About Me
Melissa Amaral's fascination with the ancient Maya began in elementary school after watching a documentary on archaeologist Dave Stuart — a passion she pursued as an undergraduate at Brown University, concentrating in Anthropology and Old World Art and Archaeology and eventually meeting Professor Stuart himself at a conference she attended as a graduate student.
After Brown, Melissa worked as a college advisor for two nonprofits, helping students apply to college, editing essays, teaching SAT prep, and leading family workshops — work that revealed her love of one-on-one student mentoring. She earned her master's in College Student Affairs at Rutgers, where she interned at the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, taught a mentoring program matching Rutgers students with local high schoolers, and later worked as an admission reader at Princeton, reading roughly 2,000 undergraduate applications over three years. She went on to become Assistant Dean at Rutgers' SAS Transfer Center, rewriting curriculum and pioneering virtual course design during the pandemic, before moving fully into coaching high school students on their admission essays and resumes. In her spare time, she teaches courses on ancient art and archaeology, performs on stage, and plays the mountain dulcimer.
Specialty Areas
Students Enrolled
Meet with
Melissa
Experience: Less than 6 years
Campus tours: 3 to 5 / year
Education:
Master's degree M.Ed., College Student Affairs Rutgers University
Packages offered
Hourly Services offered