Growth Through Imperfection: Why You Need to Take Intellectual Risks

• Highlights
• Transcript

• Admissions officers want to see the real you, imperfections and all.

  That’s because knowing when—and how—to take academic or intellectual risks can be daunting, but it’s essential for growth. In a recent panel at the Pioneer Academics Co-Curricular Summit, How and When to Take Academic and Intellectual Risks, Matthew Jaskol, founder of Pioneer Academics, was joined by Northwestern University’s Rebecca Vonesh, Online Program Coordinator; and Aaron Zdawczyk, Senior Associate Director of Admissions. Together, they discussed how students can approach challenges, embrace failures, and push boundaries in both academics and life. Their insights provided valuable guidance on how to take meaningful risks without derailing academic progress.

  Why Intellectual Risks Matter

  Taking risks is a key part of intellectual and personal development, but for many high-achieving students, the fear of failure can be paralyzing. Jaskol kicked off the discussion by addressing this issue. He pointed out that “students feel pressure to appear flawless, believing that perfection is the only path to success,” which can prevent them from exploring new interests or stepping outside their comfort zones. Instead, Jaskol argued that “education shouldn’t only be about preparing students for success but also teaching them to navigate setbacks.”

  Vonesh supported this idea, emphasizing that perfectionism can trap students in a cycle of anxiety. She explained, “Perfect is not a state we ever achieve. It’s something we’re always moving towards.” For students to thrive, they need to learn how to manage themselves and their workloads, not just meet external expectations. She encouraged students to see challenges as “wicked problems” that don’t have one right answer—problems that help foster creativity and resilience.

  Balancing Ambition with Authenticity

  Zdawczyk shared some insights on how students can strike the right balance between ambition and authenticity in their college applications. He encouraged students to see the admissions process as a chance for self-discovery. “It’s not the achievements that we’re most interested in,” he explained, “but how you reacted to challenges and what you learned from those experiences.” For Zdawczyk, taking risks isn’t about being perfect—it’s about showing how you’ve grown and adapted along the way.

  He reminded students that colleges like Northwestern are looking for curious, creative minds willing to push boundaries. Zdawczyk’s advice? “Be true to yourself and your experiences.” When applying to selective colleges, it’s important to highlight how you’ve taken academic risks, embraced challenges, and learned from failures—whether that’s trying out a new subject, starting a project that didn’t go as planned, or pursuing a passion that may not have led to an immediate win.

  Ultimately, students who embrace intellectual risks are not only preparing themselves for academic success but also for life beyond the classroom. These experiences help them build resilience, adaptability and critical thinking skills—qualities that colleges value and that will serve them well in their future careers. Taking academic risks isn’t about being reckless; it’s about pushing yourself in ways that foster growth. Whether inside or outside the classroom, intellectual risks shape students into dynamic, resilient learners. As Zdawczyk noted, “Excellence is not expressed as perfection. Excellence is most convincingly expressed through authenticity.”

  In the end, risk-taking isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress.

  • 

    Matthew Jaskol Founder & Director, Pioneer Academics

  • 

    Aaron Zdawczyk Senior Associate Director & Director of Recruitment Strategy and Initiatives Northwestern University

  • 

    Rebecca Vonesh CTD (Center for Talent Development, Northwestern University)

• 00:00:04
  Ryan (Pioneer Academics): Okay, welcome. Welcome to our next panel, everyone.

  I hope you’ve been enjoying the pioneer Academics Co-curricular Summit. These panels have been providing an excellent opportunity to dive deep into a few topics, which is kind of nice, and this session will be no different. This session pairs very nicely with Dr. Wagner’s keynote from earlier the title of this session is How and When to take Intellectual Risks.

  So it is on a subject which came up multiple times in Dr. Wagner’s talk. So hopefully, it will give you an opportunity to think about it even more deeply.

  If Dr. Wagner’s right and a willing to take intellectual risks is valuable, then this insight might bring its own kind of stress, because, of course, taking risks is risky.

