STUDENT AMERICA 2017

WHAT LATE HIGH SCHOOLERS & EARLY COLLEGE STUDENTS NEED TODAY IS...

EMPATHY FIRST BY US INSTEAD OF FINGER POINTING AT THEM OR JUDGING THEM: When you have this little device in your fingertips or screen in your face since you were 11 (or even younger today with Gen Z), is that your fault as you graduate high school entering into college? This lifestyle and mentality that has been created where as a student you expect everything around you to happen at the speed of a click or download, did you ask for that? Was this a lifestyle situation dealt to students; did they really choose it or know better to balance? Has this lead to an even larger issue in terms of skill digression? What do we need to do to meet them in the middle? One great thing we can do right away is to simply ask about what they are doing and to show you it (you have to be interested in it).

UNDERSTAND SKILLS AGAIN AND HOW TO PRACTICE THEM DAILY THRU EFFORTS: Those skills put in a spotlight that are digressing today are called Soft Skills, Employable Skills, and Life Skills. Basically, any skills involving people.

If you look at the skills of young people today that have been drastically effected by devices, overall innovation, and specific technologies, one can most likely see both sides of the picture. If you are someone that understands technology then you can put a line down the middle of what or when it's to much. If you don't you typically shut off or take an angle of why technology is bad. We need to understand both with good balance.

The skills today that are desired by hiring managers we will talk about are Soft Skills. Just some of the key Soft Skills I am talking about specific here today are:

• Interpersonal Skills (1:1 interaction effectiveness or in a team or group collaborating, speaking, or sharing ideas)
• Communication Skills being the overall process and interaction regarding communication on and offline
• Creative Thinking (self explanatory)
• And my personal favorite one; one that I feel has been DRASTICALLY effected by the right now information superhighway is RESILIENCY. Yes, it's a soft skill. Being resilient. Also can be referred to from time to time as your EQ, or emotional intelligence. And it's flat out game changing when students have direction, a purpose, a plan, a backup plan, follow up, and a feeling of progressing because they are taking SOME ACTION for their futures, now, early on. It's called EFFORT. Effort into preparing thru discovery, learning, meeting new people, and making decisions. Effort + Awareness x direction is extremely helpful to young people.
• Some other soft skills are: Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Adaptability, Process Management, and Teamwork.

EFFORT MIXED WITH TRUE AWARENESS FROM EXPERTS WHO DID IT: The effort and awareness of what it takes today to get setup for success earlier, defining your own success, and having strategies and a plan that make sense to connect with the most important factor fueling their success: PEOPLE. US. Basically you reading this. In another article coming soon, I will define what success looks like for young people. For now, what does student effort look like and how can you help a young person?

Imagine if a young person called you? Yes, picked up the phone, left you a VM and asked you for 30 minutes of your time because they have a whole bunch of questions on their field, before they decide if they want to get into the field. And they have to meet in person is the catch. You may be saying right now, yeah right, they would never. That is where you are so wrong about GEN Z. But, if they did call you, are you really going to say no to them? They had the awareness to do this, the mindset behind it, and put the effort in to reach out and keep doing it until they get a meeting with you. Ahhhhh, resilience. They have purpose, had the hootzpah (not sure of that spelling;) to ask, and know that you have some or more then some of the answers to many of their questions. Again, are you really going to deny them? No.

See, that is what they need to be guided, directed, and told to do. They need to be given the encouragement that people will actually speak with them if they just ask. They will need to put in the effort to reach out professionally with purpose and messaging with the goal in mind clearly to discover more key info before they dive into life's next paths. We call that an informational interview and we teach a whole system around it.

In Carol Dweck's, book Mindset, she talks about a Growth Mindset vs. a Fixed Mindset while also speaking in depth about just that, effort.

She states that "our studies show that teaching people to have a 'growth mindset', which encourages a focus on effort rather then on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life." This goes to the point of when parents say, 'just focus on your grades and school work hunny then when you get to college or out of college you can work'. That is devastating and crippling in so many ways to a young person either in high school or college depending on when they hear that. Maybe I am biased because I self funded 130K of my own tuition but maybe not either.

Carol Dweck also mentions in the book Mindset that "if you are a parent and want to give your children a real gift, give them the gift to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning, that way their kids will not be slaves of praise." I would say the good job kid is only good if it was good or won.

We all love incentive, a contest, recognition, or a vision for what we are doing or shooting for. Those approaches are lost arts for employers, parents, and academia in general. You should get a trophy when you hit a goal or WIN, not just participate. Achievement is award. Miss achieving your goal then you learn how to get that award next time.

There are no safe spaces in life but today we have overprotected and made too many of those safe spaces and that can weaken a generation coming next. Today, awareness again and again repetitively, effort in targeted areas, and hard work with purpose are the only safe spaces. Your brain and mindset is your safe space because you control it. If you, as a student (or a parent), are not focused with the right mindset being a growth one, then fix it and change it now. A Mindset that comes with a daily 'attitude of gratitude' to all who are ready to teach you. Are you ready to learn the real world early? If not, your road ahead is going to be a tough one. A really tough one.

Case in point of a challenging 9 month 'tough road' that left, in a survey of 50,000 students in 2014 "54.6% of 2014 college grads underemployed or unemployed 9 months following graduation". - Found in: Looksharp, 2016 State of College hiring report.

MASSIVE WAKE UP CALL on building relationships much earlier with people (early college) so they trust you have what it takes when you graduate to hire you. People need to have seen you develop over time in college, not just in a 3 week introduction to you prior to graduation. It's the trust cycle of time aka building relationships with relevant targeted people over time. You do this so when you approach graduation or even that first internship, there is trust there to go out on a limb for you and pull that HIRE BUTTON. It's called relationship building, and it needs to make a comeback in 2017.

So as we wrap up here, what all high schoolers and college students today need is awareness of what it takes today to be successful, the direction by experts, and the targeted effort thru today's over information highway. They need the purpose in terms of reasons why they are doing what they are doing, a plan, and a backup plan.

Overall, it's a numbers game in terms of relevance and targeted contacts to make sure they meet enough people doing what they think they want to, so when they decide to, they can.

This is my passion and purpose as a National Student Success Ambassador, waving the student success 'Be proactive early' flag heading into 2017. We teach them Getting Setup. Being Aware. Marketing Yourself. Selling Yourself. Having a plan. Practicing Soft Skills. Having a True System in place for success as a young person, now, early. We do this so they take something with them for life. A System for their early Success.

For more info on coaching or speaking to Seniors in HS or College, please reach out to: [email protected] or connect with me here on LinkedIn with a request for a call. For students in high school looking for a volunteer internship or on campus ambassadorship please reach out directly to me and let's see what you got! Share your thoughts here to!