About Us
Mentor Path is committed to helping students achieve their dreams. We’re a diverse team of immigrants, engineers, counselors, teachers, admissions officers, and entrepreneurs. We come from different cultural backgrounds – some of us were the first in our families to attend college in the US, and have personally experienced college and career success at selective institutions.
Our broader team of mentors consist of expert counselors, former admissions officers, and dedicated professionals across professions such as business, medicine, engineering, computer science, academia, and law.
Leadership Team
Changxiao Xie
Executive Director
Gelyna Price
Director of Operations
Connie Livingston
Head of Counseling Programs
Changxiao Xie
Executive Director
Changxiao helps high-performing students get accepted to top universities. Changxiao immigrated to the United States from China when he was 3 years old and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in a family of 5 and his father worked as a graduate student and college professor, and was the first person in his family to attend undergrad in the United States. In high school, Changxiao participated in scientific research with professors, earning awards up to the international level (National Science Bowl, Science UI, Alamo Regional Science & Engineering Fair, Exxon Mobil State Science Fair, Intel ISEF). He also competed in varsity swimming and water polo, performed as a violist, played piano at Carnegie Hall, and graduated valedictorian. He was accepted EA to Princeton on full financial aid, and he graduated with high honors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked in ML at Facebook and trading on Wall Street before dedicating his full time to college counseling.
Gelyna Price
Director of Operations
Gelyna studied Science, Technology & Society with a concentration in Life Sciences & Biotechnology at Stanford. She also holds a Notation in Science Communication. She is an experienced college counselor who has helped students gain admission to Stanford, Ivy League universities, and UCs. She is a former Stanford admissions alumni interviewer. Her specialties are interview preparation, essay editing, and essay topic brainstorming.
Connie Livingston
Head of Counseling Programs
Before joining Empowerly as Head of Counselors, Connie worked in Brown University’s Office of College Admission for 14 years handling all facets of the admission process — from reading applications and making admission decisions to serving as the liaison to the Medical School and Brown’s eight-year PLME, the Program in Liberal Medical Education. She has extensive experience as an Admission Officer and Assistant Director of Admission at Brown. Connie is dedicated to building relationships with students and families, helping students find their academic passions, and assisting students in creating the best possible essays and applications to help them stand out in the admission process. Her students have been accepted to Brown, Cornell, Emory, Georgetown, UC Berkeley, and other top universities.
Denard Jones
Lead Counselor
Before joining Empowerly as a Lead Counselor, Denard worked as an Associate Director of Admissions at multiple universities for the first decade of his career. He was a Summer Program Director at Duke University and spent eight years as a college counselor at two prominent independent high schools. He prides himself on providing perspective, knowledge, and humor to the application process and has experience working with hundreds of students in all areas of interest including STEM, Computer Science, Business, and the Humanities. His students have been accepted to Stanford, Brown, Yale, Duke, and Georgetown, among other top universities.
Quincy Jones
Lead Counselor
Quincy is an Empowerly Lead Counselor who served as the Assistant Director of Admissions at UC Berkeley’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions for 9 years. In this role, he was making admissions decisions for roughly 2,000 students annually. Having graduated from UC Berkeley, Quincy presents information at National Admissions Conferences, and he is passionate about helping his students create a strong narrative in their applications that helps to differentiate them from their peers.
Eli Epstein-Deutch
Lead Counselor
Before joining Empowerly as a Lead Counselor, Eli was the Director of a boutique admissions consultancy in Midtown Manhattan. Since graduating from Swarthmore and Yale University, he has been a private admissions coach for over 12 years, helping ambitious students around the world attend schools like Stanford, Yale, University of Chicago, and Brown. He specializes in Business, Computer Science, Biology, Pre-Med, and Fine Arts applicants, and has worked as a curator and editor for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
Our Mentors
Ronnie
Ronnie went to Brown University where he majored in East Asian Studies. Later, Ronnie received an offer from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University but pivoted to a career in education during his gap year, ultimately earning his MA degree from USC in Secondary Education. For the past 10 years, Ronnie has been working as a college consultant helping over 400 students achieve their college dreams, including acceptances from Top10 universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, JHU, and Northwestern. He is a talented counselor and fluent in Mandarin.
