About five years ago I first heard of Life Coaching when my wife, Amois, overheard a woman talking about it and a workshop she was giving. Amois became inspired and enrolled in a training program. At the time I was teaching high school Latin. As I learned more about the concepts, I decided to enroll in the training myself. (You can visit Amois's site here.)

I remember sitting in the Life Coaching course wondering, "Why did it take so long for me to learn this stuff?" and "What if every high schooler could learn how to apply these skills?"

I quickly realized I could add tremendous value to high school students by developing programs designed to give them cutting-edge concepts of personal excellence, communication, and leadership.

I started integrating the concepts in my teaching style. I started taking private clients. I started giving workshops. I developed a 10-session course that targets the most essential concepts and skills students need but aren't normally taught.

The reaction was immediate: students loved to learn these skills. It wasn't long before I realized that my clients were not only doing better in school and performing better on the field, but they were also getting into their colleges of choice and getting good financial packages.

Over the past three years, I've worked with over a hundred students and given approximately eighty workshops. I know the program and the concepts work. I've seen tremendous results. And I have a vision that every high school student will someday be required to receive basic training in these skills.

I graduated from Brown University in 2003 with a degree in Classics and taught middle and high school Latin for 6 years. I became a certified coach (CPCC) through The Coaches Training Institute based in San Rafael, California. While teaching at St. Mary's School in southern Oregon, I developed the ten session curriculum and coaching techniques specifically tailored to middle and high school students. In September 2008 I moved to Portland, Oregon. I am blessed with a beautiful wife, Amois, a 2 year old daughter, Paloma (who has nicknamed herself "Nezzie"), another baby due January 2010, and a chocolate brown mini-daschund named Ninja.

Gina Halsted brings years of business, educational and coaching experience to Academic Leadership Consulting. She focuses this knowledge to help students build a strong foundation for success in navigating high school and beyond.

After graduating from Tufts University with a degree in Psychology, Gina spent nearly twenty years with IBM in a career of sales and marketing management. She left the corporate world to spend more time with her children, which led to a curiosity about education, learning styles and the impact of diversity in schools.

Pursuing this interest, Gina earned a master's degree in Education from Harvard University and completed an extensive coach's training program with The Coachs' Training Institute. Gina is a member of the International Coach Federation.

Gina lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons, who are 17 and 16. She enjoys cooking, gardening and skiing and has never seen an antique home she didn't love.

Rawan Albina was born in Lebanese, raised in the Middle East, and has soaked-in the cultural diversity and richness of the region. She holds a BA in Business Administration is proficient in 3 languages, Arabic, French and English. Through numerous activities she has nurtured many talents that have enriched the person she is today.

Rawan graduated with a BA in Business Administration from Haigazian University, an American university in Beirut, Lebanon. During her career, she has worked with multinationals Tetra Pak and Nestle for 10 years after which she decided to take the Leap and do what she loves best: working with people to help them make the changes they want in order to create a truly fulfilling life that they love.

Today, Rawan is a CPCC (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) certified and accredited by the Coaches Training Institute and the International Coach Federation. She has so far worked with individuals on work-life balance issues, personal growth as well as their health and wellness. She is also a mentor for other coaches who are looking to start their own coaching business. She is the owner and director of Leap Coaching and Consultancy in Dubai, UAE and has, throughout her coaching career, worked with clients from many different backgrounds and cultures, 18 different nationalities to be exact and has over 400 hours of coaching experience.

Rawan is also a licensed college consultant with Academic Leadership Consulting and Ivy League Coaches in the USA. She works with teenagers to help them understand their personality and that of others; create structure around their life and studies and basically acquire the life skills they need to succeed later in life.

Rawan is married and is the proud mother of 2-year old Matteo. She lives with her family in Dubai.

Stephanie has an innate desire to help others - she is compassionate and intuitively understands a person's needs in order to assist them. She previously worked as director of special events at The Sports Club/LA and as a producer in the entertainment industry, but all the while, she felt called to make an impact on the youth. Throughout her whole life, she has devoted much of her time volunteering to work with at-risk youth foster kids where she works with children who are challenged and have a desire to overcome their circumstances. Now Stephanie has made the shift to placing her focus on coaching teens to provide them with the tools and essential skills to powerfully and effectively navigate through the journey of life.

