I have always considered July 4th as summer’s hump day; The summer days and nights seem to move at a much faster pace after this national holiday. And given that July 4th falls twenty days after the summer solstice summer days should feel as if they move faster. During my high school summers, the July 4th holiday did not remind me that I had ample time to frolic and play. Instead, July 4th reminded me that a new school year loomed in the distance. The period of time between July 4th and the beginning of the school presented a challenge: how should I best fill this time?

Check out the two suggestions below, and of course, feel free to add your own in the comments section below!

Volunteer
Oh the ways you can volunteer. As Elizabeth highlighted a few weeks ago, it’s mid season election time, which means there are plenty of campaigns looking for eager volunteers interested in grass roots campaigning, phone-banking, and canvasing. If politics is not your best suit, consider other areas in your local community. These might include, volunteering at a local senior living home and playing piano for the residents, or finding a local Habitat for Humanity and channeling the carpentar / engineer within you.

Try to Set a World Record
Columbia College’s 2010 senior class president touched on this experience in his remarks to graduates during class day. Interestingly enough, he tried to set the record for total consecutive hours watching television without leaving the couch. And while he did not break the record, he shared how this experience made for a wonderful content in his personal statement essays. A Though attempting to set a record is no guarantee for college admission, there are plenty of useful leadership skills one can develop from undertaking such an endeavor. Such skills include, setting a goal, researching means to achieve the goal, execution of the goal, and reflecting upon the results.

Again, these are only two suggestions, and certainly not representative of all the ways to best fill your time before the school year begins. Use the comments section below to share your ideas.

Image courtesy of Lightmatter, “Hit me”, 4 Feb 2006 via Flickr, Cre­ative Com­mons Attri­bu­tion.

Some students at Oberlin College have gotten quite entrepreneurial in their quest for better, more apropos college t-shirts. Instead of flashing their school’s name across their fronts in gigantic letters, Oberlin students can now sport some pretty cool-looking tops depicting the squirrels or favored library chairs known and loved by the student body. What’s more, the students involved get to learn about design, marketing, and organizing and implementing a successful business plan.

Man, I wish I’d thought of such a cool idea when I was in college! Not that I have a flair for art, but I just think that this project is awesome because the students involved learn so much and everyone loves the new, original t-shirt designs. I would still buy an Oxy t-shirt that featured images of, oh I don’t know, the Greek Bowl where I graduated or my favorite smooshy library couches.

More and more, we’re hearing stories of college students learning the ins and outs of business not from a book, but from getting out there and doing it on their own campuses. Kevin wrote about Cafe Norris at our alma mater and the students at Oberlin are another great example. It’s about doing something to better campus life while learning useful skills and information at the same time. Now if only I could draw…

What kinds of entrepreneurial endeavors have you seen on college campuses? If you could, what kind of business would you start at a university?

Web humor spews out of the subject of college, from CollegeHumor’s prank wars to PartySchoolTexts.com to fake Facebook college groups, but rarely does a funny site poke fun at the institutions themselves. Rife with administration bureaucracy and run by self-proclaimed intellectuals, colleges and universities are surely worth a jab for being the squarish bookworms of society.

Enter The Cronk of Higher Education, a satirical news site about ridiculous issues in higher education, overblown academic conferences and fake intern/slave-wanted advertisements. In short, it’s The Onion with a PhD in post-post-modernist structuralism in Beowulf. The movie.

Fake article topics range from tech-savvy colleges that admit students via Evite and college fairs that draw 3,000 parents … and zero students. From revered professors emerita to jaded school administration staff to the broke PhD going on a 6th year of candidacy, The Cronk sheds a lighter, more ironic light on academic culture than the iron gates of higher ed usually allow through.

“I daydream about someone taking one of our articles to a staff meeting in order to ask ‘Do we act like this?’ ” said Cronk founder and author Leah Wescott, the pen name of a seasoned academic employee somewhere out in universityland. “We’re hoping to provide a safe way for [academic] professionals to look in the mirror. We also throw in some gratuitous stories about helicopter parents and millennial students so we can all feel superior.”

(helicopter parents – stage moms who write their kids’ college essays)

(millennial — Generation Y, or people born in the 80s, 90s and 2000s)

Sincerity aside, The Cronk has snark down to a perfectly-crossed t. The name itself is a play on words based on the well-established Chronicle of Higher Education, the self-proclaimed leading “source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators.” The Cronk proclaims differently, per a succinct mission statement:

The Cronk of Higher Education is a satirical publication hellbent on generating intelligent dialogue and healthy laughs about the world of college and universities.

