Ben Purcell has more than 10 years of experience helping students raise their SAT/ACT exam scores and crafting application-enhancing college essays, working both independently and for major national/regional tutoring companies.

His students have gone on to win major scholarships and attend Ivy League schools. For 5 years, he lived and worked in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, teaching test prep in private and public schools and working as a teaching/research assistant to a history department chair at Northwestern University. Ben is currently in his 6th year as a social studies teacher at Simon Youth Graduation Academy, an alternative high school within Indianapolis Public Schools for students facing challenging circumstances. He was recently given Graduation Academy’s “Teacher of the Year” honor for the second year in a row and is currently implementing a school-wide literacy initiative after being awarded a grant for the project by IPS. In 2024, he was awarded the Eli Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Grant.

Ben graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in History from the Honors College at Ball State University and was granted the school’s prestigious Whitinger Scholarship, awarded to only 10 students, for all four undergraduate years. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Teaching from Marian University.

In his free time, Ben enjoys reading about history, going on road trips, and spending time with his wife, Jenny, who is also the Office Manager at Step by Step Academics.