Twenty-five Eastchester High School seniors started the school year with college application essays already drafted.

The students spent four days in July at a workshop at Eastchester High, finishing the work before classes resumed Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The workshop, held July 21–24, paired English Chair Bryan Johnson and Guidance Chair Heather Reilly for a second straight summer. The two ran the same program last year with a narrower set of materials.

This time, they expanded the resource library beyond Johns Hopkins to include sample essays released by Tufts, Harvard and other top universities, according to the district's website.

"We want them to come out of the summer with a fairly complete draft," Johnson said. "It's going to put them in a much better position when they come back in the fall and start to have those discussions than if they had to come back and start from scratch."

The four-day session is part of a broader, two-year push to coordinate the Guidance and English departments around college admissions.

Reilly said the departments also teamed up for a second consecutive spring to help students prepare first drafts before summer break.

That head start showed. Yale Xu, a rising senior who took part, said he had begun working on his essay during the school year but found the workshop's structure helped him focus.

He said he would recommend the program to future classes regardless of writing ability, and recalled one piece of advice that stuck: be yourself, within reason.

Beyond essays, the workshop covered the activities section of college applications and previewed what counselors would expect in September. Reilly said the conversations helped ease student anxiety about the broader admissions timeline.

She said the program gives students confidence because the sessions go beyond writing. Topics included what counselors will look for when they visit classes in September and what students should have ready by then.

Reilly said counselors planned to meet with seniors during the first week of school to hand out updated transcripts reflecting junior-year grades and GPAs. She described those check-ins as focused on mapping out each student's next steps rather than imposing a deadline.

"It's just 'where are we now, and where do we need to be?'" Reilly said.