YouTube Deep Summary

## Intro....What Is the Summer of Leadership [00:00] Here we go. All right. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone. This is Coach Art um with Eagle. I want to thank you so much for joining me um on a um an evening training. Uh I see that uh everyone is is is in place here. Uh if you are driving or listening in, uh please stay safe. If you are, if you are um you know settling in, welcome, welcome, welcome. I just want to thank you so much for joining me tonight. We have a great um subject tonight, which is the summer of leadership. And basically what that means is what can you do uh to really distinguish yourself um this coming summer in activities? Before I do that, I'd like to ask the question. if you could put in the chat for those that are on if you could type in and let me know are you a parent or are you a student and what um graduation year you are. So if again parent student uh graduation year if you could type it into the chat that would be amazing because I always like to see the Okay, there you go. I always like to see who is joining. I see I got some 20 29s, 2026ers, 27s. Okay, cool. So, I have a whole bunch of people um that are um ranging uh parents and students. So, welcome, welcome, welcome. Uh I appreciate it. Um again, I'm going to do one more check. If you guys can see my screen and it says the summer of leadership. If you could go ahead and give me a heart. If you can give me a heart. Um, again, I'm the reaction guy. Ah, there you go. I love it. Okay, so one of the things that I always love to do is if you ever find that um any information that I present uh is really useful for useful to you, then go ahead ## Spiky vs. Rounded Students Explained [02:00] and give me a heart um during the presentation. It always just give me an indication of, you know, if I'm doing the good a good job, but also giving you good information. So we're going to talk about the summer of leadership and the key things that we're going to cover today is the concept of spikiness, why summer matters, um five leadership pathways that you can follow uh with respect to that. Um setting up a summer personal plan and then of course at the end we'll do some Q&A. All right. And I can't believe this is great. So many people here. My gosh, we almost hit uh a number of people. So, thank you for joining. So, I want to talk about the concept of spikiness. And you probably heard this from the other coaches, maybe not. Um but this is very very important because I've talked about this in previous trainings um in my office hours about the concept of spikiness. So, there is a concept between spiky versus round. Okay? And I talking about spiky students versus round students. So you want to be a spiky student. And the reason why as I say is spikiness, okay, is defined here. A spiky student is someone that has prov um has committed significant time. Okay, 100 a thousand plus hours over multiple years. Has uh leadership roles. Okay, founder, president, lead organizer, team captain. Now again as I mentioned you don't necessarily have to have a a a position or title but you should be doing something very active from a leadership and growth perspective. They have clear impact. So growth of a club, creation of a service, you know tangible results. Um they have a unique or personal angle and this is where some of the sharpness of the spiky comes along because the activities really reflect the students story, their identity, their ambition. Okay. And then lastly, there's some specialization. So some deep focus in, you know, in a key area, let's say robotics or research or entrepreneurship or political advocacy or whatever you're doing. So what happens is is that because of the number of commitment hours, the number of leadership and growth, you have these spikes and you have these spikes in your activities versus a student that is rounded. It's a it's a student that has minimal, moderate, or inconsistent commitment. Okay? One that is involved but not invested. And there's a difference. You know, they there joins but doesn't really lead. You know, it's kind of a member, not really any standout talent, project or or clear impact. Um doing what everyone else is doing. You know, key club, um national honor society, maybe some sports, a few volunteer hours. And again, I am not saying that it's bad to do anything, but the one thing is is that, you know, does it distinguish yourself from the hundreds of thousands of students that are applying out there? And then really lacking a defining narrative narrative or theme um or you know focus uh with what ## Why Summer Is the Best Time to Build Your Spike [05:15] they're doing. It's just kind of general right now. Um again, we always say that you want to do something that you are passionate about, right? And so that passion should really lend itself with respect to again um pointing you to be able to do the commitment hours to really grow in leadership to really have that clear impact and that personal angle and specialization. Okay. So if we're talking about some examples, an example, so let's say a spiky student would be someone is a student who spends four years building an AI powered health app, competes in national coding contest, leads a local girls who co who code chapter and publishes open- source tools. This student is spiky in technology and community impact versus a rounded student is a student who plays let's say J soccer is a member of key club volunteers 30 hours annually okay keys annually and attends general meetings for three to four clubs okay this resume mirrors thousands of other applicants and