00:00:06 Susan Corwith: I think we’re ready to go.
00:00:10 Susan Corwith: Let’s see, just get started here.
00:00:13 Susan Corwith: Hi everybody, thank you for joining our panel discussion today. I’m Dr. Susan Corwith, the Director at Northwestern University Center for Talent Development, and Northwestern University is just outside of Chicago, Illinois, in the U.S, if you’re not familiar. And our center’s been at Northwestern for over 40 years.
00:00:29 Susan Corwith: And we provide, enrichment and advanced, programming for advanced learners age 4 through grade 12. And one of our signature programs is the Civic Education Project, which focuses on civic engagement and responsible leadership and service.
00:00:44 Susan Corwith: Which is our topic today. And I’m really pleased to have with me, Laurel Griffiths from the Davidson Institute, who will introduce herself a little later in the discussion.
00:00:52 Susan Corwith: And together, our goal is to help you understand the importance of developing leadership skills and being active citizens as you pursue your talents into adulthood. We’ve saved some time for questions at the end, so if you have a question that you want to ask us, please drop it in the Q&A, and we will be sure to come back to that at the end.
00:01:11 Susan Corwith: The first thing I want to do is tell you a little bit about the talent development model, which is really in our name, the Center for Talent Development. And being at Northwestern, we’ve studied how talents develop.
00:01:21 Susan Corwith: Over the lifespan. And we’ve learned that if we boil this whole talent development model, pages and pages of research, down to two ideas, it’s one that, you know, sort of our talents
00:01:31 Susan Corwith: show up in different areas. You know, some of us are really, really love science or math or arts.
00:01:38 Susan Corwith: We may cross over some of these different areas, but
00:01:41 Susan Corwith: Whatever we’re interested in, we need the right level of challenge in order to sort of grow and to learn and to be able to continue our development. And at the same time, we’ve learned that it’s really important to develop these psychosocial skills in combination with this academic knowledge. And we’ll talk a little bit more about what that means in the next slide. But the good news in all of this research so far about how our talents develop is that
00:02:06 Susan Corwith: that we can influence our abilities through experience and opportunity. And that happens both for, kind of, academic knowledge, but also these psychosocial skills.
00:02:16 Susan Corwith: And when I say psychosocial skills, it means executive functioning skills, social skills, sort of, you know, mental skills, and they fall into a variety of different categories that I have up here on this slide. And if we’re really going to be transformational thinkers and innovators in our lives, we need more than just sort of facts in a specific subject area.
00:02:36 Susan Corwith: And you’ll see these sort of four different categories of psychosocial skills, and the ones that are highlighted in orange are ones that are really well attended to and developed through leadership and civic engagement and service learning activities, which is why we really sort of say it’s so important to think about these things.
00:02:51 Susan Corwith: So in the conceptual knowledge bucket, the thing that I have highlighted is problems and products in the domain. So whatever field of study you are interested in, or that you sort of are gravitating towards studying in the future, you need to understand the problems of that field, or what are they working on, what are the issues they’re dealing with, and what are the opportunities that are there. And then when we think about the thinking processes that we need to develop, I highlighted the critical inquiry, asking good questions.
00:03:16 Susan Corwith: along with collaboration. How do you work in a field, a professional field, with colleagues? How do you work with people in government and nonprofits? How do you work with the clients directly?
00:03:26 Susan Corwith: Those collaborative skills are going to be really important, so we need to practice those.
00:03:30 Susan Corwith: Along with academic persistence, things like goal setting, you know, self-efficacy, which is how do we get ourselves motivated, how are we prepared to show up at work and in our studies every day. And then finally, a lot of these skills under interpersonal and social, in that community-oriented bucket, empathy is really important, you’ll see me come back to that a few times, along with these communication skills.
00:03:50 Susan Corwith: Being able to be respectful of diverse opinions and people in different contexts, and building your network. Over time, as you move into college and career, that networking is really important.
