Help with writing recommendation!

<p>I was recently asked to write a letter of recommendation for a student, but I am not sure what to include. </p>

<p>A little background…
I work at a major business consulting firm and the letter is for our student intern who has worked for me for about a year. He has been amazing. Our firm only hires from top universities/ivies, and he performs at a similar level as our college grads, and frankly often better. I want to be sure to capture this in my letter and I think I have a good grasp on this part with some great work examples to highlight. However, I am not sure how much non-work info to include. The student comes from a low income family with twelve siblings and also an inner city public high school. Is this something that I should touch on in the letter since it makes his accomplishments even more impressive? Or should I just focus on his work?</p>

<p>Any suggestions would be appreciated. As you can probably tell we would all really like to see him succeed.</p>

<p>Maybe you should ask him how much personal info he is okay with you sharing? I think that it might be nice if you mention him as a whole <em>person</em>, not just as an employee, but some people are very private. And, even if he isn’t private, the schools may already know his home situation (I think that on the common app there is a spot to list siblings, and they will know what school he is coming from), so it may just be unnecessary. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>