During the TigerFlex period held every Thursday, students have the opportunity to meet with teachers, get additional help on assignments and participate in student development and guest speaker events.
Last month, students could choose to attend a College Essay Writing Workshop presented by Tina CoyneSmith, a parent volunteer and college essay specialist with The College Essay Guy, Inc.
CoyneSmith’s son graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 2022, a process that helped inform the workshop.
The hour-long session provided valuable information for students considering applying to college, as well as writing prompts that participants could use to begin their own writing process.
CoyneSmith, a former writing teacher and college essay expert with a decade of experience, said she is dedicated to helping teens uncover and express their most meaningful qualities through their writing.
She hopes that, through her support, students learn “that the college essay is not something to stress about,” she said.
The presentation exposed students to the qualities of a good essay and the role the essay plays in college admissions. According to CoyneSmith, college essays offer students an opportunity to tell colleges what’s great or interesting about themselves and what they might bring to a campus environment.
She discussed the importance of finding a “vehicle”—a story, experience, something memorable or interesting about the individual that serves as a way to showcase the true essence of who they are as a person.
With a background in literature, CoyneSmith references the “vehicle” in a poetic sense. She uses the example of a rose.
“If you think of a poem [“A Red, Red Rose”], you’re talking about a rose, but you’re not really talking about a rose—you’re talking about love,” she said. “The rose is the vehicle that tells us about what the thing is really about, which is love.”
She suggests that students approach their college essays with a similar perspective and use the vehicle to express a unique characteristic of themselves.
During the workshop, students had the opportunity to engage in a series of brainstorming activities that tailored topics for individual attendees to write about. Students were tasked with finding their “vehicle” by compiling a list of their most important values; they could then form a collection of key attributes to develop into an essay showing their different facets, qualities and interests.
“I came up with 20 words that describe myself,” workshop attendee and junior Denali Cutbush-Taylor said. “Those 20 words are prompts to write about in my essay.”
The brainstorming activities stimulated deep thinking, personal reflection and discussion.
“[The college essay] should sound like it was written by a 17- or an 18-year-old student and reflect the experience of that person,” CoyneSmith said. “Colleges should be intrigued and eager to sit down and learn more about you; it should be somewhat vulnerable.”
The presentation also addressed what students might expect on a college application. Some schools require applicants to choose from a list of provided prompts, while others will ask them to write an essay about anything.
“Many schools use the Common Application, so what that means is you fill out one Common App application, and the essay you write for that goes to everybody,” CoyneSmith said. Students have several prompts to choose from on the Common App, ranging from “something you’re thankful for to something that’s a part of your identity that’s so big, you’re not you without it,” she said.
Regardless of the prompt, CoyneSmith reminds students that the essay is about them and should focus on streamlining the qualities, experiences and interests unique to each student.
“A thing I do see with students is that sometimes they get so caught up in getting the right answer to one of those questions that they forget to talk about themselves,” CoyneSmith said.
CoyneSmith said that growing up she did not have the support during her own college application process and was lucky even to attend college. Little did she know, this would ignite a passion in her that would significantly impact generations to come.
The College Essay Writing Workshop is one of many college resource events provided by the school for students.
CoyneSmith said other helpful resources college-bound seniors can make use of include their guidance counselors, English teachers, as well as extended resources such as The College Essay Guy Inc.
Guidance counselor Imani Agee agreed that students should seek out resources the school offers.
“I help guide students through the college application process by providing support with researching schools, understanding deadlines, and crafting compelling essays,” Agee said. “My goal is to ensure students feel confident and well-prepared as they pursue higher education opportunities.”
CoyneSmith said she hosted the workshop after spending a lot of time reflecting on her core values, her purpose in the world and what it means to contribute.
Ultimately, she determined she should bring her “awesomeness” into the world– which embodies her core values. “So this is something I do: I write, and I know how to write essays,” she said. “I am good at this, and I learned a lot about it with my son, and so that’s one way that I like to share with people what I’m good at.”
