Stylus Tutors was founded by three graduates of the Master’s writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. As writers who value the intense discipline and discretion involved in achieving proficient writing skills, we were consistently disenchanted by the limits of teaching within the rigorously structured environment of the classroom – be it a course offered by a university, test-prep company, or non-profit organization. Drawing on our experience from all these sites, we have tailored a new kind of instruction. Instead of catering to a mass, we nurture the individual. Instead of homogenized test strategies, we teach the material itself for long-term utilization. Instead of dated, textbook exercises, we craft our own progressive drills that advance material memory and concentration. We do this with the understanding that students are not robots; that supplying a student with a well-balanced regimen of information, technique and supplementary reading by preeminent writers will lead to the best results.

We chose to name our company Stylus to affirm the importance of writing in any endeavor, whether it be acing the SAT, gaining acceptance to your dream college, or communicating effectively with friends, instructors, or colleagues. Our goal is to provide each student with a stylus—the tool with which to carve an indelible impression upon the world.

Founders

Allie Bach graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College with a degree in English Literature. For her senior thesis, she produced a full-length short story collection while working with authors Kathryn Kramer and Daphne Kalotay. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied with Joshua Henkin, Lucy Rosenthal and Joan Silber. She has taught SAT classes for a test-prep company in Queens and privately advises high school juniors and seniors in preparing their college applications. Her clients have been accepted to Barnard, Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, M.I.T., Mount Holyoke, and Tufts, among others. She is currently writing a collection of short stories.

Now Reading: Last Orders by Graham Swift

Claire Campbell graduated with honors from Southwestern University with a dual-degree in English and Anthropology. She went on to receive her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied with poet Vijay Sheshadri, novelist Rachel Cohen, and professor of Environmental Studies, Charles Zerner. Claire teaches family literacy workshops through Learning Leaders and has recently been accepted to a writer’s residency at the Ox-Bow School of Art.

Now Reading: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Se Kim has been a private tutor since 2001. Her clients have been admitted to Stanford, Princeton, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, and New York University, to name a few. She worked in New York publishing as a book scout after graduating with honors in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. During her undergraduate period, she studied Medieval Literature abroad at Oxford University on scholarship. In 2006, she received her M.F.A. in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, where she was mentored by Stephen Dobyns, Marie Howe, Thomas Lux, and Suzanne Gardinier. She is working on a collection of poems.

Now reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond