What College Success Really Looks Like

When you really get down to it, we need to prepare students for success in college before they even set foot on campus. We can do a lot to help them once they're here, but if we work smart beforehand, we can get them off to a strong start.

For example, we need to choose the right environment for students to thrive in and then maximize that time. This could mean homeschooling, charter school, or boarding school. Then, they need to try to take advantage of Advanced Placement (AP) courses to get college credit and also look into summer college programs that will help them to also get credit but more importantly understand what is going to be expected of them once they arrive on campus. Any of these ideas can be cost prohibitive, so try to find the most affordable options or see about scholarships to help defray the cost. Especially with AP courses, the upfront cost of textbooks and exams is still far less than the cost of multiple credits of tuition and a full semester of your time while at college. 

Once they're proper college students, we need to work to give them the highest level of support they need. The common buzz phrase, "meeting students where they're at", is about far more than figuring out if your office should get a Snapchat account. It means adapting your campus and services to the students' needs. This could take the shape of student success coaches, peer mentor guidance, financial assistance, emergency funds, or in the case of Paul Quinn College, dramatically reshape your entire campus life. 

There is never going to be a one size fits all approach to college success and student services. It all depends on the students you have and what they need. These are some generally applicable tips however, and I hope you find them useful.

There are a lot of choices one needs to make when it comes to their own schooling, much less our own children, or students we work with. We can make the most of the time that is given to us to prepare, then do what we must to ensure that all students have equal access to the resources they need to be successful. 

Episode #10: Ariel Tan

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Ariel Tan, current graduate student, residence life professional, and anime fan!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• Ariel's Posts (Anime Mentors & League of Legends)

• Ariel's SAC Podcast Episode

• Director Satoshi Kon: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0464804/

• Legend of Zhen Huan: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2374683/

• Nirvana in Fire: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5141800/

• Civilization V

• Overwatch

• Don't Starve Together

• Chinese Paladin

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

How to Help Prepare Students for Post-Grad Life

Just as students are starting their higher ed journeys, many students are also finishing and graduating (this is happening every semester/term/quarter, not just in the Fall and Spring respectively). And often, we focus far more on orientation, First Year Experiences, admissions, and the early stages than those students who are preparing to move on to their life post college.

As students graduate and settle into their new role as an alum (which will be a far longer relationship), we often struggle to find methods to engage them in meaningful ways. Their first impressions of what it means to have a bond with their alma mater can be hard to undo, since they'll eventually have many more priorities and focuses for their time. 

There is a strategy that I synthesized in my head to solve both of these problems; put on mentoring programs between students approaching graduation and alum of the last five years. It allows young alums to have a positive way to give back that doesn't require money, and also helps soon-to-be graduates feel better prepared for the life that awaits them by learning from peers nearer to their own experience versus older professionals. This tends to be a lot more helpful and in general, it's nice to have someone looking out for us to guide us along our educational journey.

While this isn't a radically new idea, it can have a huge positive impact if done in the right way. Forcing mentoring pairs can be hit or miss in my experience. Relationships need to form organically. As such, we need to put on regular networking events for these groups to come together. Invite alumni speakers to come back to campus. Have alumni panels focused on different industries. Have alumni be ambassadors involved in prospective student recruitment and engaging other alum.

We obviously want our students to feel prepared for success after college, but for the higher ed professional, this can also serve a very important purpose; nurturing the desire for financial support from alumni. It is going to be a hard sell to cold call an alum and essentially beg for money. However, if you have built up some good will with meaningful involvements for these people, they'll be far more likely to give back. This applies to the current alumni, but also these soon to be alumni who are feeling supported with these positive alumni mentors in their life.

Use this as fodder to figure out the best ways to implement this sort of effort at your institution. It's objectively important, so you need to tap into this resource to prepare yourself for the future of higher ed where we will need to be increasingly self sufficient and capitalize on the human capital at our disposal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Episode #9: Tony Kim

Welcome to another great episode of the podcast!

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This episode is proudly supported by Swift Kick, an amazing leadership and team development organization that helps people all over the country learn how to build incredible communities.

Check them out, and if you mention Higher Ed Geek, you'll get $500 off their speaking fee.

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Our guest this episode is Tony Kim; blogger, frequent comic con attendee, and founder of Hero Within!

Listen to the episode below, or subscribe and listen via iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Here's everything we mention in the episode:

• Crazy for Comic Con Blog

• Hero Within

• The Orville

• How I Built This

• Nerd Writer

• The Pitch

• The Growth Show

• Spirit of 608

• Girl Boss

• Being Boss

Music by pond5.com

Thanks for listening!