so that's the reason why I mentioned it's smooth it's round it's great it's fine but the thing is uh that you know how are they are they distin distinguishable are they they is it something that that a reader can latch on to again spikiness that kind of clings to them? Not really. Um because again it's just like thousands of other applicants out there. So colleges really prefer spikes. And the reason why is because top colleges as you can see are not assembling a class of well-rounded individuals. what they're building is a well-rounded class made up of spiky individuals. Okay? So, there's a really true difference. So, a spiky student, they're more likely to bring leadership, innovation, or distinction to the campus. That's why the colleges love this because they're adding to that community. They're adding to that composition of the campus with, you know, originality and leadership innovation. Okay. the admissions officers that are looking at these students can remember these students because they have a clear hook or a standout talent that may interest the reader and say, "Huh, that's that is very interesting." And spiky profiles, they show depth, they show drive, and really a clear sense of purpose, right? Okay. And these are the traits that colleges value most is where you have a cause that you're you know you're you're um that you are really supporting one. You're really driving to that and that drive that you know driving to it uh for ## Leadership Pathways....Start Something Serve Level Up Intern Perform [08:00] that cause or for that purpose translates into commitment hours and leadership and growth. Okay. So what is the message here is become spiky. Okay. Identify that spike. What do you care about deeply? What skills do you want to grow with? Okay. Um, commit long term. So, choose four to six activities and dive deep. You notice dive deep. Not dive shallow. Dive deep. Uh, create an impact. So, lead, build, teach, research, start uh start something new. You see all of these uh key words. If you've ever seen my activities uh creating your activities list and describing your activities list, these are power words. These are power verbs that you want to be able to use in your activities list. Okay? Document the growth. So track milestones, track awards, media coverage and testimonials. Track all the things that shows how you have grown, how you've progressed and then tell your story. You can you can use these spiky spikiness to really use it in your essays to explain how these activities have shaped who you are. You see? And so when you do that then you are just giving yourself so much more advantage in differentiating yourself but also being able to see individual um see have the school see you um as a unique individual that can really bring something um important relevant uh interesting to that campus. So when we're talking about spikiness and being spiky. So why does that matter in summer? Well, okay, I'll tell you why. Because activities, okay, when we talk about activities, remember we talk about how academics, activities, and then the essay itself, right? So typically academics all three are important but the the least important is academics more important is activities the most important is the essays. Well activities are the differentiator because the reason why is because you choose what activities you're going to do. Typically with academics it's set because your school has a curriculum. You follow that curriculum you get the grades. But with activities you're the one who chooses it. Okay? And so that's why I'm talking about spikiness, right? um in sum in the fall and the spring you're dealing with academics and activities. You're dealing with of course we all know a set of um of of courses um probably four five seven at at you know I've seen where you're dealing so it's so many academics you have so many responsibilities at home and at school and bunch of activities so there's not a lot of time during the fall and spring but during the summer this is a time for spiky growth for leadership for initiative because you have less amount of things that you're doing at school and you have more time to be able to devote and make your um activities spiky. Okay? Because colleges look for that individual that takes initiative beyond the classroom, beyond the school. Um because not everything is all about school. Not everything is exists at school. Okay? And the key thing here is it doesn't have to be complex or over the top. It just has to be intentional. It has to be purposeful. It has to have a direction. Okay? And that's where that direction is going to ## How to Build a Personal Summer Plan [11:30] form that spikiness in the because you are you have a you have um a clear goal in mind, right? And it's very very intentional. So what are the five leadership pathways? Okay. So what are some when you're you're looking for a spiky summer, when you're looking for certain pathways, what are those? So first of all, a spiky pathway, right? Okay. spiky pathways. What are you going to do? What how do you how do you implement? First of all, start something. Literally, start something. Okay? Launch a project uh a nonprofit blog. Okay? Something that can really um uh that is that is in line with your passions and something again that will get you going. Okay. A lot of times students they have a hard time because they get they get paralyzed by saying I don't know what I going to do. Well just get started launch a project if you fail that doesn't matter it's about the journey that you're going through. Okay so start it serve strategically so lead service. Okay um