YouTube Deep Summary

Lou, step in. Hello, hello. All right. I'm excited for you to be on this. Reminds me of the good old times. Yeah, honestly. That was only like what? That was only How many months ago? Like six? Honestly, it's been not that long at all, about six months or so. Yeah. Crazy. Or what what you would say, insane insane. Yep. Kessel points out all my filler words. Uh Can't help it. It's just one of those things. Yep, yep. All right, everyone. We'll get started in just a minute. All right, so let's get started. Welcome everyone. Today's topic is going to be about mastering time management over the summer and how to stay productive while balancing your the fun and the growth. Because summer is just right around the corner, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to be productive this summer or is it that they should be taking a break? And so our goal here is to be able to help you figure out how to manage both of them. And as folks you can see here, I have a guest presenter with me coach Stephen. So before we get started let's introduce ourselves real quick. If you haven't met me already, I'm coach Victor with Eagle Rock. I used to formally work at UC Berkeley's admissions office, taught a class on how to get into graduate school, and also fun fact I got I went to UC Berkeley for undergrad and graduate school on a full ride scholarship. So that being said, excited to be a part of this group with everyone and to share my knowledge that I have. And I'm going to pass it to coach Stephen to introduce himself. Awesome. My name is coach Stephen. If this is our first time meeting, for my background I have about 5 years of experience working in education and technology startups. I attended UC San Diego as an undergraduate and my passion here is to help students thrive through the college admission process. I'm also a coach and an advisor at a couple of different educational startups and things like that too. So if you have any questions come always reach out. Awesome. And really excited to have coach Stephen a part of our team now. He's really great especially if you want to talk about like working in tech or working in like product or project management in case those are the clear aspects that you're interested in. Definitely take advantage of getting to learn more about coach Stephen's background. So let's dive into it though in terms of what we're going to be talking about for today is the importance of summer planning. What are some things and ideas that you all can do and also how to create your personal summer project. We always talk about personal projects or passion projects or capstones. Just different variation names for it. And we're going to tell you about how to get started. Uh how to set goals for the summer and also how to prioritize your energy over productivity. So, there's a lot to cover today and our goal is to be able to give you the toolkits. And in fact, if you're a parent yourself, you might actually find some of this uh content actually useful. So, uh let's talk about why summer planning. So, summer planning is the most one of the most important things because it is what helps you stand out from the rest of your peers. Think of it this way, right? The rest of the school year, generally speaking, a lot of students are taking the same classes or involved in similar activities. The only time when you're breaking away from the rest of your peers is during the summer time. Remember that when it comes to admissions, what uh the people who admissions are going to compare you to are the people from your school and also your geographical location. So, that being said, if uh that's the case, then you don't want to look like the same as everyone else. So, using your summer as a way to uh to stand out is a way to be advantageous here uh by maximizing your activities and your academics, which we'll talk about. And so, um also to know is that what what is it that universities actually look for, uh especially when it comes to summer, is a a few characteristics. They want to first understand, are you a good fit for our university? Because ideally, if you were to come to our campus, you will contribute towards the culture and the um and the community itself and to better the student experience. So, that being said, what they're uh looking for here is like one, taking initiative. Are you uh you don't have to necessarily wait till college to really start learning about your field. You can start learning about it right now. And that's what summer is a perfect time for because you actually have time to take initiative. Uh the second thing is curiosity. Do you have an interest to learn more? Because uh the reason why we go to college is because you're trying to learn and not just get a degree for a job, but because you're trying to learn more about a specific field. And so, their curiosity is uh what they're hoping to be able to uh gauge uh based off your summer projects or whatever it whatever you've been working on. And lastly, problem-solving. This is a important uh skill set that people don't realize, which is you're not just doing things for the sake of doing it, like such as activities or volunteering or any type of project, you're doing it because there's a particular purpose to it, right? So, a lot of people sometimes think like, "Oh, as long as I'm like doing busy work or showing that I'm I'm uh involved in some way, then that will be good." Well, on on top of that, yes, that might look good to an extent. What's really important is do you understand how to solve uh particular problems that really matter for people? Because they want to invest into you as a future learner and future um uh problem-solver in this case. So, uh there's two uh spectrums of students that I want to be able to um uh identify. And