Inspirational Women Series
  • đŸ”„ Best Dating Sites
    • Mail Order Bride Sites
      • Asian Mail Order Brides Sites
      • Latin Mail Order Brides Sites
    • By Type of Relationships
      • Foreign Women Looking for American Men
      • Women Looking for Marriage
      • Younger Women Looking for Older Men
      • Dating Sites for Long Distance Relationships
      • Dating Sites for Marriage
      • Dating Sites for Serious Relationships
      • Older Women Looking for Younger Men
    • Chat Rooms
      • Chat with Foreigners
      • Chat with Girls
      • Chat with Singles
    • International Dating Sites
      • Asian Dating
        • Armenian Dating Sites
        • Chinese Dating Sites
        • Filipino Dating Sites
        • Indian Dating Sites
        • Thai Dating Sites
        • Japanese Dating Sites
        • Korean Dating Sites
        • Turkish Dating Sites
        • Vietnamese Dating Sites
      • Slavic Dating
        • Ukrainian Dating Sites
        • Polish Dating Sites
        • Russian Dating Sites
      • European Dating
        • French Dating Sites
        • Romanian Dating Sites
        • Swedish Dating Sites
        • German Dating Sites
        • Italian Dating Sites
        • Portuguese Dating Sites
        • Czech Dating Sites
      • Latin Dating
        • Brazilian Dating Sites
        • Colombian Dating Sites
        • Costa Rican Dating Sites
        • Dominican Dating Sites
        • Mexican Dating Sites
        • Puerto Rican Dating Sites
        • Venezuelan Dating Sites
        • Jamaican Dating Sites
        • Caribbean Dating Sites
  • Brides Interview Series
    • Ukrainian Mail Order Bride
    • Russian Mail Order Bride
    • Japanese Mail Order Bride
    • Filipino Mail Order Bride
    • Korean Mail Order Bride
    • Chinese Mail Order Bride
    • Thai Mail Order Bride
    • Mexican Mail Order Bride
    • Brazilian Mail Order Bride
    • Colombian Mail Order Bride
  • International Women Series
    • Asian Women Series
      • Japanese Women
      • Korean Women
      • Chinese Women
      • Filipino Women
      • Cambodia Women
      • Thai Women
      • Vietnamese Women
      • Turkish Women
    • Slavic Women Series
      • Ukrainian Women
      • Russian Women
      • Polish Women
    • European Women Series
      • Croatian Women
      • Slovakian Women
    • Latin Women Series
      • Brazilian Women
      • Cuban Women
      • Mexican Women
      • Colombian Women
      • Dominican Women
      • Guatemalan Women
      • Costa Rican Women
      • Uruguay Women
      • Chilean Women
      • Ecuadorian Women
      • El Salvador Women
      • Panamanian Women
      • Venezuelan Women
      • Puerto Rican Women
  • Hotties Series
    • Hot and Sexy Brazilian Women
    • Hot and Sexy Mexican Women
    • Hot and Sexy Colombian Women
    • Hot and Sexy Japanese Women
    • Hot And Sexy Korean Women
    • Hot And Sexy Filipino Women
    • Hot And Sexy Ukrainian Women
    • Hot And Sexy Polish Women
    • Hot And Sexy Russian Women
    • Hottest And Sexiest Women In The World
    • Hot And Sexy Chinese Women
  • Blog
    • Best Countries to Find a Foreign Wife
    • Best Asian Countries to Find a Wife
    • Best Latin Countries to Find a Wife
    • Best European Countries to Find a Wife
    • Best Countries for Mail Order Brides
    • Best Countries that Love American Men
    • Best Countries for Dating
    • Dating Someone from Another Country
    • Marrying Someone from Another Country
    • Mail Order Bride Pricing
Home » Interview with Ana Rowena McCullough by Inspirational Women Series

Interview with Ana Rowena McCullough by Inspirational Women Series

Nelly Perry
Updated: 25/11/2022
10 min read
ana-mccullough-headshot

Ana Rowena McCullough is the Co-Founder and CEO of QuestBridge, a revenue-generating non-profit that links high-achieving, low-income students with educational and scholarship opportunities at selective US colleges and universities. Ana co-founded QuestBridge with her husband Michael McCullough while an undergraduate at Stanford. Moreover, Ana is Co-Founder and former VP, Content at study resources and test preparation site Shmoop.com, and is a former management consultant at McKinsey & Company. In addition, she worked for five years as a consulting scientist to the Environmental Defense Fund, a national non-profit environmental organization, and served as a research associate for Stanford President Emeritus Donald Kennedy. Ana holds a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School where she focused on environmental and youth law, and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.

How did you come to co-found QuestBridge?

