Alana Weisberg

Alana founded Origin Story after advising students through the part of the process almost no one teaches: figuring out what the essay is actually about. She combines real essay-tutoring experience with genuine proximity to the application itself — she remembers what it feels like to stare at the prompt, and she knows what an authentic 17-year-old voice actually sounds like.

"College essays shouldn't sound like they were written by a 45-year-old consultant."

Her particular strength is drawing out the ideas students don't initially recognize as meaningful — the small, specific, unglamorous moments that turn out to say the most. Students leave sessions with clearer thinking, a real direction, and writing that still sounds like them.