Canton resident offering Essay Therapy service

The last year of high school can be a stressful one for students. In addition to their studies, seniors need to fill out college applications and include a personal statement — the essay. Writing the essay can be the most challenging part of applying for university admission as teenagers concentrate on finding the right words to tell a stranger who they are.

Canton resident Suzanne Hegland recently started Essay Therapy, a service that helps students start and finish their personal statement. An assistant dean of students and a member of the liberal arts faculty at New England Conservatory, Hegland began to work with students on the essay process when her son was a senior at Canton High School and his friends were having difficulty deciding what to write about.

“Some kids say, ‘I haven’t been through a major tragedy; I haven’t overcome anything; I’m really boring,’” Hegland said. “Everybody does have a story to tell even if they don’t think they do.”

Her strategy is to have three in-person meetings with students. During the first meeting, Hegland and the student brainstorm ideas for the essay. She tries to help students find the Eureka moment when they hit upon an experience that they want to share and feel that they can write about.

Hegland describes herself as a nosy person, someone who is genuinely interested in people. She uses that interest to speak with a student during the first meeting about his or her interests.

“I’m not a parent, I’m not a teacher, I’m not their guidance counselor,” she said. “The pressure is off a little bit.”

She starts with conversations about sports, music and favorite classes and then moves on to other topics. She works with the student to develop the idea into an outline along with an opening sentence, which the student takes home and develops into the essay.

The structure of working with students as they articulate their interests led her to choose the name for the business. “Some of this feels like therapy,” she said. “It’s helping them get beyond their anxiety, their writer’s block.”

The student brings a draft of the essay to the second meeting, and he or she then takes it home with notes on how to revise it. At the final meeting, the statement is fine-tuned. Between meetings, Hegland edits the drafts online and provides suggestions to students about the content.

Hegland holds three master’s degrees: one in history, one in education, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. She has more than 20 years of experience working in higher education, including as an admissions counselor at Emerson College and an admissions intern at Suffolk University. She writes for the Huffington Post, and her essays have been published in the Boston Globe and World Scholar, a trade publication.

Hegland started Essay Therapy a month ago and loves working with students. “It brings me immense fulfillment to see them evolve from people who are intimidated to people who genuinely care about their story,” she said. “It brings me great personal joy.”

For more information about Essay Therapy, contact Hegland at suzanne.hegland@gmail.com.

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Posted by Mary Ann Price on Oct 25 2012. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.