Shahrukh
Shahrukh received his BA from Johns Hopkins and holds two separate MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School. He began working in college admissions consulting over a decade ago and has advised students interested in STEM, CS, pre-law, business, BS/MD, and humanities. He has experience with international students and athletes being recruited. He has helped students gain admission to Stanford, Harvard, MIT Sloan, UChicago, NYU, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Yale, Dartmouth, Duke, UMiami, UC Berkeley, and more. Shahrukh has published research papers and is a former editor with a passion for telling stories and years of experience writing, public speaking, interview prep, and editing others’ work. He is a father of two and resides with his beautiful wife between Toronto & Boca Raton, Florida. A talented linguist, Shahrukh speaks English, French, Urdu and Hindi, and Punjabi, and is currently gaining proficiency in Mandarin.
Robert
Rob is an experienced mentor who has helped hundreds of students from high school through hospital residency. He was valedictorian of a competitive 350-person Northeast high school and attended UPenn’s six-year Bio-Dental Program. Rob was a UPenn interviewer and a member of the VCU Office of Admissions, as well as a graduate of the University of California, Riverside’s College Admissions Counseling program. Rob’s enthusiasm for higher learning extends to sports, where he writes about Ivy League basketball for Ivy Hoops Online. Rob is an empathetic, detailed professional who helps students highlight their special qualities to create dynamic applications and find their best-fit schools for life-long success. His students have earned acceptances to a range of schools including Yale, Dartmouth, JHU, UC-Berkeley and Washington University in St. Louis, among others.
Francisco
Francisco is a Harvard graduate with a degree in Psychology. A passionate and dedicated coach, he has over ten years of experience mentoring, tutoring, and advising students and understands the importance of a well-rounded, thoughtful college application. Francisco has vast experience working with students interested in STEM fields, particularly in medicine, nursing, and biology. He also has experience with students interested in humanities, such as business, law, and economics. He loves working with students on building the perfect college list, collaborating on strong admission essays that stand out, and fostering confidence. He believes every student has a unique story to tell, and his favorite time with students is working on writing compelling and passionate college essays. Francisco’s students have been accepted to schools including Harvard, the UCs, Stanford, USC, Pomona, Tufts, and many more.
Victor
Maame
Maame graduated from NYU with a degree in Urban Planning, the London School of Economics with a MSc, and is currently a doctoral student at Cornell. Over the 8 years that she has been editing essays and coaching students, she has developed a keen sense of the admission process and has guided students to get accepted into schools like Columbia and Johns Hopkins. She has worked with students primarily interested in the humanities and has expertise in time-management and study skills, speech and debate, and writing. Last application cycle, one of her students was accepted to Stanford and one to Cornell!
Elizabeth
Elizabeth began her career helping families with the college admissions process in 2009 after working for two decades as a successful marketer for Fortune 500 companies. Elizabeth’s the ONLY private college admissions consultant quoted in US News and World Report 2018 Best Graduate Schools. Other media outlets include The Chicago Tribune, The Sacramento Bee, The New York Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo News, CareerBuilder.com, MSN Careers, and LA Parent. She is also the author of the book for college admissions called “Tiger Mom Wisdom – U.S. College Admissions Success Through Creativity, Character, and Community.” Elizabeth has worked with over 1000 students interested in STEM, Business, Performing Arts, and Grad school. Elizabeth brings clarity and vision to families with college-bound teens, providing parents with real solutions so they and their teens are in control over their own destinies with college and their careers. Her expertise has helped grateful parents and teens gain admittance into prestigious schools such as all of the UCs, Boston College, Brown, USC, Harvey Mudd, Columbia, NYU, and many more.
Jennifer
Katharine
And 100+ More