SHEELA
Education
Holmdel High School, Holmdel, NJ USA
Brown University
BA in English Literature
The New School
MFA in Creative Writing
Teaching and tutoring experience
As a high school student, Sheela achieved a 1590 on the SAT (pre-2005, when the highest possible score was 1600, not 2200). Her score breakdown was 800 in Verbal and 790 in Math. Sheela has also scored highly on SAT II Writing (800 out of 800) and SAT II Biology (790 out of 800). Afterwards, she graduated from Brown University, with honors, in English Literature. While there, Sheela also received the university's Betsy A. Lehman Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her grade point average at Brown (on a scale of 0-4, was about 3.9).
While completing her MFA in Creative Writing at The New School, Sheela was one of six students in the course whom professors selected for the Riggio Honors Program teaching fellowship. As a teaching fellow, she taught essay writing and storytelling skills to undergraduates in seminars. She also worked one-on-one with students, helping them realize their own ideas for nonfiction essays or short stories. While she was an MFA student, Sheela also gave private tutoring sessions to teenagers who needed to prep for SAT/ACT exams. After completing her MFA, she moved to Florence, Italy, for two years, where she continued to tutor privately, mostly helping Italian students improve their English skills and prepare to apply to schools or universities in the US or the UK. Most recently, after moving to London in 2014, Sheela has started to work with students one-on-one in various ways: helping them prepare for entry to top-level US universities (SAT/ACT test prep, applications counseling, etc), helping them prepare for entry to UK or US secondary schools (prep for entrance exams/SSAT), helping them with writing/English/history-related homework, or helping them enjoy writing and expand their creative ability.
Additional information
In the past Sheela has also worked as a freelance writer. Her essays and reportage have been featured in publications such as British Vogue, Art in America, Forbes, The Indian Quarterly, The Boston Globe, arratively.co and others. Sheela is now focusing her creative energies on writing original music - she sings and plays the guitar.
As someone who has gone through the process of applying and being accepted to several top-level U.S. universities, Sheela has an insider's understanding of the kinds of candidates these universities accept, and would be especially suited to advising students interested in these schools on how to write a standout application essay, how to add qualifications to their CV that will appeal to American universities, etc.