*Disclaimer
Sometimes it works.
Sometimes it doesn’t.

**Another Disclaimer
This website is a work of satire. Names, characters, settings, businesses and incidents portrayed are not to be taken seriously. It’s humor! Items submitted to CronkNews for publishing will be used at the sole discretion of the editors. All rights reserved.

Noting that the site’s primary readers are the butt of the jokes themselves, Wescott hasn’t yet encountered too many hurt feelings from those parodied in the often outlandish articles. “So far, we’ve steered clear of haters, but it’s only a matter of time before they come gunning for us,” predicts Wescott. “If you’ve ever read comment threads on Internet education blogs, they can become absolutely vicious.”

And they are. Just yesterday, a New York Times article titled “Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College” sparked many long winded, verbose, book-length, pedantic, overly-wordy comments opening with such harsh jabs as “Admissions officers are idiots.” Ouch. Perhaps Wescott would frame the whole shebang as “Logg State Univ. Study Finds New Cause for Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Marginalized Populations with Large Vocabularies.” Or perhaps I may work on my titling skills before trying to submit an article to The Cronk.

The good-natured ability to laugh at oneself is at The Cronk’s core, especially when it comes to short fuses and long CVs. I’m eager to see how wider audiences will respond as the site gains more traction on the Web.

Here are some of my top Cronk picks:

Staff Member Marries the Rules in Campus Chapel
(Because if something’s written down, it must be very important.)

CronkNews Seeks Summer Intern
(Salary competitive with other unpaid intern positions, free instant coffee and free toilet paper. 2-ply!)

A call for conference program proposals about a wide range of topics, including: diversity, racial diversity, ethnic diversity, GLBT diversity, generational diversity, diverse diversity…
(Did I mention they want diversity?)

Perhaps The Cronk won’t go viral with the intensity of CollegeHumor, and perhaps the humor is a bit high-brow and pedantic in itself, as many undergraduate students may not be familiar with the world of academic conferences, for example. But if The Cronk is spreading some eyebrow-raising humor to the curmudgeon that is often the face of higher learning, I’m all for it.

It’s unfortunate, yet true. Four years of college study won’t necessarily afford you a college degree.

The first two years of college–whether at a university or community college–tend to encompass “general education” (GE) classes, consisting of language, writing, speech, math and other basic requirements before pursuing upper division courses toward a specific major. Some students gripe that it’s an extension of high school; others enjoy the transition to college academics, especially when the school tailors GEs to student interests.

But do GEs transfer from college to college? If you study your first two years at a community college and plan to transfer to a four-year school, will they take all of your credits? To take it a step further, what if you start your major at one college and try to finish it at another?

According to a commentary piece today in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the credit-transfer system is producing more and more students who have an overabundance of credits behind them, yet still no degree.

The article attributes this growing trend of Van Wilders (of National Lampoon notoriety) to credit wastefulness, inefficiency and inflexibility across the post-secondary institutions. While those adjectives come off as abrasive, they stem from a lack of attention to this issue in general. Regardless if an institution is private or public, departments have their own prerogatives when it comes to credit-counting and allowing extraneous classes to count for their carefully-thought-out major requirements. More often than not, they’ll reject unknown course titles to count for their own, familiar ones.

Say, for instance, a humanities department at State School #1 has recently reviewed their philosophy major and decided that the requirements were too vague. Let’s say they held several meetings, surveyed students and alumni, and ultimately revamped the requirements so that all philosophy majors must take at least one upper-division course from the following five areas: classics, logic, metaphysics, religion and a literature course about a philosopher, offered through another department. This would apply only to incoming philosophy majors, of course. So let’s say everyone’s happy with this new, re-focused approach to the major, and incoming students are excited about the cross-disciplinary requirement, too.

But let’s say… two years later, an incoming philosophy major from State School #2 comes in with nearly all of the philosophy major completed… based on the old requirements. State School #2 didn’t revamp their requirements. This student only needs one more semester to graduate, or so she thinks. Unfortunately, State School #1 thinks not. Additionally, State  School #1 has a foreign language requirement for all humanities majors, setting her back another semester, at least.

What should State School #1 do? Lax its requirements and graduate philosophy majors who have not fulfilled the new requirements? Make exceptions for students who can demonstrate proficiency in other ways? Say “too bad, so sad” and assign them an adviser?