  Hopefully, our panelists can help make it seem a little less risky for you, or at least less scary. So let me introduce our panelists first. We have Aaron stop check. Aaron is the senior associate, director of Admission and Director of Recruitment strategy and initiatives at Northwestern University.

  00:01:14
  Ryan (Pioneer Academics): We also have Rebecca Vonesh. Rebecca is the online program coordinator at the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University and moderating our panel. We have Matthew Jaskol, who is the founder and program director of Pioneer academics. So I’m going to hand it over to you, Matthew.

  00:01:35
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Thank you so much. I’m really excited about this.

  Aaron can tell you. I I’m excited about this because I’ve been proposing this panel at different forums for like 2 years. Just a brief introduction. So in a 2011 speech, Commencement speech actually, Denzel Washington exhorted UPenn’s graduating class not to fall down but to fall forward using failure experiences to drive them in the direction you want to go. If you haven’t seen this speech. It’s awesome. You definitely should Google it. 

  Not too long ago the concepts of grit and resilience were at the forefront of educational discourse. They were seen as drivers of success, emphasizing perseverance and the ability to push through challenges.

  Recently, it seems, we’ve lost some of the valuable emphasis on grit and resilience. Increasingly, students feel pressure to appear flawless, believing that perfection is the only path to gaining admission to selective colleges, and their fear of failure can prevent them from taking risks from exploring new interests or stepping out of their comfort zones, all of which are critical elements of learning and growth.

  00:02:51
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): If we don’t encourage students to take risks. We may inadvertently discourage the very curiosity and adaptability that colleges and future employers value. Education shouldn’t only be about preparing students for success but also teaching them to navigate setbacks which are inevitable in both personal and their professional lives.

  So in today’s discussion, I’m playing moderator and panelist. We’ll explore how to think about how students. You know, should consider taking risks, potential failures as they pursue their interests authentically.

  I’ll start with a question or 2, but I hope I’d like quickly to shift into questions that the audience is interested in, and I know this is a bit of a hot button topic. So please put your questions in the chat.

  Rebecca, I’m going to start with you if that’s okay. Gifted students are often high achievers who may struggle with perfectionism. How do you help them navigate the tensions between striving for excellence and accepting failure as part of the learning process?

  00:04:06
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: That’s a great question. As you know, someone who is able to pick up order quickly. We can often kind of get trapped inside of that order and feel really compelled to make sure everything is exactly right. And one of the great ways that we find in helping students deal with perfectionism is kind of, you know, a multiple fold approach. First of all, realizing that, you know, perfect is not something a state that we ever achieve. It’s always something that we’re moving towards.

  And that’s why, you know, we’re able to be change makers, because we’re able to really think about problems that are wicked problems. So that means problems that are really complex, and that every time we try to solve them, they’re kind of different. Once we understand the world through the lens of wicked problems, then we’re no longer trying to get the right answer. And, in fact, nowadays the right answer is often something that can be googled very quickly, or it can be found someplace else.

  00:05:12
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Right.

  00:05:14
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: And you know, but dealing with perfectionism is also a psychological piece. And so really understanding yourself as your own workflow manager. And since I work with a lot of online students. That’s a big skill that we intentionally weave in throughout our programs. So from looking at the syllabus on the 1st day, because our kids are often doing many different things and getting your schedule for your band or your acting group, or the sports team that you’re also on and actually mapping it out. All of our courses are asynchronous. So kids have a lot or students have a lot of flexibility of when they get things done. So we, you know, intentionally ask them to make the plan, and then to communicate when they are start to move off of their own plan.

  So it’s building in that sense of not a top down order, but that that order comes from within you. And when you are able to find ways to manage yourself, then others don’t need to. And then you start to feel a little less stressed, and you know a little less anxiety in your own head. About whether you’re meeting other people’s expectations, cause you’re meeting your own.

   

  00:06:30
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Great. Thank you so much. That’s a very interesting perspective on sort of thinking about the challenges you face.

