Foxfire Language Academy

Your child has worked hard. The grades are there, the test scores are solid, the extracurriculars look good. Now there’s just one thing standing between them and that acceptance letter from a UK or US university: a personal essay.

And here’s the thing nobody tells you: for international applicants, this essay carries extra weight.

Admissions officers at competitive English-speaking universities are reading thousands of applications. They’re looking for students who can not only succeed academically, but communicate clearly, think critically, and bring something distinctive to campus. The essay is where your child proves they can do all three.

But writing about yourself is hard. Writing about yourself in a second language is harder. And writing about yourself in a way that appeals to admissions committees at universities with very specific cultural expectations? That’s where most international applicants struggle – not because they lack talent or stories worth telling, but because they’ve never been taught what these essays are supposed to do.

I’ve edited application essays that arrived as what I can only describe as text soup – grammatically tangled sentences, unclear structure, and buried underneath it all, a genuinely compelling story that just needed help getting out. The student had something real to say. They just needed someone to help them say it.

That’s what I do.

I’m a UCLA graduate who spent years in the American university system. I understand what admissions officers are scanning for, what makes them keep reading, and what makes them move on to the next application. I work with students one-on-one to help them figure out what story they actually want to tell, then help them tell it in clear, polished English that sounds like them – not like a thesaurus exploded on the page.

Whether your child has a rough draft that needs reshaping or a blank page and a looming deadline, I can help.

What I offer:

• Brainstorming sessions to find the right story and angle
• Structural feedback on drafts
• Line-by-line editing for clarity, flow, and natural English
• Final polish to make sure nothing gets in the way of their voice

The application essay isn’t just a formality. It’s their chance to be more than a transcript. Let’s make sure they use it well.

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[Contact me to discuss how I can help your child’s application stand out.]