maybe you can find yourself uh leaning towards one side or the other, and if you're a parent, maybe you know uh where your student might lie here. So, you have one uh spectrum of the side, which is like they just want to see the summer as a way to rest. They're um really excited to just sleep in every single day, play games, and just like relax, right? And there's nothing wrong about that, just just to be clear. Uh the relaxation is like good, especially for students, because you need to recharge to be able to do more and do better quality work. On the other side of the spectrum is the super highly productive people who are like, "Oh my god, I'm going to take three, four courses. I'm going to take the SATs. I'm going to uh do a whole bunch of stuff to be able to stand out for the college admissions process." And that's awesome, right? But remember that that can also be a challenge as well, because you don't want your uh child or you don't want to be the student that burns out so quickly. So, the goal is to find that right part of the the middle of the spectrum where you're still able to rest at the same time of being productive and maximizing your time. Because remember that the school year will start again and you want to be refreshed for that moment. So, let's talk about the particular things that you could do for the summer. So, there's two kinds of areas that we're going to focus on for today. One side is the academics, the other side is the activities. When it comes to academics, really the typical things that we encourage families to do is to participate in dual enrollment courses which are community college courses while you're in high school. The reason why this is important is because it shows to the admission officers that you can handle college level rigor. Uh in an ideal state, right? If you want to be extremely academically competitive competitive, you'll be taking dual enrollment courses throughout your entire four years of high school. Um but the thing is sometimes you don't have time to be able to logistically to go to the community college or take the course or you can't fit it in your schedule. So, using the summer as a way to to diversify your academic rigor is going to be really valuable here because remember if you take the same courses as everyone else, you're going to look like the same as everyone else. So, the goal is for you to differentiate yourself and through your schedule. Another thing are pre-college programs. So, uh sometimes like, you know, Stanford, Harvard, and all these other top schools are having like summer programs where students can experience like a week or two weeks in college. Those are all valuable as well. And um the common question I get is do do these are these pre-college programs necessary to stand out for admissions to this particular university? The answer is no. Um that's what people think and in most cases a lot of these pre-college programs are a little bit of cash grabs to be quite honest where they're just charging an absorbent amount for students to participate. And yes, it helps students to be able to get a little bit of a leg up in a sense of they get to experience what college is like. They could write about it and they can tell the university when they're applying like what kind of experience they're hoping to gain through this experience through the pre-college program. So, it's it's about what did they learn from the experience as opposed to what did they actually do. Summer research camps, so this might be like science camps or like a very popular one is like Cosmos or other sorts of related things that help you explore your academic field. Another thing to consider is UC Scout, which is where you can take online AP courses. And when it comes to which AP courses to take, usually for the most part you want to think in this way. What are the AP courses that are available at my school and what is what is the delta of what's available within UC Scout. So, for example, let's just say that you are interested in studying engineering. Remember the things that matter the most are your math courses, your physics courses, computer science courses and also engineering courses. And if you didn't know, there are almost there are three AP physics courses. There's AP physics 1, AP physics 2 and AP physics C. For the most part, a lot of schools only have AP physics 1s or AP physics 1 and C. So, that being said, you can take advantage of that time in the summer time to take AP physics 2 and so that way you could be able to have a class that no one else at your schedule at your school has. And lastly, ACT ACT studying. Remember that this only really applies if you're trying to apply to a private school because for UC system or University of California system, they are not looking they're test blind. And also just recently New York state as well has declared that I think they're test blind as well. So, that being said, if you're trying to apply to those particular schools only, then you don't need to necessarily worry about the ACT or ACT. Right now, based off I know a lot of parents are asking us like but what if they bring it back? Well, if they do bring it back, they'll at least let us know at least give us two to three years in advance before they actually roll out this new policy to bring it back. So, I wouldn't be too worried about it right now. So, in this case, UCs are still being are still test blind in this case. Uh going next into the activities. So, when it comes to activities, uh the way to kind of think about it is the activities are intended to uh show that you're taking that initiative as I mentioned um because you're trying to learn more about your field. And also, it's a way to for you to be able to relax as well. The activities aren't made to be thought about as