00:04:02 Susan Corwith: So, there’s plenty of evidence that there are benefits to cultivating your leadership skills, and here’s sort of the four main areas where these benefits can show up for you. When we work on our leadership and our skills authentically through service learning and civic engagement.
00:04:16 Susan Corwith: It encourages perseverance and focus, and that focus is something that we’re going to need as we decide on, sort of, a career path or a professional path in the future.
00:04:24 Susan Corwith: Those social skills are really important and get developed, because you’re involved in a lot of relationships with your peers, with mentors, with others who are working in these areas, and you get a feel for group dynamics.
00:04:36 Susan Corwith: You’re developing your emotional intelligence, so one of the benefits is growth in emotional intelligence, building that empathy, that understanding of other people’s perspectives and opinions, and also learning how to manage yourself in different spaces as you’re working with people, you know, how are you managing your emotions or sort of handling challenges that arise. And then all of these things, if you’re involved in leadership development activities or engaged
00:05:01 Susan Corwith: specifically, you can sort of… you’re going to have a lot of different experiences. Experiences that you can then reflect on and relate.
00:05:08 Susan Corwith: In college applications, and in interviews, and, you know, as you’re preparing for work.
00:05:13 Susan Corwith: There’s also a lot of research evidence that practicing your leadership skills can boost your self-confidence, you know, foster a strong sense of responsibility, both personal responsibility and responsibility for members of your community. Enhance those communication skills that you’re going to need, and again, getting back to that idea of empathy, which is so important.
00:05:32 Susan Corwith: Authentic leadership is what we’re aiming for, experiences that are well-suited to you as young adults, and that, you know, will sort of help you, and those adults that are working with you. And when combined with service learning and civic engagement, this authentic leadership is a really good way to inspire you to become active, engaged community members
00:05:52 Susan Corwith: Who are both knowledgeable about the subjects that you love, so we can be a leader in any number of, you know, areas.
00:05:59 Susan Corwith: And it doesn’t always mean the person who’s out in front taking charge of everything. There are lots of ways to be a leader, but you can do this in different subjects that you love and in the areas that you excel, building your capacity for problem solving and communicating and all of those good things that I was just talking about.
00:06:14 Susan Corwith: The good news is authentic leadership can be experienced in a variety of ways and over time. But what’s really important, it’s not the number of leadership activities that you are involved in.
00:06:24 Susan Corwith: But it’s the commitment to and the growing responsibility that you have within an experience or an organization. So depth and breadth and growth over time are more valuable than lots of short-term engagements.
00:06:36 Susan Corwith: Now, what do I mean when I say authentic leadership and service learning? Well, service learning is a really specialized approach, or a thoughtful way of approaching engagement with your community. And it’s an approach that integrates both that meaningful community service with some academic learning objectives, so that everybody’s benefiting. So, for example, I’m saying that it’s really hands-on, and it’s immersive in the community’s
00:07:01 Susan Corwith: in the spaces. It’s a lot of project and hands-on-based work. For example, you might be learning about food insecurity while you’re packing groceries for a family in need at a local community organization. Or you might take a tour of a neighborhood medical clinic
00:07:16 Susan Corwith: Talk with the doctors there at the same time you’re doing some research or, you know, academically learning about the healthcare system.
00:07:23 Susan Corwith: So you’re combining that classroom learning or that academic learning with the hands-on service and engagement with community. It’s not just showing up for service hours, okay?
00:07:33 Susan Corwith: So when we think about what are leadership, authentic leadership ideas and opportunities.
00:07:38 Susan Corwith: The good news is there are many ways to get authentic leadership experiences. They don’t have to be costly, they don’t have to be difficult to access. And I was listening to one of the earlier panels, they were talking about working locally and starting locally, and I think that’s really good advice.
00:07:52 Susan Corwith: You just need to make sure you’ve identified your goals for any experience that you’re going to pursue. And in Laurel’s section, she’ll talk a little bit more about building on experience so that you can start with something a little more focused, a little more short-term, and expand on that as your skills, experience level.
00:08:07 Susan Corwith: And comfort level grow and change.
