College Readiness & Career Exploration: The Value of Engaging High School Students in Experiential Learning Before Collge Naviance Summer Institute 2015

2. College Readiness & Career
Exploration
The Value of Engaging High School Students in
Experiential Learning before College
Moderator: Marie Schwartz – CEO, TeenLife Media
Nina Hoe – Study Director at the Institute for Survey Research, Temple University
Jessica DeSantis - Senior Associate Director of Admissions, Lehigh University
Michael Pina – Director of College Guidance, Greens Farms Academy

3. Why This Topic?
Experiential learning is growing in importance:
• Employers find “digital natives” lack soft skills.
• Students not adequately prepared for college.
• Colleges like Harvard, Princeton, and Tufts
encouraging gap years.
We want to help you prepare students for a
better future through experiential learning.

4. Agenda
• Gap Year Alumni Research – Nina Hoe
• College Admissions Perspective – Jessica
DeSantis
• High School Counselor Perspective – Michael
Pina
• Suggestions for Schools
• Q&A

5. Gap Year Alumni Research
Nina Hoe, Temple University

6. Definition of a Gap Year
A Gap Year is a structured period of time when
students take a break from formal education to
increase self-awareness, challenge comfort zones,
and experiment with possible careers. Typically
these are achieved by a combination of traveling,
volunteering, interning, or working.

7. Research Goals
Conducted survey among 600+ Americans who took
a gap year in order to:
• Better understand their experiences.
• Share findings with prospective gap year
students, parents, alumni, high schools,
counselors, colleges, programs, etc.

8. Why They Took a Gap Year: Top 3 Answers
1. Gain life experience / grow personally
2. Travel / see world
3. Take a break from academic path

9. Reported Impact
My Gap
Year…
0% 20
%
40% 60% 80%
Agreed/Strongly Agreed
100
%
Helped me develop as a
person. Allowed me time for
personal reflection.
Increased my
maturity. Increased my
self--confidence.
Helped me learn to interact with people from backgrounds different from
my own.
Helped me develop communication
skills. Increased my interest in knowing people and places
around the world.
Helped me develop a greater understanding and/or respect for cultures and
customs oth..
Helped me acquire skills to be successful in my
career. Instilled an appreciation for and belief in the importance of
human rights.
Made me see myself as a global
citizen. Inspired me to be more active in following global current
events and politics.
Helped me find purpose in my
life. Will or has impacted my career
decision.
Helped (or will help) me get a
job Increased my “readiness” for
college.
84
%
77
%
75
%
73
%
59
%
57
%
54
%
38
%
27
%
93
%
90
%
83
%
82
%
82
%
72
%
70
%
98
%
98
%
97
%
96
%
94
%
93
%
77
%
Self--reported Gap Year Impacts Categor
y Career
Colleg
e
Global
Engagement
Personal

10. Most Important Experiences
• Being in a new and different environment
• Relationships with peers
• Relationships with others, including local families,
children and community members
• Traveling independently
• Volunteering

11. College Admissions Perspective
Jessica DeSantis

12. Key Life Skills Needed for College
• Willingness to expand horizons
• Ambition
• Pursuit of personal passions
• Genuine interest
• Resiliency
• Ability to learn from failure/ask for help
• Time management
• Group living skills

13. Choosing Activities
• Quality over quantity
• Time involved
• Skills/talent/knowledge required
• Accomplishments earned

14. Most Meaningful Activities
• Pursuit of passion
• Growth potential
• Leadership development
• Trying something new/different

15. High School Counselor Perspective
Michael Pina

16. Address the Age-Old Questions
• Can good extracurricular activities get a student
into a college?
• Do they matter to college admissions officers?
• How much do they count?
• How many extracurricular activities should a
student be involved in?
• What is the role of the extensive resume
addendum to the Common Application list?

17. Activities Reported on Common App 2012-13
Avg. # of activities reported by 721K applicants: 5.9
Avg. # of activities reported by applicants with
known secondary school type:
·
·
·
·
·
Charter: 5.4
Home school: 5.5
Independent: 7.3
Public: 6.1
Religious: 6.7
Avg. # of activities reported by applicants who
submitted ED/REA applications: 7.7

18. Most Common Activities on Common App
1. JV/Varsity Sport
2. Community Service (Volunteer)
3. Other Club/Activity
4. Work (Paid)
5. Academic
6. Music: Instrumental

19. Use the Four P’s
Experiment with activities or summer programs
that are interesting TO YOU!
PerformanceProgram
Potential Person

20. Program
Meaningful activities include:
• Academic, social and international programs
• Volunteer/paying jobs
• Study abroad
• Summer College Classes

21. Performance
The name of the program does not
matter!
Students are NOT unique JUST because of
participating in established, selective programs!

22. Potential
Find experiences that stretch your
comfort zone!
Keeping notes on thoughts before and after the
experience makes a good foundation for
launching authentic and powerful essays!

23. Person
Character matters to all of the
colleges!
Being privileged and being entitled are NOT the
same thing!

24. Suggestions for Schools
• Invite alumni to give testimonials/presentations
• Distribute a custom list of reputable programs
accessible to school community
• Offer program AND college info sessions
• Start educating parents in 9th grade.
• Provide access to resources like TeenLife.com
• Ask teachers to encourage students to engage in
out-of-school programs.
• Survey students and parents about meaningful
summer programs/activities.

25. Questions?
Marie Schwartz, mschwartz@teenlife.com
Nina Hoe, ninahoe@gmail.com
Jessica DeSantis, jessicadesantis@lehigh.edu
Michael Pina, mpina@gfacademy.org