Authoring Your Life: Why the Personal Statement Is About (Much) More Than Getting into College

In today’s episode, I’m joined by my long-time colleague, and our Chief People Officer here at CEG, Sandy Longworth. Sandy has worked as a therapist, a researcher, college counselor — among other things — and has spent years studying the role that narrative storytelling plays in how teens develop their identities. 

Important note: While Sandy trained as a therapist, and we do talk a lot about therapy in our conversation, I want to make clear that I do not hold that college counseling and essay coaching — or what we do at College Essay Guy — to be therapy. It isn’t. As college counselors and essay coaches — and I’m speaking about us as a profession here — we help students discover the skills, qualities, values, and interests they’ll bring to a college campus… and then express those parts of themselves in writing. 

Having said that, when I was first introduced to Narrative Therapy in 2012, I was struck by how some of its techniques — like reframing, for instance, which involves finding alternate perspectives on a set of events, something sometimes called “re-storying” — overlap with some of the things that happen in essay coaching sessions… and that’s the territory Sandy and I explore in this conversation.

In this episode, Sandy and I get into: 

• How adolescence is a key time for identity development, how this process unfolds and why it’s so significant for personal statements
• What is narrative identity theory and how do our stories shape who we think we are and can be? 
• How can narrative therapy techniques help students develop and showcase these qualities?
• What are some narrative therapy exercises students can use to reflect on their experiences and write authentically?
• And more

Sandy Longworth is a proud first-generation college graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison who earned her M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University, completed her doctoral coursework in Child and Family Studies from UW-Madison, and completed her School Counseling certificate at Northern Illinois University. 

There’s a little more to her bio, but I’ll let her share that with you directly — hope you enjoy. 

Play-by-Play:

• 3:05 – Sandy shares her background and some of her roles and identities 
• 9:46 – Why is adolescence such a key time for identity development, and how does that connect to the personal statement?
•  12:20 – What role does narrative storytelling play in how students think about and develop their identities?
•  24:26 – How can narrative therapy techniques help students develop and showcase these qualities in their college application?
• 39:32 – What are some practical ways counselors and students can bring narrative therapy techniques into the personal statement process?
• 41:34 – Sandy leads Ethan through a narrative exercise
• 53:41 – Ethan and Sandy share impact and reflections
• 1:01:16 – How could narrative therapy ideas inform a montage-style essay?
• 1:10:10 – What does Sandy love about this work? 
• 1:13:32 – What resources are available to learn more about narrative therapy?
• 1:16:15 – Closing thoughts 

Resources:

• The Dulwich Centre
• The Values Exercise
• CEG's College Admission Nutrients (aka The Great College Application Test)
• College Essay Guy’s Personal Statement Resources
• College Essay Guy’s College Application Hub