Navigate the road to college with confidence.

The destination is up to you. Take the first step with us.

OUR MISSION

To empower students to be the most successful version of themselves.

Through our holistic approach, we help students manifest their greatest college aspirations and provide the tools needed to achieve success, wherever life takes them.

The Empowerly story

Since 2017, we've helped over 5,000 students get into their top-choice programs.

Empowerly’s team members are graduates of top US colleges, with expertise in STEM, pre-med, business, and the humanities.

And beyond college? Our team brings diverse professional experiences from organizations like Teach for America, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Uber, Riot Games, and more. These backgrounds give us a well-rounded perspective when designing products and services that help you achieve your goals.

How It All Started

From experience to empowerment.

As children of immigrants, our founders know how confusing the admissions process can be. After navigating their own paths to top universities, they noticed many students lack the guidance needed to achieve their goals which inspired them to found Empowerly.

We are real people passionate about building a community that supports students and families. Having faced the competitive admissions process ourselves, we are dedicated to helping the next generation expand their horizons and create new opportunities for their futures.

Meet Our Founders

Hanmei Wu

Hanmei’s passion for higher education stems from her desire to help students reach their full potential. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a BS in Business Administration, she gained experience at Goldman Sachs and Teach For America. While teaching in the Bay Area, she frequently assisted students with their college applications. To expand her impact beyond her immediate network, she founded Empowerly, aiming to provide students with more comprehensive college application support than traditional school counselors often offer. Since its inception, Empowerly has helped thousands of students achieve their college goals.

Changxiao Xie

As a first-generation US college student, Changxiao experienced the challenges of navigating the college admissions process firsthand. During this process, he noticed many of his peers facing similar difficulties. After successfully gaining admission to Princeton, where he studied electrical engineering, he worked on Wall Street building trading systems, at Facebook developing machine learning models, and researching natural language processing (NLP) techniques for disinformation detection. Driven by his own experiences, he co-founded Empowerly to help other students overcome common application challenges and achieve their academic aspirations.

Empowerly's Core Principles

01.

Collaboration

We believe in the power of teamwork. Students benefit from the expertise of our admissions specialists and counselors, receiving comprehensive support throughout their college admissions journey. This collaboration builds accountability and confidence, empowering students to reach their goals.

02.

Impact

We create meaningful, lifelong differences in our students’ lives. When students secure admission to a top college, we empower them to thrive in whatever comes next. This ability to thrive gives our work profound meaning and inspires us to support students beyond the admissions process.

03.

Excellence

We strive for excellence in everything we do. From personalized guidance to detailed application critiques and future-focused internships, we are committed to providing exceptional service to our students. Our aim is to help them reach their fullest potential for college and succeed in all future endeavors.

Meet the team

Here are just a few of the stellar people we’re proud to call teammates.

Senior Admissions Expert—With experience in collegiate admissions, she is passionate about equipping students to master the prep. process. Her work as a college counselor allows her to share proven strategies. She enjoys travel and cultural exchange!

Alexis

Lead Business Analyst—Bogdan graduated from Deakin Uni with a master’s degree, and has been working in the EdTech sector for 5 years in the marketing and finance analytics. He enjoys sports, traveling with family, and watching soccer games.

Bogdan

Resource Manager—Chloe graduated from Anne Arundel Community College and UMD, and works to provide students with the tools to carve their own path to the future. When not wrangling her Irish Terrier, she’s probably talking about Star Wars.

Chloe

Senior Lead Counselor—As a former Assistant Director of Admission at Brown University, Connie brings over 16 years of selective admissions and counseling expertise to Empowerly’s team of college counselors, our students, and our families.

Connie

Lead Counselor—Denard’s decade of admissions work and 8+ years as a high school counselor give him unique insight. His perspective, knowledge, & humor empower students applying to top schools like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, + more, across all fields from STEM to Humanities.

Denard

Sr. Admissions Expert—After years in tech, Edgar looked for career meaning. As a first gen graduate, he knows how overwhelming the process is & is dedicated to help students navigate their journey. Edgar is an aficionado of Martial Arts, Futbol, & Ancient Civilizations.

Edgar

Community Manager | College Counselor—With an admissions officer background, Emma champions students in helping them craft their stories and find the next chapter in their higher education journey.

Emma

College Counselor—Ford brings over eight years of admissions experience to Empowerly, six of them as an Assistant Director of Admission at Johns Hopkins University. Ford’s passionate about students being the drivers of their college application process, and the Orioles.

Ford

Head of Growth Operations—Gelyna graduated from Stanford & joined Empowerly as a Counselor. She now wears many hats, working across growth, customer support, & programs. She enjoys going to 49ers games, hiking, & hanging out with her pets.

Gelyna

College Counselor—As a former Assoc. Dir. of Admissions at the UPenn, Haley brings a experience in admissions & works with students to find their authentic voice. Haley has worked across education with a focus on civic engagement & leadership development.

