Westchester County, NY

  • 914-715-3997
  • alexw@breakawayprep.com
  • Breakaway Education Westchester 62 Waller Avenue, Suite 202 White Plains, NY 10605

Alex Weiner

President, Breakaway Prep Westchester

Alex Weiner, president of Breakaway Prep’s Westchester office, majored in American civilization at Brown University, suffering much heckling from friends and family’s not-so-witty bon mot, “Isn’t that a contradiction in terms.
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Sarah White

Counselor

Sarah has been participating in higher education since birth: she was, according to family lore, born at UVA’s University Teaching Hospital surrounded by 30 medical students. Approximately 18 years later, she attended Skidmore College.

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Wally Nichols

Essay Specialist

Wally is a horse farmer in the Hudson Valley. This makes him supremely qualified to help people with their form, fit better in the saddle, look better to the judges, handle things larger than themselves, and not step in manure.
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Emily Cappo

Essay Specialist

Emily is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BA in Marketing, Communications and Psychology, an independent major she designed herself. And yes, she’s a die-hard Michigan fan – and you knew this was coming – Go Blue.
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Sarah White

Counselor

Sarah has been participating in higher education since birth: she was, according to family lore, born at UVA’s University Teaching Hospital surrounded by 30 medical students. Approximately 18 years later, she attended Skidmore College where she worked as a tour guide for the admissions office.
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Anthony Danese

Tutor

Tom has been the language arts tutor for Breakaway’s Montclair-West Essex office since 2016. An avid reader and writer, he is fascinated by the English language and the various ways its writers utilize its structures and conventions.
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Alex Weiner

Alex Weiner, president of Breakaway Prep’s Westchester office, majored in American civilization at Brown University, suffering much heckling from friends and family’s not-so-witty bon mot, “Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?” He shrugged off peoples’ concerns and continued hobnobbing with celebrity students of that era (late 1980s). Since beginning to work with Westchester and southern Connecticut students in 2001, his team has helped over 1,200 students apply and get accepted to the right colleges. He is a much sought after SAT and ACT tutor and is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the New York State Association of College Admissions Counselors (NYSACAC), and the Westchester/Putnam/Rockland Counseling Association (WPRCA).While other kids spent their middle and high school years playing baseball or practicing the clarinet, Alex sat in his room memorizing the World Book Encyclopedia and the Oxford American Dictionary. Mr. Weiner also proudly wields an MBA from the Columbia Business School and a Master’s of Arts in Teaching from Stony Brook University. He has his Permanent Certification from the New York State Department of Education in multiple subjects for grade levels 7 – 12.
rickm@breakawayprep.com

Sarah White

Sarah has been participating in higher education since birth: she was, according to family lore, born at UVA’s University Teaching Hospital surrounded by 30 medical students. Approximately 18 years later, she attended Skidmore College where she worked as a tour guide for the admissions office. During this time Sarah sustained only one walking-backwards-related-injury. She also worked as an admissions interviewer. Sarah completed a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University at Albany, which, besides providing a nifty advanced degree, allowed her to stay at school for many, many more years. Later she worked as an academic advisor at Manhattan College before moving to the ‘burbs and focusing on raising a family. When she earned college admissions counseling certification from the UC Irvine Extension program, her little kids thought it was quite a hoot that mommy had homework. That’s precisely when she would feed them porridge and steamed rutabagas for dinner. In her more well-rounded moments she spends time reading for fun, weeding her vegetable garden, researching recipes for whichever vegetables happen to grow, listening to show tunes (aka watching Glee), and practicing karate on students and families who insist on applying to all the Ivies. She is a member of NACAC, NYSACAC, and WRPCA and is thrilled to counsel Breakaway Prep students.
rickm@breakawayprep.com

Wally Nichols

Wally is a horse farmer in the Hudson Valley. This makes him supremely qualified to help people with their form, fit better in the saddle, look better to the judges, handle things larger than themselves, and not step in manure. His writing skills and creativity that help us at Breakaway Prep have nothing to do with his degree as an English major (Brown University), or his regular essay contributions to NPR, or his regular newspaper advice column which has just been aggregated into a book. Wally’s movie, Desert Saints, was a major motion picture release starring Kiefer Sutherland and produced by Meg Ryan. Wally works as an Essay Specialist for Breakaway Prep, and has helped dozens of our college applicants in all types of writing, from the main essay of the Common App to individual pieces required by many colleges. His essay-honing skills have everything to do with his being able to hot wire a tractor and deliver baby goats while discussing Heidegger and organic ketchup.
rickm@breakawayprep.com

Emily Cappo

Emily is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BA in Marketing, Communications and Psychology, an independent major she designed herself. And yes, she’s a die-hard Michigan fan – and you knew this was coming – Go Blue! She also received her MBA from the University of Chicago and worked as a product manager for a pharmaceutical company. An animal lover, Emily moved on to work for the ASPCA in their marketing and licensing department. She took the lonely shelter dogs out for walks during her lunch breaks and once pet a baby alligator who was rescued from a Manhattan bathtub. Emily’s writing career blossomed when she enrolled in continuing education writing classes and knew she had found a passion that had been lurking beneath her marketing career. Her expertise is writing personal narratives and she has had essays published in a variety of places, including Huffington Post, Brain Child Magazine, American Journal of Nursing, ASPCA magazine, Interfaith Family, and Parent Guide News. When not writing, Emily can frequently be found on the tennis courts, although she’s convinced her game has not improved in the past decade. Emily resides in Larchmont with her husband, three sons and one girl dog.
rickm@breakawayprep.com

Amy Coates

Amy graduated as a Biology major from Cornell University. She went on to get her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and practiced corporate healthcare law in NYC for ten years. Beginning with her own college search, she helped friends with college choices and applications because she liked helping others with organization and finding their voice in writing. She continued helping friends, acquaintances and relatives find and apply to colleges and programs in her free time, assisting healthcare organizations with licensure and certification applications and writing, reading and editing legal arguments on anything related to healthcare regulation for gainful employment. Amy decided that assisting students in navigating the college process was much more fun than those many legal applications and arguments. She went back to school, online, and received her College Counseling Certificate from UCLA, sometimes wishing she was in L.A. rather than at her kitchen table. In her free time, Amy can be found skiing with her family, playing paddle and driving her two teenage daughters back and forth from their many activities.
rickm@breakawayprep.com

Tom Newman

Tom has been the language arts tutor for Breakaway’s Montclair-West Essex office since 2016. An avid reader and writer, he is fascinated by the English language and the various ways its writers utilize its structures and conventions. Tom studied English at Rutgers University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2013 after completing a senior thesis on the intersections of psychoanalytic theory and critical race theory in American literature. He is also a licensed social worker who does clinical therapy with youth and their families. When helping with test prep, he’s ready to cover everything from gerund clauses to test anxiety. In his free time, Tom consumes copious amounts of NBA content, and he always roots for LeBron James.
chaoh@breakawayprep.com