May 23,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, When it comes time to apply to colleges, we may not be serving our children well.
That’s according to a growing chorus of voices who work with youth and their academic endeavors. For example, Malcolm Gladwell, one of the most recognizable public intellects, regularly asserts that brand prestige from an Ivy League name doesn’t necessarily suit the needs of individual students.
Jeffrey Leiken, CEO of Evolution Mentoring International, agrees. He provides mentoring for teens and young adults, going beyond the typical work of a therapist by building a relationship so that they come to see Leiken as a trusted confidant who answers their late-night text messages and isn’t quick to label them.
“We continue to be obsessed with being associated with the top 1 percent of anything, whether it’s wealth, looks, social media followers or achieving that Ivy League status,” says Leiken, author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood” (www.Leiken.com).
“Far more important is not the school’s brand and our cultural obsession with it. Rather, it’s helping to ensure that every student who attends any school gets closer to reaching their potential.”
What criteria should students and parents look for when determining where to apply for college? Leiken offers some crucial guidelines to keep in mind.
• Seek a college with programs that may help with lifelong skills. Self-awareness, self-leadership, self-actualization – those qualities are often overlooked when considering higher education. Learning the tangible skills for a future job is important. However, those requirements change over time. Coursework, professors and other programs that speak to a student’s ethical intuition, however, make up the educational gold that is enduring.
• Look beyond the typical menu of schools. There is a common denominator among millions of 17-year-olds: an anxious balance between their “reach” schools and their “safety” schools. It turns out that many college counselors guide these kids to a similar list of “reach” and “safety” schools – about 50 of them. Between public and private institutions, there arethousands of other schools to choose from!
• Ask yourself, “Where will I flourish?” Learn more about the culture of these institutions. There are two distinct stages for young adults in college life: the time where students adjust to a new environment and, later, when students realize they are becoming independent adults. A name-brand school isn’t necessarily the best place for millions of kids to best reach maturity.
“Just as we don’t all wear the same size clothing,” Leiken says, “the intellectual development of young adults doesn’t always fit into the same small box of name-brand schools.”
About Jeffrey Leiken
Jeffery Leiken (www.Leiken.com) is the CEO of Evolution Mentoring International and is co-founder of HeroPath International. Leiken also is author of “Adolescence is Not a Disease: Beyond Drinking, Drugs and Dangerous Friends – The Journey to Adulthood.” He has presented at TED in Athens, Greece; guest lectured at Stanford University; and facilitated programs for teenagers on three continents and in seven countries, among other accomplishments. He has a master’s degree in educational counseling.
so,so, true. they don’t like getting dirty.
or just take a gap year and tour the globe with daddy on the taxpayers dime before he leaves the White House.
Yes, Yes Yes….and the cottage industry that has sprung up all over town fostering this myth of top tier or bust is destroying our children. The real problem is getting it through the parents thick egos and heads. Sorry Ridgewood parents and your 100 million dollar school budget…Where you go is not who you will be, Yale or no Yale. Thinking that this regimented, linear path that you have been beating into your children because it was BEATEN INTO YOU since birth works is nonsense. You can’t measure a high school student by their GPA or test scores, nor can you evaluate a college grad by what school they attended or their grades. Whats harder to measure but far more important is a young adults level of grit, engagement, optimism, integrity, people skills, street smarts, stamina, and determination. When I graduated from college within 2 or 3 years nobody gave a crap where I went…They wanted to know what I did for them today…
4:30 How can I arrange for my son to travel the world on the taxpayer dime?
no job,s good luck , we hope u no some one to get a job.
re: “4:30 How can I arrange for my son to travel the world on the taxpayer dime?”
7:59 – get elected president and then abuse your power