Meet Our Students
Zoha
Admissions Accelerator
Hi, I’m Zoha. I’m a future entrepreneur and an advocate for sustainable fashion and women’s rights.
My Strengths: I’m an independent thinker. I’m ambitious and open-minded in all I do.
My Academic Interests: I’m fascinated by business, literature, women’s studies, and fashion design.
My Personal Interests: I’m always reading about tech startups, PR, and women’s rights around the world.
My Challenges: I have big dreams, but I’m not sure how to achieve them.
Kenta
Global Learner
Hi, I’m Kenta. I’m a future entrepreneur and computer scientist with a passion for tennis.
My Strengths: I’m a studious and diligent learner who always maintains a positive outlook.
My Academic Interests: Computer science and business are fascinating. I love learning about these topics!
My Personal Interests: My favorite things to do are playing tennis, practicing with my speech and debate teammates, and learning Kanji.
My Challenges: I’m open-minded and ambitious, but I lack time management skills.
Ashlee
Global Learner
Hi, I’m Ashlee Wang. I’m a future educator, and I desire to help people find happiness in their lives.
My Strengths: I’m a thoughtful, kind-hearted, compassionate, and dedicated person.
My Academic Interests: I love reading, learning new languages, and listening to music.
My Personal Interests: Outside of school, my passions are journaling, yoga, bubble tea, volunteering, and being a good friend.
My Challenges: I’m a warm person and an enthusiastic learner, but I’m very shy.
Quynh Anh
Global Learner
Hi, I’m Quynh Anh. I’m a future architect and visual arts enthusiast, and I advocate for sustainable development.
My Strengths: I’m a natural leader and critical thinker with a high level of self-awareness.
My Academic Interests: My favorite subjects to study are architecture, sustainable design, and interior design.
My Personal Interests: Outside the classroom, I love to paint and draw. I also play basketball.
My Challenges: Despite my skills as an artist and leader, I struggle with stress and disorganization.
Ali
Hi, I’m Ali. I’m a future tennis coach or music teacher.
My Strengths: I’m a responsible and driven student who is always eager to take on something new.
My Academic Interests: Mathematics and English are by far my favorite subjects.
My Personal Interests: Outside the classroom, I devote my time to becoming a better musician and athlete.
My Challenges: I have so many interests, but I’m disorganized.
Zoha
Zoha's Challenges:
When Zoha joined Rise, she was brimming with passion but she didn’t know how to harness it. She lacked the reflective skills needed to make informed decisions about her future and the awareness of what it takes to gain admission to a top university.
Crimson’s Solutions:
As a team, we tackled these growth areas by guiding Zoha with practical, field-specific advice and reflective exercises. Zoha learned how to focus her energy by identifying the things most important to her and geared toward applying to her top schools.
Why Zoha Loved Rise:
"It didn't feel like they were my tutors; it felt like they were my friends. My Entrepreneurship tutor mentioned that I was a very quiet person when we had our first meeting, but at the end of the course, I had become a better communicator."
Crimson Assessment
after Zoha graduated from Rise
Founding Organizations
As her capstone project, Zoha co-founded a nonprofit organization to advance women’s safety.
Building Businesses
Alongside three other Rise students, Zoha founded a sustainable fashion startup.
Participating in Extracurriculars
Zoha added competitive extracurriculars like Speech & Debate to her profile.
Engaging as a Student
Zoha is excelling as a writer, and English class has become her new favorite.
Rise strategist
Heading
With Rise, Zoha developed a robust extracurricular profile and accelerated her academic performance. She also identified her true passion—entrepreneurship. Now, she's pursuing admission to Top 20 US universities to earn a dual degree in IT Engineering and Business. Her dream is to work at the intersection of sustainable entrepreneurship and women's rights.
Stage 1
Foundations
Months 1-4
Challenge:
Zoha's main motivation for joining Crimson was the long-term goal of being admitted to top universities in the US. Upon joining, her primary challenges were work-life balance, stress management, communication skills, and a lack of understanding around the admissions system and expectations for top universities.
Support:
Zoha started working with all four of her mentors almost simultaneously: her Strategist, Extracurricular Foundations Mentor, Entrepreneurship Mentor, and Speech and Debate mentor.
Focus Areas:
Zoha’s team collaborated to help her shore up fundamental skills while encouraging her to pursue quality extracurriculars and begin building a leadership project for social impact. Key topics included:
- Time Management
- Research Skills
- Discussion & Debate
- Media Literacy
- Critical Thinking
- Assessing Sources
- Project Management
- Team Management
Stage 2
Career
Month 5
Challenge:
Zoha had a mix of shifting career interests and needed guidance to think practically about what types of careers would be right for her.