organize fundraisers. Okay. So that's thing as I mentioned is when you're narrowing narrowing and getting a pointy uh spike is you are really uh doing things that are strategically in line with what you are passionate about. Okay. Level up academically. So do research um be go uh and apply to selective programs because this is important because if you level up and you do research then what happens here is that can give you that originality that variability but it's also in line with your passions. Uh intern or shadow. This is really really important because you can explore the different careers uh hands-on. Okay. And so you being able to shadow or intern gives you that perspective of what it'll be like when you are going doing something um as part of your career. And so that will give you that exposure to understand is that something you want to do or create or perform. So produce art uh produce tech you know technology um software or or or hardware or or things that are within technology or even the content right produce content. So these are pathways. Start something, serve strategically, level up academically, intern or shadow, create or perform in all of these areas. If you if you touch upon all of these areas in your activities, you are definitely going to be forming spiky pathways um that will allow you to again um have a um a true leaders uh summer of leadership. Okay. So, if we're taking a look at a personal summer plan, okay, a personal summer plan, what does that summer plan look like? Okay, it looks like uh looks like a um I'm going to actually going to stop there. Um and I'm going to stop here before I do the personal summer plan. I want to get a little bit of um a little bit of uh interactiveness here. And in the chat, what I'd like to hear from you guys are maybe what are some things that and maybe the students that are on can can can you know uh contribute. What are some things that you are doing maybe a passion of yours or so that can be considered a spike? Um so if you could go ahead and type it up in the chat that ## Real Student Examples....From Soup Kitchens to Art Fairs to Nonprofits [15:00] would be amazing of just give one example. Give one example of something that is uh a spiky activity that you've done. Don't be shy. Okay, don't be shy. Love to hear from it what um some of the spiky activities that you all are doing out there. Um maybe some originality or some something out there. Let's see it. Go ahead and uh type it up in the chat and would love to see uh examples of things that people are doing out there. Don't be shy. I know that this is kind of hard and if you so work working in a soup kitchen. Okay, that's good. So again, working in a soup kitchen is fine. If you are the one thing that I would say is like working in a soup kitchen, make sure it's not just again working in a soup kitchen passing out. What you want to do is you want to go to the director and say, "Hey, are there projects that uh you haven't gotten to that I can go ahead and get involved in? are there um can I go ahead and possibly lead an effort okay in that soup kitchen. So those are one of those are the things where don't just be a active member be an active leader. Okay. So that's one thing. Uh let's see. Um this person says here I've been learning Indian classical singing since five taking examination as a freshman. I've started my passion project teaching people. Great. Beautiful. So this person um has been learning Indian classical singing. um they're they're creating a passion project where they're teaching people around them and then um raising funds to donate to that particular organization. Love it because you're doing something passionate. You're doing something that's original, doing something that again would develop some spikiness. My daughter busts with her violin at art fairs and is starting a small business selling animal. Beautiful. Again, love it, you know. Um, again, she does um violin at art fairs and is doing a small business selling animal treats, which is incredible because it's helping the community, specifically dogs. Uh, or I'm saying could be dogs or animals as well as again um, and I love it that she's using her violin uh, organizing clothes drives for local charities. Okay, great. Organizing clothes drives. So, make sure that you keep on going and you expand that. Maybe I I know there was one individual, a one young lady who was um helping uh gather uh professional clothes for those uh for women that um were going back into workforce, but then on top of that, not only did the did found the the clothes, but then started developing a curriculum to help these um these young women, those are trying to find a workforce to let's say write up a resume and how to interview, how to dress, how to act. So, you see how that develops spikiness because now you're not just um uh getting clothes, but you're helping individuals really find something significant. Okay. Uh provide free tennis lessons to kids who cannot afford. Excellent. Okay. You know, again, I would encourage you to build on that. So, you're giving the tennis lessons. Well, maybe you parlay that into a tennis um tournament, okay, with the kids. Tennis tournament, okay? And the tennis tournament where you can raise funds, people can donate uh and then you donate to charity. Okay. So, um although not a So, here's another one. Not a career aspiration, but leaning towards polyai and really getting involved in FBA, Daka, and speed clubs at school, going to state level. Okay. So again, uh great and again I never say there's anything wrong with um the clubs that are in there because uh