00:08:10 Susan Corwith: So let’s start about maybe, with maybe practicing some of these skills at home. Like, perhaps you can be in charge of something to do with a family activity.
00:08:19 Susan Corwith: For example, you can plan an extended family get-together or a community service activity that requires you to do some event planning with other people, those communication and sort of planning and organization skills. It can look like caring or mentoring a younger sibling. And while you’re doing that, keeping a reflection journal of what you’re learning about that interaction, and the impact of that experience, because
00:08:41 Susan Corwith: Let’s face it, sometimes working with a sibling is not an easy thing. You really do have to communicate and think about their perspective a little bit differently.
00:08:48 Susan Corwith: It can be educating your family about a local issue that you care about, and working to sort of select a way that you all can learn and act together on that issue.
00:08:56 Susan Corwith: But when we think outside of the home, authentic leadership can be practiced in school and community, so neighborhood, city, local organizations, local government.
00:09:07 Susan Corwith: That sort of means getting out into those spaces in ways that center what you value and your areas of interest. Am I interested in education? Am I interested in healthcare? Am I interested in law? And so you can start to put into practice the knowledge and skills that you want to develop further.
00:09:22 Susan Corwith: So maybe at school, it’s student government or class representative, where you have to engage in public speaking and relationships development and decision making, or organizing a school club or leading a school service event.
00:09:35 Susan Corwith: You can organize a homework group or club and manage the different personalities that are going on there. When you have to do that, it can be very instructive, especially if you choose to go into a career that requires management of people or, you know, in college when it’s going to be sort of a day-to-day experience. Schools often, obviously, facilitate these kinds of activities, but they can also be done through community centers or park districts.
00:09:59 Susan Corwith: Which does require you to go network and pitch an idea. And these ideas are all practicing authentic leadership because of the strong planning and coordination skills required.
00:10:09 Susan Corwith: Now, more generally or formally, you can consider job shadowing or taking on internships, and doing that is a way of, you know, seeing how others demonstrate leadership, and if you kind of agree with that, or maybe think you would lead a different way.
00:10:23 Susan Corwith: And finally, I’ll just say participating in a structured leadership program or university-based leadership service learning program like we have at the Center is another opportunity to learn and practice the specific skills with peers and mentors. My point is really that there are just a lot of ways to practice authentic leadership, and there’s no one right way except to be thoughtful about your goals and impact.
00:10:42 Susan Corwith: So I’m going to turn this over to this, the mic over to Laurel for her input on this work, but there’ll be, again, time for questions at the end, and you can certainly learn more about what the Center for Talent Development is doing in this work by visiting our website or dropping us an email. So, Laurel, I’m going to hand it over to you.
00:11:01 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Thank you so much, Susan. I’m excited to continue our conversation. Let me just share my screen.
00:11:08 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Well, hello, everyone. I’m Laurel Griffiths, I’m the Director of Family Services at the Davidson Institute. I’m stepping in for my wonderful Director of Outreach, Megan Canela.
00:11:20 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): The Davidson Institute is a national organization that works with the families of profoundly gifted and twice exceptional students, ages 5 to 18.
00:11:30 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I have a slide at the end where we can… I will share more resources along those lines. But to continue our conversation about the role of leadership and civic engagement in talent development.
00:11:43 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Both Megan and I are former English teachers, and there were two questions that we often asked our students that I think are really applicable to this conversation that we’re having about leadership civic engagement. And these questions we did borrow from the wonderful textbook.
00:12:01 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): They say, I say the moves that matter in academic writing. And they are, so what, who cares? I know of a little bit of a blunt questions, blunt questions, but when we’re thinking about
00:12:14 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): holistically, developing talent when we’re thinking about authentic leadership. These are important questions because they help us get to our why. Why are we doing these things?
00:12:28 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And…
00:12:30 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): you know, I think if we can answer these questions, then you’re going to find opportunities that not only are, like, helpful to your community, but fulfilling for you as a person, because we’re really asking, what matters to you? What do you care about?
