Spring Semester Reset

The beginning of the spring semester on a college campus feels very little like spring. With its January start date, most college students come back from winter holidays with suitcases jammed with thick sweaters and bulky hoodies, a wardrobe that suggests nothing of the fairer weather that mid-semester vacation plans promise. There is one thing about the spring semester that is consistent with the season, though, and that is a chance for a new beginning, a chance to hit the reset button on academic and personal goals.

Many students come to college in the fall with a clean slate ahead of them, with all of their high school accolades and successes girding them for the next round of academic rigor. There's a lot of hope in the air. For many students, though, the impression of what college will be like and the actual experience don't match up. They find it hard to function with so much unstructured time. They might have aloof professors that may not take a personal (or any) interest in their success. Assignment deadlines seem distant and unrelated to what's currently happening in class, so they are "forgotten" because "there's so much time" to complete them. Without intervention OR without a students' willingness to get help, for many students, the fall semester caves in on them; the newness and shiny potential of the beginning is quickly tarnished and blurred by stress and disappointment.

The spring semester, though, is the time to take what's been learned in the trenches of "The Wrong Way to Do College" and reset intentions, mindset, habits, and skills for a truly spring-like renewal so that students feel more in control, engaged, and enthusiastic about learning. That sounds more like spring to me!

Working with an Academic Coach to help apply specific study skills, to teach time management and planning, and to help maintain motivation can make the difference between a 1.9 and a 3.2. Giving your student the opportunity to hit the reset button with the right kind of support will likely determine whether they stay stuck in a dreary winter blur or whether they bloom into a new, happier, more accountable and responsible stage of young adulthood.