We live and learn in an education system that makes it hard for us to breathe.
Maybe you’re a high school student, preparing to apply to college, and between cramming for three AP classes, trying to avoid the never-ending stream of college-rejection TikToks, and staring at a blank Personal Statement document, you’re this close to completely crashing out.
Or maybe you’re a parent/guardian wading through this process with your student, trying your best not to drown…but the noise is so loud and the deadlines are so fast that you’re slowly getting pulled into the depths with them.
If this resonates, it’s not just you. Recent research highlights how overwhelming the process of pursuing higher education is for students and families:
- 89% of high school seniors reported “moderate to severe anxiety around applying to colleges” (Inside Higher Ed, May 2025)
- Unsustainable student-counselor ratios impact students’ access to help: 1 in 5 high school juniors “never meet their school counselors,” while 17% report having “no guidance on the college search process” (Niche, June 2025)
- Nearly half of high school seniors worry about their admissions decisions (44%), the cost of college (47%), and their career prospects post-college (49%) (Art & Science Group, May 2025)
For the last eight years, I’ve seen this system from the inside – both as a high school teacher and a college advisor. I’ve helped hundreds of students discover their aspirations, tell their stories in their applications, and field the never-ending stream of questions they encounter:
- What’s a good SAT score nowadays? Is mine good enough?
- Does the 3 I got on my AP exam mean everyone’s going to laugh at my application / throw it into a bonfire / feed it to their dog?
- Is talking about my ACL surgery in my personal statement a good idea?
- Does hanging with my friends at the skateboard park count as an activity?
And the more I’ve realized how amazing my students are, the more determined I’ve grown to help them find their way through the stress and the mess.
That’s why I founded Yeoyu Education: to help students and families in the Bay Area find the peace of mind they need to pursue their educational goals. We operate with three guiding principles:
- To provide culturally competent educational advising for students and families of diverse backgrounds, creating clarity instead of confusion.
- To create the breathing room students need to practice and cultivate self-knowledge, through academic challenges and extracurricular pursuits.
- To improve access to higher education by sharing our expertise in college admissions and financial aid with both clients and the broader East Bay community.
Ultimately, our goal is to partner with young people and the adults who support them to build a better world, one where everybody has the breathing room – the yeoyu – to thrive.
We hope we’ll have the privilege of working with you during your journey!
-Mo Kim (Founder)
Yeoyu Education 