  Not at the perspective of other people or your college admissions side of things. But actually, how am I improving as a person through those challenges.  Aaron, I’m going to turn to you.

  I’d like to know, what advice would you give? Students who feel pressure to present, prevent, resent themselves as perfect in their college applications and we’ve talked in the past a little bit about the fact that you know. There you are, looking for excellent students. There’s no doubt about that. Right? So how do they balance ambition with authenticity in a way. And I’m hoping you can answer this question in a way that kind of gives students a guideline for how to think about you know their presentation in their applications to college.

  00:07:33
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Yeah. Thanks. Matthew, this is again a long time coming. It’s great to kind of finally have a chance to talk about these topics, these important issues, again, I’m an admission officer. Someone who’s read thousands and thousands of applications over a 20 year career. And again, the first thing I can say is, I’m not. I’m not a perfect human being by any stretch.

  And I think, as you look into this, this experience of a college search starting there before you actually get to college. What I like to like to tell students is that you know that use this chance as an opportunity of self-discovery.

  To self-examine, to kind of think about. The stories, the experiences that have made you, you and I guarantee that many of those experiences and stories aren’t the ones that are always about success or about perfection.

  They’re about experiences that have helped you grow the experiences where you faced a challenge and kind of move forward that could be academic or it could be outside of the classroom and when you think about discovery, that’s the same thing that I’m doing as an admission officer. When I open an application, I don’t have a list. I don’t have a bunch of check boxes that I’m searching for, but rather I am in a process of discovery.

  I’m trying to find out who you are, based on your contextual experience, based on what you’ve gone through in high school, gone through in your neighborhood, gone through in your own personal identity.

  And so, you know, when we think about that as an institution that values intellectual curiosity, that values kind of creativity you have to kind of put yourself in a mindset that says, Well, how? How am I displaying some of those characteristics? Right? How am I showcasing myself as someone who can potentially you know, take a risk with either the things that I’m studying the concepts the things that I’m doing. Because as a university like this.

  00:09:42
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: You know, that’s gonna be exciting. So as we look through an application we don’t again look for an individual item or an achievement, but rather we look for values and characteristics that have really, you know, kind of showcased qualities that that we think are great fits for our institution, and there are a lot of institutions and a lot of great, a lot of great fits for different people. But I think certainly in a at a place like Northwestern and similar places.

  You know, we’re going to be looking for those kind of entrepreneurial mindsets, those creative mindsets, the risk takers who want to kind of push boundaries. And again, we’re gonna see that in some of the activities that you’ve pursued or in some of the stories that you tell us.

  You have a lot of control in this in this application, this college search and you have a lot of what you control what you’re showing to us. So in those essays, in those activities that you’re sharing there’s ways to show that, hey? Not everything was great. But I gained something from it. I’ll give just a couple of examples.

  And you know, before we get into some more questions but you know things that I’ve seen over the years. You know, as students get into, you know, maybe starting a company on their own or trying a theatrical production or writing a story. It’s not the achievement. It’s not the award that I’m interested in. It’s how they reacted, how they tell me about it. Right? This was the role that I didn’t get. And what happened from that.

  This was the story that was so important to me. That got published in my school newspaper but again didn’t win any awards. But here’s what I learned, or maybe this was the 1st thing I ever published, and here’s what I learned not to do.

  00:11:36
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: You know. And these are the kinds of examples that really help me understand you as a student and sort of you know envision you on a college campus. And I’ll leave with just kind of one other graduation speech that I think you should check out. It was a Northwestern graduation speech by Stephen Colbert. A number of years back, who also went to Northwestern and you know one of the things he talked about is comparing life to improv common, which is something that Northwestern does really well.

  And you know, a lot of this is what he emphasizes that you can’t win at Improv just like you can’t win at life. And the idea there is that in improv you have to rely on other people.

  And that’s another quality that comes through when you’re willing to put yourself out. There is the fact that you’re kind of connecting with other people, and you’re relying on them in in kind of the opportunities in front of you and growing from them. And I think that’s something that every college campus is. Gonna look for is, you know, how do you connect with other people? What kind of person will you be?

