Thursday, November 1, 2012
What to do if you're a city mouse in a small community college
One of my YouTube subscribers asked me a great question about his community college situation, which I answered in the video below! You can ask me your question at advice@communitycollegesuccess.com (you'll remain anonymous unless you request otherwise). You never know - your question could help a lot of other people :)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The #1 thing you should do to increase your motivation
For the last two days I have felt uncharacteristically unmotivated. I ignored my to-do list, spent way too much time on social media, and pretty much did anything but work. And I couldn't figure out why.
And then, this morning, I realized I had lost my goal sheet that I read every morning. It's a typed list of all the goals I have for this year and for the future. It's something I write every new year.
It got lost during my recent travels, and I hadn't been reading it every morning. It affected me more than I could have ever realized. Until this morning, I hadn't realized what a significant difference reading my goals every morning makes on my life.
Life is complicated and no matter how naturally motivated or over-achieving you are, it's easy to get side-tracked and forget why working hard is important or why it matters to you.
Success in anything requires incredibly hard work every single day. And daily hard work requires intense motivation. And the only way to get motivated is to remind yourself what you're working towards - every single day.
Have you written your goals down yet? Take a few minutes right now and write or type up your goals for this year. Make them positive, specific, and timely (e.g. I will graduate with my A.A. with honors by May 2013).
And make sure they are things you really really really want; your goals should be your heart's desires, because those are the things that will motivate you to do the things you don't want to do.
Print your goals out and put them somewhere where you'll read them every morning. Remind yourself every day what you want out of your life and what you want to accomplish. It will motivate you more than you could ever imagine.
And then, this morning, I realized I had lost my goal sheet that I read every morning. It's a typed list of all the goals I have for this year and for the future. It's something I write every new year.
It got lost during my recent travels, and I hadn't been reading it every morning. It affected me more than I could have ever realized. Until this morning, I hadn't realized what a significant difference reading my goals every morning makes on my life.
Life is complicated and no matter how naturally motivated or over-achieving you are, it's easy to get side-tracked and forget why working hard is important or why it matters to you.
Success in anything requires incredibly hard work every single day. And daily hard work requires intense motivation. And the only way to get motivated is to remind yourself what you're working towards - every single day.
Have you written your goals down yet? Take a few minutes right now and write or type up your goals for this year. Make them positive, specific, and timely (e.g. I will graduate with my A.A. with honors by May 2013).
And make sure they are things you really really really want; your goals should be your heart's desires, because those are the things that will motivate you to do the things you don't want to do.
Print your goals out and put them somewhere where you'll read them every morning. Remind yourself every day what you want out of your life and what you want to accomplish. It will motivate you more than you could ever imagine.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
How to make friends in college
A lot of students ask me how to make friends in college. While I share a lot of advice on this blog, my YouTube channel, and my book, in the end it all comes down to stepping outside your comfort zone. And recently, I was reminded just how hard that is:
Thursday, October 25, 2012
5 questions you should ask yourself mid-semester
The semester is a little over half-way over, and below are five questions you should ask yourself. Take a few seconds and jot down your answers - you'll be surprised by the great advice you can give yourself when you just take the time to listen. You have more wisdom than you realize.
1. Am I giving my college education my 110%? If the answer is no, why not?
2. What is one thing I know I need to do to improve my grades, but I keep avoiding?
3. What is one thing I did this semester that I'm really proud of and why?
4. What can I do more of in order to replicate those kinds of proud-moment experiences?
5. What advice would I give someone who was going through what I'm going through at this point of college?
Keep up the great work this semester, and keep on pushing. The end will be here before you know it, and there is no greater feeling in college than walking to the parking lot on the last day of the semester after your last exam, knowing you've given your 110%.
2. What is one thing I know I need to do to improve my grades, but I keep avoiding?
3. What is one thing I did this semester that I'm really proud of and why?
4. What can I do more of in order to replicate those kinds of proud-moment experiences?
5. What advice would I give someone who was going through what I'm going through at this point of college?
Keep up the great work this semester, and keep on pushing. The end will be here before you know it, and there is no greater feeling in college than walking to the parking lot on the last day of the semester after your last exam, knowing you've given your 110%.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Are you undroppable?
“I pushed myself. My name is Cynthia Gallardo and I am undroppable.”
Cynthia is a high school student who has overcome great odds – a father arrested, a teen pregnancy – to graduate high school. Today she is at community college, and she is one of the students who has inspired Jason Pollock to create the social media campaign and upcoming documentary Undroppable, of which Cynthia’s video is a part.
