Starting with the end in mind

Teaching a class in Coker College 101 this semester. It is a class whose objective is to help new students get off on the right track in their college lives.

Deanne Frye of the Coker Career Services center gives Coker 101 students the overview of services they can take advantage to get a jump start on life after four years in college.

 SERENDIPITY
We got very lucky for our first class as Devin Jennings, a May grad, was on campus and she agreed to come in and talk with the new Coker students about her college career and her life after Coker. She is a busy person and was a busy person as a student. I know her observations hit home with at least a couple of students in the class. Devin spent a busy summer dancing in Los Angeles and in Richmond and she is now heading for NYC for more dance study with the Joffrey Ballet.  The students heard from one like them what it takes to succeed. Devin's thoughts are helping them start with the end in mind. Again, thank you Devin.

 
CAREER CENTER
Keeping with the theme of starting with the end in mind, Deanne Frye of the Coker College Career Center is talking with my group today about the assessments and tools that her department has to help students find their focus. I have not doubt they are going to both enjoy and learn from this presentation. This past summer I read a book, "The Unemployed Grad and What Parents Can Do about it", which is about helping students connect their thinking to the work place they will be entering in four years. A basic premise of the author's message was that students NEED to know and USE the career center. After today the students will have a solid ideas about the services offered. (Way back when I took some of the assessments provided by the career center at SUNY Cortland. The assessment said I should look toward a job in public relations. Turned out to be a place I spent a great deal of my work life.)

College is about a lot more than the first real-world job, but that is often a good place to begin the focus on you might use your next four years -- if you are a first-year college student.  Thank you Deanne!