Why
Mindset & Agency?
Put simply, Mindset & Agency are the strongest levers we have to lift students up so they can succeed—anywhere!
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world.”
It’s not really about academics…
More and more scientific evidence is showing that it’s what students bring with them to college, such as resilience, self-regulation, academic curiosity, etc., and how they interact with the college’s environment that largely determines student success.
These skills & characteristics are highly interconnected in real life. A student’s confidence in themselves and interest in an activity impact their motivation and willingness to regulate their learning or behavior, which in turn, impact their resilience, goal setting, help-seeking, and more.
In my work with families, I group them under 2 broad and interconnected concepts - Academic Mindset & Student Agency.
The college's environment can either complement or challenge a student's Mindset and Agency.
Success depends on a good match.
Students who enjoy intellectual activity more than others tend to do better at schools where faculty are invested more personally in students’ academics and engage them in deeper learning activities. They tend to feel disengaged and disappointed at schools where their classes are focused more on surface level knowledge and taught by graduate assistants. Students who like less intellectual activity experience more of the opposite.
Every single college student deals with countless sources of stress during college, whether it’s relationship issues, poor grades, a bad class experience, death in the family, changing majors, or even figuring out how they will afford to eat this week. Students who respond to stress effectively and positively are more successful at schools regardless of how easy or difficult it is to access resources. But students who need extra support to respond effectively, tend to do better at campuses where they are not anonymous and it’s easier for them to find help or where faculty, staff, and peers can see when they need help.
How I Use Mindset & Agency to Help Students Succeed
My College Readiness services focus on developing Mindset & Agency in middle school and high school students to help prepare them for college and career success.
I assess students Mindset and Agency to identify how they would match with different college environments to help guide their college search, decision making, and success planning.
So families can address mismatches between the student and the selected college environment, My College Success guide provides practical and powerful success strategies unavailable from other college consultants.