15 years ago, I walked into my USC merit scholarship interview, my shoulders barely filling the first suit jacket I’d ever owned. With nothing to lose (as my family still couldn’t afford the half-tuition package on offer), I swung hard.

It worked. After twenty minutes of my telling grammar jokes, reading original poems, and leaving the panel with copies of said poems, I was bumped up to a full-ride. Four years later, I found myself on the other side of that same panel, evaluating a new generation of Trojan scholars.

Immediately upon graduating, I arrived at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as the first-ever dual-admit to both programs, poetry and fiction. There, I honed my craft, learning from titans in American letters and rubbing shoulders with likeminded peers.

I returned home to Los Angeles, published a couple books of poems, and joined an educational consulting firm. Over the next eight and a half years, I helped hundreds of students attain T30 acceptances and secure millions in aid.

And then my brother died.

Suddenly losing my first and best friend destroyed me. But, inspired by conversations with his ex-students, I realized the only way I could honor my brother’s legacy was to set out on my own.

The Burgess Workshop Studio provides precocious young writers the creative, EQ-driven mentorship my brother and I both lacked at their age. During virtual workshop sessions, I’ll lead small groups of students in MFA-level mentorship and community engagement, teaching them foundational skills in writing, revision, and criticism. They’ll then choose a path—indie press editor, writers’ collective director, or workshop founder—mastering literary citizenship and creating powerful but seldom-used “spikes” for their resumes and college applications.

Finally, we’ll tackle the apps themselves. We’ll start with individualized college list-building sessions, evaluating students’ candidacies and identifying “reach,” “match,” and “safety” schools. Then, in one-on-one Google Meet sessions, I’ll coach each student through their entire college application process, helping them leverage their creative works and literary projects into elite acceptances.

In my brother’s memory, it is my life’s work to support young writers—and their families—as the start of their creative journeys. Reach out today for a free consultation.

Yours,

Jackson Burgess