Perhaps the student should have done more research on State School #1′s philosophy major requirements, but nobody’s perfect. Furthermore, students pay for their institutions to serve them, not the other way around. Anything more is community service.

The Chronicle article suggests that the same amount of national effort put into helping students get in to college should be focused on addressing college credit chaos.

I suggest that colleges and universities of course retain the right to alter their course requirements in any way they see fit, but… that we should implement a national standard for students to petition their existing credits. We should stop making them feel like they’re trying to shove square pegs into round holes. Perhaps a standardized list of alternatives can be implemented across the board, such as catch-up course offerings, independent study options, more test-out opportunities and other solutions for students who can demonstrate that they have justifiably put in their time, just not under the correct course title.

In my experience, it was pulling teeth to get department heads to accept outside credits. I used academic petitions I found online, bugged the hell outta department secretaries, scheduled meetings with chairs and deans, and eventually got some 6 units to count. But it seriously ate into my homework time.

In another case, someone very close to me completed four years at a university and then another four years at a community college, neither of which he was formally awarded a degree until he painstakingly finagled his requirements to fit the mold. Granted, he attended college for non-degree-related hands-on experience, but when push came to shove, his degree requirements weren’t met. I was shocked to learn that one of the most educated people I knew had to fight for his eight years of college to count for at least one four-year degree. As for the two-year degree? He doesn’t qualify.

Today, Parade Magazine announced their selections for their annual High Boys Basketball All-American Team. According to  Parade, Jared Sullinger, the magazine’s 2010 Player of the Year will be headed to Ohio State next, likely to shore up an offense who will miss AP College Player of the Year, Evan Turner, as he is likely to bolt Ohio State for the glory of playing in NBA.

Ohio State’s Evan Turner, Kentucky’s John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, are part of a growing class of exceptionally talented first-year players who otherwise would have made the jump after their senior years of high school to The Association (the nickname for the NBA).

The only rule that stopped them from doing just that was one enacted in 2005 by current NBA commissioner David Stern. Concerned with the number of recruiters and agents making their way into high school gymnasiums, and the notion that many of these young athletes viewed the NBA as a financial security blanket, Stern believed that something had to change. Even the past successes of current Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett and Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, who both made the leap from high school to the NBA in 1995 and 1996 respectively, could not sway Stern from establishing new NBA eligibility rules.

Basically, Stern’s new rules stated that players must be 19 years of age and one year removed from high school before they could be eligible to play with the Pros. And so began a trend of players (see Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, Derrick Rose, etc…) who were labeled “One-and-Dones.”

This title was handed to players who otherwise would have made themselves eligible for the NBA draft after their graduation from high school, and instead were required to play one year of college ball.

However, this trend might reverse. One impetus is the possibility of an NBA lock out next season (translation: We can’t watch basketball on television as the players go on strike). As result, first year college players would be incentivized to stick around for another year or so, taking classes toward the completion of a degree.

Additionally, the NCAA is mulling over the idea of expanding March Madness from 64 teams to 96, that’s right, 96 teams. And while this decision certainly impacts the class time college athletes will miss while on the road to the Final Four, such a decision may persuade many first-year players who would otherwise depart for the grand life in the NBA, to play for all four eligible years.

Think about it: A 96 team tournament would make some student athletes believe that their team has a chance to compete for the NCAA championship during their four years of school. Why leave for the NBA when the probability for glory in the collegiate game is greater?

So, to those Parade All-American and other highly-touted, soon-to-be graduating high school b-ball student-athletes: Please consider your college careers beyond one season. And if you are looking for more reasons to do so, please read any of these BG articles.

Ladies and Gentleman. Presenting potential members of the Tuft’s graduating class of 2014.

Applicant 1

Applicant 2

Applicant 3

Two weeks ago, NPR ran a feature on their popular program “All Things Considered” looking at the rise of video submissions as part of the college application process. And these students were not applying to select film schools or large universities that have excellent film departments; they were applying to schools such as Tufts and William and Mary.

With the rise of YouTube, high school students have an opportunity to showcase hidden talents, passions, or simply help admissions officers put a face with a name. A verbal essay full of creative juices, a silver bullet to sway over admissions officers who might be on the fence regarding a particular applicant, these YouTube videos would appear to help students make a great case for the talents they could bring to those selected schools.

However, these videos present a logistical and ethical dilemma for many college admission departments.