Student Life: Excel Doesn’t Always Have To Give You A Headache

If you are sick and tired of getting a headache every single time you open up MS Excel and you want to put an end to it then it’s now easier than ever for you to do so. Excel is a love-hate program. Some people are genuine wizards when it comes to using the software and others would rather sit in a corner and cry rather than open up the dreaded formula interface. If you are a student however then there is a high chance that you will need to learn how Excel works and you may even have to use it to complete your studies as well. For that reason, if you want some good reasons to learn Excel then take a look below.

Formulas are Important

Formulas will actually go on to help you in your career. If the word formula is enough to give you a migraine then you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of VBA training classes available for you to choose from. This will help you to get an edge in a huge range of jobs, and it is a great way for you to enhance your already growing career prospects.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/mathematical-formula-74228/

Working Solutions

Formulas are also a great way for you to try and capture a working solution. For example, if you study science and you need to account for a ton of variables then formulas are a great way for you to do this and you can easily calculate almost anything you need in seconds. This can save you a ton of time when it comes to your studies and they are ideal if you have a bad memory because you can save the formulas for whenever you need them next.

Your Vision

Have you ever wanted to explain what you want to do, but you can’t seem to get it done? For example, you may want to work out how you are going to plan your budget for that month or even your expenses. This can be hard when you have a faulty calculator and an A3 pad of lined paper to hand. If you want to solve all of this then Excel can help. The best thing about Excel is that you can set it to automatically update your totals as you go along. When someone deducts something from the total, all you have to do is type it into Excel and the program will then work out the final amount for you in less than a second.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/numbers-money-calculating-calculation-3305/

Because Nobody is Good at Excel

When you are good at Excel, you can really help to increase your productivity and you can even get more value out of the work that you do. Businesses love productivity and it is a great way for you to earn some money on the side. For example, you could build formulas for people or you could even offer a tutoring service when it comes to Excel as well. If you can get good with formulas then this will open up a ton of doors for you, and it is a great way for you to really take advantage of everything that it has to offer.

Excel may not be the most-liked MS program out there, but as a student, it really is essential to your study and even your career.

Book Review: Winning With Data

“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion” - W. Edwards Deming

I finished Winning with Data recently but I have to admit; it was hard for me to get through this book. It's difficult enough for me to read in general, but I don't usually seek out books about topics like managing data. I'm also not sure exactly who the audience is for this book. Is it a young person venturing into the workforce? A more senior executive trying to learn more about this evolution? Not sure, and I felt like that was also a problem. Nevertheless, I enjoyed what I read well enough since it confirmed how I feel about data accessibility and transparency. I can also see the influence of the author on my workplace (he works with a major investor in our company). It felt like when I took courses in school that I didn't like but I got a lot out of. If it didn't have to take them, I wouldn't have, but I'm glad I did since it exposed me to some new ideas.

The book outlines why data is important, how to manage it, and how to foster a culture that uses it in the right ways. It encourages readers to collect the right data, in the right amounts, and make timely informed decisions at every level of your organization. I feel like this is something higher ed needs to make better use of for strategic student interventions, but I can get why they'd be hesitant. Student data is sensitive, but we owe it to our students to provide the best service we can. I know some institutions are moving in this direction.

Using data really can transform every decision we make in an organization. It's not just sales or marketing. It can come into recruitment which I think is a huge epiphany for higher ed specifically since in my experience, it is something we struggle with greatly. The book provides a specific example from Google and how they run their processes to help continuously improve it over time:

“Google takes metrics one step further than most companies. It collects data at every step of the interviewing process to provide interviewers feedback on their candidate judgement.

“‘Every interviewer sees a record of the interview scores they gave given i the past and whether those people were hired or not. This lets the interviewer know if they are correctly assessing potential Googlers, nudging them to look back at their prior notes and learn from what they spotted or missed.’"

We could all use this sort of thinking to make sure we're bringing in the right people and helping our recruiters and hiring teams do their best with what we are putting upon them. Overall, it is a way of thinking that we need to implement and move on from making decisions based on anecdotal evidence and gut reactions. This quote is what I'd like to end on that captures this feeling: 

“…data encourages experimentation and surprises. Surprises foster new ways of thinking. They challenge the establishment. When dogged with opinions or knee-jerk answers of ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’ we all can feel disenfranchised. Data pushes us to experiment.”

