College Advising
Few college advisors in the Bay Area have sat inside the admissions offices their clients are targeting. David Lazo has. With experience at Stanford University and Vanderbilt University, and nearly two decades working across selective higher education and Bay Area independent schools, Journeys Edu brings a perspective on college admissions that is rarely available to families navigating this process on their own.
For families in Lamorinda and the broader Bay Area, this experience matters. The students coming out of Acalanes, Campolindo, Las Lomas, and Miramonte are capable and well-prepared. What separates the outcomes is not talent. It is how clearly a student’s story is built, positioned, and communicated to the institutions that matter most.
What the Work Actually Is
College advising at Journeys Edu is not essay editing or application management. It is the longer, quieter work of helping a student understand what they have built, what they value, and how to communicate both with clarity and confidence.
This work spans narrative development, activity positioning, college list construction, and application strategy. The most prepared families engage in freshman year, when there is still time to shape the story before it is written. Sophomore year marks the beginning of the two most pivotal years in a student’s high school career. Decisions made in 10th and 11th grade, about coursework, activities, summers, and relationships, are the decisions colleges will eventually read.
For families starting later, the work is compressed but no less valuable. Every engagement is shaped around the student and the family, not a standardized program. The first conversation is about understanding where your student is and what the path forward actually requires.
What Makes This Different
Most college advisors understand the application process from the outside. They know the timelines, the requirements, and the conventions. What they cannot offer is direct experience making the decisions families are trying to influence.
David Lazo has sat in the rooms where these decisions are made. At Stanford University, this included overseeing STEM recruitment in close partnership with faculty and managing international admissions across Europe and China. At Vanderbilt University, the work extended across East and Southeast Asia. Across both institutions, the consistent insight was this: the students who stood out were not always the most credentialed. They were the ones whose story was coherent, whose choices reflected genuine investment, and whose application communicated a clear sense of who they were becoming.
This is what the work at Journeys Edu is built around. Not tactics. Not shortcuts. A precise understanding of what selective institutions are actually looking for, and the judgment to help students communicate it honestly.
On the question of AI tools: colleges know how they are being used, and admissions officers are trained to find what is genuine. The most important work in a college application is not the drafting. It is the clarity of thought, the coherence of the story, and the authenticity that makes an officer want to build a case for a student internally. These are not things a tool can produce. They are the result of a student who has done the real work of understanding who they are and where they are going. This is what Journeys Edu is built to develop.
Who We Serve
Journeys Edu works with high school students and their families in Lamorinda and the broader San Francisco Bay Area who are targeting selective universities, competitive UC campuses, and programs where a transcript alone is not sufficient.
The work is most effective with students who are willing to do the genuine work of self-reflection, and families who understand that the college process is a set of real decisions, not a checklist to complete.
If your student is a freshman or sophomore and you are already thinking about this, you are thinking about it at exactly the right time.
The first step is a conversation.
Not a consultation, not a strategy session.
An honest look at where your family is and whether this work makes sense for you.