Becoming: four questions for the move to college

What Becoming is

Four 2-hour sessions for students heading to college. College is one of the first times a young person can ask the big questions freely, and Becoming gives those questions a place to land. Across the series, students build a College Compass, a personal roadmap they keep adding to through college.

1 · Who Am I?

Beneath labels, roles and achievements, who is actually there? Students take an honest look at what shapes them: their strengths and interests, the values they hold, the attitudes and beliefs shaped by family, school and friends, and the habits and choices they repeat every day. They identify what serves them well now, as students and as young people, and what will help them grow into the adults they are becoming. Along the way, they learn to see themselves as still forming rather than fixed.

2 · Why Am I Here?

Before asking about their own purpose, students look at what every human being is reaching for: belonging, meaning, understanding, and the chance to contribute. They explore why people build communities, make art, do science and work, and where their own life fits within something larger than themselves.

3 · How Shall I Live?

Every choice meets a need, and every choice also shapes a self. The need to belong, for example, can be met through real friendship or through people-pleasing, and each path builds a different person. Students look at how they make decisions, what guides them, and who they are becoming through the way they live.

4 · What Is Mine to Do?

Here the earlier questions turn toward action. Students consider how their gifts could become a contribution, and see vocation as an expression of who they are, not only a job title. They finish their College Compass, a personal roadmap of values, intentions and next steps to take to campus.

Format & timing

Best in the spring of senior year or the summer before college. Small groups of 3–4, or a cohort of 6–10. Includes a parent session. [Dates · in person or online · price] Ask about Becoming →

INS 201 Boot Camp: six sessions for a strong first year

Summer launch · 1 · Time & Planning

Students map their real schedule into a Weekly Blueprint and learn to protect time for focused work.

Summer launch · 2 · Study Skills

Retrieval practice and strategies matched to each kind of course, built into a personal Study Playbook.

Summer launch · 3 · Exam Preparation

Steady, strategic revision in place of cramming, with a 7-Day Exam Action Plan ready for the first big test.

First semester · 4 · Becoming a Learner

What is college for? Students compare a student mindset (grades, getting through) with a learner mindset (understanding, growth), and see college as the place to become a learner.

First semester · 5 · Your Support Network

The help every campus offers and how to ask for it, then a “Who I Turn To” map of the real people and offices at each student’s own college.

First semester · 6 · Well-Being & Resilience

Sleep, stress and setbacks: a personal plan for staying steady through the semester. Every session starts from students’ real schedules, notes and exams. [Dates · group size · price] Ask about the Boot Camp →

Using AI Without Losing the Learning: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

What It Is

More than half of U.S. teens now use AI for schoolwork. In two sessions, students learn to use it so it builds their thinking instead of replacing it.

Session 1 · The Good

AI as a coach: new explanations, quizzes, feedback on your own draft. In a Harvard study, a well-designed AI tutor doubled learning gains.

Session 1 · The Bad

When AI does the thinking. Students who leaned on an open chatbot scored 17% lower once it was gone. Students try one task both ways and compare.

Session 2 · The Ugly

Made-up answers and sources, rules that change by course, detectors that flag honest work, privacy, and AI “companions.”

Session 2 · A Family Plan

Parents join for the last 45 minutes. Each family drafts a short AI Agreement that reflects its own values.

Format & Timing

Two 90-minute sessions for juniors, seniors and first-year college students. [Dates · price] Ask about the workshop →