work. The way to think about activities is what are things are energy generating, which uh Coach Stephanie is actually going to talk about a little bit later on. So, some examples of that might be your uh sports, uh personal projects, which we'll go into a little bit about how to come up with your personal projects, competitions or tournaments, uh internships and volunteering, and also if there's any type of school club or school activity that's going on. So, there's if you were to ask me the question, which I always get from parents as well, like which one is like the best thing to do? Well, the most important thing is to understand what exactly are you trying to learn or what are you trying to maximize for? So, let's talk a little bit more about how to be a bit more intentional or to decide how uh which things that you should be doing. So, starting with the academics, right? Um understand what are your weaknesses, your strengths, and your availability. Those are kind of the main things. Uh when it comes to weaknesses, right? It's really about uh being able to indicate uh either if you have a low grade in a particular course and you need to retake it, or if you are trying to apply to a particular major and that major uh might be looking for more towards like math or particular uh subject and you haven't taken those classes yet. So, that might be your weakness there or a gap, per se. Because in order for them to accept you, they need to validate will you actually be able to graduate on time if you were to go into university. Other things such as strength, right? If you are trying to demonstrate that you are really amazing at math, right? Because usually math is like the number one determining factor, at least when it comes to those who are interested in engineering or computer science. And so taking next levels of math that people don't have available is a great way. So for example, majority of schools will only have up to calculus BC. But and calculus BC is equivalent to calculus one and two at the community college. But if you go to calculus three, right? Calculus three is multivariable calculus and not that many schools have multivariable calculus. Some schools do, but in this case if you go to a school that doesn't have it, then that's a way to boost that. And lastly, availability. Also think about the logistics of course, right? In terms of can you actually get to the community college or can you take the course after high school? So you need to see what's actually available. And remember, if you're part of our program, you can always talk to your coach about what exact courses that you should take. The next part is the activities. The activities we always stress that we want you to be passionate about what is it that you do. You don't want to do an activity that is energy draining and the reason why we say that is because your activities are supposed to paint the picture to the university that you have done the exploration yourself, that you understand that this is something that you want to dedicate your time to. And so to be passionate about it is a self-reflection for yourself. Do you really actually enjoy this particular activity? And if you do, then amazing. And if you don't, then great. You learn that that's not for you, so move on to the next thing. Major alignment. Why should colleges care in the sense of like remember for your major and career alignment, you want to be able to uh try to identify accessible activities that you can do in the meantime that relate to your intended future. And like let's say for example, you're interested in pre-med. Of course, you're not going to be able to practice medicine or anything of that sort because you don't have a degree. But other ways to be able to consider like pre-med like activities could be like doing a health education campaign, doing research, or like volunteering at like the animal shelter or at some some hospital. So, there's a lot of opportunities for students to be able to take advantage of. You just have to think what exactly do I want to learn from these experiences. And lastly is the career alignment as well. And just so you know, the goal isn't for you to decide I want to be a doctor, I want to be engineer, I want to be any of these things, right? The goal is to help you understand do you really like to do this or not? Because the whole point of activities is to give you a little bit of a taste or like a test in terms of if the if this is something that you want to dedicate your future towards. So, now that we talked about how to decide, right? Now, we're going to go a little bit deeper in terms of the personal project. Because the personal project is really the um usually what you present on within your personal insight questions or your personal statement because this is something that you have that's unique to you compared to everybody else. So, what I'm showing here is called the double diamond approach. The double diamond approach is actually used a lot within the tech field if you didn't know in terms of how to create new solutions for for a particular problem. And this is what people do to innovate. And so, you can apply this yourself even as a student. So, starting with the first diamond, the first diamond is about the problem space, right? The problem space is where you try to understand what is the problem that you want to solve for. So, the first phase right here is discover, meaning go learn as much things as possible about this particular issue. So, let's say for example, you're really interested in uh, problem of uh like, you see a lot of litter or like waste, uh, at the beach or something. And so, you really care about the environment. So, you look out and you try to understand what are all the different problems related to, uh, to the pollution and