Yesterday, Monday August 27, we began a new College semester at Valencia. It’s always exciting to see new faces, young and older students alike, in a pursuit of a future. We have long embraced a strategy that we call “Start Right.” The way we wrote it in 2001 said, “Ensure that students experience extraordinary learning success in their earliest encounters with the college and establish a solid foundation for success in future learning.”
Twelve years later, we remain convinced that the first “earliest encounters” are critical for a student’s future success. However, the ideas of Start Right can go far beyond the fact that the first classes a student takes are critical. Yes, that is what our research shows—students who succeed in their first 4-7 classes have a very high rate of graduation, completing their degree or certificate. But, if said poorly, then the idea of “Start Right” can seem like a doom for the student who did not do so well. How then, with a new semester upon us, can you start right even if your first steps, first classes haven’t gone so well.
The first thing to realize is that IT CAN BE DONE! Let me tell you a story—last year, we were able to hire a tutor for History; we had been looking for someone to come work with our students, and finally, the tutoring center hired a young man who had been a former student, Sean. I had high praise for Sean when the tutoring center called for a reference as he had performed extremely well in my class, and was currently completing his Master’s Degree at UCF. Yet, the best part of the story for Sean was that he had actually taken my class years before, in his first year at Valencia…and he failed miserably. In fact, he did so poorly that term, that he decided to drop out of school, get a job and try to figure out his life. About 5 years later he came back to College with a vision and a dream, and even though had had NOT started as right as we would wish, he was able to succeed.
If you find yourself in the same boat as Sean, if you’ve done poorly before in College, and the odds and statistics are stacked against you, have hope. You can do it! Don’t let the past haunt you.
Second, as you approach this term, have a purpose, a dream that can propel you forward. As I mentioned about Sean’s story, initially he was just a young man drifting, coming to College because that’s what he thought he was supposed to do. Yet, he didn’t really want to be there. There was nothing that was inspiring him. If I have learned anything in my 48 years, it is that if you don’t really see the point nor understand how the hard work required leads to a dream, then you won’t do the work. You’ll try to do good; you’ll want to step forward and certainly no one comes to college thinking “I hope I fail this class.” Without purpose, though, once it gets hard (and it is ALWAYS hard), then most people just quit.
If you’ve never thought about your dreams, that’s okay as long as you use this time to be on a search. Even just knowing that you are investigating will empower you.
Third, do the little things. So often as I work with students, it isn’t the major assessments, those projects or tests that are worth 15-25% of your grade, that do you in. The weight and seriousness of those things are fairly obvious so that even the weakest student realizes that they’d better buckle down. Yet, even if you focus hard at this point, if you have been slack at the little things, you may find out that your position is unrecoverable. I’ve told you before that the purpose of practice, that perhaps tiresome and repetitive grind of daily preparation, is there in order for you to build habits. In many classes in College, where a student dooms themselves is in the simple act of coming to class. My class, like many of my peers, has a built in penalty for the student who doesn’t come to class. Or, if the student comes to the classroom, they mentally aren’t there. They haven’t done anything to prepare for that day’s class, or have failed to do the homework assigned by the professor in the last class to solidify the work done then. Prep work, reading, homework…these are the little things that will make or break a student.
Determine now that you will be focused on the details. Get a calendar and place the due dates on it (there are many apps for this, as well as good old pen and paper). Don’t dismiss the small activities like reading, posting in a discussion or turning in the simple work due.
A new day has dawned. Here, at Valencia, we’ve just begun our fall term, but in reality, every day is a the start of a brand new life. Put these three concepts into action and you too can “Start Right.”