Thanks for stopping by!

A Guide To The Ultimate Geek Cave

Do you crave your own little bit of space? A haven in the home where you can squirrel yourself away, partake in a hobby or two and simply unwind. With the stresses and pressures of modern life, it’s more important than ever to create some daily ‘me’ time. The best way to achieve this is to allocate an area of the home, whether it’s a room or a loft or a shed, which you can transform into a super geek cave. We’re not talking ever-flowing beer, a pool table and a couch; that’s student digs. We are talking the ultimate geek cave. Take a look to see how you can create your very own den of geekdom.

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Collections

If you are the ultimate geek, you may have a collection of something; you might pride yourself on having every single action figure ever released by the Star Wars franchise, boxed and unopened. You may have all of the NFL gaming cards from 1989 through to the present day. Whatever your guilty pleasure is, ensure you make space to enjoy your collection. Set up a display area, hang up your Star Trek autographed photos and enjoy looking at them every time you settle into your geek cave for some chill time.

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TV And Audio Kit

If you are something of a movie buff and love nothing more than unwinding in front of a great thriller, old classic noir or a 1980s cheesy blockbuster, then you need some equipment to make your film experience exceptional. Take a look at the soundbars and stereo systems available that you can hook up to your flatscreen TV. You want to achieve a fully immersive experience, so you feel like you’re actually part of the movie. 3D TVs have come a long way in recent years, so if your budget allows, consider venturing into the third dimension of viewing.

You might prefer to watch your favorite sport. You could be a baseball nut, a soccer fan or an NBA follower. You could take great pleasure in opening up your geek cave to your pals on a Saturday afternoon, having a dabble in some online betting, cracking open a few beers and enjoying some chill time with those you can have a laugh and a joke with.

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Gaming

No geek cave is complete without the opportunity for a good gaming experience. After a long day at work, sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than slumping into your gaming chair and getting into a vintage role-playing game or a sporty classic. It doesn’t matter whether your console of choice is the PS4, the Xbox or even the humble PC, it’s vital that you have a comfortable space in which to play your games. Grab yourself a comfy gaming seat, lower the lighting and get immersed.

The point of a geek cave is to create a highly personalized space that endeavors to make you relaxed and it has to be somewhere that allows you to forget about the stresses of modern life. See if there’s a space that you can allocate for yourself and get started on your very own geek cave.

Making Quick Cash in the New Year

Photo Source

January is finally here, and most of us are taking our first steps towards fulfilling our New Year’s Resolutions. Now, many of us may be focusing on health and fitness, breaking bad habits, taking our first steps on the property ladder or moving our career forwards. But for many of us, our resolutions involve finances. After the busy Christmas period, hundreds of thousands of people across the nation have found themselves in debt from gift giving and celebrating. So we want to get ourselves out of the red and back into the black. But how can we do this without having to wait for the next payday to roll around? Well, you’ll be glad to hear that there are plenty of quick money making schemes out there that will allow you to make a little extra cash on the side of our usual income. This can go towards clearing credit cards, paying off finance plans, and generally helping us to get back into a more comfortable financial position. Here are a few for you to consider!

Day Trading

It’s surprising how few people seem to have heard of day trading. Especially considering it pays out so quickly! This really is one of the fastest ways to make a profit. So what actually is it? Well, day trading is defined as the buying and selling of a security in a single working day. While it can take place in any marketplace, foreign exchange markets and stock markets tend to be the most popular spaces for this kind of activity to take place. Now, if you look for “day trading” in any online search engine, you’ll come across pages of controversies and complicated anecdotes. This is because scam artists have recently capitalised on people’s lack of knowledge in the area by promising that they will make a fortune in turnovers in no time. Don’t buy into this. After all, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. When participating in day trading, you’re not going to earn enough to put a deposit down on a property, book an extended vacation and pay the kids through college within a single day. But you can make some relatively substantial returns! You just have to go into it with more of a realistic mindset. So, if you fancy getting started, take a look at investormint.com. Their article on the best online trading platforms will prove extremely beneficial as you get started out!

Participate in Paid Market Research

Sure, taking part in market research doesn’t tend to pay out big bucks each time. But if you complete a few different activities (such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews), the cash will mount up pretty quickly. Retail companies tend to do a lot of this type of work as the new year begins, as sales will lull after the big festive splurge and they will want to launch new products to get consumers spending again following the January sales. Look out for market research agencies and get your contact details on their books!

