Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript

Speaker 1

Welcome back to season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy Podcast. Equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. We believe everyone deserves to reach their full potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back.

It is so exciting to be back in the studio and talking to you again through this. This episode, and the next two, so a total of three episodes are going to be a little bit different because Ivy League challenge registration is open and is closing soon. I'm actually going to be posting little clips of when I was recently interviewed on debt free degree podcast. And debt free degree, of course, is a podcast that specializes in helping students earn scholarships. Or to pay for their university. And of course, the Ivy League challenge is the program. It is the blueprint that can help you not only get admitted to top tier universities, but it's exactly the same stuff that helps you earn amazing levels of scholarship money. And so I interviewed on that podcast. And some of the snippets from that podcast were things that I think would be valuable for you to hear, especially those of you who are on the fence trying to. Side if you're going to register for the Ivy League challenge this cohort or put it off for some other day, some other time, I cannot say strongly enough. You do not want to wait even if you're really busy this summer, even if you've got other things, even if you don't think that it's time yet, this is the time to sign up for the Ivy League challenge. This is the time to identify your values. Become more consistent, more congruent, more authentic to those values and develop your confidence at whatever stage you're at, whether you're in middle school or high school, you develop that confidence by going through this process. And so I'm really excited. I'm not going to take any more time. Here we go without any further ado, we'll jump to the podcast itself.

Speaker 2

I have an awesome guest for you today. We are speaking with Steve Gardner. Steve is an educator and a Harvard graduate who has helped students from around the world earn admittance to top schools such as Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley and much more. The best part is before becoming a full time. Educator Steve worked in personal development and high performance training, and he loves introducing high impact strategies and mindsets to teens in his online. Force the Ivy League challenge and 1st I'd like to ask you, what is it that brought you to help teens in this manner?

Speaker 1

So I'm an educator. I teach at an International School in Singapore, and I've taught in schools around the world, including in the United States. But before that, I actually was a high performance trainer. As you read in your introduction there, I trained Olympic athletes and professional athletes. I I trained musicians. I did personal development work and high performance training with a number of adults, and what's interesting is that so some of the people that I work with were actually at elite levels. They were professionals and they wanted to get just one millisecond faster or or just slightly better. But a lot of the people that I worked with were regular people who needed to find their own values, who didn't know they weren't engaged in life, and they didn't dare go out and and really pursue. Their dreams and to see that in adults it was eye opening and it was really meaningful work. And then when I started working in high school. I began to realize that these students have the exact same issues as their parents. The people that I used to work with as adults in their 50s and 60s and 70s or even later, they still haven't found their values. They still haven't identified what really engages them in life and what really makes them come alive. And and it started to make sense. When I look at teenagers and say there's nothing, you know, as as a teacher, the system encourages me to tell teenagers what they should value and what what should be important, how I assess their performance. And there's not a lot of space there for. Encouraging students to identify what's important. To them and help them understand why it's important to them so that they do. Some of that. You know, really critical personal development growth work. And so how did I get involved working with teenagers? I love their energy. I love this. There's nothing in life that that gives me more joy and gives me more. Energy. Then, to see someone. After, after a conversation or after working together for you know, shifting to shift a mindset or to do something to see a child or an adult. But now I work with teenagers to see a child really shift for the better and really decide that they're going to engage in life and take off. Honestly, there's just nothing more exciting, nothing more meaningful in the world. And so I I can't get enough of it to be honest. It's it's beautiful.

Speaker 2

That is really awesome, but what I'm hearing you say and correct me if I'm wrong that. We're not talking about just, you know, how to get into college, how to how to get it accepted. This goes really far beyond that. Would you say? That, that, that the importance of learning these, these, their own values and their own confidence and skills, that this is more than just for right now for these kids, this really does take them beyond. College into more of a. Scope of you know, life.

Speaker 1

That's that's beautiful. You nailed it. You know, when I was studying at Harvard, I look around at my classmates and and the other students I did not see people who believed that the time they were investing in their day at the time. Was to be spent some other day, some other time. OK. In other words, these weren't people who believed that college was there to prepare them for their first job. And they didn't get to Harvard because they believed that high school was there to prepare them for college or that middle school is all about preparing. For high school, and now that I'm an educator, I see this in parents and other teachers and certainly throughout the student body I see middle school students who believe that the the point of middle school is to prepare for high school. I need to work really hard cuz high school is coming and that high school, the whole point is to work really hard so that you can go to college. And and and then colleges to get your first job and your first job is for your second job. It's a mindset that just has got to stop. Right. Because you will reach your 50s and 60s and still be wondering when you're going to start living your life when you're gonna start being your best self.

