The most successful students who have been able to get into some of the best colleges in the world have consistently spent more time on getting ready for those educational programmes. They start out early, consciously identify the right courses and professional paths, and start working towards building a natural profile which showcases the narrative of a focused individual who has rigorously pursued his goals. Often, these students need mentors to guide them as they uncover layers of their potential.
UAH Mentoring Model is built on the triad of: (a) ‘who am I’ assessments, (b) rigorous goal setting, and (c) focused, natural narrative building activities.
‘Who Am I’ assessments
The first step in building any model of professional advancement and/or educational development is knowing who you are. A combination of in-house and standardised third party assessments determine personality types and build a detailed psychographic profiling of the individual. This process is extensively supported by highly trained mentors and accomplished leaders from across multiple industries. In-person discussions help build a detailed strength-scape of the individual.
Rigorous goal setting
Once you know yourself, you are ready to articulate your ‘asks.’ Start out by building a comprehensive bucket-list of short-term and long-term goals. These goals are set with a strong inside-out orientation. Focus on your strengths and interests and build them out at the intersection of your goals and the requirements of a particular programme. Students who have varied interests such as bird-watching, origami figure making, baking and high-flame cooking, and computer-games have built successful goals (and later successful applications) based on these interests. In our context, goal-setting is not a one-time activity. Goals keep evolving as the narrative gets built further.
Focused, natural narrative building activities
Once you have identified your existing position (Who Am I) and set your goal, set yourself on a path to bridge the gap between the two. UAH Mentoring Model is a bit like GPS – which show the way to your destination. There is no question of capability here. The model is built around your skills and customised to your requirements.
The programme is contextualised from the perspective of the skills and jobs of the future and focuses on building the strengths that help the individual succeed in the 21st century. In general, the focus is on the 3Cs:
Critical thinking: The ability to think from different perspectives, think through things a few steps forward, make arguments and counter-arguments, and reason with evidence.
Communication skills: The ability to use communication to connect with people is a critical element of people management, service orientation, negotiations, and coordinating with others.
Collaborative creativity: As the problems we tackle become more and more complex, individual creativity is not enough. In comes collaborative creativity — the ability to inspire creativity within a group of highly skilled people.
For most students, the most relevant result would be an admission into a top grade college. A more notable outcome, at least in our opinion, is to ensure readiness for these programmes and build a growth mindset which allows them to explore and be survival-ready as and when the changes from the Fourth Industrial Revolution start rocking the world.
The writer is co-founder of univadmithelp.com.
