My name is Neil Anderson; I hold a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and taught at the high school and university level for 15 years. I am also a translator of poetry, fiction, and academic writing from Spanish and Galician, and love to work with professional writers and academics.

I also enjoy working with students who are struggling around school, maybe even hating it. Personally, I didn’t excel in high school, and none of my academic work would have been possible if not for my background in restaurants and the service industry. The paid work I did as a young man gave me the skills and self-confidence I needed to succeed when I decided to go back to school.

The point being that here’s a lot of talk about working hard to reach your potential. But a lot of us —smart, curious, and hardworking though we may be— don’t have “high achieving” as a factory setting and sometimes chafe against the structure of school. For divergent thinkers, the path to success may be winding, unpredictable, and unconventional, and, you know what, that’s beautiful.

The mission of Andy Academic, then, is to work with students as they explore their personal “why” and “how” in the academic arena.