Constructive Criticism: Wisdom from The Last Lecture

For their midterm assessment, our peer mentors in the first-year seminar were asked to provide a class presentation on the topic of their choice. The presentations were reviewed by our staff and also their peers in the leadership course. We completed half of the presentations last week and collected evaluations. Most were ambiguous praise such as "Great job!" and "Nice Powerpoint!". As a preface to the presentations this week, my graduate assistant offered this gem of wisdom from Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture.

When you are doing something badly and no one’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones still telling you they love you and care.

It was evident from their demeanor and the significant increase in writing on the review forms that our peer leaders took these words to heart and began to show the love. Much of the feedback continued to be positive, but comments were more direct and offered suggestions for improvement.

Pausch asked the question of what wisdom would we impart if we knew it were our last chance. I continue to find wonderful lessons in his writings and explore their opportunity for my first-year seminar and other student programming. Pausch wrote his book to share a bit of himself with his children, but I think he would be pleased that his message has application in student development, particularly leadership, as discussed over at The Student Leader Blog.

What is your favorite lesson or idea from The Last Lecture?

How are you incorporating The Last Lecture into your curriculum?

Facebook and serving students

I have long found Facebook to be a useful tool to link with my students. Yesterday, I was creating an ad campaign for one of my programs when an invitation to Facebook chat popped up from Austin, a student "friend". Austin's girlfriend was coming to town for the football game and he was shopping for an extra student ticket. I told him that I would put out the word, and then updated my Facebook status and sent an email to my student listserv.  

Within a couple of minutes, I had an email from another of my 

students, Danielle, with an available ticket. 

Connection made.

This entire action took a few moments of my time on a Saturday afternoon and was made available by my willingness to link with students in the social networks where they live. Did it make a difference? I think so. 

I received this message by email at 12:35 a.m.

Debra, thank you so much for pointing me to Danielle! Today turned out great and I owe it all to you!

Thanks again.

Austin

eighteen and life?

Welcome to eighteen and life. This is not a blog about Skid Row or the classic song by Rachel Bolan and Dave Sabo made famous by the vocals of Sebastian Bach. That being said, the song was an inspiration to the thought processes that you will find here. And although the original 18 and Life lyrics end tragically, my experience is that for students making the choice of post-secondary education, the age of 18 can be a stepping off point to opportunity.

I have built a career in college student affairs around the decision-making of 18-year olds, first in admissions and then as a program director and first-year seminar instructor. I have crossed paths with thousands of students poised on the brink of dynamic educations and careers. Some do not make it. Most do. But not always without a struggle.

Join me as I discuss service to students and efforts to build successful first-year to graduation retention programs. I'll share the humor and challenges in this transformation and invite you to share yours. The folks over at The Student Affairs Blog are kind enough to let me write there as well, so you'll see an occasional cross-post.

18 and life to go.