  On that campus? And you can kind of showcase that again through the things that you’re saying and what you’re doing.

  00:12:49
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Thank you. Aaron, yeah. And one of the things I also would like to. We have, we have quite a few, usually about 40% of the people attending the summit, our educators, or parents. And so one of the questions is, how can educators and mentors best support students in developing the confidence to take individual risks, knowing that failure is a possibility. So maybe, Rebecca, I don’t know if that’s 1 you would want to start with. But and Aaron might want to comment on from the perspective of you know how failures are considered.

  00:13:29
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: Well, as a parent and as an educator. Certainly. How we talk about failures is, you know, at the forefront of that question. So you know, framing things as constant learning experiences, not letting our reaction as someone who just went through the college application process with my daughter, you know, sometimes we get really invested in this and so really being upfront and talking about it as a growth experience from the beginning, I think is you know, important. 

  If we want to say that you know we learn from our failure and how we deal with our own failures, and how we model that as teachers as well. You know, we’ve all had moments where we write something on the board. That’s wrong. What do we do when a student calls us out? 

  Are we reacting in a harsh tone, or are we really grateful for the feedback that someone actually spent the time to really read what we’re saying and to think critically about it. So I think that that’s one of the pieces that we, you know through CTD online, really work on is having discussions and learning how to give feedback to each other. And that’s something that is not some something that is achieved. You don’t create a healthy mindset about failure with one situation. 

  It’s a habit that you build through again modeling when failure happens to you as well as helping other students see error, not as the end, all be all the terrible thing, but as a cool space to jump off and find conversation.

  00:15:06
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Thanks, Rebecca. Yeah, I’ll I mean everything you said I feel agree with. I think you know, when you think about this process, as you said. Not only is it a kind of a chance to kind of look inward and examine yourself to discover but yeah, to kind of again realize that you know the things that you’re doing.

  00:15:33

  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Kind of again reflect out. And I think the important thing here, especially in the college process, is you can’t manufacture some of this stuff like what we we’re constantly telling students is, be yourself.

  Be true to yourself be true to kind of your experience. Be authentic. I know that word gets thrown around a lot, but it’s very much how it works. Again, we don’t search for one type of student, one type of experience. The diversity and array of experience that students bring is the exciting piece.

  And so one person’s success will look very different from another person’s success, just as one person’s kind of challenges will look very different from another person’s challenges. So where you find those in your own experience is what you’re trying to share. You’re not trying to kind of again manufacture something that that someone else had, because maybe they had some version of that that you see a success.

  So again, come back to kind of who you are and the opportunities and experiences that you’ve had, and kind of. Look within those to see where your you know challenges where some of your failures, where some of your growth has been, and then share that, you know, I guarantee you we will be interested in it.

  00:16:55
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: And so you know, that’s that that, at least in terms of the college application process is important. And then, as educators again, yeah, trying to remind everyone that there is a place for everyone. We spend a lot of time talking about a very small number of schools, and in the United States, particularly there are thousands and thousands of great schools opportunities for students.

  Getting a college education is what is important. For any metric. And as you look at you know, an education at some particular schools, and you know that’s not again the measure of success.

  So I think again giving yourself that chance in your search to also find universities that match with the interests you have, the value systems that you have. You can find that out through some of their essays themselves, or through some of the information that they put out as values, you know, on their websites. But again matching that up. Because again, success will feel in this process is all about finding a place that you will succeed.

  Finding a place that you’ll be happy in and that will come a lot from again. This discovery piece and again there will be a less sense of a failure.

  If you find that match.

  00:18:20
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Great. This is a question from a student in Ethiopia who’s actually applying to Northwestern. So connecting as you both are from that school. My question is how do you differentiate between a risk that’s worth taking and one that could derail the academic progress? And what factors guide this decision. How do I think about a risk and say you know that I should, I should consider or like, you know, that seems really interesting. But like or is it too great a risk.

