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About IMPACTDEBORAH HELLER
IMPACT Founder and Lead College Consultant, Deborah Heller, has been a college counselor and consultant working with students on the college process for the past 22 years. She has worked with inner city students in both Boston and NYC, private school and competitive public school students in NYC, as well as consulting with a diverse array of students across the US. Deborah got her MSEd in School Counseling from Hunter College and is currently an Adjunct Professor there. She works full time as Director of College Counseling in a competitive NYC public school and offers new counselors a program over the summer to build their college counseling skills. Contact Deborah at [email protected] DARA KORNBLATT College Consultant, Dara Kornblatt has been a College and Guidance Counselor for 20 years. She has served students and in a small special education K-12 school, a large suburban high school and for last 17 years at a selective NYC public high school. Dara has experience working with students from a variety of background, interests, and abilities. She has traveled around the country visiting colleges and building relationships with admissions professionals. Dara enjoys helping all students find the right fit and manage the college application process. She earned a Masters in Education from Fordham University in May 2004 and is an active member of NACAC (National Association for College Admissions Counseling) Contact Dara at [email protected] KATHERINE DIMAGGIO College Consultant, Katherine DiMaggio has been a college and school counselor for the past 10 years. She has worked in NYC specialized high schools, as well as Los Angeles charter schools, and is well-versed in East and West coast college options. Her college consulting students have varied from across the US with a range of post-secondary aspirations. With a professional background in social-emotional counseling alongside college planning, Katherine prioritizes a mindful approach to the college process to minimize stress. Katherine earned her master's in counseling from Columbia University and is a certified life coach and yoga teacher. Contact Katherine at [email protected] |
Client Testimonials |
Deborah Heller saved my family's sanity through my daughters junior and senior years of high school. I'm an anxious parent with a procrastinating teenager so we required a bit of attention! My daughter would listen to what Deborah said as opposed to fighting me when I said the same thing! Deborah kept me well informed, answered all of my questions, and went above and beyond with my daughter (who loved her). I really appreciated Deborah's knowledge of all the different aspects of this process. The woman is a walking college encyclopedia! The best thing is that my daughter ended up going to a college she loves, with a merit scholarship, that we hadn't heard of prior to working with Deborah. My family is so very grateful and recommend Deborah whenever and wherever possible!
Thanks so much, Alana Goldstein _____________________________________________________________________________________ I can honestly say that having Deb Heller as my son's college advisor was the best investment e-v-e-r. The college search process is daunting and comes at a time where teenagers are appropriately developmentally "individuating." So having Deb Heller as my son's external trusted advisor was priceless. Deb has deep knowledge of the college landscape. She quickly grasped the types of colleges that were a perfect fit for my child. She even provided dates for appropriate college soccer id camps for these colleges. She provided guidance and editing for the required essays. My son looked forward to meeting with Deb and the two of them worked out their own schedule. This allowed me to be confident that he was receiving only great advice from Deb and he was able to "own" his college search and decision process. In the end, my son was accepted into a great school as a result of a college id camp (identified by Deb) early acceptance. We were ecstatic to be done all done by mid-December of senior year. Thank you, Deb Heller, for setting my son up for success at college and beyond. Ro Vernon _____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking back at our college prep experience, we would not have been able to decipher, understand or accomplish the level of success without the assistance and patience of Deb Heller! Our son began his application journey early in his junior year. Deb was instrumental in guiding us through the intense application process for Posse and QuestBridge. She was involved, engaged and supportive every step of the way. Her guidance, information and constant smile---coupled with a strong knowledge of need-based college options enabled our son to reach higher then we ever dreamed. She was just as thrilled, as we were when our son got accepted to multiple programs but finally decided on attending The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University! She treats every student as if they are her own. Each time we “FaceTime” or talk with our son (who is away at Northwestern University) we are reminded of the journey we took as a family and how we had to deal with the mine field that is preparing a high school senior for college. Ms. Heller was gracious, knowledgeable, patient and pragmatic when it came to our son. She guided us and had our back. She was honest, professional and personable. Even under the pressures of deadlines, she made us feel as if our son was the only senior heading to college! Although this decision and process involved both the student and the parents, Ms. Heller focused on our son and constantly checked in with him to make sure he was comfortable with how the application process was going. Getting into college in today’s competitive world is an arduous and anxious task for all high school seniors but when you have the support, experience and humor of a college counselor like Deb Heller the road was quieter, clearer, less anxious and not as bumpy. Ms. Heller treats all her students/clients like young adults and in turn, she treats parents with respect. She was always