The Scholar Group, Inc

His work as a co-founder of The Scholar Group includes SAT prep, college counseling, individualized mathematics instruction, and educational consulting and program development for schools. He also specializes in working with students with learning differences.

In addition to The Scholar Group, Drew has founded or co-founded several other successful educational endeavors, including the MBA Centre in Paris, the Cornell-in-Hollywood internship and mentorship programs, and the Visions Scholastic Academy, a WASC-accredited high school program housed at the Visions Adolescent Outpatient Counseling Center in Brentwood, where he served as Director of Education until 2005. At Mount St. Mary's University, where Drew served as adjunct faculty and graduate thesis advisor for 6 years, he was instrumental in the creation of the new MFA program in Creative Writing with a particular focus on working with students who are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most recently, Drew spearheaded the Mirman School's overhaul of their signature mathematics curriculum (from kindergarten through multi-variable calculus) to better serve Mirman's unique population of highly gifted and twice exceptional students. The success of Mirman's program led to invitations to speak at conferences, including the CAG (California Association for the Gifted) Conference in Palm Springs, California and the 13th International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg, Germany. Drew holds a BA from Cornell University and a masters' degree from The University of Birmingham in England, and is a current member of the mathematics faculty at New Roads School in Santa Monica.

deborah Puette

Deborah tutored privately for several years before launching The Scholar Group with Drew in 2007. Since then, she’s helped many, many students exemplify their best, most authentic selves through their Common App and college essays. She’s passionate about helping each student land at a collegiate home where they will be challenged, grow, and thrive.

In addition to college essay guidance, Deborah works with writers grade five through twelve who are looking to improve their academic and creative writing skills well beyond grade level by focusing not just on the mechanics of writing but also developing each writer’s unique voice. Every student’s program is tailored to their age and specific strengths and challenges. (She’s also passionate about teaching her students how to diagram complex sentences, a lost art and skill that she’s determined to bring back into fashion! Without a deep understanding of “why” words work together the way they do, it’s very difficult to know how to wield them in our own writing for maximum effect.)

Deborah received her Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and worked in creative at Ogilvy & Mather Chicago. She’s also a produced screenwriter in Hollywood.

Each of our instructors is an expert in the subjects he or she teaches and has a minimum of five years experience in education; most have ten or more. More importantly, each tutor has demonstrated an exceptional gift for working individually with students at all academic levels.

Collectively, our faculty has worked with thousands of high school students who have subsequently gone on to study at some of the nation’s best colleges and universities, including Amherst, Bard, Berkeley, Brown, UCLA, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, NYU, Northwestern, Oberlin, University of Pennsylvania, Pepperdine, Pomona, Princeton, USC, Stanford, Tufts, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Williams, Yale, and many more.