Whether high school students choose a trade school, an apprenticeship, community college, or a traditional college track, educators and counselors need to help prepare them for success no matter the path they seek. The development of SEL skills is often a significant benchmark that must be reached to help improve post-secondary academic experiences and goals. In this article, we discuss how SEL helps students prepare for community college and how this background may also help them find their best academic fit and purpose.
According to Higher Education Today, community colleges allow students to learn and acquire the skills essential to be competitive in today’s workforce. By providing a path to smaller class sizes, part-time options, work-life balance, and a variety of postsecondary credentials and certifications, community colleges prepare students for solid careers and for those who wish to continue an academic education, a pathway to a bachelor’s degree. Community colleges do this while also keeping tuition costs lower. According to the College Board, the average published in-district tuition and fees charged by community colleges in 2017–18 was $3,560. Public four-year institutions charged $9,980, private nonprofit four-year institutions charged $34,700, and for-profit institutions charged $14,000. Community college is also a great choice for students who are not interested in a traditional four-year college or are uncertain about their academic major or career choice.
How Does SEL Prepare Students for Community College?
According to the Social Innovations Journal, successfully navigating the social matrix presented by most postsecondary programs entails a thorough workout of SEL skills and competencies. What are these competencies? CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) defines the five core outcomes of the SEL curriculum as:
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Self-Awareness
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Self-Management
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Social Awareness
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Relationships Skills
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Responsible Decision Making
According to a report from the American Institutes for Research titled Improving College and Career Readiness by Incorporating Social and Emotional Learning, the five core SEL competencies can benefit students by developing academic and lifelong learning skills, including higher-order thinking skills, academic success, employability skills, and real-word team skills. For instance, SEL can help students become effective communicators, cooperative team members, influential leaders, self-advocators, resilient individuals, and concerned community members. Today’s employers and educators have identified these abilities as vital for success in the workplace and postsecondary settings. Gaining admission to community college also requires self-awareness and self-management, as students must plan to manage courses, new schedules, more independence, and sometimes all while juggling a job. SEL helps meet these demands by fostering crucial abilities such as time-management, self-motivation, organizational, and self-regulation skills.
Finding Your Passion and Best Academic Fit
The beauty of community college is that it allows students to explore different subjects, social activities, and classes to help find their passions and career direction. Having strong SEL skills can also help during this time of self-exploration by teaching:
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Self-efficacy
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How to have a growth mindset by being curious and open-minded
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How to nurture interests and a sense of purpose
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How to set personal and collective goals
Attending this kind of post-secondary education also requires students to gain exposure to diverse interpersonal situations. SEL can help them navigate this new terrain by teaching them to be open and accepting other cultures and diverse social environments. This skill also helps students strengthen their capacity for empathy and compassion. These academic settings also include working in large study and project groups. SEL helps students learn how to foster effective teamwork skills and collaborative problem-solving techniques, so they are prepared for these new group dynamics and challenges.
Developing the Whole Student
Together, community college and SEL help students learn persistence and resilience as they balance the competing demands of social, academic, and personal commitments. These skills will not only help them thrive during community college, but they will aid students in finding their best academic fit and potential career goal. At Endominance, we understand how important it is for teens to have the right tools and skills to thrive before and during their post-secondary education experience. We offer customized cognitive assessments to help high school students pinpoint not only how their brain works – but why. Our assessment tools help young adults reveal their cognitive traits to unveil the inherent and environmental factors contributing to their brain and behavior.
Students can use our tools to help unlock their potential for greater personal, professional, and academic success. In the words of the famous American writer Dale Carnegie in his book How To Win Friends and Influence People, “About 15 percent of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering–to personality and the ability to lead people.” At Endominance, we want to help you find your whole human potential – and dominate it.
