Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabrielle Glancy.
Gabrielle, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Like Woody Allen, I grew up under the roller coaster in Coney Island. Sometimes in my family, I felt like I was actually on the roller coaster. My father was a photographer who spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Paris. He was known for photographing grotesque and distorted figures of people on Brighton Beach, very Diane Arbus. My mother was also an intellectual and an artist, painted and wrote. They made films together. And then they made me – before they split. I was loose on the streets from a very young age — Hasidic Jews on our side of the fence and gang warfare on the other. I was always trying to get through the gate to the other side. That out-of-the-boxness has characterized everything I’ve ever done. As a teacher I was like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. We stood on the desks and recited poetry: “But we loved with a love that was more than love — I and my Annabel Lee –.”
When my son was six years old – I remember looking at him in the rear view mirror – he asked me: “Mommo, when you were little, were you a boy or a girl?” I hesitated for a moment, unsure how to answer. Then he piped up: “Oh yeah, you were a bear.”
I was an entrepreneur from a very young age. I started my first business when I was four years old selling stickballs for ten cents less than cost back to the boys who hit them onto my grandfather’s room. I love that in my life I have found a way to combine my creative and entrepreneurial spirits doing what I do best – teaching, writing, and helping people realize their dreams. That’s what New Vision Learning is all about.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My career has been surprisingly easy. I have always loved my work and found ways to make it fun and lucrative at the same time. Opportunities presented themselves to me the moment I got clear on what I wanted to do. I’m a big believer in the power of positive thinking, in “The Secret.” My love life has been rich and exciting and tumultuous! Sometimes it amazes me how much I could accomplish under stress. I’m also a risk taker so I’ve broken my back, lost my shirt, and got my feelings hurt more times than I can count (no rhyme intended 😉
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about New Vision Learning – what should we know?
The tagline for New Vision Learning is “Helping Students Realize Their Dreams.” Even though my goal is to get my students into their top choice schools – and those are the most competitive colleges in the country – my real aim is to help them figure out who they are, where they want to go in their lives, and how to get there – from the inside out. That’s the message in my forthcoming book UNSTUCK which, I often say, could have been titled “The Inner Game of Writing.” No one does what I do. I have read all the books out there on helping kids write their college essays. They speak about how to find a topic, how to organize your ideas. No one talks about the internal process, and struggle, of writing. They’re afraid to because writing is difficult and mysterious – and most people can’t do it. Every time I hire new people, I have to train them in ways they can’t even fathom. “It’s an inside job,” I tell them. “Start there.”
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I have studied the entrepreneurs who have preceded me — not those in my business, necessarily, because education is a very slow-moving machine — but those who have broken new ground, invented something that never excited, persisted against great odds. I learn from everyone. And I have had my muses, the women whom I have loved. That includes my beloved grandmother. I have emulated and learned from great writers. Recently I have been moved by Rain Dove. I want to make a documentary called “Is-ness” about being my particular non-gender, gender, and about modeling at the age of 60.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://newvisionlearning.org
- Phone: 415-637-1955
- Email: [email protected]
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/UNSTUCK-Through-Writers-College-Dreams/dp/0997352973/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=UNSTUCK+gabrielle+glancy&qid=1565720704&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