When it comes to clearing your debts, or stabilizing your finances, remember that things may take a little time and patience. But there are a few activities out there that will help you along the way!

Why You Can Rely On The Internet For Everything

These days, more than most people rely on the internet every day, and it’s completely normal too. With all of the resources it has to offer, why would you look anywhere else for things you want? You may argue that not everything you can find in stores will be online, you might be surprised that that’s really not the case at all. Even the most unique items can be found online, as you have access to the intellectual property of billions of people online. Just because you can’t find something online, doesn’t mean it’s not there; because the chances are, you can find it with the right knowledge.

Shopping around

If you know where to look, the internet can be really eye-opening. You never know what you’re going to find, as you have access to so much more than you would in your local town. Hopping around to different sites can really help you to find things you didn’t even know you wanted, whether it be a new item of clothing, or a gadget that you’d never even heard of. You may even find out about events going on that hasn’t been advertised anywhere else before, and suddenly you’re interested. Being able to order things on the spot is really useful, especially if the items are of limited time. Take event tickets, for example.

A lot of the time if you’re going to an anticipated event, the tickets will likely sell out at some point, which makes getting them now much more important. If you need to find out more about events you could be missing, you could look at sites like The Ticket Merchant to give you ideas of what you might like to do. A lot of people lack creativity and often don’t even consider such things until they see them. Seeing the opportunity can be what coaxes you into buying it, so look around and explore your options!

(Source: Pexels)

Global news

Within ten seconds of being online, you can access the global news at any time of the day. Taking advantage of this can help you to stay in touch with the events going on in the world, and for some people, it’s extremely helpful for their occupation. It might be that you’re planning to go on holiday, and you want to check the news for that area to make sure your timing is right. You wouldn’t want to book a holiday to then find out there’s been a flood around your destination, so stay informed!

Second opinions

If you look online, you can find out about almost everything you want to know. An important thing to look into is reviews! If you’re thinking of investing into something expensive, you want to know that you receive what you’re expecting, so having a look into what everyone else has said about it can help you make that decision. Reviews are a generally good place to turn to if you’re not sure about a purchase, as you can get multiple opinions of what various people thought, allowing you to make an educated choice.

Everything You Need To Know About Creating The Perfect Gaming Room

Gaming is a good way of taking a step back from your busy lifestyle and clearing your head. If you spend a few hours every weekend playing games and catching up with online friends, you might want to create the perfect relaxing environment for enjoying some quality time. You can design your own gaming room in the basement of your home, or use a spare room for your hobby. Below you will find some advice on how to create the perfect gaming room.

Image by cadenaser.com

Comfort First

Chances are you are going to spend long hours in your gaming den. You don’t want to get up with pins and needles or a lower back pain. You can get a beanbag seat or special gaming seat that will help you maintain your focus and posture. Make sure that your seat is the right distance from the screen, and you don’t have to twist your neck to look at different screens if you game on multiple platforms at the same time.

Special Lighting

To help you focus and relax at the same time, you might want to install some colorful lights. Check out other people’s designs, and get some dimming lights that help you focus on the game. Don’t use flashing lights or color changing ones, as they can distract you in the important task of beating your enemy and winning the game.

Must-Have: Mini Fridge

In case you want to hide in your man’s cave for a long time, you will possibly need ammunition and drinks. Ask any of your friends, and they will agree that installing a mini fridge full of your favorite drinks and snacks is a good idea. You might even get your own bar in the corner, if you often invite your friends over for a gaming party in your den.

Wall Mounted Screen

You should certainly have a large gaming monitor installed professionally, making sure that it is in the right angle. The screen should have a high resolution, and a good sound quality. You might invest in a sound bar or an audio system to enjoy the effects of the game even more. Make sure that your screen shows all the games available at https://gameaddik.com in a good quality and the monitor’s refresh rate is set by a professional.

Make Sure You Get a Lock

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The last thing you want when you are winning with your master strategy is people walking in the room. To ensure you are undisturbed, install a do not disturb sign on the door, and get a lock as well. You don’t want to lose just because one of your family members has a question. Let everyone know that you are disappearing for a while, and will need your own space. Tell them how long you will be in the room for, so they can ask you all the important questions beforehand.

Being a gamer is a serious thing. While people think that all you are doing is pressing buttons and screaming at the screen, you are indeed building a strategy and improving your tactics. Make sure your gaming room allows you to relax in style and comfort.