Support:
Zoha’s Strategist Julia coached her through analyzing pros and cons for her current career interests: business, IT engineering, and psychology. Next, she gave Zoha a practical session on personality analysis to understand what working environments suit Zoha the most. By the end, Zoha realized she was more interested in problem-solving and practical work (e.g. through nonprofits) than creative or artistic pursuits, and she saw how this aligned with her growing interest in a technology-based career.
Stage 3
University
Month 6
Challenge:
Now that Zoha had her foundation, inspiration, and potential career direction, she needed to understand what it would take to go to her dream university.
Support:
Zoha’s Strategist Julia gave her a robust introduction to US universities’ expectations for extracurriculars and academics, and helped her consider options around high school selection so she would be set up for success during application season.
Zoha shared, "I got a lot more info on the universities that I was interested in, and it is actually a lot harder than I thought it would be to get in. I'm sure Crimson will be helping me with that."
Zoha’s Extracurricular Foundations Mentor and Entrepreneurship Mentor joined forces to help her build and launch a leadership project: a platform advocating for women’s rights by selling self-defense products for women. Now that Zoha is continuing her profile development with her high-school team, she’s building a profile oriented around startups and social consciousness and leading change in her own community.
Kenta
Kenta’s Challenges:
Kenta joined Rise with an open-minded outlook. Though he was struggling, he was ready to self-identify the areas that needed improvement, such as his test scores, time management skills, and focus during difficult classes like Japanese.
Crimson’s Solutions:
With his Rise team, Kenta worked on goal-setting techniques that helped him establish effective study habits and time management skills. While reflecting on his academic aspirations, Kenta started thinking of college majors to begin working toward his dream career.
Where Kenta is Now:
Upon graduating from Rise, Kenta switched schools and began solidifying an interest in human-computer interaction and cognitive science. He’s now reading Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0 to deepen his understanding of AI and has plans to develop an app that holds individuals accountable for cell phone overuse.
Kenta’s Assessment after graduating Rise
Participating in Extracurriculars
Kenta added challenging extracurricular activities like Speech and Debate and Programming to his profile.
Managing Time and Resources
Rise intervened to address Kenta’s time management problems, providing him with the framework to take on more responsibilities.
Identifying Career Paths
With the help of reflective exercises, Kenta learned how to think critically about his future, identifying Business and Computer Science as his main interests.
Rise strategist
Heading
With Crimson, Kenta developed his width and breadth of extracurricular involvement, and worked hard to push his academics from average to above and beyond. He also began to identify his ambitions for the future, to work in computer science and business.
Stage 1
Academics
Months 1-3
Challenge:
Kenta set out with the intention of improving his test scores, specifically in English. His goal was to move his scores up from average to exceptional to match his excellent math grades. He also had the goal of working on time management, improving his tennis skills, and increasing his proficiency in Spanish.
Support:
Kenta worked with Julia on discussing and evaluating current study habits, as well as exploring and practicing new ones to find the most effective tools for him. He also used goal-setting methods to help him follow through.
Focus Areas:
- Time Management
- Goal-setting
- Study Habit Management
- Intrinsic Motivation
- Setting Habits and Routines
Stage 2
Time Management
Months 4-10
Challenge:
Once setting his grades on an upward trajectory, Kenta was intent on improving his time management and organization skills, which he self-identified as not the best. He voiced his want to stop his habit of waiting until the last minute to complete tasks and assignments.
Support:
Together, Julia and Kenta talked through various time management techniques, from ways to keep track of time spent studying and doing activities to different focus tools and techniques. Kenta was given the time and space to try various strategies and find the ones that worked best for him, helping him finish assignments earlier.
Stage 3
Career
Months 12-18
Challenge:
After solidifying his study habits and building his extracurricular profile, Kenta wanted to begin exploring potential future paths of study and possible careers so he could clarify his direction and aspirations.
Support:
Julia provided Kenta with the Holland Code test to kickstart a discussion on the kinds of careers Kenta might most enjoy and to help him set up a path to explore. They considered varied options around computer science and business, and Kenta was assigned resources to explore what each option was like in a day-to-day context.
Ashlee
Ashlee’s Challenges:
When Ashlee joined Rise, she was soft-spoken and timid. Though she was polite and kind-hearted from the get-go, she was also withdrawn and overwhelmed by changes related to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Crimson’s Solution:
We customized a program for Ashlee that focused on building back her confidence. From academic skills to expanding her extracurricular portfolio with activities that suited her quiet, caring demeanor, Ashlee discovered her passion for helping others and became a stronger student, volunteer, and friend.