environment. And also, what are the things that people are saying is the root cause of the problem. Why is it that people are littering, uh, like, even though like there's like a garbage can like 5 ft down. So, that's a discovery phase. You are doing observations. You're learning about the people that are in that geographical location. And also, you're doing your online research to better understand how do people also tackle this problem or why are people experiencing this challenge. The next part is defining. This is the converging phase. This is where you narrow down to just one problem. So, I took the issue of environmental pollution, right? That is a huge space. That is a huge area in terms of what is it that you can address. But, the goal is just to narrow down to just one problem that you really care about because, uh, these colleges are not expecting you to cure cancer or anything of that sort. The goal is for you to go in deep with a particular problem that you feel that you are equipped to solve for. And even if you don't know how to solve for it, the goal is for you to do this discovery where you learn the skills and experiences required to, uh, to solve for this particular problem. So, that being said, like, you don't need to be an expert at this in this field to understand what problem that you care about that you want to try to solve for. So, this is why we this is why it's this phase is called the define phase because you're trying to define what is the actual problem that you're trying to solve for. So, that's the problem awareness, uh, or the the problem, uh, diamond, right? The next diamond is the solutions, uh, diamond. So, this is where we come up with ideas on what is it exactly that we can develop. So, the first part is developing, diverging. Meaning that you consider every potential solution. So, the goal is to think about all the possible ways to solve for this littering problem at the beach. You could have organized more beach cleanups. You could put up more signage. You can increase number of garbage cans. You can do a social media awareness campaign. There's so many different things that you could do, right? But, you're not going to do all of it. So, the goal is to just focus on one thing and to articulate why is it that you decided to do this one solution out of all the solutions that you could have done, why is this particular solution the most important to you and and this is what you articulate within your personal insight questions or your personal statements. This is if you're able to show that you can go through these four phases within your essays, then you're going to be in a really great spot because what it's showing to the readers is that you understand you you took the initiative to understand the problem and you did your due diligence of trying to learn from from the past or why is it like has been a challenge and also you were able to concretely identify what is one particular solution that you could do to be able to solve for this problem. And that itself is putting you in kind of like that experimental or innovative like mindset that these universities are looking for because they're not just looking for people who will follow the rules and just be told what to do. They're looking for people who can take the initiative and try to create something new. And so, if you're able to accomplish this kind of double diamond approach within your personal project, then you're going to be in a really great place on your competitiveness. So, let's just say after you created the particular solution, right? The next part is it's not just a matter of just delivering once and being able to uh that you have one solution, you did it, and you learned from it, but also another way to take up to the next level is to constantly iterate. So, the way that iteration works, right, or um or what other people know it as prototyping, you uh take a concept, you build it, and you try it out. You review whether it has it worked uh did it work or did it not work. And then from there, you refine and iterate. So, you just keep on going through this process over and over. So, for example, maybe one of the solutions that you try to do is to have more garbage cans out. So, you did that, right, and you observed that there's still trash. So, in that case, that's like, "Okay, let's go back to the drawing board, and let's figure out what's the next thing that we could do." So, you pull out one of your other ideas, and then you try to create like a campaign of some sort. And you make it like really like uh you create all these posters, you you spread awareness through social media, and then you notice, "Hey, this one actually worked a bit more than uh the last one." And it was pretty effective, and so the goal is to uh demonstrate like, "What did you understand or what did you learn from this experience uh through experimenting?" And then, "How will this entire experience uh relate to what you want to do later on in your college or your career?" So, again, it this whole thing of uh of iteration, right, it's showing persistence. It's showing that you're taking initiative to try things out. And also, it sure it shows your critical thinking about why is it that it didn't work. And so, this these are like the important fundamental uh parts of a personal project that can really help you stand out. So, what makes a good personal project for uh to consider? Well, as as I'm as I've mentioned already, ideally, it's uh aligned with your academic or career interests, right? You're doing it uh because you want to uh dive a little bit deeper into that particular um um role in the future. Uh it solves a real world problem. Uh and there's a lot of problems out there in the world that you could possibly do. And so just trying to identify what is a