Mission
ABRIDGE equips select international high school students with unique capabilities to achieve admission and success at American colleges and universities. Through our cultural consulting, ABRIDGE builds bridges between peoples, nations, and cultures.
What We Do
Studying in the United States is a vital goal of many international students and their families, and ABRIDGECultural Consulting can help you get there. True to our name, ABRIDGE builds bridges between peoples, nations, cultures, and their distinctly different educational systems, while honoring the dignity of eachenvironment.
Through our unique expertise in cross-cultural exchange, communication, and higher education, ABRIDGE equips students with the learning power to seize the tremendous opportunities for competitive success, self-fulfillment, and attainment of life goals that begin with a U.S. education.
The ABRIDGE way:
- ABRIDGE is a multi-year personalized program that brings out the best in each student.
- ABRIDGE familiarizes international students with American approaches to instruction, learning, classroom engagement, and assessment.
- Through an individualized, developmentally appropriate program of online coaching, ABRIDGE identifies students' aptitudes and passions and helps each student develop the abilities, communication skills, and authentic, holistic personal profile sought by U.S. admissions officers.
- ABRIDGE strongly emphasizes communication and the qualities and tools that are highly correlated with success in American culture , including motivation, confidence, integrity, independence, self-knowledge, analytical thinking, cultural awareness, creativity, and compassion.
- In short, ABRIDGE delivers learning power, knowing that student success stems from one's ability to learn, efficiency of learning, independent thinking, and creative problem-solving—over and above innate intelligence.
What Sets Us Apart
Competition is increasing for acceptance of international students at U.S. colleges and universities. At the same time, perceptions of improprieties and falsifications in past applications from some nations put their applicants today under greater scrutiny.
ABRIDGE employs the highest ethical standards in every aspect of its work. In addition, ABRIDGE's coaching and personal development emphasis equip students with the skills and accomplishments to submit truthful, authentic applications.
Learn more about what makes ABRIDGE unique:
- Developmentally appropriate program: Utilizing an expert understanding of personal developmental stages, ABRIDGE's proprietary methodology focuses on behavioral growth and enhancing positive traits such as motivation, confidence, and integrity. ABRIDGE helps each student find his or her passion, work toward their full potential, and present their best self to college admissions professionals.
- Learning power: ABRIDGE instills this key competency in its students, knowing that student success is highly correlated with qualities like learning ability, efficiency of learning, independent thinking, and creative problem-solving—over and above one's innate intelligence.
- Cultural consulting: Cultural understanding is a core value at ABRIDGE; it is also a strong predictor of foreign student success and a necessity in our global society. Therefore, ABRIDGE prioritizes coaching, exercises, and immersion opportunities that familiarize students with American culture, values, and expectations.
- Communication: ABRIDGE emphasizes and optimizes oral and written communication in English, building fluency and providing continuous feedback and documentation of each student's growth.
- Custom-made curriculum: No two students are alike. Therefore, each ABRIDGE student receives an individualized, developmentally appropriate program of coaching that addresses and enhances their unique academic, extracurricular, and personal profile.
- Holistic competitiveness: While other advisers may focus exclusively on completing a checklist of standard steps, ABRIDGE enriches each student's journey—from early stages of improving English and identifying passions to pursue in extracurricular activities straight through to submitting the college applications—with life lessons in critical thinking, leadership, initiative, and global citizenship.
Our Services
ABRIDGE services guide the growth of each client into a competitive, well-rounded, articulate, academically impressive applicant and successful student at U.S. colleges and universities.Through expert attention to emotional and behavioral development, communication skills, and optimizing each individual's learning power, ABRIDGEstudents organically gain the keys to successfully complete their degree and U.S. college experience.
Promote personal growth and college competitiveness
- Build skills and social-emotional growth
- Select extracurricular activities and community service opportunities that will engage and amplify the student's passion
- Arrange for multicultural exposure and immersion experiences
- Familiarize student with American culture and college expectations
- Instill essential values such as cultural awareness, initiative, motivation, and leadership in the context of activities and experiences
Manage the application process
- Identify specific American colleges and universities to apply to
- Determine possible majors for the bachelor's degree
- Recommend timelines for ToEFL, SAT, and SAT 2 examinations
- Oversee the application process and provide guidance on deadlines, recommendations, and the essay
- Arrange college visits and interviews, when applicable
- Coordinate additional services as desired
Shape success
- Advise on final school selection after acceptance
- Address the whole student at all stages of the college application process, optimizing not just their academic profile and standardized testing program but their social-emotional growth, learning power, and individual talents, whether in sports, the arts, or other leadership areas
- Continue advising during college experience to support cultural transition to American higher education and to help ensure successful achievement of college degree.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What makes ABRIDGE different from other college application consultants?
