CollegeReady-Experience

College Ready is about equipping students in mind and heart to start and finish college in a way that sets them up for life success. Your goal as a leader is to provide students with an experience that takes them from being a passive viewer of the College Ready videos to someone serious about taking college life head on. When a leader makes the study an exciting, fun event with quality surroundings and interaction, the stage is set for a transformational experience.

This may sound like a daunting task, but it only takes a little pre-planning and organization along with some creativity. Don’t go at it alone either; recruit a team. The Facilitator’s Guide lays out each session in detail and provides ideas for how you can host the event. Be sure to read it thoroughly before beginning. The ideas listed, however, are only a starting point. Add your own touches according to the makeup and needs of your group and watch how lives are changed!

Below are a few general guidelines and suggestions for the sessions.

Create a visually stimulating environment. For example, decorate the room with college banners, posters, and other college paraphernalia.
Have music playing while students enter. You might have someone in your group create a playlist or you could even have popular college fight songs playing in the background. (There are several websites that provide downloads of fight songs for free. An internet search will bring up more than a few options.)
Use the countdown video to signal when a session is about to begin. Remain consistent so that students will know what to expect from week to week.
Movie clips relating to that week’s session can also be a great opener.
Weekly giveaways (a book on the session’s focus, a college T-shirt, popular CD, or small gift certificate) always grab a student's attention and provide motivation for attendance.
Use Facebook to communicate in a variety of ways between sessions to promote unity among group members.
As another session opener, share results from surveys or polls taken using Facebook to remind students of past topics or prepare them for the current session.
To get students thinking about practical applications from the study and prepare them for actual college experiences, you might enlist some college graduates for short testimonials, sharing their successes (or failures) in college and what they've learned.
If your College Ready group is more than 20 students you will need to establish smaller groups of approximately 5-7 students and a small group leader. This interaction is necessary for students to process what they have heard and develop their “wise moves.”
You can never go wrong feeding students. Light refreshments are a good idea, and you may consider a celebration meal (pizza!) or special dessert for “College Ready graduation.”

A note on parental involvement —Think of how you can communicate effectively with the parents of those in your group and get them involved. We suggest you educated them on College Ready from the very beginning. An orientation meeting that both students and parents attend could be extremely beneficial. You may also need to explain the aptitude testing options addressed in College Ready, stressing their importance.

We know the best ideas come from the trenches, and we’d love to hear what you did to make your College Ready group a success. Send us an email using the “Contact Us” function.

|

|

|

|

|

|