pain point that you notice is a challenge whether that's for yourself or for somebody that you care about. Uh think about what is it that makes people's lives like hard and that's what you that's where you identify as a potential opportunity. Uh third measurable outcomes like what uh what are you hoping to get out of this from this experience and can you measure anything quantify it? Uh because one of the uh great things from from essays that I've read in the past is that if you can quantify your impact, that's more advanced than majority 90% of the different personal statements that I've read in the past. Uh fourth consistent time and effort over weeks and months. Uh so one of the kind of fallacies that people tend to do, they do this uh personal project right before their junior year. And not to say that it's not going to work if you start junior year, but ideally you want to show that this isn't just some type of like uh small like uh short-term interest. This is something that you have been accountable to or been interested in for a very long time. So if you start a personal project as early as freshman year and you continue to build and iterate on that for the next three four years, then that shows an amazing amount of persistence. Demonstrates leadership or collaboration. It's not just about you, it's about how do you get others to be a part of the solution, too. So uh that's this is also something that not a lot of people realize is that um the goal is also to try to get people to really care about the same issue that you care about and to get them to be a part of the solution. And lastly, unique, original, creative, uh and trying to be able to think about something that can help uh stand out. And usually if you want to try to figure out something that's unique, don't worry too much about like what's a personal project that I can stand out. Think about more so what's a personal project I really care about. What's a problem I really value that I want to solve for? And lastly, what is a bad personal project? So, or what's what's the common issues? So, um it's pretty much the opposite of what I just mentioned, right? Where you don't have it's not related to any academic or career interest. You're just kind of doing it just because. Uh there's a lack of a clear goal or outcome of what you're trying to solve for. There's no reflection of learning, right? Uh because the whole point of these personal projects is to help you grow as an individual and to uh increase your critical thinking uh for this particular problem. And lastly, too generic or similar to everyone else. Majority of the times, a lot of students are talking about like uh creating um certain things within their their school campus that it uh often is something that you would see in a lot of different applications. So, also be innovative. Think outside of your school campus uh when if if possible. So, that being said, um now that I talked about our personal projects and uh and how to kind of think about it, I'm going to actually pass it on to Coach Stephen, who's going to lead us to be able to understand how do you set these goals and how do you like manage your time for this? So, Coach Stephen, take it away. Awesome. Thank you, Coach Victor. Wonderful. So, I'll start off with essentially one good way to maximize your summer is to kind of set goals that stick. And a good way to do that is to set smart goals. So, here smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For specific, you want to think about what exactly do you want to achieve here? Are you trying to increase your SAT scores or anything like that? Measurable is how will you track this progress? So, if you want to increase SAT scores, um how are you going to track this? Is it going to be pages completed in a guide? Is it hours spent studying or is it um maybe classes attended online or things like that? Is it achievable? You want to think about is your goal realistic for the summer? You want to make sure that you can do this within that period of summer time. You can't set a goal that's going to be too big. Um is it relevant? Does it align with your long-term vision? And then lastly, to make sure that it's time bound. Setting a deadline will help you kind of stay in peace and stay focused. So, for example, instead of saying I just want to study more, a smart goal would sound something like I'll I'll review SAT math for 30 minutes every weekday at 10:00 a.m. The clearer your goal, the easier it is to take action and stay on track. Uh next slide, please. So, as you work through all these different goals and activities, another thing you want to keep in mind is your energy levels. So, if you don't know what fuels you and what drains you, even the best plan will leave you feeling burnt out. And that's why it's important to audit your energy. Start by listing out your daily and weekly activities. And then ask yourselves after each one, did this energize me or did it exhaust me? And you have to be honest here. Um looking on the left side, you can mark them with green or red to indicate what gives you energy and what's draining you. Next, you want to dig a little deeper. Why did it give or take energy? Um was it the people you were with, the environment, the purpose of the task, or things like that? Sometimes it's not the activity itself, it's how we experience it. Um next slide. So, once you know what gives and takes energy from you, you want to use that insight to redesign your schedule. You want to start by identifying your top three goals for the week. Um these should align with what matters most, whether it's college prep, a personal project, or self-care. Um next, balance your schedule with a mix of energy-generating and energy-draining activities. Don't overload yourself with tasks that will burn you