Like other students, Jessica Moore was once a high school student writing a college essay, now she is offering a college  workshop to help students in the same community she grew up in feel more confident in their writing. 

“High school, ideally, kind of leads you to a path where you go to college and kind of restart your life,” said Moore. “I just remember feeling very uncertain and a lot of anxiety about my future.”

Moore started Moore Advantage Communications based on her own life experiences. 

In high school, Moore remembers there being multiple resources to help her prepare for the ACT and extracurricular activities, but felt she was on her own for her essay.

“It can be very difficult to go from a blank page to something that’s compelling, concise, clear and interesting and hooks the reader,” said Moore.

But years of practice helped Moore gain confidence. 

After graduating from Mountain Vista High School, Moore attended Stanford University where she became a writing tutor. She continued on to earn a Masters of Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. 

“I realized that there’s a gap that exists there as it pertains to college applications,” said Moore. 

Moore worked at Google for seven years and now works at Amazon Web Service, or AWS, on the Talent Management Research Science Team. 

Over the last 15 years, Moore said she has picked up many skills by working with communications professionals and is eager to share what she has learned.

“Your essay is the opportunity to really humanize who you are,” said Moore. “The experiences that you’ve had that have baked you into the individuals you are today.”

With a goal of helping others to be more confident in their college application essays as well as writing in general, Moore created a college essay workshop. 

One of Moore’s intentions with the workshop is to create a safe space where students can feel comfortable learning and leave with practical skills. 

When putting together her seven step workshop - prepare, plan, write, revise, share, refine and finalize - she wanted to build in moments of interactivity.  

The first step is helping students understand their application is part of a puzzle, along with one’s GPA, extracurricular activities and test scores.

Through brainstorming, the planning step is to help students understand what their objective is and how to communicate it in a way that’s effective. 

“College admissions officers, they’re reading hundreds of applications,” said Gunther. “If you can tell a story, you’ll make yourself more memorable.” 

During the writing and rewriting process, Moore said she will provide tips such as writing for 25 minutes at a time or writing a messy first draft. 

With the help of a rubric, students will go through revisions before getting feedback from someone else, where students will then have the chance to refine and finalize their work. 

“I have reflection questions built in with every step to ensure that again, these lessons hopefully permeate a bit more and are more memorable for students,” said Moore. 

Moore is starting with zoom workshops, which registration can be found on her website at https://www.mooreadvantagecomms.com/college-essay-workshop. 

Starting in August, Moore plans to have 20 students per workshop, each workshop being one hour. To work with students managing school and life, she plans to have the classes in the evenings and on weekends. 

Moore said accessibility to the workshop is important as she is also willing to listen to feedback.

The workshop is $100 per person, but she is open to working with students and families for whom the price isn’t feasible. 

When looking towards the future, Moore said she wants to offer these workshops to students who come from underserved areas. 

Moore also hopes to expand her business to help those looking for a job with their resumes and cover letters.

“My hope is to empower people to make them feel more confident,” said Moore.