Ana McCullough

We co-founded QuestBridge as a small, residential summer program for 22 talented, low-income high school juniors in the mid-1990s. I was a Stanford undergraduate, and Michael, my co-founder, was a UCSF medical student. Quest’s five-week summer program was something of an academic bootcamp, with college-level coursework. A daily personal reflection period (called “reflection time”) became one of the students’ favorite activities, and it fostered a powerful culture of growth in the summer house. “Giving back,” whether through a social venture, private sector work, or other ways, also became a major theme. We mentored our students into college and often supported them through college and in their early career.

At the core, Quest was always about empowering high-achieving, low-income, and under-represented students to reach their full potential and then to help them improve the world – not just academically, but personally as well. We hoped to cultivate future leaders, to support their growth and development during this important juncture of their lives.

An education at a top college was an important part of that. We knew our students had the strengths to be successful at the nation’s best colleges, but often came from communities with little exposure to top colleges and the application process. We also knew the tremendous value that Quest Scholars would bring to their campuses, both academically and personally. 99% of our students were accepted to the most competitive colleges in the U.S., including many of our current college partners, and other excellent private and public colleges.

By 2003, we had thousands of applicants for our small summer programs. We didn’t want to leave so many students behind, so we thought to connect them directly with an expanded number of excellent colleges. But building out this idea required slowly phasing out our long-standing summer and mentorship program, and making a deliberate “pivot” to a new model – the model we are known for today.

We looked for leadership to help us in this new chapter. The growth of QuestBridge would not have happened without the incomparable entrepreneur and leader, Tim Brady, who became CEO – as well as a handful of visionary Admissions Deans at our earliest college partners. I am back in the CEO role now, but I still feel grateful, every day, for Tim, our early team, and our first college partners, who together built the foundation we stand on today.

What has been QuestBridge‘s impact so far?

Ana McCullough

We now have 39 college partners. And we’ve gone from placing 22 students in the mid-1990s, to over 2,400 students in 2016 into the freshman classes of our colleges. Across all four years of college, we now have over 6,000 QuestBridge Scholars attending. All are receiving full or nearly-full scholarships, worth hundreds of millions of dollars of financial aid, generously provided by the colleges. Their college graduation rates are right on par with the colleges’ overall grad rates.

The original mission and vision of QuestBridge continue to inform the work we do every day. We envision a world where America’s leadership encompasses thoughtful and broad-minded decision-makers drawn from every economic segment of society. Many of our QuestBridge Scholar alumni are now thriving professionally and personally, and we never tire of hearing about their journeys from high school, through college, and beyond.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced when leading QuestBridge?

Ana McCullough

In the early days, we did not necessarily design our program to be scalable and sustainable. We constantly tried new things, without thinking much about scale. We knew the students were strong, and that bringing 22 of them together each summer changed lives. But after the successful early years, we needed to figure out how to evolve QuestBridge to help more students, and to survive the ups and downs of a changing economy from a financial perspective. Financially, we had some very lean years, and even years where we worried we may need to close our doors.

Today, we are still trying new things, but at a larger scale. We wrestle with questions of how best to grow and deepen our impact, and as a result, it’s a very exciting and creative time.

In your opinion, what are the biggest trends, challenges and opportunities facing education access in light of today’s social/economic context?

Ana McCullough

Top colleges and society as a whole seem to have a sincere and heightened awareness of the need for broader representation of our entire population at our best colleges. In our early years, we knew that individual colleges cared about this, but the topic has gained especially high visibility in the last five or so years. For example, in our industry, it is now well known that the majority of high-achieving low-income students at the nation’s best colleges historically have come from only 15 major metro areas (Hoxby & Avery, 2012). We are proud to say that every year, approximately 70% of our QuestBridge applicants come from outside of those 15 metro areas, but we want to do even more. So one of QuestBridge’s and society’s challenges, and opportunities, is to extend the reach of the nation’s best educational opportunities to all communities in America.

Of course, higher ed overall is also undergoing much evolution. New, cutting-edge education technologies will continue to change people’s perceptions of what it means to learn, grow, and build a foundation for the future.

What advice do you have for the next generation of social entrepreneurs?

Ana McCullough

I would say be nimble and open-minded, and know that today’s “impossible” option may be tomorrow’s most viable solution. Also, invest in critical thinking and collaboration skills. As we know, getting facts and figures isn’t so difficult anymore – but what to do with them is another story. That depends on the quality of our thinking, discrimination, creativity, vision, and ability to synthesize and integrate what we’re learning into something new and meaningful. And most often, great innovations happen on teams – sometimes living all over the world – so developing skills of collaboration, flexibility, adaptability, communication, and teamwork will be important.

Also, when you see an opportunity, don’t allow yourself to think you’re “too inexperienced” or “too unqualified” to tackle it. In fact, there may be industries and social ventures that you end up working in (or creating) that do not even exist yet. When we created QuestBridge, I did not yet have a college degree, and neither Michael nor I had ever worked in higher education. Many told us the QuestBridge model wouldn’t work, because it had never been done before. I think our naivetĂ© and lack of knowing the traditional “norms and informal rules” of our industry actually helped us to be more imaginative and bold in the beginning.