Stephanie has a gift to uncover what motivates and inspires people to succeed. She listens intently without judgment and has a natural ability to encourage and motivate people. She gets immense satisfaction from seeing people achieve their goals in a coaching partnership and ascribes to the thought of "You must be the change you want to see in the world." One of her objectives is to help others find "the truth within," which will enable them to live the fulfilled lives they seek.

Stephanie has been training in the personal development field for over 5 years and she completed her life coaching education with the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, CA, the first school accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF). She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with a minor in economics from U.C. Berkeley. Stephanie graduated Summa Cum Laude and is a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society. In her free time, Stephanie loves to dance, does photography as a serious hobby, enjoys reading and has a passion for adventure! Her coaching colleagues have coined her "The Possibility Expert" - she sees possibility for everyone even when they can't see it (just yet) for themselves.

Monica Cobis ties her B.S. in Recreation and MEd in Educational Leadership, as well as her coaching facilitation process in a dynamic and engaging manner to build future global leaders. She has worked in non-profit management, government, Fortune 500 companies and as a University instructor. She has lived in Greece, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and throughout the United States.

She also owns and operates her own walking tour company, Southern Odysseys. Her desire is to catapult students into reaching their academic dreams in an effective and efficient manner.

Wayne was born in Oxfordshire, England, and was educated overseas. He came to the United States at 17 and graduated from Southern Oregon University in 1995 with a Masters Degree in Teaching. After teaching for 12 years, he left education to work with a Las Vegas based corporate leadership training company coaching individuals to personal effectiveness.

From this experience he discovered that his purpose is to be a powerful agent of change, teaching and empowering individuals to take responsibility and action for their lives, helping them cross the chasm of where they are to where they want to be.

Wayne is in the process of facilitating the Personal Effectiveness Seminar for WINGS Seminars based in Eugene, Oregon, and is currently working on his Masters in Administration from Concordia University. His plans are to help teachers and administrators incorporate the vast amount of knowledge on learning styles and emotional intelligence into their school culture. After years in public education, Wayne has a unique understanding of what students need to succeed in our ever changing world.

Wayne resides in Medford, Oregon, with his beautiful wife Tiffany, his only son, Connor, and 4 little girls- Mallaig, Baelian, Kintyre, and Rannoch.

As a Geology Graduate Banan understand and knows the challenges and what it means to take an academic choice out of passion as she is very passionate about nature, the environment and how all things part of a cycle and a journey to a destination. With 7 years experience at working with children and parents in child development centers in Dubai the UAE, she has had a number of training courses in different child development aspects (physical and emotional) and the challenges the parents might come across raising their children.

In 2008 and as part of the constant interaction with parents and children, she started to take coactive life coaching courses as she felt a need to have some tools to be able to aid parents to find their answers and the way to be as the best parent they are.

2010: Now as a certified co-active coach (CPCC) certified and accredited by the Coaches Training Institute, John's Program is the perfect combination of coaching and empowerment as well as lots of tools to enhance and accelerate the academic awareness to the people who need them the most (TEENAGERS).

Banan is Jordanian, lives in Dubai with her 4 year old son and her husband.

College admissions can be a baffling, frustrating, even scary experience. It can also be empowering, educational, even fun. Independent college consultant Justin Carroll seeks to demystify the college admissions process and empower students to craft successful applications with confidence. Justin's experience as a former Assistant Director Admissions for Brown University, combined with his extensive professional writing and public speaking experience, bring a fresh perspective to the college application process.

Justin's goal is twofold: to help students craft authentic, compelling applications they can be proud of, and to help them do it in a creative, calm, angst-free manner. By teaching students how to think about the college process, how to prioritize, and how to improve their writing, Justin empowers students to control what they can control, let the rest go, and present themselves in a true and professional way.

Since graduating from Brown with a B.A. in English Literature, Honors in Creative Writing, and extensive coursework in drama and performance, Justin has served as a college consultant; freelance professional writer; tutor; grant writer; and web content developer. Persuasive writing and communication is his specialty.

As Assistant Director of Admissions at Brown, Justin read thousands of applications, wrote thousands of reports on applications, interviewed hundreds of students, and gave countless presentations on Brown and the application process.

Perhaps most importantly, Justin seeks to make the college admission process a valuable life experience for students. Even in college admissions, it's the journey, not the destination.

Justin lives in Portland, OR with his wife and young daughter. He is also an award-winning singer-songwriter performing as Justin Jude.

Sheeba Varghese is Founder and President of Defining Moments 365, a coaching consultancy dedicated to empowering individuals so they can transform the challenges and obstacles in their lives into defining moments of positive growth and change.