Why Ashlee’s Parents Love Rise:
"Ashlee has grown so much in the program! We would be very happy to extend her program as long as you, Ms. Gala, are guaranteed to be her teacher!"
Ashlee’s Assessment after graduating Rise
Participating in Extracurriculars
Ashlee added diverse extracurricular activities like Japanese, yoga, and volunteer tutoring to her profile.
Building Confidence
Rather than being her own worst critic, Ashlee discovered her strengths, took on a growth mindset, and learned to speak positively to herself.
Taking the Lead
Ashlee tutored over 50 students at Kumon, helping them with homework and discovering her passion for teaching as a result of her volunteer work.
Rise strategist
Heading
With Crimson, Ashlee developed a robust extracurricular profile and accelerated her academic performance. She also identified her true passion—helping others—and is pursuing admission to Top 10 Australian universities to achieve her dream of becoming an educator.
Stage 1
Foundations
Months 1-6
Challenge:
Ashlee felt overwhelmed upon returning to school for a hybrid model after New Zealand’s lockdowns. She needed to build solid study habits to cope with the changes as the world opened back up.
Support:
Ashlee’s wellbeing and her ability to deal with rapid changes at school were major discussions in every meeting. Before starting the day’s topic, Gala made sure that Ashlee had time to discuss her life and to listen and give suggestions as needed so that Ashlee felt supported. Ashlee’s ECL mentor was assigned to her so that she would feel supported by a kind, caring team.
Focus Areas:
Through learning new study habits, practicing time management techniques like the Pomodoro method, finding ways to track new vocabulary words, and identifying fun books to read, Ashlee began to feel confident about school again.
Stage 2
Interest Expansion
Months 7-9
Challenge:
Ashlee had stopped all of her extracurriculars as a result of New Zealand’s stringent lockdown requirements, leaving piano as her only activity.
Support:
Ashlee’s Strategist examined her interests and decided to assign her a Japanese tutor. Ashlee’s mother was also highly involved and had her sign up to volunteer for Kumon once Ashlee’s desire to help others became evident.
Focus Areas:
Ashlee’s team began by exploring hobbies so that she could immediately dive into something new, starting with yoga classes and journaling. Once Ashlee was feeling more confident, she started volunteering at Kumon to grade the homework of younger children. Gala had Ashlee take the Holland Code test and discuss career paths, matching Ashlee’s introspective and helpful nature to the education profession. They explored schools, and Ashlee set her heart on the University of Melbourne, one of the top educational institutions in Australia.
Stage 3
Identity
Months 10-12
Challenge:
At this point, Ashlee could see what was expected of her in the future, and her team wanted her to solidify her own identity to help her self-confidence soar.
Support:
Ashlee’s Strategist, Gala, started with guided reflections on goals for the upcoming year, continuing to encourage her to recognize her strengths. Ashlee was noticeably more cheerful and proactive than when she had first joined Rise.
Focus Areas:
Ashlee is incredibly introspective, and her new hobby of journaling became a wonderful way to reflect on changes in her life. Together, Gala and Ashlee had her review the past academic school year, where Ashlee noted that she had become a better student, friend, and daughter. They also explored the Meyers-Briggs personality test and found that Ashlee was an ISTJ, which matched well with Ashlee’s own perception of her strengths.
These discussions became the foundation for the profile Ashlee is continuing to build as she expands her extracurriculars and looks ahead to admission to her dream education program.
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Quynh Anh
Quynh Anh’s Challenges:
When Quynh Anh joined Rise, she struggled to manage the stress of her schoolwork, which was leading to procrastination issues. Though she was certain of her interest in visual arts, she lacked career aspirations.
Crimson’s Solutions:
We worked on Quynh Anh’s procrastination by introducing her to effective time and stress management skills. We also walked her through the acquisition of new extracurricular activities and unlocked her interest in architecture as a career.
Why Quynh Anh Love Rise:
"Rise led me in a specific direction. I felt lost and scared to pursue architecture, but Rise encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone."
Quynh Anh’s Assessment after graduating Rise
Participating in Extracurriculars
Quynh Anh added four extracurriculars—journalism, STEM writing, Eco Schools, and Pet Aid and Welfare—to her profile.
Taking the Lead
Quynh Anh became co-leader of the Eco Schools program and IPAW club at her school to foster positive change in her community.
Growing through Competition
By participating in the STEM Writing Competition, Quynh Anh discovered her passion for analytical writing.
Rise strategist
Heading
With Crimson, Quynh Anh learned how to channel her passion for the arts toward a potential career in architecture and design. She developed her extracurricular profile to include a wider range of activities and leadership positions. Now in Crimson’s Core program, Quynh Anh is pursuing admission to top architecture and design programs at US universities.
