Irena Smith

Irena Smith is an author, former Stanford admissions officer and independent college counselor, and mother of three extraordinary children. She emigrated from the former Soviet Union with her parents when she was nine years old, and in spite of her fierce insistence that she would never, not ever, learn English, she went on to earn a PhD in Comparative Literature and taught literature and composition at UCLA and Stanford before transitioning to college admissions work and writing. Her recently published memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays, explores the contrast between the ambitions of the tightly-wound students she counsels and her efforts to help her own children as they struggle with developmental delays, depression, and anxiety. The Golden Ticket is the winner of the Story Circle Network’s Gilda Award, named in honor of comedian Gilda Radner to recognize honest, authentic writing that “makes us laugh even when we want to cry.” It’s been described by Forbes as “captivating and smart… a potential antidote to the fevered belief that being admitted to an elite college will spell the difference between a successful life vs. a doomed future.”