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As I come to the end of the semester I am reflecting on my coachees and on the wide range of outcomes they are experiencing in this moment. One student graduated with a long-awaited PhD. A second student, an undergraduate, probably will not be able to emerge from probation. A third may end up back on probation after two semesters in good standing. A fourth is likely to achieve a goal of a 4.0 set at the beginning of the semester. I could go on listing a myriad of variations.
What outcome constitutes a success? At any stage of their higher education experience, what students are able to call a “win” may or may not align with conventional notions of success, both in terms of the timeline and the evidence. Many students live in the uncomfortable gap between how society, parents, or their own internalized messaging define success and what they are able to accomplish in a given semester. The rigid box of four years, 120 credits, 3.0+ GPA cannot possibly contain all learners. Even among those who do fit, some have shoehorned themselves in, often at a cost.
In the academic coaching office, we cannot change what parents, institutions, or employers value, and we must acknowledge that the externally-identified markers of success can be consequential in a system that we don’t control. A transcript that reflects one or more periods of academic warning or probation may be a liability when applying to graduate programs; an on-and-off college path might hamper a job search. But this does not negate the very real successes our coachees experience in their very real lives.
Invite your students to identify those wins and name their successes – even to create their own broader definition of success – in the context of their own unique experiences. My student who may remain on probation, for example, has made exceptional strides in communicating in a timely fashion and engaging their learning strengths. Encourage students to dispute the typical notions of success, even while acknowledging the expectations that await them in the world. You might just motivate them to go forth a little more confident in what they have to offer.
Join a LifeBound training to learn more about how to shepherd unique success paths.
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