some person they were explaining about uh FBLA DECA and speech and debate. So I would encourage you is that that's great become a leader in those but also try to make sure is that you can expand out maybe doing a personal project or so so that you can create because uh you know some more spikes because um school of course organizations at schools a lot of people are doing it especially the bigger organizations you want to make and see and and distinguish yourself not only for being committed to those clubs but also maybe a unique thing for you. So, great job everybody. Thank you so much for chiming in and and um and providing some examples because I love the real world examples. So, let's get back into it. So, now we have the personal summer plan. So, what does that look like? Okay, so first of all, with a summer plan, what you want to do is there's three kind of phases. Discovery, implementation, and then retrospective. So when you're the creating this summer ## Project Ideas by Interest Area....STEM Humanities Arts Health Environment [20:00] plan uh discovery is answer the following questions uh if you don't know like some people say well how do I know about you know creating spikiness here what kind of spike well answer these questions what I care about what I'll lead and create who does it help why does it matter what are the steps I'm going to take what is the end result or success what does success basically look like okay so it's the who what where and how of the particular um uh activity that you want to get involved with. Okay. And then when you have a series of these as I mentioned four to six, you know, I would say is list out maybe 10 different types of um opportunities, right? Where you're answering all these questions. Then you go ahead and you start implementing. You take action. So select the spike, take one of the spikes, choose a format they're going to get started and then involve others. A lot of times students as I mentioned they get paralyzed because they don't know what they want to do. um they can't they get they don't they can't think well you know get someone like a coach or a mentor get you know uh for us for example our coaches definitely can help with students in forming their own personal projects their spiky activities and trying to figure out what they want to do and remember you don't have to be um uh uh reserved to just one you can do several of them you can do one or two or three of them just as long as you are able to devote those commitment hours um those leadership efforts and you're growing in it and if you have two or three of those wonderful beautiful then you're getting more spiky what I would caution you is not to go too crazy okay because what happens is there's only so much time in the day of course you want to make sure you are strong in your academics but at the same time you don't want to look again rounded where you dilute yourself and you dilute the number of um of activities that you're doing but you have these significant spikes hikes that can really latch hold um on you know your activity plan and then more importantly is from a retrospective perspective document your results as I mentioned and reflect and determine how you can get better because and you'll see this um after this is that it's really really important to combine okay to combine the things that you're doing um over a period of time because the schools want to see consistency over time okay So what are some leadership ideas? Okay. So here's I'm giving them in interest areas or so for STEM launch a coding workshop. Okay. Publish GitHub tools. Run a summer robotics camp. Okay. These are interesting ideas that you can use as again as uh to really form your spikiness. Humanities. Start a podcast. Um lead a reading circle. Organize youth civic forums. Okay. in the arts, run an art show fundraiser. Okay, this is really cool. I've had a couple of students do this and they've been very very successful uh in doing so. Lead a mural project. This is amazing because you can get a number of people involved and that can touch upon a lot of different questions in the essays of leadership of you know um subjects that in inspire you helping your community there's so many things there right teach youth piano okay in the health area create health awareness videos incredible I s I did I had one student um that you know uh really worked on a mobility program for health okay for for um sorry for uh senior citizens because that was the biggest thing in in um uh in a in their their senior center where they just didn't move around enough. So he created a a health program and uh started again marketing that out to other um senior citizen homes and they were very simple exercises but it was a curriculum that he created because he was passionate about learning about movement and motion and kinesiology and and the physical you know the physical um aspects of the human body. uh design a wellness app uh intern at a clinic right for the environment organize cleanup drives build a climate blog lead a composting initiative. So there's so many things that where you can become uh quite original in the leadership things that you're doing um that really really apply to you specifically. Okay, that apply to you specifically. And um these type of uh leadership or again spiky ideas, they want to make sure that they're unique to you and that they drive your passions. Okay. So with that said, what are some takeaways from, you know, what I've ## How to Track and Document Your Growth [25:00] discussed and what I've talked about. So first of all, you are forgettable to colleges if your