ABRIDGE guides its students' growth so that each individual acquires genuine maturity, skills, motivation, and an understanding of the American educational system. By contrast,other consultants "package" students for the American market. With the ABRIDGE advantage, our students are fully prepared to compete on U.S. campuses and to succeed in their future careers.
What makes ABRIDGE effective?
Capitalizing on the professional expertise and experience of the ABRIDGE team, we employ a proprietary methodology founded on psychological understanding of adolescents, high-school students' needs, multicultural exchange, and direct knowledge of the U.S. higher education system.
Why does my child need private consulting?
School resources are severely limited. Counselors are often overworked and cannot give adequate attention to every student.
What grade levels do you work with?
ABRIDGE typically begins coaching anytime from 9th grade to 12th grade. Our coaching is directed not just at gaining admission to college but at successfully achieving a college degree, so we continue to coach our clients after they achieve admission and begin their studies. An early start is recommended.
Does the student need to apply to be coached by ABRIDGE?
Yes, we conduct an interview to assess fit and English language proficiency. In addition, each ABRIDGEstudent receives a unique personal evaluation, including a review of his or her academic record, learning profile, aptitudes, talents, and challenges.
What makes online consulting effective?
Communications technology and digital platforms provide ABRIDGEstudents access to the most qualified consulting resources. High school students are adept at virtual interaction and often prefer it. Frequent contact keeps students engaged.
How soon can I see the results of ABRIDGE's work with my child?
This varies from one individual to another. Some parents and students see progress in as little as five weeks;for others, itmay be three months.Parents' trust and confidence play a very important role, as does the commitment of the student.
How can I be sure that your program is effective?
Contact ABRIDGE anytime for information on the outcomes of past clients.
Team
Helen H. Di
ABRIDGE Cofounder and CEO
The leader of ABRIDGE, Helen H. Di is also founder and CEO of DML Translations, a global multilingual language service provider with more than 20 years of international success in multicultural communications. Her business experience includes international investment consulting at TransCapital International and marketing and advertising roles at Ogilvy, WPP, and Universal McCann. Di is a graduate of Guangzhou Foreign Studies University and holds a master's in International Business and Marketing from Baruch College (CUNY), New York.
John Tognino
ABRIDGE Cofounder and Chairman
John Tognino is a financial services executive and trustee of higher education institutions and health care organizations. His board affiliations have included Fordham University and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Tognino previously served as executive vice president of the NASDAQ Stock Market, managing director of Merrill Lynch, and chairman, president, and CEO of the Security Traders Association. He is a graduate of Fordham University.
Nancy Busch Rossnagel, Ph.D.
ABRIDGE Chief Program Officer & Partner
Nancy Busch Rossnagel, professor of Psychology at Fordham University, served for 15 years as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and chief research officer at Fordham. In these roles, she actively engaged in national and international initiatives in higher education, including international collaborative research programs. Busch Rossnagel is a member of the board of trustees of New York's SBH Health System. She holds degrees from Scripps College, Wayne State University, and the Pennsylvania State University.
James Marrin, Ph.D.
ABRIDGE Partner
James Marrin is a multilingual communications consultant whose clients have included GE, IBM, Honeywell, and other major corporations. In 30 years of practice, Marrin has worked in 15 countries and coached nationals of 25 more. Previously director and partner for communications skills at KPMG USA, Marrin has also taught or consulted at Boston College, Fordham University, Harvard University, and others. He holds degrees from The Catholic University of America, The New School for Social Research, Harvard University and Columbia University.
Penny Peng
Director of China
Penny Peng is founder and director of Shanghai-based Seesaw Consultants, an ABRIDGE partner agency dedicated to connecting international students with top-quality educational resources in the United States. Her background is in cross-cultural language education and computer science. Prior to her current role, Peng lived in the U.S. for more than a decade and worked as a computer science professional for the international corporation Thomson Reuters. A graduate of Nankai University, Peng also holds a master's in Computer Science from The City College of New York (CUNY).
Dr. Lilian Wu, Ph.D
Advisory Board
Dr. Wu is Program Executive, Global University Programs, IBM Technology Strategy and Innovation. Dr. Wu also served on President Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and NSF’s Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University.