  00:18:53
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Yeah, that’s a great question. Thank you for that one. I think we a little bit in the chat earlier and you know, I think this is you know, I think academically is different than outside of the classroom, and I will say that you know, as you get into the more selective institutions there is an expectation that students are academically well prepared and that the risk that they’re taking is taking chances or challenge within the coursework available to them. Now, again, many systems around the world. 

  There’s a curriculum that you have to take, and you don’t get a lot of choice. So in those cases, you know, that’s not going to be the case. But if you’re in a system, an advanced placement system, an international baccalaureate system and honors, or some other independent curriculum, and you have an opportunity to challenge kind of yourself intellectually, academically. That’s going to be viewed in a in a positive light. Now that has to be balanced with some version of academic success.

  00:19:54
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: So I think again, as you try to find that balance. You know you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where that class or that choice is then affecting other classes and experiences. In other words, this the sort of risk that you take has to be moderated in order to say, Oh, yeah. I’m gonna push myself here, but it’s not gonna take away from a lot of the other pieces of what I’m doing. But I also encourage you to again think about those risks outside of the classroom, where it’s not just about grades or about classes, but about, you know again, more opportunities that you might put yourself into.

  You know, sort of in extracurriculars, or an independent kind of initiatives. Or, again, in how you’re thinking and again expressing that within the essays or other pieces of the application.

  Those are ways again, that you can show kind of that mindset that you have. You know, outside of just again a classroom that might be report a class that might be required also within certain classes. I think there are going to be assignments so let’s take it away from just the class itself. But are there assignments within that class where you can kind of take a risk? Right? 

  It’s sometimes hard to do that with a group project where you’re kind of everybody’s relying on each other. But again, are there scenarios where maybe a topic that you’re kind of pursuing might be a little bit more challenging or push the boundaries. Is there a way to approach a problem that’s gonna be a little bit different, you know, and where that comes through are will be within the recommendation letters that we see as admission officers. So when we ask a teacher, what type of student is this?

  00:21:39
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: They’re gonna say, oh, this is the student who, you know tried some things within the problems. Or this is a student who came up with a topic that I hadn’t heard or haven’t heard very often. Right? These are other ways.

  I think, within the academic experience where you can have that now again, I understand, it has to be within the culture and the identity that you’re working in and in some cases that’s not gonna be possible. So again, that’s where you can find some other outlets as well.

  00:22:08
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Rebecca. Thank you so much, Aaron Rebecca, relating to that. Kind of area a little bit when you’re looking at students, you know, who are qualified to be part of the center for talent development, so excellent gifted students. But maybe they’re thinking about a course or a program.

  You know that they’re not as comfortable with. What is CTD’s approach to guiding them about? Should they consider that, you know? And you know, should they do that with confidence? Are you looking more for students to step outside of their comfort zones? And how do you support that? Or are you saying no? Actually, you know, your giftedness shows up really, specifically in these areas. And we want to help you be really strong with that.

  00:22:56
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: That’s a great question. And just to kind of tag off of what Aaron was saying. In thinking about, you know kind of your educational path. We call it the Talent development Path. There are definitely key stages where you want to show it that you want to show your talent. So when you know we talk a lot about cultivating joy in a subject area, but then building the foundations.

  So you want to be able to show that you have foundations for something. But then, after that point, when you’re apprenticing in the work, and you’re thinking about how you’re specializing, which you know in some ways means narrowing, but also means finding those interconnections. That’s when those extra experiences that you know maybe don’t come with the Transcript. Maybe don’t have a grade. But mark that you are so interested in this said topic that you’ve gone above and beyond to try to find that experience. I think that those are things that really kind of make you pop out and show that again. 

