Changing a student life
We help students build their own future by spreading the wealth of knowledge and watch them succeed.
Cindy,
The best part of teaching is seeing where you have made a difference.
Jeffrey Schillinger
This has been one of the greatest surprises and joys in teaching, watching students rise to expectations you give them. They only do this when you show them you truly believe in them and when you place the expectations high enough to challenge them but not so high to discourage effort. The results are students who are pleased with their achievements and insructors who are pleased with student efforts and the process, a win-win experience for everyone.
Michael,
Believing in someone and acting like they are capable of achieving is a good description of the Pygmalion effect. It works.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I have found that most of my students just need to see that someone believes in them,then they start to believe in themselves and then they begin to succeed.
Dana,
It is interesting that you mention "family" in your response. I recently read a statistic that over 70 percent of the students at traditional universities had at leat one parent who attended college, while only 30% of the students at career colleges had at least one parent attend college.
When we inspire our students to get that degree, we are probably increasing the chances that their children will pursue higher education. Our impact can last generations.
We really do help change lives. Occasionally you will come across a student who not only has made a better future for themselves & their family, but their entire life goes through a transformation. It is awesome to be a part of a change in a persons confidence, self-esteem, attitude and the way they project themselves to other. To know that you personally held your hand out when they were sinking & on the verge of giving up to pull them back in.
Minerva,
What are one or two of the things you do to help students reach their goals?
I enjoy seeing students succeed and reach there goals. It is very important for us as educators to help them accomplish there goals.
Phyllis,
These are the types of actions that make us successful. Thanks for what you did for this student.
I couldn’t agree more. Students require all representatives of the university to be supportive. Although intellectually, the student realizes that there are thousands of other students, when they have an issue, they feel that their issue is the most important. For example, I had a student that was struggling with the basics of operating a computer. She felt that she had been “blown off†by the technical support staff. Realistically this could have been due to not knowing the right questions to ask. However, towards the end of the class, the student contacted me concerned about the low grades received. Through discussion, it was easy to determine that this student did not even know how to open emails and so was not receiving the communication. After an extensive conversation, we were able to set up an action plan which allowed successful completion of the course and enabled the student to get one step closer to achieving their degree.
Phyllis
When Career Services and Academics work together to prepare students with the subject matter knowledge as well as mastery of how to look for, apply for, interview for and perform in a career position,the students cannot help but do well.
I have heard from several students still enrolled here about how they have been interviewing and looking for work since they are close to graduation. They have asked me for advice about searching for a job , where to look and so on. I explain to them that this is going to be an individual decision they are going to have to make for themselves. But not to give up if the first time it does not work out. I had one student of mine tell me he followed my advise and went into this one particular shop 4 times when they finally gave hime and interview and offered him a job. He thanked me for the words of wisdom. For me it just shows you the influence you do have on these students.
Most of the students that I get are trying to turn their whole life around, socially, psychologically, financially and legally. That's a tough thing to do in seven months. Not only are they trying to get an academic education, they are fighting legal problems, trying to figure out how to earn an honest living, and most of them have a past that keeps coming back to haunt them. I have had several students go back to jail or prison right before graduation because of parole issues. Regrettably, there is nothing that I can do for them. I've also got students that have gang problems, that presents some challenges trying to get them through school, so that they can move out of state before things get really bad. The students with financial problems can be very difficult to get employed due to the background checks, although things are a little better now that the economy has had a down turn. Over the past several years I have found myself teaching allot of off curriculum courses to meet the needs of the students that I have at the time. Every once in a while, I get to see even deeper into the change that has happened in some of my former students. The change wasn't just in the person in the classroom, but in their whole immediate family, that's a good thing to see.
Many times students are hungry for knowledge; it’s our job to feed that knowledge to them!
I like to see a student believe in themselves and want to succeed not for others but for themselves
