The Prepped and Polished Podcast is T educational and inspirational show that offers tutoring and test prep tips as well as interviews with celebrities and leaders in education. It is hosted by Alexis Avila, founder of Prepped and Polished LLC, a tutoring and test prep firm for K-college.

On today's show, Alexis is joined by Jeff Leiken, creator of Evolution Mentoring and Mentor Counseling. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of helping teens and young adults build substantial, thriving lives.

Jeff holds a Masters Degree in Educational Counseling from the State of California. He served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Francisco Graduate School Of Education and has guest lectured at Stanford University. Jeff talks to us about the power of mentoring, and ways in which he shows teens all over the world how to “grow-up” and lead powerful lives.

Enjoy, Thanks for Listening and remember at The Prepped and Polished Podcast, We Empower You to Take Control of Your Education!

The Prepped and Polished Podcast is an educational and inspirational show that offers tutoring and test prep tips as well as interviews with celebrities and leaders in education. It is hosted by Alexis Avila, founder of Prepped and Polished LLC, a tutoring and test prep firm for K-college.

On today's show, Alexis introduces the tutoring and test prep tips series with the "The Three Qualities that Make a Good Tutor." During the episode, Alexis talks about the importance of each of these traits and explains why you should look for them when looking to hire a tutor for yourself or your child.

Enjoy, Thanks for Listening and remember at The Prepped and Polished Podcast, We Empower You to Take Control of Your Education!

The Prepped and Polished Podcast is an educational and inspirational show that offers tutoring and test prep tips as well as interviews with celebrities and leaders in education. It is hosted by Alexis Avila, founder of Prepped and Polished LLC, a tutoring and test prep firm for K-college.

On today's show, Alexis introduces some new elements to the show including, tutoring and test prep tips, interviews with leaders in education and the “Celebs Giving Back Series” in which he interviews celebrities about their lives and what they are doing to further educational opportunities for young people.

Alexis starts the Celebs Giving Back Series this week with guest, world famous DJ for the Miami Heat, DJ Irie. Irie talks about how he went from going to school to work in medicine to how he became a world famous DJ. He also talks about how he is helping to provide educational opportunities for young people, with his foundation the "Irie Foundation."

Enjoy, Thanks for Listening and remember at The Prepped and Polished Podcast, We Empower You to Take Control of Your Education!

Alexis talks to Danielle Boland who is the Founder of Real You Revolution, an elite recovery coaching and intervention service that helps people with addictive and fearful tendencies get honest with themselves and take control of their lives. Danielle talks about her personal struggles with alcohol, and how she transitioned from a lucrative career as a sales director to now empowering others to overcome their destructive addictions. Four Danielle takeaways: 1. Addiction is any behavior that you continue to do despite that it brings negative consequences in your life. 2. Pain is inevitable but suffering is avoidable 3. Addiction is a family disease 4. Trust your gut and love yourself first

Alexis Avila talks to college freshman Sierra Weiss. As only a high school senior, Sierra founded Dance 4 Empowerment, an award-winning non-profit organization which helps children with disabilities improve their self-esteem, social integration, and cognitive awareness through dance. In 2014, Sierra was named the NBA Boston Celtics’ “Hero Among Us” and her program Dance 4 Empowerment was recently featured on NBC Channel 7 Boston as part of their “Class Act” segment.

Alexis Avila talks to Halley Shefler who is Founder and President of ArtsBridge, an educational consulting firm which specializes in connecting talented students with educational opportunities in the visual and performing arts. Halley completed her undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College, and earned a Masters degree at Boston University. She is an accomplished flutist who has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Before starting ArtsBridge, Halley served as the Dean of Admission for The Boston Conservator for eleven years. Halley talks to us about what motivated her to create ArtsBridge and tells us what it takes for talented students to get into their dream performing and visual arts schools.

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Alexis Avila talks to Sarah Ward who is co-director of Cognitive Connections, an executive function practice based out of Concord, Massachusetts. Sarah has over 15 years experience in diagnostic evaluations, treatment and case management of children, adolescents and adults with a wide range of developmental and acquired brain based learning difficulties and behavioral problems Sarah’s particular interest is in the assessment and treatment of executive function deficits. Sarah is a Past President of the Massachusetts Brain Injury Association. She regularly presents locally, nationally and internationally on the topic of executive functions. Sarah talks to us about executive function disorder and teaches us key strategies for improving executive function skills. Sarah’s Top 3 EF Strategies: 1. Pre-imagine the future and so a dress rehearsal for your day 2. Use an analog time clock so you can see time as a volume. 3. Follow OHIO (Only Handle It Once). Finish a task and see it through to completion so you don’t have to go back to it a second or third time.

Alexis Avila speaks to Celest Horton founder of How To Pay For College HQ, www.howtopayforcollegehq.com one of the leading online resources to help serve others looking to earn a degree debt free. Celest was able to search and secure enough Scholarships to fully fund her own education and expenses, and now via her weekly podcast and blog teaches others how to pay for college without loans.

Alexis Avila talks to Debbie Stier, author of The Perfect Score Project, which highlights a mom’s adventure preparing for and taking the SAT a whopping 7 times in one year. Debbie’s story and book were featured on the Today Show and in publications such as The New Yorker and The Huffington Post. Debbie shares with us the secrets she learned preparing for the SAT from working with private SAT tutors to showing up to the test site as the only mom in the testing room.

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Alexis Avila talks to Tom Kovic who is the founder and director of Victory Collegiate Consulting an educational service that advises parents and athletes in proactive preparation for the college athletics recruiting process. Tom spent 19 years as head coach of Gymnastics at The University of Pennsylvania, and led U Penn to 8 Ivy League Championships. Tom is the author of "Reaching for Excellence" an educational guide for college athletics recruiting. Since 2006 Tom has delivered over 300 college recruiting presentations and seminars to nearly two thousand participants. Tom shares with us how to better navigate the college athletic recruiting process.