Admissions officers are already under the gun to read through and then re-evaluate each application they receive. As NPR reporter Tovia Smith notes, “They [Tufts admissions officers] say they’re too busy reading and watching applications to comment further.” Even at 1 minute a piece, that’s an extra document an admissions officer must review when considering a student’s admission decision. Even worse, “It invites, yes, second guessing,” states Dr. Henry  Broaddus, Dean of Admissions for the College of William & Mary.

Beyond the logistical issue, let’s consider the ethical issue. Not every student has access to a computer, a video camera, or video editing software to create, edit, and upload a cute vlog on why they should be admitted to a particular school.

Additionally, I would think that some of these videos were not entirely made by students themselves. Some students may have turned to outside, professional sources to create these pieces. And with national unemployment levels still north of the double digits, not every family has extra cash set aside to help their child create a 90 second clip highlighting how he / she will be an engine of change on campus. In other words, this whole process could get way out of control.

Interestingly enough, submitting a video as part of the college application is not a relatively new trend. High school athletes, with the hopes of taking their game to collegiate level have submitted highlight packed videos for years! So, what’s the difference between the high school athletic tapes and the optional video essay submissions?

High school athlete’s are attempting to showcase their current skill set to coaches with the hopes that they will earn a scholarship. In this case, a game video would serve as a better medium to showcase an athlete’s basketball IQ, relative to the high school athlete trying to explain those skills in words. For students who simply who seek admission to University / College of _____, a video does not serve the same purpose. While a video certainly offers a great opportunity to leverage creativity, it does not reveal anything that could not be expressed in a personal statement or interview.

So, should students be required to submit a video with their college applications? I do not think so. Do I think it’s a great gesture that colleges are making video essays optional? Absolutely!

What’s your take? As always, your 2 cents is welcome in the comments section below.

Everyone knows that public education has taken huge budget cuts in response to the recent state of the economy. As a result, public universities (read: the Cal States and UCs) can no longer accommodate the same huge numbers of students as before, while being forced to raise fees and tuition for existing students. Many students get put on waiting lists for public colleges or simply can’t afford the increased cost of attendance.

Part of the reason many students choose to begin their college education at a two-year local school is to save on costs. Especially for students who are undecided about a field of study and aren’t yet ready to commit to a specific campus for four years, community college is a good choice to begin chipping away at those “general education” classes, such as Freshman Composition, Speech 101, Critical Thinking 101…. You get the picture. And while every college has its own style and level of educating freshmen and sophomores, you can get most of your basic requirements transferred to a four-year school, having spent the first two at a community college.

But what if community colleges offered more than just a two-year degree? Traditionally, community college offers a two-year associate’s degree (AA), which can count toward the first two years of a bachelor’s degree (BA) at a four-year university, assuming that all of the first two years’ worth of credits transfer successfully. However, with public colleges experiencing budget cuts across the nation, some community colleges have begun awarding four-year degrees to allow more students the opportunity to receive a BA.

As of 2009, 17 states have already passed legislation allowing community colleges to grant four-year degrees, most of them in industry fields such as nursing or education. These programs would stretch the traditional two-year community college stay to four, of course, allowing students to complete the degrees required for industry work for a much lower cost than before. These BA-granting community colleges are still few and far between, but more are trying to jump on board.

California, for example, has not yet allowed its community college schools to offer BAs. However, two assemblymen, Jerry Hill and Marty Block–a former San Diego State University (Cal State) dean–have proposed moving the state’s 110 community colleges in that direction, according to the Ventura County Star. Comparing the 32% increase in Cal State tuition that averages between $3,000 and $8,000 per semester with the inexpensive $26-per-unit average at California community colleges, this systemic change may serve many students falling between the cracks of budget crisis.

However, its important to note that some traditional four-year universities are up in arms about allowing community colleges to grant four-year degrees, stating that this kind of move toward community college BAs puts students at risk for receiving “watered down” degrees, a critic stated in the New York Times last year. In response, organizations such as the Community College Baccalaureate Association argue that a BA is a necessary requirement for a good job, and public education should provide students with the realistic opportunity to achieve that. Their motivation seems to be focused on employable majors, like the above-stated nursing and teaching occupations, so it’s doubtful that many community colleges will begin offering bachelor’s degrees in philosophy, political science or poetry. University humanities departments, for example, needn’t worry, in light of the motivations for community colleges to begin offering their own BAs.