Can you talk about one woman who has impacted your life?

Ana McCullough

Many women inspire me, including my mother and the many strong women in my family.

I never met Maya Angelou, but am deeply moved by her work. I have been inspired by her open mind, courage, honesty, sense of justice, and embrace of humanity, in spite of tremendous obstacles in her amazing life. And of course, she was a brilliant poet, writer, speaker, communicator, and creator – all qualities I admire.

One of my friends is like a big sister: Judy Estrin, an entrepreneur, internet pioneer, engineer, author, leader, and mentor. An electrical engineer by training, she went on to found numerous tech companies, serve on public Boards of the highest caliber, and work closely with great leaders and visionaries. When we meet, it feels like two friends simply exploring the world, sharing stories, playing with ideas of how to navigate life well. Whether we’re taking long walks or drinking tea, our talks are an ongoing dialogue about life, often filled with more questions than answers, and I’m constantly learning in the process.

What are your favorite books, websites, films and resources?

Ana McCullough

I love reading on a wide range of topics. It seems that just about everything I read or watch can relate back to entrepreneurship and education, so it’s hard to pick favorites. Here are a few recent sources of inspiration, along the entrepreneurship lines.

I’m inspired by Pixar, the animation studio. Pixar seems to have a combination of deep creativity, cutting-edge technology, passion, and a strong, bold entrepreneurial spirit. The genius of the technology and animation is always grounded in a simple story that speaks to our humanity. The founders, creators, and leaders of Pixar faced many hardships, but they built a company that has seen enduring success and value, despite all the ups and downs. The books Creativity, Inc., Collective Genius, To Pixar and Beyond, and the documentary The Pixar Story all had an impact on me.

Howard Schultz’s book Onward has become a favorite in recent years. It is about leadership, taking responsibility, and staying true to one’s values while innovating and evolving a successful company. It recounts the story of Starbucks finding its stride again after a challenging period in its history. I had the privilege of speaking with Howard Schultz and asked, “In your mind, what is the best way to build a brand?” He responded, “From the inside out.” This resonated with me strongly, as it is how we’ve tried to build QuestBridge over the years. Howard Schultz and Onward inspired me to cultivate a bolder vision for QuestBridge, and I am grateful.

In a different genre, I have been influenced and inspired by DJ Patil’s writings, and my conversations with him, on data science. He has really expanded our thinking about data here at QuestBridge.

Other books I’ve enjoyed recently: Closing the Innovation Gap (Estrin), The Startup of You (Hoffman & Casnocha), and Tools of Titans (Ferriss).

In terms of education websites, a good one is EdSurge, a site dedicated to the Edtech industry. Also, I read the Chronicle of Higher Education on a weekly basis.

Related Articles
Interview with Natalia Adler by Inspirational Women Series
Interview with Natalia Adler by Inspirational Women Series
Natalia Adler is currently serving as the Data, Research and Policy Planning Specialist at UNICEF, where she’s trying to leverage data science to tackle complex problems ...
Read more
Interview with Mindy Gray by Inspirational Women Series
Interview with Mindy Gray by Inspirational Women Series
Mindy Gray is the Co-Founder of the Gray Foundation, a private foundation committed to maximizing access to education, healthcare and opportunity for low-income children in ...
Read more
Interview with Marina Arnaout by Inspirational Women Series
Interview with Marina Arnaout by Inspirational Women Series
Marina Arnaout is the Customer Success Director at Marin Software in London, a cross-channel advertising platform optimizing search, social and display ads across channels and devices. ...
Read more
Interview with Kaylene Alvarez by Inspirational Women Series
Interview with Kaylene Alvarez by Inspirational Women Series
Kaylene Alvarez is a specialist in financial inclusion and impact investing with over twenty years of experience in almost thirty emerging markets. At IFC, she ...
Read more
Inspirational Women Series
Since 2018, our team has helped thousands of American, Canadian, British, and Australian men understand online dating better and found a girlfriend/wife from another country.
Contact info

US +1 877 421 18 08

UK +44 202 617 56 39

400 Grand St, Cellar, NY 10002, United States

For cooperation:
[email protected]

For additional questions:
[email protected]

Best Dating Sites
  • Mail Order Bride Sites
  • International Dating Sites
By Type of Relationship
  • Long Distance Distance Dating Sites
  • Dating Sites for Marriage
Best International Dating Sites
  • Latin Dating Sites
  • Slavic Dating Sites
  • European Dating Sites
  • Asian Dating Sites
International Women Series
  • Latin Women Series
  • Slavic Women Series
  • European Women Series
  • Asian Women Series
Company
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Interview

© inspirationalwomenseries.org 2023 – All Rights Reserved.