out. Instead, space them out and surround them with things that recharge you, like movement or creative time or connecting with people like um you enjoy. Um finally, build in time for discovery and learning. Your perfect week should leave room for trying something new, whether it's exploring a new topic or watching an inspiration inspirational video or simply just journaling your thoughts. Growth doesn't happen by accident. It happens when you make space for it. One example that always works for me is to prioritize high energy activity in the mornings and then batch the low energy tasks all at once, just get them out of the way. And then I also plan in breaks to add movement and exercise just to make sure that I take care of my body. Next slide, please. Awesome. Another tip to keep in mind is that summer is a perfect time to grow, but not at the cost of your mental health. The key here is consistency, not intensity. So if you find that starting is difficult, try 25 focused minutes a day. Just 25 minutes can move the needle whether you're prepping for SAT or exploring a new subject or building a personal project. You can also try things like microlearning like short bursts of studying, reading or journaling. Sometimes you'll find that starting is probably the hardest part. So once you get started, you might be able to hit a groove and then kind of keep that going. Next slide. Now, when we're talking about journaling, it is actually a very powerful tool that you can use to reflect and kind of adjust. Even with the best plan, things won't always go perfectly and that's perfectly okay. What matters is checking with yourself each week. One way I try to do this is by taking 10 minutes to just ask what went well this week. What could I improve on? And then what should I focus for next week? These kind of small reflections will help you stay on track without feeling guilty or anything like that. Growth isn't about perfection. It's about learning, adjusting, and then moving forward a little bit each day. Next slide. And lastly, remember growth includes rest. So give yourself permission to recharge so you don't so you can come back stronger and not more stressed. Rest is essential, but the trick here is to be intentional about it. You want to be able to add fun to the calendar the same way that you would add a meeting or a study session. You can use a 3-1 rule where you get three focused blocks of work and then one reward break. Whether that's hanging out with friends or exploring a new spot or just relaxing with a show, scheduling fun allows you to recharge and stay motivated all summer long. Awesome. All right, thank you Coach Steffin for sharing all that knowledge. And if you didn't know, Coach Steffin is probably like one of our most organized people in the world. He always thinks ahead. I know like for him, he's always thinking like five steps ahead or 10 steps ahead just because he wants to make sure that he is in in good shape and well prepared. So, that being said, like if you ever wanted to learn from Coach Steffin, definitely recommend it. And we'll talk about how you could be able to like potentially work with him in the future. So, that was the end of our presentation. So, if you want the notes and replay, all right, just text notes and replay to 949-775-0865 so that we can send it over to you. Please allow 24 to 48 hours so that we can get back because we need to also wrap up this recording as well and make sure we upload it. Also, free 15-minute coaching session. So, if you're not part of our coaching families yet, and especially I'm talking to the class of 2026 folks where you're trying to get your application done. So, we always have this free coaching session where you can learn more about the college admissions process and a free action plan to maximize your chances. We only allow one per family, so take advantage of this and to take advantage of it or to schedule it, text coach to 949-775-0865. And also, if you prefer to work with Coach Steffin on this, Coach Steffin has joined our team to host these coaching sessions. Just text Steffin to the same number. So, that's s t e uh, p h e n. And, uh, the next few quick announcements are about our research and internship program. If you don't have anything planned for the summer yet, okay? This is only for our coaching families who are part of our program, but we do have our own research program where you can get research experience. And so, this is where you work one-on-one with a professor to identify a research topic and write a college-level paper. And that will show to the university that you can you're taking initiative. And this could be a long-term relationship with that professor as well, uh, to be able to learn more about, um, their their field and their interests. Oh, and also the internship program, uh, this is an 8-week program where you can work with a virtual startup, uh, to be able to, uh, get world world world work experience. Uh, no worries, uh, there's no work experience required to participate in this, so even if you're like in ninth grade and this is your first job, this is a perfect opportunity to give it a shot. So, again, for those who don't have a summer plan yet and you are, uh, part of our coaching families, text research or internship to learn more information so that we could schedule you, uh, to chat with our team. Great. And so, that brings us to the very end. And so, uh, want to invite folks to, uh, ask any questions in the chat or the Q&A. Uh, in the meantime, I would love to be able to also use this time, uh, to do a Q&A with, uh, Coach Stefan because it's going to be cuz he's joining our community. Uh, so, Coach Stefan, uh, out of out of curiosity, if you don't mind, uh, what brought you to Eagle Rock in the first place? Ooh, interesting. Yes. So, I've