And when I was studying at Harvard, it was a campus full of people who were fully engaged. In life, not everyone. I'll I'll admit not everyone, but the vast, vast majority and the people that I spent my time with, that I ate lunch with, that I had classes with that I did study group. With those students were fully engaged in life, and when we shared stories about high school or before, those were stories about fully engaging in life as a middle school student or as a high school student. There's nothing in the rulebook that says that as teenagers, we can't contribute to society, that we can't make a difference, but somehow. So many people have this locked in mindset that that I need to. Work hard so. That I can get to the next. Step and that some other day, some other time I'll be qualified and then I'll make my impact. Then I'll do my thing. Then I'll live my life and I just think that has got to stop.

Speaker 2

So we're really just, we're just looking at that one next step that next 2-3 or four year period when the truth is we could be and should be looking far beyond that and in doing so, it actually gives us a path to go on it. It helps us to really be engaged and as you and I were talking. Before our our live interview, what does the Gallup poll say about? Adults in the workforce.

Speaker 1

Well, it's not just the Gallup poll. It's it's absolutely consistent. So there is a Gallup poll that comes out pretty consistently if they and we're talking 10s of thousands of of responses. These are statistically significant numbers, but yeah, Gallup says that adults are 85% of working adults are somewhere on the disengagement. Vector and many of those are actively disengaged as and they're literally sabotaging their employers, but most of them are just disengaged. They're just not into work. They don't get excited to come to work. Well, guess what, once you hit eighth grade, so there's the 5th grade slope, and then there's the 8th grade. Cliff and educators who are listening in are familiar with both of these terms because in 5th grade, students start to slip and they start to, you know, their values start to shift. They start to begin to pay more attention to their peers than their teachers and parents, and that's normal. And natural and healthy. There's nothing wrong with that. In 8th grade, those same students begin to fall off a Cliff. And so educators are familiar with the 5th grade slope and the 8th grade Cliff. But once you hit eighth grade and. Bond the numbers are almost identical, about 85% of high school students from 8th grade on are somewhere on the disengagement spectrum. Only about 15% are engaged in their day-to-day activities as a high school student. Yeah, it's, it's it's not right. We need to do something about this. And it's for the same reasons, right? If we could engage high school and middle school students in their values, if we can help them identify what really charges them and what really makes them come to. Help them recognize that they have a voice and that their. Their opinions, and that their their activities matter. Yeah, if they can begin to believe that as middle school students guess what they're going to be better high school students not because they worked really hard to prepare for high school, but because they really engaged. In middle school. And if we can do that for high school students, guess what?

We create the kinds of students that the Harvard and the Princetons and the other top tier universities in the world. They're not looking for people who worked really, really hard and multitask really, really well. I mean, it's amazing how many I get the picture that my students and often their parents believe that if they can, they can submit an application to college that shows that their student was really good at multitasking. That somehow the admissions officer is going to see that say, wow, a multitasker, let's get this guy in. Right, let's get this student in. It's it's absolutely it's not happening, OK? They're not looking at applications and saying wow, 20 activities, 500 hours of community service, let's get that person in. If they can multitask that well in high school, imagine what they could do in college. That I'm being facetious, but but it's true that some people believe that that's just working yourself to the. One is the way to get admitted. It's not you don't get admitted into the NBA so that you can train to become a better basketball player. You don't get admitted to Harvard because you've been a really hard worker and you've been multitasking really, really well. So now we'll teach you how to become a great citizen of the world. We'll teach you how to. Make your impact. That's not what. Instead, it's the students who are authentic, who identify what their values are, and they they choose activities that authentically reinforce those values so that they're making a bigger impact on their community. Those are the students who Harvard says, look, once they leave Harvard or or whatever university, right, once they leave our university. They're going to continue making an impact and with our resources and our support, they can make an even bigger impact. These are the world changers. That's the guy. That's the goal that we want in our on our campus. Let's go get them. And so yeah, it's it's all about, you know, the personal development and being you're fully engaged most authentic self as early as you can is exactly the thing that gets you to stand out. That's what gets you admitted to these top tier schools, so it's just nice that it just so happens that the things that. That engage you for the rest of your life and that make life meaningful as an adult are the same things that would engage you now as a teenager. And those are the same things that help you stand out and get admitted to a top tier school.

Speaker 2

I think that's something that a lot of parents really need to understand. And is that and well, in all honesty, parents, teens and high school counselors, it's not. Just, let's get it all in. That's not what they're looking for. They're looking for the student that has a passion or a focus in a particular area and makes an impact. You can make. An impact right where you. Are you don't have to, you know, solve all the world's problems. At age 16, that's not what they're. Connecting, you know? But. Even within your own little community, you can make a really big impact. Even as a teenager.

Speaker 1

To register for the Ivy League challenge, you can go to the show notes, or if you're not able to go to show notes because of the platform that you're listening to this on, just go to tilc.to/register