PrepNow Tutor - Heather E.
A writing tutor since 2013, Heather earned her BA cum laude in English from Colorado College and her MFA in creative writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She works as a university composition instructor, college admission reader, writing tutor, and book editor.
Heather was first professionally introduced to the world of college admissions during her senior year at Colorado College when she worked as an Admission Fellow, interviewing hundreds of prospective students, completing evaluations to assist the admissions committee, and sitting in on committee meetings. “Basically, I spent a year as an admission director apprentice,” Heather says. Since 2018, Heather has worked as a seasonal reader for the admissions office of a top thirty private research university. “Every year, I read and make decisions on thousands of student applications,” she says. “Because of this, I’m deeply familiar with what it takes to craft a compelling college admission essay.”
First and foremost, Heather is a teacher. "I feel like I've been teaching my entire life--that it's always been a part of my identity--but this is far from the truth,” she says. "Rather, I was typically the student in desperate need of a tutor.” This changed when she was a sophomore in college and was hired as a writing tutor on a whim. After a semester of intensive training and pedagogy, she discovered the magic of teaching and has been at it in some capacity ever since. In graduate school, Heather continued to tutor writing while teaching academic writing courses.
"As a college instructor with a life rooted in creative writing, I always aim to bring out creativity when working with my students," Heather says. "All writing is inherently creative and, by focusing on what a student is passionate about, we can crack at even the most stubborn blocks.” She describes her teaching style as collaborative and holistic and explains, "My goal as a tutor is not only to strengthen the essay that the student and I are working on but also to help the student develop agency in their education and confidence in their craft that they can then apply to all of the writing that awaits them." Heather is sensitive to the energy of her students and "plays off" of it. She says, "Knowing a student's strengths is just as crucial as knowing their weak points and frustrations.”
Heather graduated from high school at sixteen and spent the subsequent years writing, traveling, working at grocery stores, and taking random community college courses before transferring to her alma mater. At Colorado College, she danced ballet and worked as an editor for the literary magazine. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys reading, hiking with her dog, and enjoying her local PNW beaches. Heather’s first novel was published with a young adult imprint at Penguin Random House in 2018 and she is now working on her second. Her current favorite form of procrastination is attempting to teach herself Turkish.
