Advice for High Achieving Seniors

On Monday Dr. Jennifer Gerz-Escandon gave the following remarks at the Bloomington Senior Achievement night.  I really enjoyed them so I asked her to share them with me.  I think she has some great advice for our students.  

Bloomington High School Achievement Ceremony Remarks(April 2017)

Jennifer Gerz-Escandón, PhD

Kennedy High School Class of ‘83

Thank you Meredith for the kind introduction. Thank you Bloomington Public Schools for always welcoming me home. Congratulations Kennedy and Jefferson seniors on your achievements! 

You've gained impressive lift off and now it's time to start looking beyond high school to find ways to continue making an impact. What can you do during the next four years to set the foundation for a lifetime of achievement? As a former professor and current Honors College administrator, I encourage students to consider this question every day.

By show of hands, how many of you are headed for college? Who's thinking about a gap year? Are there any entrepreneurs or creatives headed straight to work transforming their dreams into reality?

For the university-bound, keep two things in mind:

1. Grades matter but faculty mentors matter even more –think about your teachers at Kennedy and Jefferson.  Example: Through faculty I connected with an internship at think tank and built relationships that led to strong grad school recommendations

2. Get engaged and share your talents with your new campus community. Example: OrgSYNC (online campus connection tool) Don't let your leadership skills atrophy!

For the roll-up-your-sleeves change agents, planning on a gap year (Maybe you signed up for City Year or plan to feed your spirit volunteering or ministering to others), here are a few suggestions to support a less structured adventure:

1. You are about to gain some serious community-building expertise. After your global or national experience ends, be sure to "bring it home to Bloomington." Your local community can benefit from your talents, too.

2. Be warned, while perusing the Instagram feeds of friends who are preparing for college midterms or planning for Spring Break, you may feel lonely or doubt your purpose or chosen path. I recommend plugging into peer networks where you can be affirmed and re-energized. Example: IMPACTconference.Org

Finally, for the experience-hungry creatives and entrepreneurs, ready to put in the sweat equity it takes to realize your vision, remember this:

1. Patience and perseverance will become two of your best friends during this chapter of your life. Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint, so pace yourself by setting realistic goals. 

2. Also, there will be bumps in the road, so you'll also need some occasional inspiration. I'm fond of TEDTalks and biographies.

I'll conclude with some interesting data from the Higher Education Research Institute Survey of the American Freshman report. This UCLA-affiliated research group has been surveyingentering classes for the last 50 years.

1. Self-reported high school grades and the drive to achieve have risen. (133% increase in freshmen with A orA+ average between 1985 and 2015 from 13.4% to 31.2%; In 2015 34.4% of incoming first-time, full-time freshmen planned to earn a doctorate compared to 25.8% in 1985.)

Personal note: I did not enter college planning to earn a doctorate but the teachers and coaches at Kennedy gave me a strong foundation for (unexpected) future achievement.

2. Students who earned higher grades in high school also reported substantially higher levels of emotional health as they entered college. (46.1% of “B” students rated their emotional health in the top two categories compared to 54.3% of “A/A+”students, a gap of 8.2%.)

Note: That’s great news for all you high-achievers!

And, for those difficult days when achievement means just willing yourself to get out of bed and put one foot in front of the other, reach out to your friends, campus, community, church and family or allow them to reach in. 

You're being honored tonight for great achievement but, to borrow from the lyrics of Karen Carpenter, "you've only just begun." Best wishes and continued success!