AI lacks this nuanced understanding of the individual schools and what they’re looking for in applicants.
- Crafting a Cohesive Application Narrative: I work with students not only on individual essays but also on creating a cohesive application narrative across all parts of their application (e.g., supplemental essays, extracurricular descriptions, personal statements). This ensures that each piece of their application complements the others and presents a well-rounded picture of who they are.
What to Expect From Working with Me:
- Collaboration, Not Just Correction: Students won’t simply send their essays for me to “fix.” Instead, I work with them through brainstorming, drafting, and revising, helping them grow as writers while creating a meaningful, standout essay.
- Growth as a Writer and Thinker: My coaching helps students develop skills in storytelling, self-reflection, and clear communication that they will use throughout college and beyond. These are critical life skills that AI tools cannot instill.
- Confidence in the Final Product: At the end of our work together, students won’t just have a polished essay; they’ll feel confident that they’ve shared a story that is uniquely their own—something no AI can truly replicate.
Testimonials
Sadia is a valuable asset to any team. Working with us on complex projects, Sadia dealt with massive amounts of data/metrics. She is highly analytical and detailed in her approach, demonstrating her ability to thoroughly review, disseminate, and report out on years’ of metrics. Sadia’s ability to synthesize the metrics and recommend simpler ways to gather multiple data points in the future was especially helpful. She asked a lot of important questions to help us think through the objectives of some of our processes and rethink ways to be more efficient.
-Ramy Shabana, Foundation client
Sadia is a talented editor who helped me articulate ideas that I was struggling to express.
– Nusaybah Chak, client
Sadia Kalam 