00:12:48 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): If you start looking internally, as Susan said, kind of at, like, centering your values, your interests, and allow that to guide you, then you will probably find, more
00:13:03 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): more opportunities that you deeply connect with. So then it’s not just about, like.
00:13:10 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Putting things on your resume to bulk up the resume, but finding things that you truly are deeply invested in.
00:13:19 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And, as I said, I work, with the families of profoundly gifted and twice-exceptional students, and you may identify as those, and I think
00:13:29 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Within that community, as well as many other people, there’s some characteristics that tie together that are really… can be strengths on this journey forth as you’re thinking about developing your talents and your leadership skills.
00:13:45 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I want to pull out a couple of those. I think having a strong sense of curiosity mixed with
00:13:51 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): enthusiasm about those interests, about what you care about, can really help propel you through the hard times. You’re gonna hit obstacles along the way, but if you lean back into that enthusiasm, that curiosity, you will find ways around.
00:14:08 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I think also many students, have great creative problem-solving skills and rich imaginations, and those things are really things to, honor and continue to cultivate, because that’s what allows us to think
00:14:24 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): beyond the box, beyond what is currently happening in the world, what do we want to see? What could be changed?
00:14:32 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I think also, many, students have a very deeply developed sense of justice pretty early on, a moral compass of, like, what’s right and what’s wrong.
00:14:44 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And again, I think that kind of attuning to your values and finding opportunities that align with that sense of justice, helps you get more invested and more out of the opportunities you’re finding.
00:15:01 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Okay, and as Susan said, when you start taking on leadership roles and finding opportunities for authentic leadership.
00:15:14 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): you’re building so many more skills along the way. And these won’t just help you in
00:15:21 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): That one direction in which you’re cultivating your leadership, but also in so many other areas of your life.
00:15:29 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Executive functioning, interpersonal communication, more critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills, building all of those into collaborating with others, empathizing with others, and of course, like, kind of consistency and persistence as you dive deeper into these opportunities.
00:15:48 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): So where… where do you start? Like, maybe you have answered those questions of what matters, you know, like, so what, who cares, what matters to you, what do you care deeply about, but then what do you do?
00:16:03 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): One of the things to look at is there are going to be other people who also care about the issues you care about. What are they saying? What are they doing? What’s happening in your local community, or in your school, or in your region, or in your home?
00:16:21 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): that… that connects to… that is involved in your interests, what are people doing already? Where… because this will help you find the gaps. What isn’t being covered by other people.
00:16:38 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): when you can find both what you care about, have a deep understanding of what other people are already doing about it, and where there still are holes and gaps, those are places where you can fill in, right? That’s where you can really meaningfully contribute,
00:16:56 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): To the issues that you care about.
00:16:59 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And this is an important, kind of recognizing what everybody else is doing. Allows you to see that leadership is not being, a lone wolf, right? Leadership is a team sport. There… you’re going to be…
00:17:14 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Contributing, to a wider community, that has been working on this… these issues or connected issues for a long time. And you want to be… you want to go in there, with the spirit of that collaboration.
00:17:31 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): It’s also important to remember that adding to and supporting a community is a lifelong skill. It is not, you’re not going to fix everything the first time through, right? You’re not going to make the biggest contribution your first day.
00:17:49 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): These are things that we develop over a long time. As Susan was saying, it’s not so much about
00:17:56 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): The… how many things you’re a leader in, but the quality in which, that you’re doing these things.
00:18:04 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): The time, the commitment.
00:18:08 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Okay. So, where do we start?
00:18:13 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I think one of the things that when we, that we get caught up in when we think about, cultivating leadership is we think about the end goal.
00:18:23 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And it can feel like a really long way away from our ultimate end goal. So start small. As Susan was saying, you know, look at your home, at your school, at your local community, the things that you have immediate access to.
00:18:41 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Take what you already love, what you’re already doing, and build a little bit on top of it.