While there are many angles to the issue of providing bachelor’s degrees to community college students, I think it’s a positive advancement for public education which allows more students the opportunity to equip themselves with the skills and requirements for starting a career.

Do you know of any community colleges in your area that offer four-year degrees? We’d like to hear about it! Let us know in a comment below.

This article on community colleges is part of a BetterGrads series on two-year colleges. To read last week’s post on my personal experiences with excellent students from these institutions, check out last week’s post: Community College Part 1 — Speech & Debate.

As Elizabeth mentioned, February is a month filled with opportunities for budding relationships (college acceptance letters) and heartbreak. (sigh…rejection letters).

In some cases, these same letters may force some soon-to-be graduating high schools seniors to revisit a question they once confidently answered months before penning rough draft personal statements. What’s more, the answer to this question may not arrive after one discussion.

The question is simple: “What’s the value of a college degree?” Using qualitative and quantitative analysis, Wall Street Journal columnist Sue Shellenbarger attempted to answer that question. Below you will find excerpts from her December 2009 article as well as some great BetterGrads-inspired commentary.

Finding work you love. College degrees can guide students’ career choices in subtler ways. Jason Wotman, 24, loves his work as a co-founder of Tailwaiters, a Great Neck, N.Y., startup that runs tailgate parties for clients at sporting events and concerts. “It’s mine, it’s my baby. Every step, every ounce of progress, feels good,” he says.

His degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University helped launch him as an entrepreneur, he says. His courses in marketing, human-resource management and leadership equipped him well to size up opportunities and run a startup. “Taking it from an idea to an actual business, I felt like I had the tools,” he says.

BG comments: Jason’s story illustrates how college is an incubator for great ideas. On a similar note, coursework, research grants, and volunteer opportunities prepared our own Kevin Adler to run Bettergrads.

Preparing for a rich, well-rounded life: To Megan DeLamar Schroeder, Texarkana, Texas, planning the college experience based entirely on future income demeans its true value. “The intangible benefits … cannot be reduced to some kind of short-term cost benefit-analysis, as though one is purchasing a piece of property or an expensive sports car,” she says.

She borrowed $40,000 to earn an economics degree from Stanford University in the 1980s, which landed her only an entry-level job at a bank upon graduation. She spent 10 years paying off her student loans. But the experience was worth every penny, she says. The opportunity “to ‘marinate’ for four years in an amazing environment” served as a “springboard to lifelong learning and inquisitiveness,” she says. She will encourage her 10-year-old twin daughters to hew to similar values when they start their college search, she says.

BG comments: What’s the value of “experience” and “intangible benefits?” As Chris Anderson, author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price notes, “Tuition buys direct proximity to ask questions, share ideas, and solicit feedback from academics like [UC Berkeley Physics Professor Richard] Muller. It’s access to the network of other students and the idea exchange, help, and relationships this provides.” That sounds like value to me.

Click here to read the full article and feel free to share your thoughts below.

On Thursday, the New York Times ran an article describing a growing trend among senior citizens: sleep overs! After spending the daytime acquainting themselves with the facilities, retirement communities are offering prospective senior residents the opportunity to take in evening social events and the opportunity to spend the night. For senior citizens, this is a great way to gauge social life and other nuances associated with retirement homes that one could not glean from a brochure. Retirement communities are not the only institutions to offer this opportunity. Colleges do too! I dedicate this post to one of the great (and relatively uncelebrated) pre-college traditions: prospective student overnight visits!

Why you should do it:

College overnight visits offer prospective students (or more cutely known as, prospies) an unfiltered, in-your-face opportunity to experience collegiate social life in a way that guidebooks or facebook photos could never showcase. For example, such visits give prospies an insider view on what it means to be a resident in a college dormitory. That’s important, right? Absolutely! During one overnight visit at a UC school, I learned immediately that most students do not party on campus and prefer the college town atmosphere in the neighboring community. Additionally, overnight visits offer prospies an invaluable opportunity to get a feel for campus life.

Want to learn about the hidden menu options at some of the on-campus eateries? Clueless regarding prime study locations on campus once the library turns into a noisy, packed theatre house during finals time? What percentage of students cook for themselves? Does the school invite prominent leaders for seminars and discussions? Are there students who would enjoy discussing Plato’s Symposium at a party rather than getting plastered like everyone else? Going on an overnight visit provides you with VIP access to all the places where you could be hanging out for the next four years, and gives you the chance to spend time chatting with students who experience the college life now.

