In this episode, we examine the College Application Process as a Metaphor for the challenges student face in college and in life. The application is the gateway to a student’s future.

The complex process of applying is the beginning of academic and personal independence that requires all kinds of executive function skills such as Critical Thinking, Planning and Prioritization.

We discuss what the process should look like, what to do if you get stuck, why some students get stuck, and the role parents play in the process. Focus Collegiate Founder and Principal Grant Leibersberger and Enrollment and Outreach Director Ann-Marie Stripling give candid advice to parents and students.

College readiness is a subject in the hearts and minds of students and their parents across the country. A Google search for College Readiness produces nearly 235 million results.

This is the foundation of the work Focus Collegiate does in the areas of Academic Independence, Life Balance (personal skills and mindset), Social Integration, and Motivation and Decision-Making.

Focus Collegiate Founder and Principal Grant Leibersberger and Enrollment, Outreach Director Ann-Marie Stripling, and host Jane Taylor discuss the three pillars of college readiness: Self-Awareness, Independence, and Practice.

The episode ends in a lazer round of questions about how to practice Academic Independence, Life Balance (personal skills and mindset), Social Integration, Motivation, and Decision-Making.

In this episode of College UnBound, Focus Collegiate Founder and Principal Grant Leibersberger and Enrollment and Outreach Director Ann-Marie Stripling discuss the Focus Collegiate Summer Cohort and the importance of college prep.

The Summer Cohort is a three-week in-person college readiness experience in Boston designed for rising college first-years who need extra support before they land on campus in the fall. The program addresses academics, life, digital literacy, and independent living skills. Students take classes, work on study habits, and basically get a taste for college life. See sample schedule here.

The staff at Focus Collegiate knows that in the novel setting of college, some of the assumptions a student has about their own learning profile can start to fall away. In the Summer Cohort, before they are inundated with the new responsibilities of college, the student and our staff start to see where a student might struggle and begin to shore up their strengths, creating long-term strategies for college success.

At the Summer Cohort, students practice in a safe environment what college will be like and how they will face its rigors. “It’s very important for both students and parents to practice what it is going to be like going away to college…For students, it’s about previewing all the things they will need to learn; for parents, it’s about ‘what am I going to do with myself now that my son or daughter is gone? What kinds of things are going to change for me as a person?’” said Ann-Marie Stripling.

“Forming great relationships is an important output of the Summer Cohort… particularly for the students who are going to be getting to know the staff they are going to be working with in the fall,” said Grant Leibersberger.