  You’re the one in control of your of your educational, your academic experience of your voice, that you’re that you’re interested in finding your voice and strengthening it so like my picture behind me that you ripple out right across that you have that global impact. As for do we suggest that you only focus on your strengths? Or do we talk about interdisciplinary approaches? Certainly there are, you know. Know thyself is the 1st commandment. So you gotta know who you are. And there are some academic challenges. You know that if you didn’t have the foundation for you, you know, are, gonna be not as useful. So taking calculus A B. Is probably not a great fit for a student who struggled with algebra. So because some things need a foundation in order to get there. But that doesn’t mean that you never think about mathematical systems again and totally shut that off. It just means that you keep on trying to to grow yourself in those areas.

  00:25:07
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: And what we find is that sometimes the best, most innovative, interesting thinking comes from someone who has a strong talent base. They’re able to organize and see the world in a particular way. But they’re outside of their talent zone. And they’re thinking about again those intersections. So they’re thinking about how they’re learning what they’re learning in a new way that sometimes brings out new ideas from that field. So yes, I mean, our center is all about appreciating, naming, calling out your talents.

  And that means that you probably also have some areas that you need to grow. And it’s understanding yourself and understanding how to balance those things that in the end creates the change makers that Northwestern is trying to create. And so are we.

  00:26:04
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Wonderful. I’m a big fan of what you’re saying there. Because I feel like it’s if you listened. If you heard Tony Wagner’s keynote speech, his whole discussion of how innovation comes from the intersection of things right, which is a big theme of our summit today. There’s a number of questions that I’m gonna try to sort of put together a little bit. A number of people are asking things like, you know. It. It seems like selective colleges are looking for. All of these, you know. Started a nonprofit, you know. Put on a performance, you know, these have national awards and different things like that.

  And that’s kind of there, Vaishnavi here has a question that says, Well, so, how can setbacks experienced during high school, such as academic challenges, extracurricular failures, or even personal difficulties, be framed in a college application, and provide both provide depth to your personal essays. Right? So can you make a more appealing and realistic candidate by talking about this resilience?

  00:27:11
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): So I think this question that we’re saying of like a does everything have to do. You have to have all these outstanding things to even be considered and then B does this, does, do you know? Can you actually be a more appealing candidate by talking about what you have dealt with, and how that resilience has played out.

  00:27:34
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Yeah, I mean, I think, kind of address a few things here. You know one. Firstly, again, back to the checkbox concept. There is no checkbox, and it is not about achievements. You know. Students come to us from so many different backgrounds, so many different experiences. Some have opportunities to get a national award. Some have to work every day after school. And I think that’s back to a holistic review comes down to understanding someone’s entire experience.

  And you know who they are. So all of these things again, tell us something about the student and help us think about that student matching with Northwestern’s values. And again, being a student on our campus eventually. So no, you don’t have to have all these awards? Do some students who come to Northwestern have them? Sure. But many students also do not.

  What we do want is that you engage right that you engage some way, shape or form outside of the classroom. Whether, again, that’s because you’re required to. You have to take care of family at home. Again, you have to work, you have obligations through your culture or your place of worship or you have the choice, and you have the choice to be engaged in clubs or organizations or competitions.

  00:29:02
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: But ultimately, yeah, there is an expectation. This is a living learning environment, a place where you will engage when you get here? So again, how do you kind of how do you? You know? How do you kind of do things when you’re not preparing for the class. Now again, around the world, it’s so different. Again, I travel around the world. I review applications from around the world again, culturally, school means a lot of different things, not just in the United States, where there’s a lot of setup extracurricular. So again, context is so important.

  But we’ll look for again students who? You know, they’ll tell us things. But again, what becomes most exciting is the stories that they tell about these things the lessons that they’ve learned, the values that they’re espousing.

  00:29:48
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: The experiences that they’re having and I think that again will be tied in particular to the essays, and I again, a real. I would say, Tip, I give students is look for the essays that that university is offering up the ones from the University, which will tell you a lot about what they’re looking. And if you answer those questions, chances are you, you know you’ll put yourself in a good competitive position. And if you’re struggling, answering some of the types of questions that that university is offering again, maybe that’s not going to be a good fit for you.

