Case Studies

The Average Student

“Average” students are not typically challenged academically and usually have not yet discovered their strengths.

Brian’s challenge was overcoming the perception that he’s “just an average student.” Throughout middle and high school, teachers and guidance counselors didn’t expect much from him academically. Because of this, he was enrolled in the basic curriculum and was not encouraged to take honors classes. He believed that attending community college was his only option for higher education and that his experience there would be a continuation of high school.

Brian is, however, a disciplined and process-oriented person. His basketball coaches noticed this about him right away – he created and followed a precise schedule for training, practices and games and kept records of everything he did. Brian knows that if he doesn’t stay committed to the process, he would waste his talent. As a passionate athlete, he also knows that surrounding himself with better players is what pushes him to strive for excellence on the basketball court.

Although he didn’t realize it at first, he also felt the same way about college. That is why the idea of going to a community college didn’t hold much excitement for him.

When he first came to PROJECT: LIFE in January of 2007, Brian told us that his parents thought the service was too expensive for someone who was going to a local community college. Brian wanted more than that, however, and was willing to contribute financially and mentally to the process.

The first step was to help him to discover his strengths – discipline and being process-oriented – and then show him how those strengths could be used to find the college and major field of study that best suited him.

Just as he kept a strict schedule and record for basketball, together we set up a schedule for reaching his goal. It was a different kind of “training” and “practicing” and it included rigorous studying for the SATs, writing essays over and over until they couldn’t get any better, and sticking to the plan we set up. Part of the plan included having Brian himself set up interviews with deans, admissions officers and coaches at the various colleges we had chosen together. In doing so, he had to be honest and share his history. This is called “advocating” for oneself and it’s a wonderful lesson for him to have learned.

Brian has since visited, interviewed with and applied at five colleges. These are schools that his guidance councilor had told him were beyond his skills and abilities. What has changed? These colleges believe in Brian because Brian now believes in himself. In fact, one dean told us that Brian is a “dream student” because he will model the right behavior and attitude to other students.

All his life he was told, “the best you can hope for is community college.” But Brian wouldn’t have thrived there; he would have just gone along. Because he was willing to accept responsibility for, and ownership of, each step in the process, he realizes that he has much more control over both the process and the outcome. The result is that he now has more choices and more opportunities, not just at college, but in all aspects of his life.