{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"703: On Becoming: The Art and Craft of Personal Storytelling (Ep 3: The Pilgrim and The CEO) with Jane Longley","description":"Welcome back to the College Essay Guy podcast and our series On Becoming: The Art and Craft of Personal Storytelling. I\u2019m one of your cohosts, Tom Campbell, former Pomona and Holy Cross admissions officer, turned essay coach and college counselor. In this series, we look at real personal statements from real students: what choices were made, what was revised, and why it works. For this episode, we sit down with Jane Longley, one of our amazing essay coaches here at CEG, to unpack an essay that one of her student wrote titled \u201cThe Pilgrim and The CEO.\u201d It tells the story of two challenging yet rewarding experiences central to one student\u2019s identity and growth: hiking the Camino and starting her own skincare line. They seem like wildly different journeys in that bite-sized, one sentence description, but as you\u2019ll see from the essay, they\u2019re anything but disparate. This essay, which seamlessly tells two stories in tandem, is a masterclass on balance. Which is really what college essays are all about. On one side, they should genuinely reflect the student \u2014 their voice, their lived experiences, the moments that have shaped how they see the world. On the other, they need to do some real work: helping an admissions reader understand the student\u2019s character, values, and potential, and making it easier to advocate for them in committee. We\u2019ll walk through key excerpts, unpack the strategic decisions behind them, and share practical insights for counselors, teachers, and anyone guiding students through the writing process. Jane Longley has been an essay coach for eight years. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Modern Languages and spent ten years teaching in the UK before moving to Nicaragua, where she has lived for more than two decades. Along the way, Jane trained in Person-centred Therapeutic Counselling and Boarding Education \u2014 experiences that inform how she works with students today. As an essay coach, she focuses on helping students clarify their ideas, identify meaningful through-lines in their experiences, and find language that feels precise and authentic. And we, for one, are so glad she\u2019s come to share her expertise and her calming British accent with you all.  We hope you enjoy the episode.   Play-by-Play: 2:18 \u2013 What is Jane\u2019s background in essay coaching?  4:54 \u2013 Jane shares context for the essay and what it was like working with the student who wrote it 8:47 \u2013 In what ways can brainstorming exercises uncover unexpected topic ideas? 9:49 \u2013 How does the values exercise serve as the foundation for an essay? 15:06 \u2013 What other brainstorming tools helped shape the student\u2019s direction? 18:05 \u2013 How did the student\u2019s early topic ideas transform into a final product?  21:42 \u2013 What influenced the essay\u2019s final structure?  29:40 \u2013 Jane reads the essay, \u201cThe Pilgrim and The CEO\u201d 34:16 \u2013 Tom shares his initial thoughts on the essay  35:46 \u2013 Jane shares how the author developed the two narratives in the introduction   39:07 \u2013 How did the student decide what essential context about the Camino needed to stay? 41:39 \u2013 How did authenticity shape the student\u2019s decision to include moments of unpreparedness? 44:34 \u2013 How did the student identify the specific, vivid details that brought each journey to life? 51:53 \u2013 How did collaboration become a central theme across both journeys? 55:20 \u2013 How did the student\u2019s honest reaction at the end of the Camino strengthen the essay? 59:30 \u2013 How does the tone shift from collaboration to appreciation in the final paragraphs? 1:00:53 \u2013 How can students revisit the same experience across essays without repeating themselves? 1:03:52 \u2013 Closing thoughts    Resources: "The Pilgrim and the CEO" Essay The Values Exercise The Roles and Identities Exercise The 21 Details Exercise The Essence Objects Exercise  College Essay Guy\u2019s Personal Statement Resources College Essay Guy\u2019s College Application Hub   ","author_name":"The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions","author_url":"http:\/\/collegeessayguy.libsyn.com\/website","html":"