00:18:50 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): you can also look at what your areas of interest look like in the real world, right? Like, there are so many ways of doing what you’re interested in. I’ll take very quickly, you know,
00:19:04 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): as I said, I was a former English teacher. There’s so many things to do if you enjoy reading and books, right? It is not just a, you must become an English teacher. There’s also librarians. There are also bookstore owners. There are writers, of course, publishers, editors, so many ways of going. So what does that interest look like?
00:19:25 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): In all of its diverse ways, in the real world.
00:19:30 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Also, allow your interests to grow with you. As you gain more skills, as you get deeper into this.
00:19:38 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Allow that to, you know, kind of, get… what am I trying to say here?
00:19:48 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Allow that to shape the path going forward, right? And open yourself up to evolving as well. As your passions grow, that may change your direction, and that’s okay.
00:20:02 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): When you,
00:20:05 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): inevitably come up against something and you don’t know what to do. As Mr. Rogers always tells us, look for the helpers, right? There are people out here who want to help you. Ask for the help.
00:20:17 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And as I said, kind of…
00:20:21 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): A lot… you know, like, it is good to have goals.
00:20:25 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And it’s, really nice to give yourself the freedom to also discover what’s next. Maybe you’re doing a lot of these things to… you have a goal of going to a specific college or a specific career, but maybe along the way you find other things that are really exciting.
00:20:44 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): That’s, I think, one of the most wonderful things about developing your talent. You find more things that you’re interested in.
00:20:52 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And as I said, the Davidson Institute, we have a lot of free resources. We are a national organization that works with people across the country.
00:21:03 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): In particular, if you’re interested in developing your leadership skills, we have our Ambassador program that’s part of our Young Scholars program.
00:21:13 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): If you’re part of our Young Scholars Program, the Ambassador Program is a 12-month mentored experience where we help you take a project in your community and grow it.
00:21:26 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): So, that is all I have, for my part of the conversation.
00:21:35 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Do we have any questions?
00:21:37 Susan Corwith: And feel free… yes, I mean, Laurel and I just presented a lot of information quickly, so we want to, you know, give you a chance to sort of take that in.
00:21:47 Susan Corwith: But, I… there are a couple of questions, Laurel, so I’ll go ahead and we’ll start with, oh, this is more of a technical question, I think, for the folks at Pioneer, about whether recordings of the sessions will be sent out, because they’d love to be able to go back and reflect on everything that’s been said. I completely agree with that feeling.
00:22:06 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): Yeah, we will have recordings available. If you go back to the Summit website after the summit, you’ll be able to access all of the information and sessions.
00:22:16 Susan Corwith: Great.
00:22:17 Susan Corwith: Thank you. And then there’s, another question that just came in, and Laurel, maybe you can start, and then I can follow up, which is, how best do I showcase leadership in a college application?
00:22:30 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Well, there are some, kind of…
00:22:34 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): standard ways built into many applications, like, they’ll probably ask you for a list of your extracurriculars and a brief description where you can, like, highlight your leadership skills.
00:22:47 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): But I think it’s… it’s also something to consider when you’re talking about… when you’re writing your essays, right?
00:22:55 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I think sometimes we get caught up in trying to tell, like, a beautiful story, and we don’t showcase really how, like, this experience might have changed us, or changed our direction, or something like that. So, not only sharing the experience, but then, like, sharing, like, what
00:23:14 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): again, the so what, who cares? What impact did it have on you? And how are you taking that forward?
00:23:23 Susan Corwith: Yeah, and I really do like that, so what, who cares, those questions. I mean, they sound… they make me laugh, but they’re really important questions as well. And I think that’s part of what I was quickly running through, was this… as you’re taking on these different experiences, and I had said, they don’t have to be big, flashy experiences.
00:23:42 Susan Corwith: But an important piece of that is reflecting on them, and doing what Laura was just talking about, making note of how they’ve maybe changed your thinking, or changed your direction, or introduced you to something else that you then pursued.
