Education is a primary interest and focus of our family. I am a single parent of a son and a daughter. Our cultural background is rich and diverse: my heritage includes Armenian from Turkey and Jewish from Spain, and my children are half Japanese. Learning and exploring is a way of life for us. We lived on three different continents during my children’s middle and high school years, but NYC has always been our base and most desired home.

My children and I navigated many academic pathways, and my children attended many different kinds of schools: public gifted and talented programs, magnet schools, Hunter College Elementary School (for gifted students), and top private high schools, such as The Brearley School. I believe that learning is not achieved in a capsule. On the contrary, it is an ongoing dialogue between parents, children and the world we all live in. Both my children have learning differences, including ADHD and dyslexia. On a few occasions, I was told by their respective schools at the time to seek less rigorous educations for both of them. However, I followed my instinct and supported them in staying in the challenging schools they preferred. My son not only graduated Stuyvesant with honors, but he earned a master’s degree in physics with a 4.0 GPA and is currently in medical school. My daughter was told she wouldn’t get into her "dream" college, Swarthmore, because she had two B's on her transcript, but she did get accepted. Follow your instincts. You, as a parent, know your child the best. One thing that life has taught me about the college process is that anything is possible. The college admission process is tricky, but it is not as black and white as it appears. It is a bumpy road, but so is life.

Looking back at the college admissions process, I believe that volunteer work is critical, and not just the minimum hours required by a school. A student needs to show commitment, dedication and wholehearted compassion that highlights the social awareness of the student. As a family, we dived into research - from the arts and museum programs, sports /swimming and table tennis, or the sciences and learning about stem cell and INTEL. My children and I dove into researching quality extracurricular programs that covered so many areas: arts and museum programs; science contests (Intel) and programs involving stem cells; and sports programs in swimming and table tennis.

My own education is quite diverse, and includes: International Relations/Economics-MS-Higher Institute of Economics - Sofia, Bulgaria, London School Of Economics, and programs at various US and Japanese universities. I’ve also gained a lot of experience in helping students with learning differences navigate the educational system. Since my children learn differently, we had to find various tools to help them succeed in school. We never considered medication or therapy. For us, it was all based on self-realization, exposure, owning the issue, and finding a solution.

Over 20 years later, education continues to be a way of life. There is not one answer as each student carves his own way towards getting into his "dream" college. I do believe that our family’s experiences of being told numerous times to change the college lists and to lower our expectations has made us even more determined to follow our instincts and persevere. The road’s been bumpy, but we all are getting to our final destinations.