Introducing Sophia Chang

Sophia joined the ILUMIN team in September of 2021 and brings a wealth of knowledge from her past experience in the education sector. Along with having ten years of experience within the education industry helping numerous students and families with academic planning, college counseling, and application essays, Sophia was a Center Director for a large national company where she helped students get into top tier colleges, including the Ivy Leagues, and managed a center of over 200 students.  

We wanted to ask Sophia five questions to share her ideas and get to know her personality better:

1. In your experience, what do students struggle with the most during the college application process?

I have found that all things considered, the most common challenge among students is writing the personal statements. All too often, students claim they don’t have anything to share or say. This is false! While some of our experiences may seem common and ordinary and not worth sharing, if you dig deeper into the personal experience of that situation, it can become unique and insightful. People often experience the same situation in different ways and the thoughts and feelings that cross our minds during a particular event may be drastically different from another who is experiencing the same event. Our physical bodies may be doing one thing, but our emotional minds may be thinking another, so stripping away the layers and getting to the deeper thoughts and values can make even the most mundane experiences unique. Colleges want to see who you are beyond your academic achievements and sharing some of your values and thoughts in this way can be a great way to show them who you are.

2. What advice do you have for students as they start the college application process?

College applications season can be a challenging time, so being organized is obviously going to be very important. Students should make full use of their calendars and set reminders in their phones for all important dates and deadlines in order to stay on top of things. Furthermore, students should remember to have a working non-school email to keep track of all college-related material. This email will be used in future correspondence with colleges and students should get in the habit of checking them with frequency.

One year, a student of mine with a very competitive academic background applied to top schools like Stanford and UC Berkeley. Unfortunately, he did not get an offer from either of these schools and I believe one of the reasons for this is because he failed to check his email with frequency. He found out that he had missed emails from Stanford and UC Berkeley requesting additional documents and information from him. If you give any reason for colleges to pass on your application, they will! Staying on top of your email and making sure to get back to requests is an important trait for school and career.

3. What do you feel is the most important quality for success?

I believe that having a growth mindset, as developed by Dr. Carol Dweck at Stanford University, is one of the most important traits for success in all aspects of life. No one is born knowing everything and nobody is perfect. The good news is that research into neuroplasticity shows our brains are highly resilient and capable of reorganizing synapses to create new connections constantly! Rather than giving up or blaming it on how we were born, we can choose to take conscious steps toward becoming stronger, better version of ourselves. At a certain point, true success becomes a choice and having a growth mindset helps us to make that conscious choice forward, not backward.

4. What is your approach to working with students?

I believe in the importance of having a growth mindset and try to instill this mindset every step of the way for students, especially during challenging and rather stressful times. I use positive encouragement and utilize a Motivational Interviewing approach to help student arrive at an answer or resolution through guiding questions. Often, students have the answers and it becomes a matter of drawing it out of them.

5. Do you have any mantras or sayings you live by?

Yes! In fact, there are two lines I find myself saying: “You got this!” and “It’s okay!” I believe words have great power and what we say to ourselves can make a big impact on our lives. Before a big project or an important event, I tell myself, “You got this!” These three words seem so simple, yet are quite effective in giving me that little jolt of confidence and encouragement. When things are stressful or if I’ve done something that could’ve been done differently, I tell myself, “It’s okay.” Once again, there is so much that is transferred through those two words. It’s all about being kind to myself and reminding myself that in the grand scheme of things, it really is okay.