activities look like a resume of did a little of everything. You don't want that. You don't want it to be saying, "Oh, I dabbed here and there. I did." Because what happens is when you dab a little here and you dab a little there, that means you didn't commit. you didn't commit to the activity and you're not growing that spike with commitment hours and leadership and growth. Okay, so very very important to not be forgettable. Show focused passion and leadership in a few high impact personal areas. You want to become memorable and uh in translation to that admittable. Okay. So, you want to become memorable and admittable, meaning admittable, of course, into the school because you have high impact personal areas. Okay. Aim to be spiky, not just involved. Okay. So, aim to be spiky. Um, again, we went through how to become spiky, what to do. Okay. I love this. I I love I I really love this this um what this says here. Leadership is not a title. It's a habit of action. Leadership is not a title. It's a habit of action. So again, it's not just you're the president, but it's it's what you're doing as a president. We could make you president of a club, but if you're not making that club 1% even even 1% better than when you were not there, then you're really not making an impact. It really has to be a habit of action. It's one where that you have a passion that you're devoting that passion or you're devoting effort for that passion and you continue on. Okay? And and the reason why for summer is your summer is your stage. So make it count because you are given the time to be able to develop your leadership and growth. You're given the time to be able to um really explore your spikiness. Okay? Don't wait. Get started now. Connect your summers. And I mentioned that before. So when I say connect your summers, what you want to do is if you're going to start a spiky activity and a or let's say a personal project, start small. For example, if you're going to do, let's say, a workshop, let's or let's say you do a tournament, okay? Maybe you just take the summer to go ahead and plan all of that to go out and find the resources and sponsors and and um you know, people who will help you. And what does it look like? Again, the who, what, where, when, and how. And then maybe you do something small in the fall. Okay? Let's say you do a tennis a tennis um uh competition. Okay? Um or tennis event. Do something small um for let's say less fortunate kids or kids uh ## Connecting Your Summers into a Cohesive Application Story [28:00] during the break and then and then learn from that and then continue on so that by the time you get to the next summer, now you have a full-blown tournament, okay? that you can implement. And when you have a full-blown tournament that you can implement, then you start growing it and you start working on it and you make it bigger for the summer. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from the things that that really have really helped you and you continue on. So by the time you're a senior or sorry, summer before your senior year, this thing could be huge. Okay, this thing could be really huge. Um uh so that is again I always say is connect your summers because in the summer you have time and try to you know um lead up to that by connecting them so that now you have um um consistency over time. And lastly is start small. Well first of all very important start small. You don't need to have these huge enormous types of activities. Remember the key here is not necessarily the result. Of course, we want to have impact, but the key here is that you go through the effort and you learn along the way. It's the journey that you took, a journey of growth, right? A journey of commitment hours, a journey of leadership. And so, at the end, if for example, you fail, that's okay. And the reason why is because now uh you're showing that even though that you may have failure and again I would define failure as not as you failed. It's just another opportunity to find out how to be successful and how to truly find out what is successful and moving forward. Okay? So that's a really a matter of learning, right? So start small and then grow it. Don't try to be so grandiose and try to figure out, oh my gosh, I'm going I need to have this thing huge uh my my summer, you know, before my ## Key Takeaways....Spikiness Reflection and the Habit of Leadership [30:00] sophomore year because I'm so exc so concerned about having something in place for for the application. Nope. Remember, you're not doing this for the the college applications. You're doing this because you love to do it. Okay. Um reflect. That's a big thing is reflect. Always make sure that when you do and implement something that you're looking back and figure out is there something that I can improve upon and then improve it and then keep on doing it. That's how you're going to build. Okay. So, of course, learn, grow, and then thrive. Of course, you want to thrive and make sure you're thriving uh because you have grown this significant project, okay? And grown this significant spike. So be spiky, right? Okay. So with that said, um I do um you know that ends my talk. I just do I do want to see was that um uh did you learn something there if you can please give me a heart. I would love to see if people uh Okay, I always wondering. So thank you so much. I see so many hearts passing by. Thank you so much. I love this subject. I can't tell you it really is a distinguishing factor with respect to the difference between you making it okay you making it to um a college because it's about being spiky don't be