bios
happy, productive students
are naturally better college candidates
Eda S. Chen, Owner + President
Schedule a
Free Consultation
Eda S. Chen
Owner + President of Elan Advising
Academic Success Coach, College Admissions and Career Consultant
Eda Chen is the Owner and President of Élan Advising, based in Davis, California. Élan is the only education consulting company on the market that offers Academic Success Coaching℠—our unique, trademarked brand of Life Coaching for young people, College Admissions Consulting and Career Consulting.
Eda has over seven years of experience working with high school and college students and considers young people to be a most profound—and fun—age group. She loves witnessing the different stages of young people as their identities, values and life purposes become ever clearer.
It was through her time as a SAT/ACT tutor that Eda became more and more knowledgeable of students and families’ struggles with the college admissions process. She decided that the time had come to build something better: a college admissions consulting firm that incorporates both consulting to clarify the applications process and “academic life coaching” for the student’s personal well-being and growth.
It’s not enough that students get into college: they need the skills and systems to be productive and joyful in their high school lives well before they’re on the way to college. Students need to learn how to work efficiently and thrive in an environment with little to no structure, a must for anyone who wishes to succeed in college and the working world. They need to develop the tools to be resilient and to know how to take the steps--on their own--to further genuine interests.
Simply put: Happy, productive students are naturally better college candidates.
Eda is a Dallas, Texas native and an alumna of the Hockaday School. She graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Linguistics.
She is Co-Founder of L/E AA Investments, LLC, a commercial property investing group, as well as a member of the Davis Chamber of Commerce and Soroptimist International of Davis.
Eda is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She used to be able to read novels in Spanish; she is mildly conversational in French. Her interests include scuba diving, reading, traveling, kickboxing, nutrition, neuroscience, physics, political science, sociolinguistics, education policy, chocolate, tea, Harry Potter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Denise Marquez, Marketing + Business Development Intern
Denise Kaira 'Kaye' Marquez
Marketing + Business Development Intern
Denise Kaira Marquez is a third year at the University of California at Davis. She is studying Sociology Organizational Studies and Communications and wishes to pursue her Masters in Business Administration. She is currently employed part-time at the UC Davis Extension Center for Human Services.
Denise also serves as the President of the Prytanean Women’s Honor Society and dedicates most of her time to the organization that has become her family. Denise is grateful to be surrounded by caring, positive women who continue to inspire her through their achievements and support. She is also a member of the UC Davis Chapter of National Society of Leaders and Success. Denise is confident the responsibilities, professionalism, and overall experience of her internship and extracurricular activities will help her achieve success.
In her free time she enjoys hiking, singing, playing piano and guitar, writing poetry, and dancing. She also loves to spend time with people she cares about and go on spontaneous adventures!
DID YOU KNOW?
Élan, pronounced /EY-lanh/, was chosen for the energy and optimism it connotes.
It is a noun originating in French and means "ardor, vivacity, flair," as in "he played the concerto with great élan."
The name is a dedication to Eda's father, Alan, the hardest-working person she knows; it is also a dedication to Eda's high school English teacher, who was the first person to show Eda some very tough love.