Students’ lack of college and career preparation takes on many forms beyond academic deficits.

It shows up with them not knowing what to expect from college, not knowing how to anticipate challenges and obstacles, and not having the grit and determination to succeed. It shows up with their lack of follow through skills, and their not knowing how to take advantage of resources to craft a college experience that will deliver the abilities and connections to launch a successful career.

Adams County is helping high school students make the connection between high school, college, and career with their program Experience 9 to 5. Students choose to explore a career, ranging from agriculture to health care to communications, and meet with professionals in their chosen field to see if it is the right fit for them. Professionals will provide students with hands-on experiences in the field, share the ins-and-outs of their career, and take any questions about how high school students can go from a high school graduate to a new professional.

This year LifeBound is excited to participate in this experience. We are looking forward to having as many as 10 high school students in our office learning more about the day-to-day work as a writer and publisher, including blogging, editing, networking, and brainstorming with a team. We will share the student blogs on the LifeBound website at the end of the session.

If we want higher high school graduation rates, college entrance rates, college completion rates, and employee success rates, it’s essential we start bridging the gap between education and the world of work for students before they get to college. Through a program like Experience 9 to 5 students will learn they found their path, they need to keep searching, or that they are more interested in another aspect of the same profession. We can’t wait to meet these career seeking students and help guide them toward any profession.

Learn more about Experience 9 to 5, and don’t miss the interviews of participating professionals speaking about how they got into the profession and what benefits students can get out of attending their session.

The Class of 2012 has reason to celebrate. They’re among the 56% of college students who stuck it out and finished a college degree in under 6 years,¹Â they found their calling, and they are prepared to make an impact on the world. However, with rising student debt, a volatile job market, and an overall uncertain economic future, many students may also be leaving with anxiety about entering the workforce.

Graduation, whether in 1960 or 2012 or in an up or down economy, can bring a mixed bag of emotions. Our evolving society provides each generation a unique perspective as they leave the comfort of academia, but we all have common emotions, thoughts, and questions as we step into a new environment that possesses some level of uncertainty. Change is a dichotomy. This exciting time full of parties, toasts, friends, and family can also bring pangs of sadness.

Today’s working world has fewer jobs and more expectations for its workers. The economy is one reason employers have become selective with their limited positions, but another factor involves the speed in which technology is taking over certain jobs–all or part–to save both time and money. However, people who can bring something extra to the table, who can do something more than technology can, are still in demand. Thomas Friedman says this is why “everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.”

But, average isn’t only over in the world of work; average is over in the education as well. We need strong principals, unique teachers, and ambitious students. More than higher test scores, we need students who want to learn, teachers who want to teach, and principals who are prepared to lead. We are in a point in education where all the players need to be reinvented with the idea that average isn’t good enough.

I recently read an article by Geoffrey James who interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world to find out what sets them apart from the rest. He was able to breakdown their leadership  styles into eight core beliefs, and under each core belief, he listed how an “extraordinary” boss carries out these core beliefs versus an “average” boss.

It got me thinking, how much different is the business culture than the education culture? This framework could also be used by principals, teachers, and students to set the achievement, interpersonal, and academic standards higher. The “average vs. extraordinary” frame of reference can help professionals and students measure their success by allowing them to look at themselves, no matter their postion, and have the self-awareness to asses where they stand in the spectrum.

Imagine the outcome if principals, teachers, and students dumped “average” from their vocabulary and replaced it with “extraordinary”.   What would be possible for learning if teachers saw students as powerful co-creators in the educational process?  What if teachers understood that their students, if given the opportunity, could teach and inspire them if given the chance to really assert themselves in class and out? What if the whole educational model really can be turned upside down the way Kahn has inverted the model for math learning, getting students to study at home and come to a teacher facilitated class where the students lead small groups in refining and crystallizing in a small group what the began at home?

The step between extraordinary and average doesn’t have to be a big one. An extraordinary boss or teacher sees individuals, respects their ability to get things done on their own, motivates, changes, and supports and approaches their own mission with the same aplomb.  An average boss or teacher sees only the group, commands and demands, feels superior, uses fear as a motivator and stays within familiar confines.  If employees and employers fear that technology will take over our jobs, they can slow down the “get things done” robotics of business or teaching by bringing the humanity back to leadership.  If students, principals and teachers are willing to consider new models which will promote extraordinary outcomes, everyone will be inspired by the intrinsic motivation which keeps us all curious, contributing, interested and committed to contributing at the highest levels. And that  can change the game for all players.

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Many employees enter an entry level job with the intention of leaving the minute something better comes along and with an unrealistic idea of how long it will take for them to advance in their field. In the book “This is Your Brain on Music,” Daniel Levitin writes:

… ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is the equivalent to roughly three hours per day, or twenty hours per week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people don’t seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

Entry-level employees and interns should be encouraged to develop mastery of their job before expecting to advance to something that holds more responsibility, commitment, and skill. An employee working 40 hour work days could master their job in 5 years, according to Levitin’s calculations. In these five years, as the employee learns the ropes they might be promoted or change companies, but they will be on a learning continuum that allows them to master every step before moving on.

Too many interns enter their internships with an unrealistic timeframe of how long it will take them to be in their dream position. Employees who set out to master their skill instead of set out to make money as fast as they can, not only have a more realistic perception of how the world works, but arguably gain more from their life experiences.

Today’s college grads find themselves competing for entry-level jobs against laid-off workers with master’s degrees in business adminstration and years of experience.  After seeing the movie Larry Crowne this weekend, we are also reminded that there are millions of displaced workers—people who don’t have college degrees who find themselves on a no-growth path and are ultimately let go to face more schooling and/or retraining. Here are a few things recent graduates can do to maintain equilibrium duing the economic downturn.

Finally, technology has made this economic downturn somewhat easier than those of the past because you can both learn and network on-line.   There are a plethora of on-line resources and we’ll discuss what they are tomorrow.