Meet Our Student Coaches


  • Education:     Bachelor of Arts, University of Pennsylvania

    Bio: Emily is a first-year medical student at the Yale School of Medicine. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry and took two gap years in between college and medical school to work at a diabetes-focused market research company in San Francisco.

    While at the University of Pennsylvania, Emily was a clinical research assistant at a traumatic brain injury lab, volunteered with hospice patients, was a photographer for the student news organization, and worked on design and layout for a healthcare publication. Emily also co-founded a club that hosts birthday celebrations for underprivileged and sick children and helped grow it into a national nonprofit focused on supporting vulnerable child populations.

    Emily has been teaching, tutoring, and mentoring students since high school and is passionate about empowering young people. A graduate of the Chapin School in New York City, she is familiar with the private school admissions process and learning environment and has supported many students and families through their applications, from student and parent statements to interview preparation. Having also gone through both the college and medical school admissions processes, Emily has an intimate understanding of the challenges students face through all stages of their education and is committed to supporting each student’s unique needs and goals.

  • Current: Undergraduate student at Northwestern University

    Education: High School: The Lawrenceville School, Undergrad: Northwestern University

    Bio: Sara Xu is an undergraduate student at Northwestern University in the Class of 2026, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and the Integrated Marketing Communications Certificate. She attended the Chapin School in NYC through 8th grade before becoming a boarding student at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

    At Lawrenceville, Sara was an editor on the school newspaper and conducted literary research through the Merrill Scholars Program. She pursued her interest in journalism and marketing at Northwestern, where she does editing and social media work for the student magazine.

    Sara enjoys working closely with young students in both academic and non-academic settings. Last summer, she was a Residential Advisor and Teacher’s Assistant for the Merrill Scholars Program, where she supported the students’ research process inside and outside of the classroom. She was also a counselor for Lawrenceville’s Summer Scholars Program, where she supervised middle school students in the dorms and led activities throughout the day.

    From her experience applying to high school and college, Sara gained an understanding of the qualities schools look for in their applicants and how the application process differs for each individual student. She is keen on discovering students’ uniqueness and helping them stand out from the crowds.

  • Education: Bachelor of Arts, University of Pennsylvania

    Bio: Ivy is an M2 at Harvard Medical School. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and minors in Creative Writing and Chemistry. Post-grad, she took one gap year to work as Marketing Lead at a surgical-education start-up and spent half of her year living and studying in Seoul, South Korea.

    While at Penn, Ivy served on the editorial team for Rx/Museum, a web-based medical humanities initiative led by Penn Medicine and local art institutions. Rx/Museum has since been incorporated into the official AAMC medical humanities teaching guide and was featured in the Washington Post and Penn Gazette, among other media.

    Ivy has a long history of mentorship, in both academic and non-academic settings. She has tutored high school English and Math, edited college and medical school personal statements, and led music mentoring community programs in West Philly.

    Most importantly, Ivy is passionate about storytelling – as a craft and a fundamental facet of medicine - and strives for narrative competence as a means to stay curious about the world and her patients. She hopes to use her voice to publish a book that elevates minority stories, especially those of the Chinese– American community she calls home.