With the help of ZeeMee, high school students now have the means to enhance their college applications through videos and pictures that showcase their personality.

“ZeeMee is an app where students can create videos, bring their stories to life and share those story to colleges,” Head of Education for ZeeMee Ethan Lin said. “It’s a multimedia portfolio where you can share your passions, your talents, your motivations and drives so colleges can see your true, genuine self.”

ZeeMee was created by Juan Jaysingh and Adam Metcalf about three years ago and is meant to show all sides of a student instead of just standardized test scores, short essays, IQ and socioeconomic backgrounds. The app resembles some of the popular social media platforms on the app store as to appeal to the “Snapchat generation.”

ZeeMee’s purpose is to aid students on their college application journey. Users can upload videos of poem citations, talent showcasing or what’s on their mind. Users can also create albums and add photos, like or unlike videos, pin or unpin videos, watch others’ stories and connect with other ZeeMee users in groups. ZeeMee users have created pages about their love of volunteering, what they learned on a study abroad trip and how they are an integral part of their community.

“One of the things we’ve learned a lot is that colleges value long term planning, character and grit,” Lin said. “These are learning attributes that help students succeed.”

ZeeMee is currently partnered with over 15,000 high schools and 220 colleges including Point Loma Nazarene University, Drew University and Carnegie Mellon University. One of the shining attributes of ZeeMee is that anyone can use it. Students don’t need a studio or expensive video equipment to make an interesting page. Around two thousand students a day create profiles on this app.

This app allows students to showcase the best parts of themselves in a personal and interactive way. Many colleges want to conduct interviews but either don’t have the time or resources. With ZeeMee, a college can better assess a student’s fit, growth mindset and cognitive grit. By sending out their ZeeMee URL to the colleges they apply to, students are letting colleges see the traits they have that aren’t expressed in the application.

“We believe everyone’s story matters,” Lin said. “We want to bring their stories to life and help them gain opportunities in life through sharing their stories.”