Introducing Jon Castro!

As a new and experienced consultant, Jon Castro joined ILUMIN Education’s consulting team in May 2021. After six years abroad, working as a teacher and educational consultant in China, Jon has gained valuable experience helping nearly 100 students into universities such as Penn, Yale, Duke, Brown, and Middlebury. As a mentor and consultant, Jon has honed his skills, ranging from extracurricular/capstone project planning to interview prep, which has helped students starting in the ninth grade achieve their college admission goals.

Due to his experience abroad in Asia, Jon understands that every family has different needs and concerns. Some have no idea about the application process, while others already know quite a bit. Wherever you and your family are in this process, Jon can tailor your application process to maximize your time, impact, and goals. 

We asked Jon five questions to share his ideas and personality better:

1. How do I stand out more with my extracurricular activities? 

While this question may sound vague, my students often ask this during our first meetings. The anxiety and stress that come with “standing out” or “being different” can paralyze students from taking action. Is my orchestra club and computer science competition enough? Do I need to have a leadership position in all of my activities? Are eight clubs overly ambitious? Just thinking about these questions can lead anyone down a spiral. 

One way to stand out in your application is to remain consistent and create a capstone project. Colleges look for students who aren’t constantly switching from one activity to the next after only participating for a week. They seek students who commit to their clubs for much longer periods. Sticking with your orchestra for four years is more impressive than two other clubs with only three months duration. This shows that you can see a project to the end without giving up — a great trait for any freshmen student to have. 

Capstone projects are also a fantastic way to demonstrate your passion. My student, Krystal in Ningbo China, had a deep passion for photography and architecture. She enjoyed taking pictures of random trinkets, but when it came down to creating a project to showcase her skills, she lacked direction that can demonstrate her interests. Ningbo is a city known for its modern and ancient bridges. So, we brainstormed and decided to travel throughout the city to capture every bridge on photo and interview the people who relied on those structures for generations. Eventually, we managed to show her work in the Ningbo Art Museum as she presented her gallery. This experience, which formed over many meetings, helped her into her architecture program.

If you don’t know how to pick a personal project, try combining different interests like Krystal!

2. Are there any underutilized resources that can help my application odds?

Yes! Surprisingly, students forget that working a simple weekend or summer job can seriously help their chances of getting into a school they want. Working in a bookstore, cafe, homeless shelter, or local business shows that you can interact with adults in the real world as a responsible young adult. Moreover, a job builds character, time management, and communication skills. Perhaps, you can even use the traits and skills you gain from working in your clubs, making your projects smoother and more efficient. Internships can also work, but if you have the chance to snag a sweet job over the weekend for extra cash don’t forget it can benefit you in the long run.  

3. What do you like most about consulting?

I enjoy seeing how my students grow from uncertain students to confident young adults. Many students don’t know what they want to do or who they want to become. This is normal for every high schooler, especially when adults are asking them to make important life decisions. Working with my students every month, identifying their weaknesses and strengths, insecurities, and courage, I see firsthand how everyone has room to change and grow. 

My student Julia, an art student in Vermont, cried every meeting because she did poorly in school or felt isolated from her peers, told me that she couldn’t perform better. Her doubt consumed her mind, corroding her confidence and goals. Listening to her for nearly a year, we made a breakthrough in her confidence when our careful and detailed plans came to fruition. Suddenly, the girl who doubted herself saw the value of her designs as she created bigger and bigger personal projects. Over time, she grew increasingly comfortable sharing her art because the effort she put into her designs, the skills she learned, and the emotional reinforcement, helped her gain the courage to share. 

To see my students grow will always give me great joy.

4. If you could start all over from ninth grade, what would you do differently?

I would focus on one field and pursue it with all my might -- to specialize rather than become a generalist. This approach might not work for everyone as there are benefits to trying many new things, namely gaining more skills or exploring different fields to see which one fits. However, there are also benefits to specialize in one hobby or interest. Both approaches work! Building a higher level of skill in computer science, art, or anything else can help you start advanced projects that you wouldn’t do if your interests were stretched thin. But what if you discover you don’t have a passion for that interest? Passion is forged over time through effort and skill; it's not something innate we are born with. This is a liberating perspective because you can pick an interest, and even if you think it's not for you, with the right mindset and effort, can build great success. 

Try one thing and build. See where it takes you. 

5. What is one piece of advice you have for students starting the application process? 

Start early and remain consistent. Like anything else, there is a massive difference between students who begin in the early summer, brainstorming and writing their essays, versus students who wait until the fall. During the summer you have time to write a few drafts of the personal statement, throw it out, and start anew if you don’t like the topic anymore. However, during the fall, standardized testing, finals, and activities can consume a lot of your time. Remember, many schools have more than one essay. And if each draft takes at least thirty minutes of effort, how much time will it take to complete ten drafts for a dozen essays? 

This sounds like simple advice, but it makes all the difference!