00:23:53 Susan Corwith: Because when it comes to your college application, it’s preparing, you know, that…
00:23:58 Susan Corwith: story of yourself and, you know, explaining the things that you’ve gathered and the skills that you’ve developed. We also hope by sharing some of those specific kinds of skills, that you can use that language as well to be able to say, these are the things I’ve really been working on and how it’s made a difference. So I think…
00:24:15 Susan Corwith: That would be at least my recommendation to that.
00:24:19 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Yup.
00:24:20 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And we have, a… another question here. If I did many extracurricular activities in depth and successfully impacting my communities and all of them, is that a question… is that a problem?
00:24:33 Susan Corwith: No, no, of course, we don’t want to say that that’s a problem. I think there’s sometimes, though, this feeling of pressure that students feel to do a lot of things.
00:24:45 Susan Corwith: And when it’s a pressure-filled situation, or when it feels like you’re racing to try to do these, and it’s not about what’s meaningful to me and to the community, that you run into a problem. So if you are absolutely happy and fulfilled and, you know, have the time and the energy to do these things and do them well.
00:25:06 Susan Corwith: That’s…
00:25:07 Susan Corwith: that’s your pathway. But I think we just sometimes have to be thoughtful about that. And, you know, I like that you’re thinking about different, you know, you may have lots of different interests in different places in the community that you want to have an impact, but then being able to reflect on those things and make sure you’re tracking what you’re gaining from that, as well as maybe what’s happening as a benefit to the people that you’re working with.
00:25:30 Susan Corwith: Nope.
00:25:31 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Yeah, and I think one of the things I also think about when someone’s doing a lot of things, there’s a reason that they’re doing all of these things, and a reason that it makes sense to them. There’s a through line here. And if you can make that…
00:25:47 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): connection between these things, that through line.
00:25:50 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Like…
00:25:53 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): transparent to others, right? If we’re talking about, like… I feel like a lot of these questions are probably college application kind of related. But if you can make that through-line obvious to other people.
00:26:05 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): and say, like, this is how I see all of these things coming together, or this is why I’ve been able to be successful in these directions.
00:26:14 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): I think that’s a really valuable story to tell.
00:26:19 Susan Corwith: Another question that’s come in is regarding research… reaching barriers when trying to be a leader. So I have something I’ve been trying very hard to organize for my community, but I’ve found roadblocks in terms of getting into contact with different people to work with to have such events.
00:26:35 Susan Corwith: Do you have any advice on how to make progress on this journey and stay focused on the little wins along the way? Oh, I’m so appreciative of that little wins along the way, that’s so important. But, Laurel, I’ll let you start, and then…
00:26:47 Susan Corwith: Come back to that.
00:26:48 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): This is… if there is one kind of universal struggle when you’re doing, like.
00:26:55 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): organize… community organizing, it’s getting in contact with people. That is… so you are not alone, you might not be doing anything wrong or anything like that. This is the hard part.
00:27:08 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Persistence. This is where you’re gonna build that persistence muscle. I would also say…
00:27:19 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): change up your communication style, perhaps. Like, if you’ve been reaching out to people, over the phone, and just people aren’t returning your calls, try email, or vice versa.
00:27:33 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Most impactful is going to people directly. It’s harder to turn down someone face-to-face, but I know that that’s not always possible, depending on what you’re working on. But try…
00:27:47 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Try different communication methods, because different people are more responsive in different areas, if that makes sense.
00:27:55 Susan Corwith: Yeah, I think that’s… that’s really great advice. And in addition to that, I would think, you know, and again, not knowing the context of the specific project, and there’s no need, you know, for you to reveal that here, but, in thinking about, that art… I don’t know who you’ve already been in touch with, but sometimes it’s, okay, is there just another adult
00:28:15 Susan Corwith: a mentor who can help you sort of think through these processes? Can you, you know, get a group of students your age to get together to kind of, you know, as Laura was sort of saying, there can sometimes be in the power and the numbers who are following up in the communication that’s going on. Or it may be sort of working a different angle, a different type of project, a different piece of it, until you can bring something
00:28:38 Susan Corwith: More fully formed, or, you know, ready to be… to step into, but…
00:28:43 Susan Corwith: It… that is… I agree with Laurel. That’s one of the hardest pieces, but it is… I appreciate, again, coming back to that idea of little wins. What are the steps you have already accomplished, and then are some ways to just keep building on that? Or sometimes you shelf things for a little bit of time, come back to it when the… when the timing might be a little bit better.
