No Cost College Prep Gifts for Teens & Adults Alike

 

by Katherine O'Brien ThD Candidate, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder of Celtic College Consultants (KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com)

Improving our use of time, our memory, and our ability to learn new things, these appeal to everyone. These strategies might have odd names but they are easy to learn and will create cascading gifts in the lives of teens and adults alike. Both have been researched and shown to improve human abilities. The new field of neuroscience bears rich fruit yet again!

 

Chunking

 

Chunking is a tool useful both for time management and for organizing and recalling information. Basically, it involves chunking your day into periods of time and giving each of them a focus. Having a single focus for a given half hour, for example, makes it easier to complete the task assigned to that time. Chunking can also be used to organize information, in fact, many of us use some sort of chunking already. Learning more about it can increase our ability to retain new information.

More info and tips on chunking as information organization: https://www.talentcards.com/blog/chunking-memory/

and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29698045/  

 

 

 

Info and tips on time chunking (also called batching):

https://sites.rhodes.edu/academic-and-learning-resources/news/productivity-time-chunking-method

 

Interleaving

 

Per the University of Arizona, "Interleaving is a process where students mix, or interleave, multiple subjects or topics while they study in order to improve their learning. Blocked practice, on the other hand, involves studying one topic very thoroughly before moving to another topic. Interleaving has been shown to be more effective than blocked practice for developing the skills of categorization and problem solving; interleaving also leads to better long-term retention and improved ability to transfer learned knowledge. This strategy forces the brain to continually retrieve because each practice attempt is different from the last, so rote responses pulled from short-term memory won’t work. Cognitive psychologists believe that interleaving improves the brain’s ability to differentiate, or discriminate, between concepts and strengthens memory associations. Because interleaving involves retrieval practice, it is more difficult than blocked practice. It is important to remember that effortful studying feels worse but produces better long-term results."

 

More info and tips on interleaving: https://academicaffairs.arizona.edu/l2l-strategy-interleaving

and https://www.coursera.org/articles/interleaving  

and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/

 

Here's to your success!

 

For more information on Katherine's College Success Program, with its three pillars: Premier Student Preparation, Savvy College Selection, and Abundant College Funding, please visit her website here: https://www.celticcollegeconsultants.com/college-prep-services Her 2024 students were offered, on average, over $300,000 each in scholarships.

 

 

Help Teens Be Holiday Blessings

by Katherine O'Brien, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder Celtic College Consultants

The holidays are a special time of the year. Thanksgiving, St. Nicholas Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christmas, and New Years. These special days bring various groups of people together, friends, co-workers, and extended family members. In addition to all the merry making, good food, and fun activities, most teens are silently suffering from anxiety as they wonder how they fit in. Teens (and some adults) wonder:

 

What do people need that my talent can provide? What can I do to help? How do I fit in, now that I am no longer a child?

 

They wonder how their gifts and talents, personalities and interests can become something, become useful in a meaningful way. One of the basic human desires is to be seen and acknowledged. Another is to be useful, to do something meaningful and lasting with one’s life.

 

Here are a few examples of how teens I have worked with have been able to connect their gifts with the needs of those around them:

One of my students, a gifted musician, uses her music to give people a respite from their daily lives. Seeing how stressed people in her life are, she invites them to sit with her and let go of their phones and burdens for a while. She listens carefully to them, joining them in whatever is going on in their lives. Also sensitive to the needs of the elderly in her community, she occasionally plays piano and sings at a local nursing home in order to help meet the people's needs for connection. Playing songs from their past, her audience members connect through memories to people they have known over the course of their lives. Playing songs of the season, she helps them celebrate the blessings of today, and brings the community together, connecting them with shared song and music.

 

Another of my female students has the gift of emotional sensitivity. She uses this in her peer counseling roles, drawing students into small groups or one on one discussions. She helps by listening, and by teaching various coping strategies. Just the fact that they are noticed and reached out to has helped break through the isolation her fellow students have felt, thinking they were the only one who was grieving or sad or lonely or afraid when, in fact, many people feel those things. It is not uncommon, for example, for high school students to experience the loss of one or more of their grandparents. This loss is significant. Not only have they lost someone who likely provided them affirmation and encouragement, a tie to their past, to the heritage of their family, to the stories and customs and traditions of their family has been lost. Life is never again the same after the death, or the birth, of a human being. It takes time to adjust to that change in our family and community.

 

A young man I worked with recently, used his own need for physical exercise in order to keep his mental health healthy to motivate him. Rather than sit inside and get depressed, he tapped his organizational skills during the pandemic lockdown. With help from his dad and a few friends, he modified his family’s garage into an open air weightlifting gym with the help of a group of friends. This same group was then able to come together and lift and exercise, thus meeting their social, physical, and mental health needs. His ingenuity, creativity, and leadership skills served his community well. He also gave encouragement to his friends, thus boosting everyone's moral during those difficult and uncertain days. Each of those young people, with their lower personal stress level and calmer demeanor was able to help support his or her family through the difficulties everyone faced during the months of lockdown.

 

Another young man I had the pleasure of working with throughout his high school years was extremely introverted. Finding opportunities to exercise his gifts and talents in ways he was comfortable with was challenging. One day, when we were talking, I noticed that his whole demeanor underwent a subtle change. He had been talking about making a particular dish for a family gathering. This dish was special to his family, and he had been taught how to make it by his grandmother. He was now the custodian of that part of his family’s patrimony. His quiet work in the kitchen was celebrated by the family when they gathered around the table. With my encouragement, he sought out a younger cousin and began to teach her the recipe and techniques needed to make this special dish, thus ensuring that this part of their family’s heritage would not be lost, since more than one of the grandchildren could carry it forward.

 

Please join me in helping teens use their gifts to bless others

 

When you meet with teens at holiday gatherings this month, how can you help them begin to recognize their talents and find ways to use them to meet the needs of the people in their lives? Be creative. Invite them to make their own unique contribution to your family and community.

 

One of the things you can do is invite them to meet with me. For 20 years I have guided teens through the process of getting to know and appreciate their own giftedness, then explore possible roles to begin to use those gifts now. These conversations blossom into considerations of post high school possibilities including trade school, community college certificate programs, as well as various programs and majors at college.

 

Katherine can be contacted by emailing: KOB@CelticCollegeConsultants.com