round okay don't be rounded be spiky I hope that I hope that that that the word spiky catches on out there and then all of a sudden you hear this thing let's talk about spikiness talk to coach art because I that It's really a key if you are able to really uh get a stronghold in your academics where you're doing so well, you're taking rigor courses and then you have spiky activities, then you can hit it out of the park with your essays because those essays are going to be helped by this spiky activity because you're going to have content in there because you've invested the time and then you can show the passion through your through your um essays. Okay. All right. I do want to touch upon some important events that are coming up. First of all, remember this coming Saturday, that's literally in one, two, three, four days. So, Saturday, May 10th, 2025, we are going to be hosting our college admissions summit 2025, our California College Admissions Summit. We are going to be providing expert guidance. It's free. All you need to do is sign up for it. Um, and um, what are you going to learn? We're going to give some insider strategies from former admissions readers and experts. How to stand out with the UC's and the Cal States and the private um college applications um out in the United States. Um essays and personal uh uh insight, the PIQ's um what really actually works, financial aid, extracurricular and competitive majors, what really matters. The stuff that you saw tonight, that's kind of a taste, right? is we're going to give you some great um really really great information about uh your journey um especially students your journey to a college missions to have su success. So again it's free join the thousands of families across California that are joining us. Register now it's at egalock.comsummit. Again egalock.comsummit if you are also listening in. So, um, we do host a college application intensive. That intensive has two pieces to it. One is a kickstart. We call it a kickstart. It's a one-day event. It's being hosted April, May, and June. One of um on typically on uh the Saturdays in April, May, and June. Um where you're going to be doing brainstorming. At the end of that, you complete our goal is to complete the initial draft for the four UCPIQs and the one personal statement for the Common App. And then in July, August, and September, we're hosting the second part of our uh CI, which is a two-day event, Saturday and Sunday. It's called the accelerator, where we take what you did when you were brainstorming and now we edit those essays and we complete a final. Okay, a final. And it says final draft, but really complete a final hopefully uh four PIQs and your personal statement. So imagine finishing your essays at least the PIQs and the personal statements early so that you can get to your supplementals and then get be be ready to submit in October which is incredible. So if you are interested in joining us with that uh it's collegeappensive.com is the link collegeappensive.com. Okay. Uh so that's I would highly highly encourage this. This is one of our most successful events every year. So many students benefit from this. Uh so many students, you know, they it's really a a kickstart and no pun intended for them to be to get going, to get moving. Uh so and and you know to have really a lot of time to to invest the time in in developing their essays. Now, I'm going to leave this open to uh question and answers, okay? So, uh if you have any questions, please list them out in the chat or put them out in our Q&A here. Um and as um those as you are listing out your questions um if you are new to our our site or to our our training or you've been watching and you're interested in us giving uh you and your student uh a uh assessment, you can book your free 15-minute assessment um with our college admissions advisors by typing book B uh and texting it to us at 949-775865. again book b 949-7750865. So with that said, if there's any questions, please please please um put them in the chat or in our Q&A section. Um I again so always thankful of everybody joining us here because we had so many people on this this this evening. I'm so happy. It's so incredibly happy that I've seen so many people that have joined us. Again, please um if you have a question, put it in the chat. I always ask three times, okay? Always ask three times. So, um put in your in the in the chat. Uh um and let me know if you have any questions either in the chat or in Q&A. And as I mentioned, if you are interested in getting a free 15-minute assessment, please type in the word book. B O K to 949-7750865. Okay, I will go ahead and ask the last time if anyone has any questions about spikiness, about things to do in the summertime um that will really lead to leadership. Um please let me know um because we'd love to see uh or find out exactly um any questions that you may have. And I'm going to say going once and going twice and going three times. Okay, so with that said, I want to thank you so much for joining me. I know this was a shorter one training today, but I think it was short and sweet, but has a lot of great content. Thank you so much for joining me for my training. Um, you could be uh doing other things, spending time with your friends and family or doing some other important uh tasks that you do. um but you uh chose to spend it with me and so I greatly appreciate that. Thank you so much for joining me for the training. Uh join me again for our training next uh next time and um I'll be looking for you. So again have a an amazing incredible week and we will talk to you next time. Bye-bye.