Barak is the founder of Essay Mentors. This is his 12th year mentoring students in the greater Seattle area and across the country. He’s the creator of our kid-tested, admissions-proven four-phase process that is now being used by schools and nonprofits coast to coast. Barak started life-after-college as an English teacher; spent five years at the US Department of Labor; and for fifteen years was a leadership, organization development and communication consultant. He had more fun running his teen leadership program at the Summit at Snoqualmie and in 2012 dropped his adult clients and put all of focus on creating Essay Mentors and making a difference in the lives of teenagers. He has a B.A. from Williams College in English and History, and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.

John Moscatiello is the founder of Marco Learning. He has been a teacher, tutor, and author since 2002. His career began at the Princeton Review, where he taught the SAT^®, ACT^®, SAT^® Subject Tests, AP^® Exams, ISEE^®, SSAT^®, SHSAT^®, GRE^®, GMAT^®, LSAT^®, MCAT^® Verbal, and TOEFL^®.  John has trained hundreds of teachers, written content for 13 test preparation books, and worked as a college admissions consultant. He starred in more than 200 educational videos for the Princeton Review’s SAT^®, ACT^®, and GRE^® self-paced courses. John’s academic career began as a Spanish major at NYU, where he used AP^® credits to graduate a full year early. He then pursued graduate degrees in history from Fordham and Notre Dame, where he taught undergraduate students. He was a Fulbright scholar to Spain in 2012. John’s academic work has been published in both English and Spanish.