00:29:03 Susan Corwith: Because sometimes things are seasonal, or people are busier at different times, or you just don’t know. But, I appreciate that you’re thinking about keeping at it.
00:29:11 Susan Corwith: And that you’re thinking about who else can help, because that is important.
00:29:16 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Yeah.
00:29:17 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): And we have another question here. Do I really need to have national or international recognition in my extracurriculars, or have small extracurriculars that are meaningful for me?
00:29:30 Susan Corwith: Mmm, yeah, great question. Of course, we would all love to have some, you know, well, maybe not all of us, but many of us would love maybe a national or international recognition, and sometimes that happens, but that’s certainly not…
00:29:43 Susan Corwith: a requirement if you’re thinking about, you know, heading off to college and this being your college application, or even a scholarship application, or internship application, or things like that. What I consistently hear from college counselors, or from, you know, I even have a… my sister who works in, sort of, this planning for college arena.
00:30:03 Susan Corwith: And she’s really trying to focus on the idea that, you know, this commitment to what you’re doing, the ways that you can talk through that story and the impact you’ve had.
00:30:13 Susan Corwith: And you can collect from the people you’ve worked with their feedback, and share their impact stories and their recommendations. And that tells the story of your authentic work.
00:30:26 Susan Corwith: And that’s what I think a lot of, you know, colleges and universities and scholarship, organizations are looking for. You know, what are the ways that you’ve really been thoughtful, not just about yourself and your own development, but how you’re impacting or sort of bringing your ideas to other people, and sort of the work of whatever organization you’re in, or whatever club you’re
00:30:47 Susan Corwith: You’re running, or starting, or what that might be.
00:30:49 Susan Corwith: But I think the other thing we want to be able to demonstrate, you know.
00:30:53 Susan Corwith: whether it’s… and I’m not saying it’s not fantastic to have recognition outside, that’s certainly a wonderful thing, but that’s not always going to happen, that’s not always going to be the purpose.
00:31:04 Susan Corwith: for the work that you’re doing. But again, to sort of be able to, you know, share the growth and the trajectory in that experience, in those extracurriculars, is what Laurel was saying earlier, too. So, I don’t know if you want to add to that, Laurel?
00:31:20 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Just a little bit of…
00:31:23 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): you know, very few of us in our lifetime will truly have, like, a national or international impact through our work. You will… and… and that is… that’s… that’s okay. That is 100% okay, because
00:31:40 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): often, we can have a very large impact in our… in smaller communities, whether that’s, like, your school community or your local, like, town. Like, you can exercise probably a lot more impact and power
00:31:59 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): at a small scale than you would at necessarily a national or international scale. So, in terms of, like, profound impact, that’s often
00:32:10 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): person to person in your vicinity. And I think that’s also… like, just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s not…
00:32:19 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): really impactful.
00:32:22 Susan Corwith: We have quite a few more questions here alone, so we’ll see.
00:32:24 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): Yeah.
00:32:25 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): Fortunately, it looks like we gotta get wrapping up, everybody. Time flies, you know. We’re coming up on our end. Thank you, Laurel and Susan, so much for your expertise and for this talk. It was really informative.
00:32:40 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): I hope the students got something out of this. Again, everybody, thank you for your questions in the chat. Please be sure to check out the next session, AI and Admissions, and we’ll have our closing ceremony there as well.
00:32:55 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): Right?
00:32:55 Susan Corwith: Thank you very much.
00:32:56 Alexander (Pioneer Academics): Thank you, everybody!
00:32:57 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Thank you!
00:32:58 Laurel Griffiths (she/her): Bye!
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