Session 8

Identify your passions

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 five, 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 teen takes the next step in personal leadership by identifying their interests and passions, and learning methods of leadership that suit them best, and use that leadership to better themselves and integrate into the community by taking on service projects.

The 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 more rare in high school students. Of course, they’re looking at transcripts and standardized test scores, but these are beginning to hold relatively less weight.

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.

Leadership styles with core motivation

This exercise links the student’s core motivation and natural strength of their personality to the project at hand. It’s looking specifically at what the leadership strengths the student demonstrates and how they can utilize those strengths to perform service to others through passion.

This concept can only be understood and attained on a personal basis, which we’ve worked on developing throughout the program. It’s combining the insights and breakthroughs during each session and applying them to a project and a promotion of themselves. It helps students use their natural strengths to accomplish something remarkable.