Stage 1
Academics and Personal Skills
Months 1-5
Challenge:
Quynh Anh had always been a solid student, but she was overwhelmed with school assignments and struggled to handle stress. This led to occasional procrastination, especially with homework from classes that she wasn’t interested in. She also lacked motivation, likely due to quarantine and Covid restrictions at the time.
Focus Areas:
through self-reflection exercises with Paula, Quynh Anh identified her developmental focuses for the following months. She realized she not only needed to work on executive functioning skills and motivation but also build her confidence in her academic abilities.
One of Quynh Anh’s main takeaways from self-assessments and Paula’s guidance on time management and goal-setting was that she needed external resources to tackle her short attention span. Paula presented methods such as the Time Matrix and online tools that she could use for support.
With Kaitlyn’s writing practice and text analysis exercises, Quynh Anh also became more motivated to complete her English assignments and write argumentative and analytical pieces of her own.
Stage 2
Career
Months 5-9
Challenge:
Quynh Anh didn’t feel confident in her career aspirations. She had considered engineering or science but lacked knowledge of post-secondary education and didn’t understand how important her skills and personality would be in choosing a career.
Focus Areas:
Quynh Anh completed career and personality tests and reflected on her results with Paula, which led to important takeaways.
Quynh Anh recognized she needed a working environment that had both structure and flexibility so she could express her creativity. She had a preference for a job in which she could socialize, but also “be in her own space.” By the end of the program, Quynh Anh had honed in on architecture and interior design as her main interests.
Paula and Claire encouraged Quynh Anh to deepen her interest in architecture through courses, summer programs, and extracurricular activities. The main focuses of Quynh Anh’s projects are now architecture and sustainable design.
Stage 3
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Ali
Ali’s Challenges:
When Ali joined Rise, he struggled with his time management and organizational skills and was reliant on his parents for planning. His goals were ambitious (e.g. earning acceptance to an Ivy League university), but he had no plan for how to accomplish his goals.
Crimson’s Solutions:
We addressed each of these key areas with Ali by introducing him to practical tips, field-specific advice, and reflective exercises that helped him focus his energy by identifying and pursuing the things most important to him.
Why Ali Love Rise:
"I was introduced to many time management tools, all of which I continued to use even after I finished the program."
Ali’s Assessment after graduating Rise
Developing Leadership
During his time with Rise, Ali completed a Duke of Edinburgh leadership program that supported his social and intellectual development
Exploring Careers
Ali discovered that teaching is his calling and that he has a strong interest in becoming a tennis or music instructor.
Managing Time
Ali became a proficient organizer through a one-on-one intervention that emphasized time management techniques and extracurricular activities.
Rise strategist
Heading
With Crimson, Ali improved his time management and organizational skills, developed an understanding of the importance of building and maintaining a robust extracurricular profile, and accelerated his academic performance. He also identified two key career directions, and, just as importantly, a clear view of how to achieve them. Ali is now pursuing admission to Top 10 US universities to reach his dream of becoming either a tennis coach or a music teacher.
Stage 1
Foundations
Months 1-3
Challenge:
When Ali joined Crimson, his primary challenges were his time management and organizational skills.
Support:
Ali worked closely with his Rise Strategist Consultant to tackle his challenges. Due to Ali’s introverted personality style, working closely with one team member proved to be very helpful, since he valued consistency and routine
Focus Areas:
Ali and his strategist worked together to improve his foundational skills while encouraging him to explore an array of extracurricular activities. Key topics included:
- Time Management
- Reading and Vocabulary
- Leadership Skills
- Growth Mindset
- Revision/Study Techniques
Stage 2
Career
Months 4-10
Challenge:
Although Ali had some career interests, he lacked a genuine understanding of how to achieve them. He also had very little exposure to other career options, making it difficult to make an informed decision.
Support:
Ali’s Strategist, Edguelza, gave him a practical session on personality analysis to understand what working environments would suit Ali the best. This enabled him to recognize that he was well-suited to both practical and artistic environments. Next, they explored a number of careers based on Ali’s personality and preferences. Through this, Ali determined that he might like to be a music teacher—something he had not previously considered.
Stage 3
University
Months 12-18
Challenge:
Ali's main motivation for joining Crimson was the long-term goal of attending an Ivy League university. However, he lacked an understanding of what university life consisted of and what he needed to do to accomplish this goal.
Support:
Ali’s Strategist, Edguelza, gave him a robust introduction to US universities’ expectations for extracurriculars and academics. Ali came to recognize the importance of building close working relationships with teachers who will support him through this process. Edguelza also explained the key differences between university and high school, giving Ali a glimpse into the life of a university student at top US universities.
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