Haley

Head of Engineering—Graduating from Stanford, Hanjoon is passionate about helping others realize their own college admissions dreams. When he is tired of sucking at tennis, he switches over to sucking at pickleball. He is also what you’d call a Chipotle connoisseur.

Hanjoon

Admissions Expert—A father of 5 with 18 years of experience in education, including as a principal. He has a particular knowledge of the competitive nuances of applying to selective schools as a STEM major.

Jeff

Lead College Counselor—As a former Sr. Admissions Officer at Columbia & with deep insights that span from boarding school to graduate school application review, Jermaine brings a wealth of knowledge to Empowerly families as a Lead College Counselor.

Jermaine

CTO—After Princeton, Jerry a product manager at various tech companies before finding a calling in startups. He treasures mentorship & life-long learning. When not scuba diving or playing escape rooms, Jerry is an amateur cook & an aspiring food critic.

Jerry

Startup Internship Program Manger—Jessie is a Tar Heel, a former UNC Admissions employee, and an educator passionate about uplifting young people.

Jessie

Senior Admissions Expert—While attending Vanderbilt, he gained invaluable insights working in the Office of Admissions. He has firsthand experience navigating the competitive college admissions process and is dedicated to helping families succeed in educational pursuits.

Jonathan

Community Manager—Jordann is a historian by education who grew up in Los Angeles before moving to the Pacific Northwest. He is a relentless advocate and trusted advisor for Empowerly families at every step of their journey.

Jordann

Senior Admissions Expert—As a high school student, she found the admissions process very overwhelming, so she was inspired to help other high schoolers make the process less stressful. She’s a UC Berkeley alum with 10 years of experience as a college counselor.

Lauren

Senior Operations Manager—After helping her 4 kids apply to college, Leslie found a passion for supporting students and parents through the college admission process.

Leslie

Senior Content Marketing Manager—With a global perspective & a passion for storytelling, Lucie creates content strategies that resonate with diverse audiences. When she’s not immersed in growth strategy, you can find her with a book or doing Muay Thai.

Lucie C.

Senior Admissions Expert—Lucie graduated from Stanford & has been in the college admissions industry for 10 years. She has also worked extensively as a professional actress. She has voiced PayPal ads and shot a scene in a Sofia Coppola film!

Lucie F.

Sales Leader—Lydia graduated from UCLA in 2014, and has spent the last seven years nerding out about education and communication. She now lives in the Bay Area with her true love: her sighthound, Whiskey. She also has a husband.

Lydia

People Operations—As a former educator turned People Operations/HR, Mary fully believes in the power of education and knows that supporting humans at all stages of life is truly the way to “leave the world better than you found it”.

Mary

Community Manager—Hailing from Ireland, Matt joined Empowerly as a Community Manager. Previously a sales consultant & teacher, Matt felt drawn to directly help students. Matt ensures the customer experience is of the highest quality by working across teams.

Matt

Elite Counselor—Shahrukh has 10+ years of admissions experience. A Johns Hopkins BA & MBAs from Columbia & LBS, he has helped students get into Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, & more. A former editor + researcher, he values storytelling & writing.

Shahrukh

Operations Manager—Shannon spent nearly a decade teaching in New York City and is a lifelong educator at heart. When she’s not helping Empowerly families, she enjoys spending time at home sewing and cuddling with her dog, Lentil.

Shannon

Community Manager & Admissions Advisor—A graduate of UC Irvine and a Stanford & UC Berkeley parent, Stephanie is a community manager & admissions advisor who specializes in the UC schools and California transfer pathways.

Stephanie

Program Manager Coming from generations of teachers in her family, Teddi understands the power of education. She is excited to support Empowerly’s students to achieve their higher education goals by providing diverse and enriching programming.

Teddi

100% committed to you

We're dedicated to guiding students and families through the admissions process.

My kid has been with Empowerly for the last two years, and recently was admitted to Stanford University! Empowerly has not only helped him with essay editing, but also helped him find a focus in 11th grade for what to apply to, and how to create a theme around his application. Having admissions officers with fresh experience look at the application as a whole gave my kid a complete idea of where he needed to improve. His counselor helped him every step of the way and was truly supportive the whole time.

– Raj, Empowerly parent

The resources available at Empowerly are very helpful, but my favorite part about this program is the honesty that everyone in this program has. My counselor is amazing at picking apart her students and finding their strengths that colleges will fight for. She will tell you when an essay is not working well or where your application is lacking, but when she compliments your work, you know that she genuinely means it…honesty like hers is what will get students into competitive universities.

– Jake, Empowerly student

My daughter got accepted into top tech schools like Caltech, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, etc. for Engineering. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Empowerly and especially Kate. Kate was a remarkable counselor who clearly understood my daughter’s needs, strengths, and goals, and helped her prepare for and strategize her college application.

– Supraja, Empowerly parent

Careers

We're just as devoted to our students' successes as we are each other's.

If empowering students while also encouraging your team members to succeed resonates with you, we’d be delighted to share more about Empowerly. We invite you to explore meaningful career opportunities with our team.

Interested in joining Empowerly as a counselor? Learn more here.