Dale

So my first actual meeting with the student, I give them a survey that kind of lets me know where they are now with their habits and helps me figure out what I really need to focus on. Because I call them skill sets. I have like five different skill sets that I work with in this college success formula, and there may be one or two that are really more important to them. So I want to kind of figure that out right in the beginning. Like I just started working with a girl who’s in California and her whole focus is I need to get good grades because I’m in a community college and I want to transfer to four year college. And so it’s all about the grades. And she knows she’s better at time management. So that’s really our focus right now. But other things are going to definitely come into play. And I’m checking in with her about her exercise and all that kind of stuff. My mindset is she’s got to get good grades and we’ve got to make sure that she stays on top of everything. 

Alex

You sort of alluded to this already, but would you consider, like, diagnosis part of the early phases of your work? 

Dale

Yeah, I mean, the questionnaire that I give them is really my version of a diagnostic test, but after they do the questionnaire, I’ll go through each question and get more information about it. Like, you know, if she says, on a scale of zero to ten, she’s a four with time management, I’m going to delve into that deeper and find out why is that what’s happening? What’s the problem? That type of thing.

Alex

You alluded to one girl there. But are there any other stories of like, triumph or perhaps even failure that you care to share? 

Dale

I have a lot of triumphant stories. That’s why I love doing this. One that stands out to me is a girl who had just started college right after COVID began last fall, and she went to her University of North Carolina, and probably within two weeks, they sent everyone home. So here she was, really excited about starting college. She was in Virginia, and she’s doing college from her bedroom, so she was not a happy camper. And her mom hired me because she knew it was going to be really hard for her to do online classes, and she was concerned about it. And I will say the girl agreed to work with me, but I got the feeling like she wasn’t really…she just wasn’t happy. She was wearing her sweatshirt with a hood, and she was kind of getting no smiles or anything. And somehow I got her to open up. And by, like, the third session, she had her hair all done, and she was happier. I think it’s because somebody cared about her. I was giving her great tools for using a planner and staying on top of her schedule. And I helped her figure out how she could have some social interaction without actually being with people. 

Alex

Wow, that’s quite a magic trick. 

Dale

Ya. But she kind of thought, like, well, I’m just stuck here. I can’t see anyone. And we figured out how to make her feel better about that. She was actually an athlete. When I started talking to her, she wasn’t doing anything. And then she realized, oh, yeah, actually, I could go to the gym, and we fit that in her schedule and all sorts of things. So what was remarkable, actually, was that she told me she didn’t want to go back to that college. She actually wanted to go to Virginia Tech, which is a much more difficult call to get into. And I’m like, okay, let’s see if we can get there. Well, she got one after another. She was doing super well, and the big news was she actually transferred, and she’s there now. She got in. I was just, like, amazed. She was so determined, so persistent, and really worked hard to do it, to get it. She was also working on the side. She was the hostess at a restaurant. She really made the supreme effort. And now she’s living in an apartment with some girls in Virginia Tech. 

Alex
Okay. All right. Well, that’s more social, right? So are you still working with her? Is that like a once a week kind of thing?

Dale

 I’m not working with her now, but I’m in touch with her and her mom, and I told them if she feels like she needs anything, just let me know. In a case like that, my program is like a seven week program. In a situation like that, I would probably just come up with something that works for her and continue to support her. Maybe she doesn’t need once a week. Maybe she needs less. I’m flexible.

Alex

 One thing that stuck out to me in the first segment with Dale was the concept of diagnosis and how important that is in working with students, both personally and academically. If you don’t get an accurate read on a student from the onset, you could be employing all the wrong strategies and really not get anywhere. Yes, you can adjust on the fly, but it’s a lot harder to do that than to just get an accurate reading from the onset. I like her system, the seven categories of wellness, and I think structure of that kind is very important for those reasons of diagnosis to give that some kind of underlying basis to operate off of.