patient, supportive and honest and delivered all her information with a smile. Gina and Bob Goodman _____________________________________________________________________________________ Deb helped my daughter to organize her thoughts and complete a college essay that helped to showcase her strengths and experience. She also gave valuable advice on the college process, ideas on colleges that may be a good fit and a resource on the application process. I recommend Deb for anyone who needs some guidance during the stressful college application process. Daphne Schellenberg _____________________________________________________________________________________ Dara was AMAZING! with our son's college application process. She made life 200% better for us, helping us avoid getting frustrated with the process, and having to motivate our son to get things done on time and well. Not only that, she helped him with selecting the right colleges and applying strategies that we would not have been able to come up with on our own! His college Essay also turned out very nicely thanks to her input and we believe it was her efforts that helped him get into his "Reach" school which was Carnegie Mellon. We could not believe our eyes when the "packet" came in the mail from Carnegie Mellon with the envelope labeled "THE OFFICIAL FAT LETTER!" Yes, he had some good qualifications, but he could have easily been missed in the shuffle, possibly with a mediocre essay, missed deadlines, and possibly poor choice of schools, if it weren't for her help! Not to mention crying and tearing our hair for months from the frustration (which we went through with his older sister, when we didn't know Dara the college application guardian angel was out there!) Our son is now happily a Sophomore at Carnegie Mellon studying Statistics and Machine Learning (how cool is that?), and making tons of friends and loving every moment of his college life! We can never THANK you enough Dara! Work with Dara Kornblatt, you will NOT be sorry! The Oh Family from Haworth, NJ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Working with Katherine was a great experience from start to finish. From our first conversation, it was clear she knew what she was doing and could adapt her approach to fit the needs of our son. She was approachable, professional, and struck just the right balance between including us and working independently with our son. Our son genuinely enjoyed working with her, and they quickly figured out what kind of support he needed. Katherine used their time efficiently and kept us in the loop without overwhelming us with details. Her support ended up being much more affordable than what we had been quoted by other consultants. Most importantly, the results were excellent. Lucas was accepted to a higher percentage of schools than we expected, including many of his dream schools, something we absolutely credit to Katherine's guidance and support. We highly recommend her. —Parent of high school senior ___________________________________________________________________________________ Deb is excellent. She knows her material and is able to guide my daughter in the right direction when it comes to reviewing and selecting colleges to apply to. I highly recommend Deb; she is patient and knows the right questions to ask when assessing the situation. Highly recommend her. Fern Parker _________________________________________________________________________________________ We were recommended to Dara when we realized our daughter’s (she was a senior) private school was failing her in her quest for an appropriate school. We knew we were a little behind the eight ball when got to Dara, but she quickly put us, and most importantly our daughter, to ease and got her right to work. She turned what was quickly devolving into a majorly stressful time in our life, into a positive, empowering milestone four daughter. Our daughter got into all the schools she applied for, a tribute to Dara’s skill at evaluating the person she has in front of her, and is now able to enjoy the rest of her senior year. Dara’s communications with us (the parents) was timely, thorough and encouraging. She kept a perfect balance of directing our daughter to the work she had to do, and letting us know what the plan was. In the end our daughter is very excited about her future and knows she did all the work she needed to make the best decision for herself. Travis R. _________________________________________________________________________________________ We are so happy that we decided to work with Katherine -- it was truly a worthwhile investment! My daughter thought she had it all together with her list, essays, and applications and was initially reluctant to work with someone; we didn't start working with Katherine until summer before senior year. But there were some open ended questions she did not know the answer to or was unsure how certain topics would be received, etc. So, we decided to work with Katherine so that she would have someone unbiased to bounce ideas off of, get input from, and keep her on task/deadlines. But working with Katherine turned about to be so much more. My daughter loved having Katherine as a resource and to discuss ideas/strategies with and obtain her extremely helpful edits and guidance on her essays. We were so impressed with how organized Katherine kept everything for my daughter and kept moving her along -- especially at times when she doubted herself. Katherine was also extremely economical with our time -- they would meet and often work offline exchanging drafts and edits in between meetings keeping the time they met more productive as well as financially reasonable. And Katherine was always quickly responsive to any questions I had about the process as well. After all of the work they put in together, my daughter got into 12 out of the 13 schools she applied to, often with Honors Colleges and merit money. More importantly, she got into her dream school and program along with a few other surprises! She turned to me the other day and said, "I'm so happy I worked with Katherine and hope she is still doing this work when it's [my brother's] turn to apply." Thanks to Katherine for everything! |