I recently spoke with Jason about his involvement with this project and what he’s learned after interviewing hundreds of high school students, in some of the most impoverished areas in the country.
Jason got his start in filmmaking as an assistant to Michael Moore, working on famous films such as Farenheit 9/11, and has always had a passion for showing young people what they can accomplish, as he did with his first documentary The Youngest Candidate.
Undroppable is all about bringing the students into the conversation. As Pollock said: “This is about the people who are part of the educational system, and showing what their lives are really like.”
Below is my interview with Jason, as what he said was just so great I knew I couldn’t say it any better myself, and I wanted you to get the chance to meet him:
What did you learn from interviewing so many high school kids who are struggling?
“I’ve interviewed hundreds of kids in America in the most impoverished areas; all of the testimonials online are just a fraction. I’ve sat with students for weeks at a time and really just cried with them. Kids that grow up with poverty have so many more obstacles than people realize.
“What I’ve learned the most is that there’s always different issues in education, but the big issue is poverty, and it affects kids in all these different ways. Poverty and the fact that their lives are so hard because of poverty and all that goes with it.
“When you live in poverty there is also all this aggression and you have to let it out, so obviously we see it come out in horrible ways like gangs, and drugs. So many of my kids have seen murder. They look me in the face with a straight face and say “ya I saw someone get killed.” It’s their reality. They’re just going to say it. There’s all these issues that make it so that they are having to survive. If you are having to worry about survival, then school is going to fall behind.”
When Jason said “my kids” I smiled in recognition, because it’s something I started saying a few months into my job when I was a Student Life Coordinator. I could tell and feel in Jason’s voice that these kids are so much more than a documentary to him. They have affected and inspired him, and it’s obviously that, like me, he sees these kinds of kids, who continue to strive for better and succeed in education, as heroes.
I noticed a lot of the students you interviewed in the beginning are now in community college. How do you think community colleges fit into breaking this cycle of poverty?
“Community colleges are integral in this process to fixing the dropout rate. Community college is where every kid goes who can’t afford to go to a university. Every kid in poverty goes to community college unless they get a big scholarship, and that’s rare. But if you do well in community college after two years you can transfer to basically any college in the country! Community college is a big part of closing the opportunity gap and helping any student be able to get anywhere.
“And in some ways, these kids that come from poverty and lift themselves up against all odds are so much more ready for college, because they have had to take it so seriously to get through. The kid who just rolls out of bed and doesn’t take high school seriously because he has it easy, can kind of just roll into college and continue to not take it seriously.”
What do you see in the students who are undroppable, who are continuing high school and going on to college despite the odds?
“The students that get through this horrible maze of poverty and reality, there’s one defining trait that they have – resiliency. So the question is, how do we build that trait? No matter what, when they’re bent, they don’t break. A lot of kids, and the reason we have so many dropouts, is that life bends a lot of people, and they break, and it’s incredibly understandable. It’s unreasonable how far life has bent some people. But there are these few people who don’t break no matter what.”
In my experience and in my book I talk about having support from a community being one of the most defining factors in success; have you seen that in any of these students?
“Yes! Most of the undroppable kids that I met had at least one person at home who is amazing, and it was never a surprise to me to talk to the student and then meet the amazing parent.
“Though of course sometimes it blows your mind when you meet an orphan who is getting through it. Students who are making it have amazing people around them, and they have a community of the school around them that cares. It takes a village.”
Shawndtrana’s video beautifully explains how her community helped her not break.
What advice do you have for students who are struggling to finish their education and are feeling like they are about to break?
“You’re just as smart as everyone else. I’ve met kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and kids that come from poor backgrounds are just as smart as everyone else, and if they work hard in school they can do anything anyone else does.
“Education really is the gateway to do whatever you want to do. And if you do well in community college and get good grades, and then put your background experience into an essay, every college is going to want to have you.”
The full-length documentary will premiere Fall 2013, but this week Jason will launch a tour to show pieces of the film to high schools across the country in order to begin the conversation and show struggling students two simple things – that they are not alone and that they can be undroppable.
To me, undroppable means realizing that no matter what you’ve been through, only you get to decide whether you’re a statistic or a success. Wherever you are in your educational journey, I encourage you to check out the Undroppable YouTube videos as a reminder, as they were to me, of what it means to rise above, to try, and to keep going no matter what.
Cynthia is a high school student who has overcome great odds – a father arrested, a teen pregnancy – to graduate high school. Today she is at community college, and she is one of the students who has inspired Jason Pollock to create the social media campaign and upcoming documentary Undroppable, of which Cynthia’s video is a part.
