Your Crew for the Journey Ahead
Our crew is small by design, so we can offer the kind of personal, attentive guidance that helps students feel truly seen. Great advising begins with genuine connection: we lead with empathy, speak with honesty and integrity, and help each student chart an authentic course throughout their transformational admissions journey.
Meet The Crew
Jessica Chermak | Founder & College Counselor
Jessica Chermak has over a decade of experience in academia and helping students navigate the college admissions process. She also spent over four years conducting research at University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science, and the prior two years working as an Operations Research Analyst for the US Army at the TRADOC Analysis Center, in White Sands Missile Range, NM.
Jessica graduated from Chapman University with a BA in Psychology and minors in Sociology, Anthropology, English, and Honors. At Chapman, she was a research assistant in the Cognitive Science Laboratory, studying hemisphere differences in processing emotional language. She was also a founding member of the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Board and the Honors Organizational Board of Students, and an active member in Mortarboard Honor Society and Hillel. Upon graduation, Jessica was awarded the SMART Scholarship (Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation) to attend the University of Denver for an MA in Forensic Psychology.
Jessica is a Certified Educational Planner (CEP), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). Jessica is also a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the Rocky Mountain Association for College Admission Counseling (RMACAC), and is a past board member and current active member of the College Consultants of Colorado (CCC).
At present, Jessica serves on IECA’s Board of Directors. Within IECA, she also has served as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Business Practices Committee, and as an active member of both the Education and Training and Membership Committees. She continues to be an active member of the Government Relations Committee and chairs the Advocacy Day Planning Committee, spearheading IECA’s congressional lobbying efforts for improved higher education legislation around college cost transparency. In addition to those roles, she spent several years co-hosting monthly College Conversations for IECA that focused on Engineering and Computer Science institutions and helped develop the Business Growth Institute.
In addition to being an independent college counselor, Jessica also serves as a College & Career Counselor for Palo Alto based Living Wisdom High School.
Tracey King | College Counselor
For over 15 years, Tracey served as a classroom teacher, working alongside families to support students through some of the most formative transitions in their academic lives. That experience — understanding how young people learn, grow, and adapt to new environments — became the foundation for her work today as an independent education consultant.
Tracey holds a BA in Speech, Language and Hearing Science from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master's in Elementary Education from Regis University. These degrees, paired with over a decade in the classroom, gave her a deep, practical understanding of how students think, learn, and thrive — insight she now brings directly into the college counseling process.
Guiding a family through the college transition requires more than knowledge of applications and admissions timelines. It calls for patience, genuine care, and the ability to prepare a young person for a level of independence they haven't yet experienced. These are the same qualities that shaped Tracey's years in education, and they remain at the heart of how she works with families today — helping students feel confident and prepared, and helping parents navigate the process with clarity and peace of mind.
Tracey is a licensed teacher and a member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). She is also currently pursuing certification through the University of California, Irvine's program for Independent Educational Consultants, furthering her commitment to providing families with the highest standard of guidance through the college admissions journey.
Sam Bergeron | Essay Specialist
Sam Bergeron is a writing specialist with a deep passion for authentic stories. As a writer, he attended Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts, and there followed his passions for poetry, songwriting, and the craft of storytelling. This work was ultimately showcased in a large-scale thesis project, which took the form of a memoir about growing up queer in Texas.
While in college, he was given the opportunity to speak on a panel for the Independent Educational Consultants Association about his experience as a queer student, and provide advice for counselors hoping to be more supportive of their LGBTQIA+ student populations. He also presented about protecting transgender students in the admissions process at national conferences for the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC), the Texas Association of College Admissions Counselors (TACAC), and the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).
After graduating with a BA in Creative Writing from Hampshire College, in the pursuit of helping students around the country find their best-fit school, Sam began working for Hampshire as Assistant Director of Admissions, with the role of recruiting applicants and reviewing applications.
With both admissions experience and an expert perspective on personal writing, Sam’s expertise lies in revising admissions essays and helping students more effectively illustrate their values, life experiences, future goals, and authentic selves in their writing.