We’re getting to a point when the initial ten sessions and the Academic Life Coaching program are coming to a close. After this session, there are two more. If you want to continue, and most families do continue in some form after the initial ten sessions, it’s good to have a conversation before the final session with your life coach. This way, they know whether or not to continue with that extra push. Usually, continuing coaching uses a model of three coaching sessions every two months, used as follow-up and extra guidance.

The next two sessions are devoted to initiating a small project to make it tangible. Also included will be a review of the skills learned in Academic Life Coaching, referring back to the well-formed outcomes in session one, values in Session 5, and creating a vision and understanding. They’ll learn how to apply these concepts to initiate a leadership project. The important point is students continue to move forward long after the coaching sessions.

In this session, your child takes the next step in personal leadership by identifying their interests and passions, learning methods of leadership that suit them best, and using that leadership to better themselves and integrate into the community by taking on service projectsThe word passion has been an important word in college consulting. In recent years, college admissions have begun to place an emphasis on involvement outside the frame of the classroom. They’re looking at students starting independent projects, displaying passion, leadership, and demonstrating their ability to stay motivated toward a goal. That skill is rare for people in general and even rarer for high school students. Of course, they’re looking at transcripts and standardized test scores, but these are beginning to hold relatively less weight.

The word passion comes from the Latin word patior, which means to suffer. Passion relates to the idea of the ancient Romans that having such a strong emotional connection toward a person, idea, or project, ignites a sense of suffering, a means to endure the trials and hardships before finally arriving. In contemporary society, we place a high value on emotion and a parading of passion for the sake of well-being. Passion is the premium.

For students, pursuing a passion can begin on a small scale, like organizing a concert, starting a blog, or initiating a fundraiser. When a student realizes their passions, they can contribute real value to society. They will find their intrinsic motivation.

How to Best Support Your Child

You can best support your child by helping them clarify their values and passions to encourage and direct them toward creating the foundation and structure of a service project. Sometimes high school students lack tools or don’t know how to access certain resources. However, there’s a tremendous opportunity for us to take advantage of all this technology. Teenagers have so many resources at their fingertips via the Internet, telephone, and technology that they really can reach out and connect with others in the field.

From the Academic Life Coaching Workbook

Knowing your passion and nurturing it is a big part of stepping up as a leader. As obvious as it sounds, you have to know what you love and why you love it. With so many career options available, your success becoming an effective and fulfilled adult relies on knowing yourself and how you best fit with the world. The starting point is knowing your own passion, and in this session, you are invited to explore what you love. The next step is to follow it, design a way that you can act now to nurture your passion and see its impact on your community.

Below are some questions to ponder.

What do you love to do?

If you had two weeks completely free, what would you pursue?

Is there anything odd that you’re interested in that most of your friends aren’t?

What would you love to pursue as a career?