Upcoming Events
The Inside Story:
A Creative Lab for College-App Essay Writers and Caregivers
Presented in partnership with Book Passage, a bookstore in Corte Madera and San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 31, 2025 | 10:30–12:00 p.m. Pacific Time
Online via Google Meet
$65
In this workshop, Hillside Founder Allan Reeder will teach participants how to turn a memory into a scene and eventually into a meaningful story. To get readers to connect with your story, you first have to connect with it yourself, with a readiness for discovery. By engaging in this process alongside their student, caregivers will be able to provide positive support at home, and perhaps get inspired as well! As one parent remarked, “I was blown away by this teaching — it made me want to write my own college-application essays all over again, which is saying something!”
We offer this Creative Lab in May, at the doorway to summer, when students will be free from academic and extracurricular demands and will have have greater mental space for creativity and reflection. Once their senior year begins in the fall, students must focus on finalizing their applications while also taking some of their most demanding courses. Students may also have college-specific supplement essays to write. The Creative Lab focuses on the central writing project of the “Common App” essay, around which students write their supplement essays. By starting this process during summer, students and their caregivers can experience less tension or conflict and develop a clear path forward. We hope you’ll join us!
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