I started out my career and quickly realized that there was a gap between what students were learning in schools and what was useful in life. Many of the skills required to be successful in adult life-such as a Leadership, Communication, Core Motivation Styles, Academic Thinking Styles- are simply not directly taught in schools. I also realized that many students struggle with stress about grades, frustration in relationships, and anxiety about college, and that’s when I discovered Academic Life Coaching.

I know that Life Coaching sounds cheesy. The name is, but the concepts are outstanding. Students who go through the ALC program learn their own unique style and brand of leadership. They understand the way that they learn best, so that they can use their time effectively and avoid stress that many students experience. They also directly build the skills, the essential Emotional Intelligence skills of greater self awareness as well as pursuing a passion outside the bounds of the normal classroom, that college admission officers are looking for.

John Williams, a graduate from Brown University, started to develop this program in 2004 when he discovered the same gap. He became certified as a Life Coach and put together a series of concepts that eventually became the Academic Life Coaching Program. It comprises of 32 concepts spread out over 10 sessions. The first third looks at Academic Success Systems. The second third looks at core Life Coaching principals such as signature values, and motivation and organization, and the last third look at communication, leadership and college application.

I took the ALC with John, learned the program and became a Certified Academic Life Coach. I combine my own life experience with this training to essentially empower students with the skills that I would have loved to have learned when I was a teenager.