A Certified Life and Career Coach, Sheeba brings more than 15 years experience working with women and students to her coaching, including more than seven years as a certified K-12 teacher. An accomplished speaker and Women's Ministry Leader, Sheeba has organized and managed numerous women's spiritual retreats, facilitated women's workshops, and delivered powerful presentations, including "Grace" and "Me, Offended?" Using the gifts that made her an exceptional teacher - intelligence, strength, compassion and intuition combined with a wisdom that springs from a spiritual foundation - Sheeba helps clients to find the clarity they need to shift their focus from obstacles to possibilities, from dreams to opportunities. And she holds them accountable so they see the results they desire.

Sheeba's journey to coaching began many years ago in New Delhi, India, where she was born. Fluent in both English and Malayalam (a south Indian dialect), Sheeba immigrated to the United States as a young child and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. An oldest child, Sheeba emerged into a natural leader and nurturer, possessing a quiet determination to succeed and overcome any obstacles that kept her from attaining her goals.

Two stories of how Sheeba's determination and strength paid off in her student years are particularly notable. The first was when Sheeba moved to a new county and had to change schools. Struggling with a new curriculum, she fell behind in mathematics, at one point throwing her textbook across the room in frustration. Refusing to be beaten, she entered university and began taking Pre-Calculus classes, eventually majoring in mathematics and returning to her high school to complete her student teaching in the Mathematics Department. The second story was of her determination to pay her college tuition and expenses on her own, alleviating any pressure on her hard-working parents. With a stealthy diligence, she frequently visited the Guidance Counselor's office to check on available scholarships. Her focus and determination paid off, resulting in her receiving not only one, but three undergraduate scholarships, namely a National Merit Scholarship, a Delegate Scholarship, a four-year Silver Spring Women's Club Scholarship.

Years later, after successfully completing her undergraduate degree, as well as earning a Residential Planning Diploma from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Sheeba began teaching high school mathematics and married the love of her life. Moving from Maryland to northern New Jersey, she continued teaching for several years, working more directly with students to set and achieve goals both inside and outside the classroom through measurable small steps. Through her teaching, Sheeba was able to see the positive influence of her measured approach on the lives of her students, many of whom she still hears from today.

When Sheeba was graced with the birth of her first son, she left teaching to be a stay-at-home mother. Not long after, her mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer and Sheeba began to travel regularly from New Jersey to Maryland to care for her mother in her final days. Sheeba also experienced the loss of her father not long afterwards due to heart complications. The deaths of both parents in such a short period of time, as well as the birth of her second son, were life-changing experiences for Sheeba. She began looking for deeper meaning and purpose in her life. As an active volunteer at her church and children's schools, Sheeba emerged as a go-to sage, speaking at women's retreats and advising students on post-secondary education possibilities. From this involvement and her years of teaching, she identified one of her life's purpose - coaching - and Defining Moments 365 was born.

Sheeba is a member of the International Coach Federation and the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW). She holds a dual Bachelor's of Science degree in Mathematics and Secondary Education from the University of Maryland at College Park. She received her Coaching certification through the Life Purpose Institute (LPI) and recently served as an Assistant Trainer for an LPI Coach Training program conducted in New York City. She is a four-time recipient of the Who's Who Among American Teachers Award. In addition, Sheeba is an active volunteer in her sons' school, sponsors a female student in Bolivia through Compassion International, supports charitable causes in Kosovo, Benin, West Africa, and India. She also regularly provides support to local programs that provide meals for the homeless.

When not coaching clients, Sheeba enjoys song-writing, time with her family, traveling, tutoring, doing voice-over work, and decorating. Currently, she lives with her husband and two sons in Warren, NJ.

Cheryl Breining has been a guidance counselor and teacher in a public school system for over 30 years. She is a Coaches Training Institute's Certified Life Coach, an Edge Foundation Life Coach, an ADHD and Parent Life Coach. She has created and implemented community based programs for Parents of ADHD Children, Teacher's of ADHD Children, and Parenting Effectiveness. Her background as a guidance counselor and life coach has inspired her to create Organizational, Study Skills, Learning Styles, Reading, Values Clarification, Career and College Workshops.

She has coached and counseled individuals through divorce, job loss, depression, addiction and death and dying issues. She holds a Masters Degree in counseling from Hofstra University, a Masters Degree in School Psychology from St. John's University, and a Masters in Social Work from Adelphi University.

Cheryl resides in Miller Place with her husband and two children.