There’s more to your story
After more than 25 years of working with students, I have learned how quickly young people can come to believe a story about themselves: that they aren’t writers, that they are disorganized, that a particular subject simply isn’t for them. I see something similar when students begin the college essay, only this time the story is about who they think they are supposed to be—and what they think a college wants them to say. Expand the Narrative grew from my desire to question both. I want students to pay attention to what they notice, trust what they know about themselves, and find their own voices. Sometimes that means finding a different way into an assignment or a different way to manage the work; sometimes it means discovering that the college essay isn’t really about the experience they thought it was. Either way, there is almost always another question to ask, another possibility to consider, something else that is true.
Why Mutual Aid?
Living in Poland when Russia invaded Ukraine, and later being in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge, changed the way I think about what it means to be part of a community. In both places, I watched people respond by taking care of one another—sharing food, opening homes, showing up, paying attention. In the spirit of honoring humanity, $5 from every hour with a student at Expand the Narrative is donated to mutual aid. Our stories do not exist in isolation; expanding the narrative means recognizing that our opportunities and successes are connected to the lives and well-being of others.
About
Lolly Errickson
Lolly Errickson has spent more than 25 years as an educator, teaching English and working with students in public and independent schools in the United States and internationally. Her classrooms have included inland and coastal Maine; New Hampshire; Buffalo, New York, as well as the American School of Warsaw in Poland, and The Good Hope School in the U.S. Virgin Islands; most recently, she worked at an Independent School in the Minneapolis area. She has taught students across the secondary grades in heterogeneous, honors, AP, and IB settings—working with multilingual learners as well as students with a wide range of learning profiles. Most recently, she taught Grade 9 English and a senior literature course before serving as Interim Learning Specialist, writing learning plans and supporting students with executive function, organization, reading, writing, and study strategies.
Across those schools, Lolly’s work has extended well beyond her own classroom. She has served as an English Department Chair for Grades 5–12, founded and directed a cross-disciplinary Writing Center staffed by trained student writing mentors, and led the school’s Senior Thesis program. She served as a coordinator for the Tenth Grade Exhibition, an interdisciplinary program built around student reflection on school-wide learner expectations and demonstrations of learning. Throughout her career, she has worked with Harkness and other discussion-based pedagogies, designed curriculum and assessment, coached students through analytical and personal writing, developed virtual courses, and worked with colleagues through collaborative practices such as Critical Friends Groups. She is also an AP Literature exam reader and has spent more than 15 years helping students develop college essays.
At Expand the Narrative, Lolly returns to the work that matters most to her—creating the time and space to listen closely to students, asking the next questions, and helping them discover their own ways forward.