Diamond Minds LLC is a college consulting business that helps Chicago-area students and families find and apply to great colleges that fit their budgetary, professional, academic, and social needs and goals, by providing individual comprehensive college counseling packages, free community workshops and info sessions, and tailored school visits.
About Dr. Lucy
I bring to this work my excellent research, writing, and pedagogical skills, as well as my rich personal and professional experience with a wide variety of institutions of higher learning. I have taught courses at the University of Chicago, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Michigan, Heidelberg University, Cleveland State University, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. College of DuPage, and South Louisiana Community College. As a student, I have attended Smith College, where I began my undergraduate studies, Washington University in St. Louis, where I transferred after my freshman year, George Mason University, where I received my MFA in creative writing, and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, where I earned a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in writing. I am currently completing a Professional Certificate in College Counseling through the University of California-Berkeley.
For the past three years, I have taught a course housed at the University of Chicago for low-income, high-achieving Chicago Public Schools students, many of whom are first-generation college students. This course, called College Countdown, guides students through the college application process. I also teach first-year college writing at College of DuPage, helping students build the skills they need to excel in college writing, critical thinking, and research. Additionally, I teach in an Illinois Humanities program that delivers undergraduate humanities education to Chicagoans living below the poverty line.
My unusually broad experience at U.S. colleges and universities has equipped me with a comprehensive understanding of what different kinds of colleges offer, how to excel at a college, and how to select a college that supports a student’s strengths, goals, and learning style.
What students say
“I would not have gotten into Harvard without you. Thank you so much again for all of your help. It will stay with me in all the writing I do in college and beyond!” — M.L., Harvard ’29
“I just wanted to say thank you for all your guidance through this journey. I truly truly truly cannot express my gratitude.” — L.A., Yale ’30
“I appreciate your assistance with narrowing down topics and polishing my college essays. I am excited to enter Florida State in the fall!” — S.S., FSU ’30
“Thank you does not adequately convey my gratitude.” — J.S., College of DuPage ’27
My Philosophy
My college teaching career informs my college counseling work. I have taught first-year college writing for a decade, at many different types of colleges, from highly selective institutions like Case Western Reserve University and the University of Michigan, to a regional small liberal arts college, to community colleges. “College” is not just a word to me, a name to be achieved. Students who work with me prepare for the life they’re going to have for four years, the intellectual, professional, social, and academic growth they’ll achieve, and the impact these experiences will have on them going forward.
My students learn to identify and clearly articulate their goals. They practice college-level writing, communication, research, academic inquiry, and critical thinking. This is college readiness, and I work with students to achieve it.
Applying to college is a major logistical, organizational, academic project. It is also a creative, writing-centered project. I bring to the more creative aspects of this work countless creative prompts, methods, and tactics I have used in my own writing practice, as a prize-winning poet, novelist, and literary scholar. I have published pieces in more than 100 literary and scholarly journals and my novella The Walmart Book of the Dead won the Vine Leaves Press Award and was a Finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year.