always been really interested in kind of education or so. Uh, I think I tell a lot of the the parents I speak about this. I was I was a first-generation college student. Um, when I was applying, uh, to college, uh, back in high school, a funny story was that I didn't even know the UC system existed until junior year. Um, I thought that SJSU was kind of the only school within within the distance and I was just going to apply to to their first, and then junior year, once all my uh my friends started applying to college, they were asking like, you know, are you going to do the UCs? And I'm like, what is a UC in that scenario? And that's really indicative and and shows how little knowledge, um especially a first-generation college student has in this case, you know? Um so, my goal with joining Eagle Rock is to try and bridge that gap, to kind of help students um from backgrounds similar to mine um navigate and and be able to apply to schools that would be as, you know, uh help them maximize their potential as students and kind of professionals in the future. I love that. I love that. And uh it's great that you're part of our team, and um I'm sure a lot of families are probably curious like, uh what do you think they should come to you for? Uh so, uh what what would you say are like the topics that you think that you'd be uh really uh good to talk to you about and to help them brainstorm or ideate or whatever it is or get advice? Ooh, that's a good question. I want to say so, I attended UC San Diego, so I'm pretty familiar with the UC system. So, anything around there would be great. Um apart from that, I've been always been really interested in kind of uh motivation, um personal growth, and things like that. I do a lot of uh reading around kind of personal growth and stuff. So, if they come to questions, um things like, you know, setting smart goals, staying on track, staying motivated, and things like that, I usually have kind of a good set of uh tips and tools um for stuff like that. Nice. Nice. I love that. And related to our topic as well, uh given like what we just presented on, and also with your expertise and background, uh what's one tip or advice that you want to give to all the students who are watching right now? Ooh, that's a good question. I want to say the the biggest thing, and I never really took this seriously before, is to to kind of do that energy tracking process. And and funny enough, I'm I'm starting to really take this seriously nowadays. So, you A lot of people try to plan their productivity on how many things they can get done in a day and things you check off and stuff like that. But what they really don't know, notice so much is that what they're doing and at what point of time during the day and what scenario and what situations and things like that would give them the most energy. Um an example is I probably study and work the best when my environment is kind of new. Um and a lot of people do find that. So, trying to pay attention to various areas and time where you feel the most energetic. So, and then trying to schedule really important stuff around those specific very high productive times, you know? Taking into consideration you're a night owl, you know, or kind of more energetic in the morning to kind of focus all the most important tasks during those times to kind of maximize your potential and productivity. Um I think that'd probably be the biggest one. Yeah, I love that. Um what I'm hearing is like a lot of self-awareness and one thing that stuck out to me is what you said about like creating a good environment that can like really be conducive towards your energy as well. And I think that's something that's useful for, I mean, as as adults, you know, in the workforce and also as students is like you are a product of the environment that you're placed in, right? That's the typical saying. Meaning that the influences that you have, whether that's the people or the resources that are available or even your desk space, right? Everything contributes towards certain triggers that create a certain action or reaction from it. So, if you haven't read the book Atomic Habits, which is an extremely good book and recommended, where it talks about how your environment really shapes your identity. So, that being said, if you are also joining our community for the first time, right? By being in the environment of being placed with everyone else, you are absorbing everyone's knowledge and you are part of being that product from that environment as well. So, that's that's also for everyone else to consider. Mhm. Yeah, very true. Very true. You are a product of your environment. I like that. Awesome. And maybe one last question for you, Stefan. Uh Based off your experiences and working with students and families, what's one tip or advice you want to give to our parents? Ooh, for parents. Um I think the biggest one is is don't shy away from some of the tough conversations or so. I spoke to a family recently where they were saying that every single time you try to bring up the question of about college or careers and things like that, their their their child is almost very against it, you know. I think it's in this scenario, you really want to build a foster some of that stuff. Make yourself a little vulnerable, kind of share stories to them about how you were kind of struggling through some of the same issues and things like that so that they are aware that they're not alone in this process, you know, that it's not all on them to kind of help decide this. And try to approach those conversations head-on cuz I think they're important conversations to have. You need to be able to have that. You need to be able to talk about it cuz if you don't, you don't really know what your students need support with. So, I think