Testimonials

TESTIMONIALS

Hope is one of the most gifted, proficient, and clever teachers and school coaches I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. She is able to differentiate for the needs of all students and move them leaps and bounds. Hope is a versed writer and is an expert in scaffolding all the skills needed to be a proficient writer. Her love and passion for writing is showcased in our young writer’s published pieces in our school, as well as evidenced in the work she has done as a tutor and coach for high school students.

- Meg H.

Reaching for the Arts, Visual Director

(Elementary & Middle School Arts program), NYC

Working with Hope gave me the confidence I needed (and the writing framework) necessary to build the kind of narrative I hoped to produce for my college application essay for Brown University.

- Alex V. Brown University, Class of 2018

Hope's skills as a writer, editor and performer are exceeded only by her passionate and generous spirit. Not only did she develop our students' writing skills, but most importantly, she showed them that their voices truly matter. To work with Hope Salas is to be changed forever by her brilliance, her integrity, and her deep, abiding kindness. She has changed me not only as an educator, but as a human being.

- Sheila D. Theater Arts Teacher

Director of Long Story Short, PS55, NYC

I feel really lucky to have Hope by my side during this process. From the moment I called her, we started working together on getting organized and figuring out each step I’d need to take to be ready to submit my college applications. She created Google spreadsheets and asked me questions about my hopes and dreams. She gave me manageable research assignments that helped me determine what I really wanted from my college experience, what I wanted to write about to answer the college essay prompts. She taught me the importance of telling my truth. She made me feel like I could do this. Mostly, she listened to me. I feel understood by her. And I trust her.

- Justin Edwards

Kingswood Oxford School, Class of 2021

My cousin has helped both my children through the unknown territory; through the uncharted waters of preparing those college essays and applications. Along with her knowledge and professional skills, she possesses a big heart and she cares about people. She really wants people to feel confident and good about themselves. My daughter was accepted to her college of choice. And now, as my son prepares his applications and writes his essays, I see that he can sleep at night. I see he is more confident. I can sleep at night. I can take a deep breath. For that alone, Hope is worth her weight in gold.

- William Edwards

Parent of Justin Edwards

Hope was definitely easy to work with. Her engaging exercises and conversations really helped me to search deep within and construct a profound and meaningful essay for my college applications. Hope somehow managed to alleviate much of the burden and stress of the college applications and I am beyond grateful for her help.

- Zev Mahrer

The wonderful thing about Hope is that she makes a true connection to her students that makes them feel safe and respected. After the first session with Hope, my son felt like he could share personal experiences with her without feeling judged. He was terribly reluctant to write about anything yet she was able to draw so much out of him and get him to reflect on aspects of his personality he never had a chance to think about before. Her special ability to be professional, personal, and creative all at the same time allowed her to connect with my son in a way that made the process fun and introspective instead of daunting and overwhelming. The writing exercises she had were so engaging that the sessions flew by and hardly felt like work. In the end, my son wrote an authentic and introspective essay he could be proud to submit. Hope is worth every last penny.

- Rupa Patel

Parent of Zev

Hope Salas was a life saver for our family during the summer before and fall of my son’s senior year of high school. She creatively made the process fun & exciting for my son while also accomplishing the very large task of exploring his wants, needs and dreams for the next chapter of his education. She created timelines, tasks with deadlines, fun “get to know yourself” kinds of exercises and help with composition and editing of the all-important college essays. I know my son would not have been accepted into his top 6 schools without her meticulous management of the process. We are so very grateful.

- Christine Bonansinga

Parent of Christopher

Destiny has brought us Hope, and then Hope brought her magic, and a fantastic piece of writing was produced. Hope has the process of allowing a student to build trust to disclose private experiences, and more importantly, Hope makes a student comfortable sharing those with the world, which takes some out-of-this-world skills. When my daughter wrote her college personal statement while working with Hope, and I read it, I started crying. It was genuine, from the heart, a piece of art; most importantly, it was her. I learned something about my child by reading it, and many things started making sense. Hope gave her strength, courage and made her own this insane process of applying to twelve different schools. I count my blessings every time my child meets with Hope.

- Edita Gruda

Without Hope, I don't believe I would have gotten through the college process; her kind words of reassurance and her ability to pull information out of someone, develop a relationship, and put everything composed into a college-ready response amazes me. Hope is why I could apply to all my colleges early with no stress and all questions answered without saying, "I have no clue what to write.

- Belma Gruda

Working with Hope has been such an enlightening experience for me! Hope is very understanding and flexible in scheduling; she was willing to meet me at a place and time convenient for me and via phone call when meeting in person was not an option. In addition to her flexibility, Hope provided me with many resources to keep organized during my college application process. For example, she provided a spreadsheet template to keep track of my college list and information, as well as a Google Drive folder which contained all of the exercises and work that I would be doing with her. As for the college essay writing process, Hope came to meetings prepared with a series of exercises from personal questions about myself to creative writing exercises in order to generate ideas about my unique and personal experiences. Hope provided me with information about different ways to structure a well written essay and she helped edit and guide my writing through the entire process. Overall, working with Hope was extremely beneficial for me, not only with helping my writing and being organized, but also giving me a safe space to reflect and think introspectively.

- Lauren R, 2022

Three months after starting the process of applying for colleges, my son William spoke to me about the possibility of hiring an editor to help him with his college essays. I instantly thought of Hope Salas. A text message later, my son's first of several sessions was booked.

I'm so indebted to Hope for having stuck by my son throughout the entire college process. Not only did she help with the editing of essays, she became his thought partner in thinking about ways of tackling what felt like an endless variety of college essays for Ivy League Schools, private, state, and city universities. Hope also went the extra mile to help William prepare for college interviews. To date, he's already had four.

As a parent, it was reassuring to know that my child was receiving the support that he needed to submit college applications that were complete and on time, reflecting and representing his true authentic self.

William's independence throughout his work with Hope was impressive as his confidence shot up with every session. Her consistent praise and words of encouragement gave William's work a personal touch.

In William's words, "Hope was great at helping me formulate my ideas. She helped me see different points in my arguments, some which I had never considered. She's also super caring and supportive and has a very extensive vocabulary."

Thank you Hope for ensuring that William was seen and heard in what could otherwise have been a daunting college process.

- Sandra P. 2023

Hope worked with my somewhat reticent child on 20 college applications (at his vehement insistence). My biggest concern was my son’s ability to write thoughtful, introspective responses to the prompts that both represented him accurately and made him memorable. This is Hope’s particular super power - she builds such a strong level of trust with her students and somehow lovingly pulls that information out of them. I was so impressed with my son’s insightful responses to different college questions and even learned more about him by reading them. She was able to get him to be honest and introspective about himself in an engaging and interesting way - no small feat when you are talking about a teenager! When I read over his answers, I thought to myself, "Yes, this is him - and wow, he sounds great!" Her work with him helped him get into one of his reach schools - Pitzer College which has an acceptance rate of 18%.

Hope was also both available and flexible - she started off making the schedule and agenda with him but by the end, my son realized how helpful she was and how to maximize their time together. He started scheduling their meetings and setting the agenda which Hope was happy to do. She worked tirelessly to help him complete all his (many) applications, and in the end, we were all happy with the work they crafted together. Hope also clearly cared deeply about my son and his success and I'm so grateful to her for making this crazy process so much less stressful for both me and my son.

- Esther C. 2023