3 Surprising Perks to Internships
Who knew an internship could have such an impact on a college student? Not me! My name is Emily Wilburn, and I had the privilege of interning for Growing Leaders this summer. I am a rising senior at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. I am majoring in Business Management and Entrepreneurship with a minor in Non-Profit Management. Throughout
Lies We Tell Our Kids
Follow @TimElmore My friend Greg Doss is an educator. He recently told me about Annie, a high school student who was ranked among the top five in her class. She always wanted to know who was ranked above her and how they could possibly be taking more A.P. classes than she was. It didn’t surprise me to learn that Annie never
How Long Can Our Current College System Last?
Follow @TimElmore I just dropped my son off at college, as a transfer student, in California. He studied for two years at a local community college and is now off to finish his degree. What’s interesting is, he’s heading out just as many college boards are contemplating their futures. Some educational experts predict loads of universities won’t be around in twenty
One Way Students Overcome the Fear of Rejection
Rejection Therapy Do you see what I’m seeing among college students today? As I labor to develop young leaders, I’m finding that an increasing number of them shrink from stepping into leadership positions because they’re afraid of the rejection they could face as a result. For instance, many claim they don’t want to serve as a Resident Advisor in a dorm
The Secret to Building Empathy in College Students
If you have your ear to the ground at all these days, you've heard of the significance of stories among students. Narrative has replaced so many forms of argument and persuasion. I wonder, however, if you've ever discovered why? Further, have you read how telling stories actually cultivates empathy in students? A new neuroscience study may explain why telling stories builds empathy and
Podcast #22: The Who & the What of Leadership with Tim Spiker
Click Here to Listen Recently I had the great privilege to discuss with Tim Spiker, who has served as a key note speaker, author, leadership coach, small group facilitator, researcher (both qualitative and quantitative), and in-house leader development manager. Here are a few notes from our discussion. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Your recent book Who Not What
How to Feed America’s “Starving” Teachers
Follow @TimElmore I just read a fascinating study published by Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond at Stanford University. The study demonstrates that U.S. faculties have a more difficult job and work under more challenging conditions than teachers in other industrialized nations. Hmmm. Imagine that. You and I both know that for years, educators have observed international test results as a gauge to measure
Six Steps to Helping Students Overcome Struggles
Follow @TimElmore Yesterday, I explained the term, “over-functioning parent.” It’s relatively new to our daily language but has been around for a long time. It’s a euphemism for the mom or dad who is overactive during their kid’s childhood… forgetting they’re raising a future adult. We adults have been guilty of over-functioning, even if we’re not parents. You and I make up
Why Adults Render Kids Helpless
Follow @TimElmore Have you heard the term “over-functioning parents”? It’s relatively new to our daily language but has been around for a long time. It’s a euphemism for the mom or dad who is overactive during their kid’s childhood… forgetting they’re raising a future adult. Over-functioning is simply the predisposition to do too much for our children, to intervene and remove common
The Connection Between Happiness and Self Control
Follow @TimElmore Research has just been released that confirms what so many parents, teachers, coaches and youth workers have been saying to kids for years now. According to TIME journalist Maia Szalavitz, in an article entitled “Self-Disciplined People are Happier (and Not as Deprived as You Think),” there is a direct link between self-discipline and fulfillment: “…researchers found a strong connection between higher
How Generation Z Differs from Generation Y
Follow @TimElmore The numbers are coming in from studies of younger teens, who are part of Generation Z (also known as “Homelanders”, these kids follow Generation Y). They are part of a population who grew up post-911, where terrorism is part of the landscape, a sour economy is all they remember, and uncertainty defines our mindsets. In many ways, we need to
Four Investments to Decrease College Transfers
We live in a mobile world — mobile homes, mobile phones, mobile apps…and now more than ever, mobile college students. I just met with an informal focus group and every one of them was attending a different college than the one they first entered. My son was one of them. We dropped him off in California this month to finish
Putting Boundaries on the Digital World
Follow @TimElmore The following is a terrific guest post from Renee Robinson. She is a mother who puts boundaries on some of the electronics her sons request. Her kids still enjoy the digital world, but it’s a servant, not a master. While I write blogs for educators and coaches, I recognize many of you are parents, too. Enjoy the letter she
How Israeli & Palestinian Teens Work as a Team
Ashley Moore, a friend of mine, just told me about a couple of her college classmates, Casey and Dana, who started a nonprofit organization with a most unusual mission. In fact, you may find it hard to believe. Casey and Dana launched a summer program called the Society for Humanitarian Archaeological Research and Exploration, or “SHARE.” Their primary work is to sponsor
One Kid Who’s Solving Problems and Serving People
You and I live in a disposable world. So many items we use from day to day are thrown away when we’re finished—from soft drink cups or plastic bottles, to milk cartons, candy wrappers, paper towels, boxes and mail. You name it, we’ve found a way to throw it away. Since the 1970’s, we’ve heard about the problem of landfill,
Standardized Tests are Not the Only Measure of a Student
Alison Owen didn’t expect to tear up when she opened her 11-year-old son Charlie’s standardized test results on Monday, but that’s exactly what she did. “It made me cry,” she said to a TODAY reporter. Accompanying the results was a letter from members of the faculty at Charlie’s school, Barrowford Primary School in the U.K., reminding students that there were more
5 Ways to Cure the “Cool Kid” Curse
Follow @TimElmore Believe it or not, Justin Bieber is merely a picture of so many others his age. For that matter, so is Miley Cyrus, and the list goes on and on. At 13, they were viewed by classmates with envy and admiration. Ten years later, the early signs of maturation and the advanced "cool factor" backfires. And you don't need
How to Help Millennials Move On… Instead of Move Home
Have you read the recent statistics on Millennials? A record 21.6 million of these young adults are living at home with mom and dad. That’s more than a third of these people—many of them college grads—who’ve returned home, like a boomerang, instead of stepping out into the world as independent young professionals. Pew Research Center released these numbers this month, reporting
Do We Keep Score on the Wrong Stuff?
Follow @TimElmore Many of us as parents have a new score card we use to evaluate our success. How we keep score, however, makes all the difference: 1. Parent scorecard: A win is providing ease and comfort for our kids. We never had instructive models or memories ourselves. It may be that we tend to do this because it’s the only way we know.
Responding to 5 Trends in Youth Morality (Part 2)
Today, I further delve into a series on students and morality. While some behaviors are improving among teens and young adults, morality is on a slippery decline. My last post revealed five troubling sources for students' morals today: Morals are determined by results or consequences. Morals are determined by pleasure or happiness. Morals are determined by reputation or appearance. Morals are determined by context or environment. Morals