Dear Parents,
I’m going to share a secret; please don’t freak. I’ve been talking to the grandchildren of your kids. While talking to your children about their paths to college I’ve actually been talking to your future great-grandchildren. Crazy, right?
As an educational consultant my support of students as they identify, apply and select a best-fit college is actually a secondary focus. If I accomplish my primary goal in serving students and their parents, successful college identification and acceptance is a natural result. Yes, generating a college choice list, essay development and application assistance is very much part of the college application campaign, but having students identify why they are going to college is actually what drives their choices and the work they produce.
Start with Why? – Simon Sinek
The interest in my students’ kids – and their grandkids – actually has very little to do with which college my current students ultimately choose to attend. My real interest is in the simple social, reflection and leadership concepts I cover as preparation for their success in the application process, academic college career… and life. Identifying a best-fit college is a result of authentically answered foundational and important questions, first. Answer “Why college?” well and students’ success in college dramatically increases.
The work I do with students to develop powerful and useful “life-skills” – things like a good hand shake and the power of Thank You notes – and a healthy mindset drives their successful best-fit college selection to be much more efficient and effective. College choice and future success happens as a result of their growth and understanding for who they are, where they want to go… and why. Lots of why. If those foundational skills are not built first, the “college stuff” is much more difficult and they are less successful when they attend, graduate and head into the world of adults.
The Iroquois Nation traditionally practiced an insightful (and very humbling) long-view approach to making important decisions for the community. The foundational tenet was “What impact would a decision today have on a community member living seven generations in the future?” How would what we put in motion today influence the lives of those more than three hundred years from now? But how does that philosophy and long-view governance apply to working with students and their college selections? As an educator of twenty-five years I can say without reservation: powerful and meaningful things teens learn today are things they will share with their kids. How we approach our time with teens can influence the world hundreds of years in the future, if we chose to think that way.
What would I consider an indication of successful educational consulting? If I could ask the grandchildren of one of my current students, “What are some important things in creating a healthy, happy and long life?” and they answer, “A good handshake. Relationships. Empathy. Self-reflection. Always improve yourself. Practicing 20 seconds of insane courage….and saying Please and Thank You.” Then to find they learned these things from their parents…who learned them from their parents, who worked with me as we worked on foundational “life-skills” related to identifying a college. That’s what I consider success.
The work an educational consultant does is primarily about a student’s college campaign – and it should be – but it is also an invaluable opportunity to create a much greater and long-term impact on teens… and possibly how they relate to their kids…who will teach their grandkids. And that is why I like to believe I am not just talking to a student about preparing for success in college and in life – I’m really trying to talk to their grandkids. Your future great-grandchildren.
There is a new trend at some universities – supplementing food services with food trucks on campus. The University of Chicago takes this to an admirable level. Fifteen food trucks, representing every type of food you can imagine were represented between two locations on campus. I decided to take one for the team and try… two. If you tour the University of Chicago campus during lunch, you should try Lucy’s “Porky Fries” – smoked, pulled pork on hand cut fries with BBQ sauce on the side, next to sweet hot peppers. A short walk and then a nap should follow immediately.