  And there are going. But there are going to be plenty of options. So again, part of this is this match the type of environment that you’re seeking?

  What will they reinforce for you? What kind of support are they going to give you? But I think, as you look for a university to consider. Some of the questions that they’re asking, you will help you understand again when that is a good match for you where you can excel and achieve and have a great university experience.

  00:30:54
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: So I think that’s something that’s important, you know as you as you’re examining that. And I think you know, just taking on again the theme of the summit or research in general research in general is an endeavor that does not have a guaranteed outcome. Like you, you have a hypothesis. You have a process.

  You have data, but that data doesn’t necessarily show you what you wanted to see or what you thought should happen. Right? So by nature. I think that’s something is a great example of you know. You just don’t know, and you have to kind of let the story be told. So.

  So I do think that’s important. So, you know, utilize those essays, utilize the people in your life that will share that story. So again, back to who’s writing a recommendation. It doesn’t have to be the person with the great grade that you got, or even the person that isn’t a subject you’re seeking.

  Find someone who knows you, who knows your qualities, who knows your experience and shares that with the institution. And so I think that will also again help you in this process stand out, but not in a way of achievement, but in a way of understanding who you are.

  00:32:03
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: Can I just tag in one.

  00:32:05
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Go ahead!

  00:32:06
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: One of the themes I’m hearing Aaron say over and over again, is the idea of your authentic story. And yes, definitely. That’s something that’s been maybe a little overplayed, and people say it over and over. But when we really kind of tear apart, what does it mean to be authentic. It is deeply rooted in both understanding our own strengths and our own failures, and allowing some of that to shine through.

  So, looking at the templates and the letters that other people have written really can be helpful. But you don’t want that to overshadow your story, because whether it’s Northwestern or another at college, or you don’t go to college. Your story can ripple, can change the world, but it can’t do that. If you’re trying to live someone else’s story. If you’re trying to mimic someone else’s voice, there are billions of us on this Earth. 

  There’s a lot of humans, and we all have a unique story. That is a, you know, something about our species that is really interesting and figuring out how you can find the space and the strength to tell your own story, which includes some of those failures, makes your writing and your storytelling about what you’ve learned feel real and authentic, so that it doesn’t feel like you’re just looking at a form letter and trying to fill in those blanks, but that you’re really using your writing to share something to understand yourself which is something that you can’t get from AI. And you can’t get from looking at something that someone else has written. You’ve got to, you know. Understand yourself, in order for that to come through your words.

  00:33:57
  Matthew Jaskol ( Pioneer Academics ): Yeah, with that, I wanna thank you both for such candid discussions of something that I think is really makes students nervous and in a certain way, there’s a juxtaposition between I have to get into. I’m looking to go to college. I’m ambitious definitely. The next thing I want to do, and I want to do it at the best college I can.

  And yet I want to do big things and big things mean making decisions that sometimes will make you look less perfect because the real results of research or anything else, I mean, research fails most of the time. Right? So, but what I hear both from Rebecca and Aaron is the imperative to or their strong consideration of who you are. And they’re looking for excellent people. But excellence is not expressed as perfection. Excellence is most convincingly expressed through authenticity. So that’s what I’m hearing, anyway. I hope that that is something that that that the audience here will be able to take away.

   I want to give a big thank you to Aaron and Rebecca for presenting your ideas here. And helping answer those questions, and a quick mention that the next panel we have is, it involves questions about how to think about what you put your time and efforts into as a student outside of your classes. And there are students on that panel. 

  So we’re really going to elevate the student voice as well as the contribution of Mr. Mike Steidel, who is the former Dean of admissions at Carnegie Mellon. For about 35 years. So, looking forward to that, don’t miss it. Jump into the next one, and Aaron and Rebecca thank you again so much for your time and your thoughts here.

  00:36:11
  Aaron Zdawczyk, Northwestern Admissions: Thank you. Good luck everyone in your search and in your research.

  00:36:19
  Rebecca Vonesh | CTD Online Programs Coordinator: Bye, everyone.