I recently spoke with Jason about his involvement with this project and what he’s learned after interviewing hundreds of high school students, in some of the most impoverished areas in the country.
Jason got his start in filmmaking as an assistant to Michael Moore, working on famous films such as Farenheit 9/11, and has always had a passion for showing young people what they can accomplish, as he did with his first documentary The Youngest Candidate.
Undroppable is all about bringing the students into the conversation. As Pollock said: “This is about the people who are part of the educational system, and showing what their lives are really like.”
Below is my interview with Jason, as what he said was just so great I knew I couldn’t say it any better myself, and I wanted you to get the chance to meet him:
What did you learn from interviewing so many high school kids who are struggling?
“I’ve interviewed hundreds of kids in America in the most impoverished areas; all of the testimonials online are just a fraction. I’ve sat with students for weeks at a time and really just cried with them. Kids that grow up with poverty have so many more obstacles than people realize.
“What I’ve learned the most is that there’s always different issues in education, but the big issue is poverty, and it affects kids in all these different ways. Poverty and the fact that their lives are so hard because of poverty and all that goes with it.
“When you live in poverty there is also all this aggression and you have to let it out, so obviously we see it come out in horrible ways like gangs, and drugs. So many of my kids have seen murder. They look me in the face with a straight face and say “ya I saw someone get killed.” It’s their reality. They’re just going to say it. There’s all these issues that make it so that they are having to survive. If you are having to worry about survival, then school is going to fall behind.”
When Jason said “my kids” I smiled in recognition, because it’s something I started saying a few months into my job when I was a Student Life Coordinator. I could tell and feel in Jason’s voice that these kids are so much more than a documentary to him. They have affected and inspired him, and it’s obviously that, like me, he sees these kinds of kids, who continue to strive for better and succeed in education, as heroes.
I noticed a lot of the students you interviewed in the beginning are now in community college. How do you think community colleges fit into breaking this cycle of poverty?
“Community colleges are integral in this process to fixing the dropout rate. Community college is where every kid goes who can’t afford to go to a university. Every kid in poverty goes to community college unless they get a big scholarship, and that’s rare. But if you do well in community college after two years you can transfer to basically any college in the country! Community college is a big part of closing the opportunity gap and helping any student be able to get anywhere.
“And in some ways, these kids that come from poverty and lift themselves up against all odds are so much more ready for college, because they have had to take it so seriously to get through. The kid who just rolls out of bed and doesn’t take high school seriously because he has it easy, can kind of just roll into college and continue to not take it seriously.”
What do you see in the students who are undroppable, who are continuing high school and going on to college despite the odds?
“The students that get through this horrible maze of poverty and reality, there’s one defining trait that they have – resiliency. So the question is, how do we build that trait? No matter what, when they’re bent, they don’t break. A lot of kids, and the reason we have so many dropouts, is that life bends a lot of people, and they break, and it’s incredibly understandable. It’s unreasonable how far life has bent some people. But there are these few people who don’t break no matter what.”
In my experience and in my book I talk about having support from a community being one of the most defining factors in success; have you seen that in any of these students?
“Yes! Most of the undroppable kids that I met had at least one person at home who is amazing, and it was never a surprise to me to talk to the student and then meet the amazing parent.
“Though of course sometimes it blows your mind when you meet an orphan who is getting through it. Students who are making it have amazing people around them, and they have a community of the school around them that cares. It takes a village.”
Shawndtrana’s video beautifully explains how her community helped her not break.
What advice do you have for students who are struggling to finish their education and are feeling like they are about to break?
“You’re just as smart as everyone else. I’ve met kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and kids that come from poor backgrounds are just as smart as everyone else, and if they work hard in school they can do anything anyone else does.
“Education really is the gateway to do whatever you want to do. And if you do well in community college and get good grades, and then put your background experience into an essay, every college is going to want to have you.”
The full-length documentary will premiere Fall 2013, but this week Jason will launch a tour to show pieces of the film to high schools across the country in order to begin the conversation and show struggling students two simple things – that they are not alone and that they can be undroppable.
To me, undroppable means realizing that no matter what you’ve been through, only you get to decide whether you’re a statistic or a success. Wherever you are in your educational journey, I encourage you to check out the Undroppable YouTube videos as a reminder, as they were to me, of what it means to rise above, to try, and to keep going no matter what.
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| A montage of Jason in action, filming the documentary. |
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