A lot of my days are spent trying to help teens unlock their "potential". If you are a parent or teacher, you know that this can make for some long days.
Most teens are content to operate at 50% capacity. A few strive for more.
The teens who care about their development, progress, and improvement are my oxygen.
Every once in a while, I catch wind of a PrepWeller who has figured it out.
Such was the case with a PrepWeller we'll call "Heather".
Heather started PrepWell Academy as a freshman and wasn't the most diligent PrepWell student of all time. She watched a majority of the videos but not without cycles of skipping and binge-watching. All totally normal. The program was designed with this dynamic in mind.
However, in early sophomore year, the proverbial lightbulb went off for her. All of a sudden, the terminology, advice, and guidance within the videos took on new meaning.
Heather "got it".
It wasn't long before Heather was engaged in the college admissions process as rigorously as she was with her elite soccer club.
Not only did she watch the PrepWell videos with renewed interest, but she made great use of her PrepWell Journal [a guidebook with weekly review questions about each video].
Heather was willing to share her work with the PrepWell community as an example of what's possible:
Here is an entry in her PrepWell Journal from Week 26:
...and another entry from Week 25:
This is the handiwork of an engaged teen, who is getting after it.
Heather watches the weekly videos, fills out the basic questions in her Journal, and goes the extra mile by taking personal notes about each topic.
Of course, not every student will be this engaged this early in the process.
We'll never be 100% sure what inspired Heather. Was it a friend, teacher, parent, new pencils, PrepWell video, movie, or time?
The trick: PATIENCE
Hang in there and support your child until their lightbulb turns on.
In the meantime, it's important to take steps to expose your teen to the process, so that when their time comes - they can pounce. PrepWell Academy provides this outlet.
The sooner your teen takes ownership of the process - the better.
Prep On,
Author: PrepWell Academy's Founder, Phil Black, has spent a lifetime cracking the code on the world's most competitive programs: Yale University, Harvard Business School, Navy SEALs, Goldman Sachs, Entrepreneurship, Shark Tank, etc.
Inside PrepWell Academy, Black teaches students everything they need to know about the college admissions process in a series of expertly-timed, 3-5-minute, weekly training videos starting in 9th grade and continuing through 12th grade [Note: this program can only be joined in 9th or 10th grade]. My specialties include military service academies, ROTC scholarships, Ivy League, and student-athletes.
