College and Career Readiness - getting the college students of the future prepared for their next step

This week I am speaking at a youth event on college/career readiness and including social media as a touch point in my discussion. It was very timely that I saw (and shared) this Mobile EdWeek.org article on how only 8% of high school students are college and career ready.

I plan on using some information and points from my book(s) - The Book on College Readiness is published and the second installment in the series on How to Graduate with a Job Offer is in process- and points from my workshop program that I do at some local Staten Island area high schools. If you are interested in speaking with me or booking me for an upcoming event, click here Speaking Engagements.

My thought process is to keep the talk to around 20 minutes and to highlight some of my most important lessons for this age group. Bear with me as I flesh this out using my blog as a thought collector. Like I tell my students, it is time to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks...

My plan is to start with my introduction highlighting my  experiences as an executive, educator and entrepreneur and tying it back to my background here locally on Staten Island - the schools, the experiences I had as being from a "small town" outside of a big city are what made me who I am and how I was able to transition to living in Europe, being in Asia for work and more.

Building off of this idea of being from Staten Island, I think it is important to spend a bit of time talking about "stereotypes" and what that means for them and their futures. Then, I will focus on how to be "ready" for college with picking the right school and having the perfect application "for you"! See, each student is different and every application needs first and foremost reflect you and your strengths authentically. I will talk about how to get the best recommendation letters and how to have work experience and build a portfolio of school work.

The skills needed in this future economy will also be addressed in my prof-like way - I will include teaching/learning and public speaking as my two main ideas but I will include the theory of "project management". I will talk about building a network of people interested in helping them in their futures and include myself as someone to include by trying to follow up with me and get a free resume review.

I will then spend time weaving in social media and the do's and don't's of maintaining a profile that is both youthful and professional. There is a way to be both! It's not easy, though.

What do you think of my college and career readiness "quick" talk? I go into a lot more detail and training in my other seminars and workshops. I do anticipate this piece of my business becoming one of the largest for me to manage and potentially expand around. On Thursday, I will be representing my company at the Career Fair at Wagner College because I do see the need of growth as I position myself and my company as the expert for the Staten Island / tri-state area on preparing students for college and career. I work on larger formats of training in the form of workshops and quick seminars and also my various books and content that is available on my blog for free are also resources for this field.

So for this speaking event, of course, I will be bringing copies of my books to give away and some swag like magnets and such.

How do you build your business using speaking engagements? Do you like to speak in front of crowds? For this event I don't know if it will be 10 people or 200... I just go for it! Years of public speaking training have prepared me for anything - I provide this training with me at Seminars with Wagner College Department for Lifelong Learning!

Happy hunting!

​
Sign Up Here for The Next Step Exclusive Content and Offers