vanlare

HWS News

29 January 2026 • Alums VanLare '25 Joins City Year

Former Tutor Corps coordinator is taking the lessons she learned at Hobart and William Smith to help students excel. 

Jillian VanLare ’25 is working to help students become the best versions of themselves and support their academic abilities as a Student Success Coach with City Year Greater Boston.

In her role, VanLare mentors children at John J. McGlynn Elementary School, a K-8th-grade school in the Greater Boston area, tutoring them in English Language Arts and mathematics, along with supporting their social-emotional growth. She also volunteers as the assistant girls' basketball coach. 

"My time at HWS really impressed upon me the importance of a relationship-rich education," says VanLare. "City Year now allows me to foster those relationships from a leading role." 

She says her education shaped how she supports different communities with respect for each person’s individuality, and that HWS prepared her to do that work anywhere.

"I went to the colleges as someone who valued service and community; I left the colleges as someone ready to act in pursuit and support of those wherever I went," she says. 
 

VanLare graduated magna cum laude in philosophy. On campus, she also worked in the Dance and Movement Studies Department, the Office of Admissions and the Dean’s Office. She served as an executive board member of Kinetic Dance Collective, an Orientation Coordinator in 2024 and won multiple awards, including the President’s Civic Leadership Award, the Hai Timiai Green Award and the First Year Academic Achievement Award. 

In the summer of 2023, VanLare served as a research fellow with Emma Yeager ’24 during the 35th annual Body Mind Centering Association conference and the Somatic Dance Conference and Performance Festival. During this time, she operated lighting and sound boards and coordinated events.