The College Fair Experience For Us

I love to create another level of energy at the fairs. The students are moving from one college table to the next, asking questions or just picking up literature. Some have come to talk to representatives from specific schools and learn what they can to enhance their chance for admission

When they get to us, it is a whole different world. Our first question is: Do you know what career you want to pursue? At this juncture, one of two things occurs. They are either intrigued by oneTRUEzone and ask, “Can you REALLY help me figure out what I want to do?” The other students tell us about how they chose the field they are passionate about, and we can feel their energy and confidence. These are the students that ask us if we can help their friends. It is not unusual for these students to leave our space, and return later with another student or group of friends.

Then they engage us. They tell us they have no idea what they are good at, what they are most passionate about, nor which schools to consider, given their lack of clarity about what they really would love to do. We say, how could they know? They are clearly craving for us to help them. They speak of the help they do get at school, and of their guidance counselor, who is wonderful, but responsible for such a large caseload of students, that he/she is understandably limited in the amount of time that can be devoted to helping them.

We at oneTRUEzone have formed our company for one and only one reason. We are absolutely clear that the great majority of high school seniors and college students need to take a step back and have a process of self exploration, one on one support and coaching to get to that AHA Moment. Our 10-week process gets results! We have been fortunate to be with students at the moment when it all comes together, and it is incredible. Many times we, as coaches, fill up with tears as we experience a powerful and exciting next step in the life of a young person. We absolutely love what we do, and that is exactly what we want for our kids AND yours.

Helene Naftali
Mother of High School Senior

How Much of A Risk Are You Willing To Take?

http://ben.casnocha.com/2009/03/scalable-vs-non-scalable-careers.html
Scalable vs. non scalable careers

This is a phenomenal article that articulates a point that holds true across a lot of domains, careers included. The main point is this, in careers where you have a fixed reward per hour, you can only make so much money per hour, but you know you will be making that much. In careers where the sky is the limit, very few people actually make it that far. This is something that all of us need to consider when deciding what it is we want to extract out of careers and what risks we are willing to take to get there.

If you work as a retail salesperson in a field where the prevailing wage is $10 per hour, you can only work the max number of hours in a day, and if you never, eat, sleep, rest or relax, that would be 24 hours. That’s it, you are capped there. If you write a book and it becomes a blockbuster however, you now get a royalty on every single sale of this book, regardless of whether you are currently reviewing another edition or laying on a beach in the Bahamas. The catch of course is that in the US alone, 172,000 books will be published as of the latest figures from UNESCO in 2005. Only a handful can be best sellers and the rest of the authors will likely earn a very modest pay or go hungry.

It becomes a question of where our passions and ambitions lie, and more so, how much risk are we willing to take? Because movie stars live like, well, movie stars, but there are significantly fewer struggling dentists.

"Bottom Line: If you swing for the fences, you'll either hit a home run or strike out. If you swing for a single or double, you'll probably get there, but no farther."

Help the High School Seniors

How can high school seniors manage and reduce the overwhelming stress they are experiencing? Help!!!!!

As I sat on the plane on my way to visit the University of Michigan with my daughter, I asked her, ‘What is the one thing that seniors could really use help with?”

She thought for a moment and then told me that there are soooo many things she has to do before college that is seems impossible to decide what to do first, how she should prioritize, and what is the best process to accomplish the insurmountable list that seems to grow by the day:

• College applications
• College essays
• Letters to teachers for recommendations
• Schoolwork
• Homework
• Studying for tests
• Reading the books for class
• Doing the papers
• Doing the projects
• SATs
• Showing up for soccer practices
• Sleeping
• Eating
• Working a side job
• Clubs
• Volunteering
• Visiting any schools she hasn’t seen yet
• Figuring out what school is her first choice
• Deciding what she should major in
• Choosing potential careers to explore that may interest her
• Figuring out how to connect the right schools with her passions and interests

But what if she has NO ideas yet??? Should she take ANY downtime to recharge her batteries or just go until she collapses?

As I thought about this I wondered, is this even possible? How did it get this way?
Where is there ANY time to absorb and enjoy senior year?
How do kids handle such stress?
Why wasn’t it like this for us?
HOW CAN WE HELP?

At first glance I have no ideas, no master plan. If I look closely we can break it down, prioritize and dedicated a specific number of hours to each task at hand. I am exhausted thinking about it. It does not seem fair that there REALLY is NO time for my daughter to enjoy such a wonderful time in her life. It will come, but back to the task at hand.

I am putting this question out there for everyone to post blogs responding with suggestions. I hope the solutions are out there.