How to sign up:

Signing up for an overnight opportunity is easy. Once accepted (Cha-Ching!!!! Woo-hoo!), call up the school’s admission office and inquire about the available dates for overnight visits. Sign up early, as these nights tend to fill up quickly, especially the month before admitted individuals must sign their acceptance letters. Note: some colleges offer overnight visits even before admission letters come out. If you are seriously thinking about a school, spending a night will definitely provide you more information, helping you make a more informed decision about applying to or attending a certain school.

What to expect:

The office of admissions matches prospies with first-year students who have similar interests. Prospies spend much of the daytime shadowing first-year students as they attend classes, eat, study, attend club meetings, and perform other activities that are part of the host’s schedule for that day. If you visit on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, do not expect the host to take you to a crazy shin dig as these kinds of events tend to take place on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday nights (Also don’t expect anything as extravagant as you will see here and don’t assume that your host will take you to a raging college party if you visit on one of those nights).

How to prepare yourself:

Come in with an open mind!!! If you can, find out about your host’s schedule in advance. Keep in mind that your host is a student, and could be busy on that particular day. Don’t be scared if he or she seems pre-occupied – the host is happy to have you! Be flexible and realistic. This eliminates false expectations, making for a more memorable and enjoyable overnight visit.

Remember, you and your host don’t have to become BFFs overnight. Of course, you would hope that you and your host do get along (you might be spending the next four years of your life at that school – but no sweat off you’re your back if you don’t click with everyone you meet). Don’t forget the purpose of the visit: you are here to see the campus, check out the academic and social scenes, and at the right time, ask the big question: Can I see myself here?

And the golden tip for a successful overnight visit: make sure to bring your host a gift to boost your chances of getting invited back or having a quasi friend on the first day of school. Every college student loves good box of chocolate.

Have any cool college overnight visit stories? Feeling inspired to share them? Do so in the comment section below!

Happy New Year! 2010 should be a great year for Bettergrads.

I received a facebook message from the Bettergrads co-founder and social-entrepreneurship czar Kevin Adler, informing me that he would be spending the New Year’s weekend in the OC / LA area. Yesterday I met up with him, his brother Chris, and Emerald (Chris’ girlfriend) at Cross Roads Trading Company, a small consignment / thrift store in Santa Monica.

It is always a treat to spend time with Kevin. The last time we were together, we spent the weekend making some hilarious videos for Bettergrads. It was a great bonding experience and a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the organization . Before returning to LA, I made sure to squeeze in a trip to a local Nordstrom’s Rack, as Kevin shared that he needed to update his wardrobe.

Like most guys, Kevin does not like shopping as it is time consuming and somewhat stressful. Couple this with my solid knowledge of men’s wear brands from my Nordstrom days , and you can see why Kevin likes having me by his side when he goes shopping.

At Cross Roads, I helped Kevin pick out two jackets. One was a navy blue cotton blazer and the other, a green corduroy button up shirt-jacket. Indecisive and in need of help, Kevin did the smartest thing possible: he asked other shoppers who were perusing the store’s goods what they thought about each of the jackets. Per the recommendations from the vox populi Kevin purchased the navy blue blazer.

Our shopping excursion was followed by a delicious lunch at Interim Cafe, a small vegan sandwich shop Chris learned of via a friend’s recommendation. In between nibbling at our delicious vegan sandwiches (Kevin was reveling in one called the Spanish Jew, which I would have ordered in a heartbeat, had I realized I could substitute the organic smoked turkey for a soy chicken breast). Alas, as I enjoyed my roasted soy-chicken breast sandwich, the four of us discussed our New Years Eve adventures and any resolutions we had for 2010. One of mine is to improve my project management skills.

When I recall my summer rendezvous with Kevin, I remember how he would spend each night journaling what he did that day. Kevin shared with me that running an organization like Bettergrads requires that he take the time to document what he does each day and reflect on the success of those activities. Of course, journaling his activities also helps Kevin remember exactly what he did that day.

Hanging out with Kevin yesterday reminded me of my goal to improve my project management skills. And what better way to do that than to begin journaling what I do at my job everyday. Because if I want to gauge the progress I’ve made at work, what better way than to read about what I accomplished in the past.

NOTE to high school students: Journaling throughout your 4 years of high school can make writing personal statements much easier, especially when you can use your journal for source material for those oh-so-important essays.