Connect for Success: In College and Career
…combines the Connect for Success Workshop with Handbook for Early Career Success to prepare students for a successful transition to college and the workplace with a foundation of personal self-awareness, “connecting” tools, and an understanding of the 21st Century Self-Empowerment skills and how to develop and incorporate them in a way that fits who they are.
The Workshop
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Now in its seventh year, this highly engaging experiential workshop is consistently among the most highly rated by undergraduate and graduate students alike. Over 95% strongly recommend the workshops to others.
The road to personal and interpersonal effectiveness begins with self-awareness. Students complete the Connecting Style Survey online and bring a printout with no information about their style except which quadrant of the room to stand in. Much of the learning is self-discovery that takes place through lively group interaction and feedback.
Handbook for Early Career Success
The Handbook for Early Career Success builds on the workshop and provides information, advice and real life illustrations about dealing with challenges most common to this transition.
Parts One and Two build on the Connecting Style insights, and relationship building/communicating strategies students started to develop in the workshop.
Parts Three and Four focus on specific 21st Century success skills, equally applicable in college and the workplace, as well as specific guidance for a successful self-direct career from “day one.”
Desired learning outcomes include a better understanding of:
- …who they are as others see them by understanding their Connecting Style
- …the most common misconceptions others might have of them based on the initial impressions they make. and how to avoid .
- …people from other connecting styles, what is important to them, their preferences, strengths, and differences.
- …how to move out of their “comfort zones” to connect with roommates, professors, interviewers, friends and family across different styles.
- …the power of listening — as a universal connector and crucial lifelong success skill
- …the counterproductive impact of stress-driven behavior on each style and their relationships and how best to manage it
- ..the most common “derailers” associated with college and early career, where each person’s vulnerabilites lie and how to avoid falling victim.
- …destructive influence that peer, parental, and societal pressure to conform, can exert on anyone – in college and career, and how to stay grounded
- …the importance of making choices informed by who they are and what really matters most in the long run
- …their hidden biases and the value that those who are most different can add because of those very differences. In a global world, the shift from bias against to embrace of differences is a key to success.
Team Building Effect
Students typically leave the workshop feeling more confident, validated and connected to each other.
Track Record to Date
These learning outcomes have made Connect for Success especially beneficial to those in:
- Freshman orientation or college transition programs
- Student leadership training
- Workplace readiness programs and courses for upperclassman
Over 4,500 young men and women have been through our workshops and consistently give them high ratings
Schools that have used and continue to use our workshops, or are currently scheduled for workshops this year include NYU-Stern Undergraduate (Freshman Seminar and School to Work Programs), NYU-Stern Executive MBA and MBA, University of Vermont (Business Savvy), Adelphi University, Molloy College (Freshman Seminar), Sarah Lawrence’s Human Genetics Counseling program, and Northwest Connecticut Community College.
