College Essay Workshop

Lab: Avanzando Education Pathways, Fall 2022
Instructors: Mara Lopez, Dulce Gonzalez-Estevez
Type: Event
Tags: Teaching and Education, Children and Youth
Team: Adrian Galan, James Porter


Learn more about this Lab


About the outcome

The problem we are addressing is the way education resources in Phoenix have been sectioned off so that Maryvale does not have the same access to higher education resources such as college counselors focused on college admission. As students have anecdotally recounted, the counselors at Maryvale high school are more worried about the students to pass high school, and there are too few of them compared to the body of students that needs support getting through all of the bureaucracy of applying to college. We are addressing the problem by directly engaging and working with the students on their essays during the event we are hosting. Our team of students from a diverse range of disciplines is in contact with humanities teachers as well as school faculty at Maryvale High School in order to help the high school students in their college application process not in a way that we presuppose to be helpful, but in a way the students have outwardly expressed to be helpful. By asking the students and faculty, we have already identified college essays as being their biggest concern, so our event will be a workshop centered around how to navigate the college essay writing process. This will facilitate the process for the students and clear up their questions about this step toward college.


About the team

Adrian Galan is a Senior working on his Honors Thesis, and he plans to use this grant to host a writing workshop that the students of Maryvale High School requested.

James Porter is a Business major looking to manage a business in the near future that advances minority communities. He plans to own and operate a community center where kids, teens, adults, and people of all ages can have a sense of community and will allow people to know they are not alone.