that's kind of the biggest tip I have. Yeah, I love that. I love that. And also just thinking about the accessibility of the questions that you're asking. The quality of your questions really matter for this discussion. The worst question to ask anybody or any student is something that everyone has heard growing up. What do you want to be when you grow up? Cuz it's such a limiting kind of thing where you have to choose a particular occupation and you stick with it, right? The thing about life is that we're we all like work you're all you're going to work in different roles. I mean, we're now we're talking about post college. But generally speaking, like a lot of people have many different jobs, especially for this current generation, which is what Gen Z'ers and Gen Z'ers are now in high school, right? I think so. But like the next generation, it's already like research studies have been showing that um, these uh, folks are going to be more entrepreneurial and being able to try out a lot of different types of fields and they're not likely to stick in one particular job. Uh, usually from what we've seen from generations is like um, baby boomers tend to uh, stick with one job and stay consistent because one of those values that was uh, for that generation was stability. Um, but the next generation uh, that's going through college system right now, uh, a lot of their values is like creativity and also like happiness. And so that being said, uh, it's not about what do you want to be when you grow up but more so about what is it that you are curious about? Like remember one of the characteristics we talked about was curiosity and that that's something that we want to demonstrate to the university. Mhm. Stephan, any any thoughts or reactions to that? No, I think that's a really important point. I remember I when I was in college I attended this this talk. I forgot from who it was but that's always stuck to me all the way till now. And it was one of the data scientist um, and they were kind of talking about their experiences and they basically say that every five to eight years their career changes. They go from data scientist to kind of uh, interest in psychology um, into technology and things like that. So your interest change and stuff. So so like you're saying, you know, the generation does change and things like that. It's perfectly fine to to feel like you're passionate about one thing now and then kind of change your mind later on down the line. Right. Right. And I think that's the emphasis of uh, that's why for these activities that we talked about for summer uh, get students to just try it out, right? Like what cuz the worst thing that could happen is they figure out like, "No, I don't like doing this." Cool. All right, we figured that out. Now we go on to the next thing to try out. And in fact, a lot of students actually don't realize the importance of things or learn to appreciate certain things because they don't know why it matters. So let's say for example, um, like let's say you're trying to learn like business, right? Business is a lot of um, how to, you know, make revenue, how to make money, how to operationalize things, and these are very logistical, right? And a lot of students might immediately like, "Oh, I'm turned off. I don't like turn off from this. I don't want to like participate in like making money per se. That's not my interest." Well, it's possible that they might gain that interest over time. Like let's say they learn how to do uh computer software or like computer engineering. Uh and and so once they learn how to create it their own application, their own program, then they start like realizing like, "Oh, I can share this with other people in the world." And then that's where the business skills start coming in, right? So you unlock something for the student once they have tried something first and then they realize the next path is the business path after that. So that's like an example of like how one learning can lead to the next path that opens up. Mhm. For sure. Yeah, they always say kind of try fast and fail fast in this scenario so you kind of gather more information and stuff like that. So always something to keep in mind. Yeah, 100%. Okay. So I know we're going off on a tangent because I was trying to buy time for folks to put in any questions. It looks like this group doesn't have any questions so far even though we have a good amount here. So any last words Coach Stephen that you want to leave with the rest of the audience? No. I think the biggest thing for this is essentially great summer. You know, take advantage of the time you have specifically for those students in junior year. You know, this is kind of like the this grind time at this point. But then also kind of enjoy it, have fun with it. It's kind of like the one of the few times you'll miss once you do graduate to college and start work. You won't have this summer anymore. So I want to say do you enjoy yourself. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say is especially for parents, let your kid be a kid at times too, you know? Like they they are young right now and they should experience like hang out with friends and yes, it's good for them to be productive but not to the point where they are stressed out about it, right? Uh remember that activities, the things they do for the summer is supposed to be energy generating. So, always kind of seek out what are those energy generating uh activities for your child so that way they can focus on that and that what is what builds empowerment and motivation to try harder in school. All right. So, I think we're good to close out. So, thank you everyone for participating and uh looking forward to the next webinar that we might uh teach together, right? Take care everyone. See you guys.