The Future is Now

By: Jennifer Tabb

 

My parents have always told me that my future is comprised of the things that I do today. Each step, each day builds upon another and helps to shape your world so you have an idea of what your future holds. My mother would tell me that each class, each decision that I make has an influence on my future... so choose wisely. I have been continuing on my path of working with youth and helping them to become empowered; first as a case planner and now as a therapist.  It is my goal to further this plan/desire by increasing my skillset which in turn will help youth gain a better understanding of themselves so they can attend college and perform well while they are there.  I believe the first step in doing this is to help them understand that their future begins now.

 

In order to assist the youth that I work with in enrolling into college and obtaining a degree, I must first help them see beyond their current circumstances and help them to know that college is attainable. To do this, I believe that one skill that I should hone is motivational interviewing. In conjunction with this, I believe that it's important to exercise leadership skills because the first thing that good leaders must learn to do is rule over themselves. The final item that I believe is important for me to learn in order to tie in my future goals is to build my resources with different colleges and universities. In doing these three things, I think I will be able to help students attend college and successfully obtaining their degrees.

 

Motivational Interviewing: This skill is helpful for aiding youth who have difficulty with opening up and sharing their thoughts. It even helps them to articulate their thoughts because sometimes the issue is not that they do not know what they think or believe or that they’re too shy to share; it's simply that they are unable to voice their thoughts, they have a challenge with putting their thoughts into words. So by becoming well-versed in the Smart Recovery motivational interviewing tools, I believe that I will be able to assist youth with discussing their entire ecosystem which will allow me to better assist them with their personal development and self empowerment. This is important for youth to have as they trek on their new journey in life.

 

Adaptive Leadership: Another item that I would like to work on is my leadership skills. I believe that everyone has the ability to teach or educate another. As well, I believe that each person has the ability to lead. By working on my leadership skills, I will be able to assist the youth that I work with by demonstrating or modeling effective and adaptive leadership. Heifetz, et al. beautifully outlines how one can become an effective leader which can be used to work with youth who are often swayed by media, friends and/or their environmental circumstances so I believe that good leadership skills and the modeling of what it takes to be a leader is important for everyone. This skill will be helpful in my future goal as it will help me teach the youth that I work with how to govern themselves and how to be good leaders (a skill that is important when considering the different challenges and decisions that arise in the collegiate setting).

 

Increase Resources: The final item is to build my network of collegiate resources so that I can help the youth learn more about college applications, the collegiate experience and the process of navigating the college experience. In making connections with different schools, I will be able to help students discover schools that fit their career and personal needs. In reaching out to different schools and having a relationship with them, I will learn more about their application process and tours for students. Both of the aforementioned items can help reduce the stigma that some students associate with applying and then attending post secondary schools. As well, in building my resources this will help students understand how tangible school can be and it will help them to connect with the schools and learn more about the different opportunities each school possesses. Big future is an excellent resource that helps educators connect with tools, guides and networking events that can be beneficial in enhancing student based resources.

 

I believe that honing these three skills will help the youth that I work with first open up and thus, learn more about themselves. Secondly, after learning about themselves the youth will learn how to govern themselves and build self empowerment which will help them to deal with the challenges and pressures that come with college settings. Finally, my increased network of resources will help the youth feel better about the college application process and ultimately the experience of attending college. All of these things will help  in reaching my goals of empowering students and aiding them in successfully completing college.