As the end of the fall semester quickly approaches I wanted to quickly touch on making sure seniors are fully prepared for life after graduation. Many of us probably don’t have too many students graduating in December, but for those who do I think there are several important life skills every student should graduate with. For those who have only students graduating in May it would be good to get an early jump on teaching making sure your students are prepared.
I think that a lot of what Mike Cavanaugh went over during his personal growth sessions at the fall conference are incredibly useful for graduating seniors, but I also came across two blog posts that really got me thinking about this. Tim Elmore, who writes regularly about this generation, had a post titled 5 Big Choices Kids Must Make Before They Graduate. Tim writes that every student must decide:
[li]
Values: What are the core principles they hope to live by?[/li][li]
Vision: What is the big picture goal they’d like to accomplish?[/li][li]
Virtue: What is the primary strength or value they bring to a job?[/li][li]
Venue: Where is the most suitable place to use those strengths?[/li][li]
Vehicle: What daily activities should they practice to reach the vision?[/li]
I think each of these are good for gaining perspective and figuring out God’s direction for our lives. Seth Godin is a famous business entrepreneur, author, and speaker, who wrote a post back in May called What’s High School For? He goes on to list a number of things, many of which we hope our students have already grasped in high school, but many of these more practical concepts still need to be taught in college. Some of his points that stood out to me were:
[li]The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.[/li][li]The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.[/li][li]Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage. (This is a big one I wish students were taught before college!)[/li][li]An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.[/li][li]Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving.[/li]
All of these concepts are important as students prepare to find a career, start a family, and manage their homes. A couple more that I think are important to add are knowing how to read and study the Bible, learning how to hear God’s voice, being able to stand up for their faith and share their personal testimony, and being able to articulate what salvation is and walk others through receiving Christ.
While all of the above concepts are important, you may not have the time to cover each and every one before a student graduates. Decide what are the most important points and begin working to teach those to as many students in your ministry as possible. Also, if you have enough people helping with the ministry it could be beneficial to start up a separate small group to walk through these topics with seniors before they leave school.
I’ve heard some campus ministers say that the best way to measure success in campus ministry is by seeing how many students from our ministries are successful after they graduate. How are your students doing in the first few years following graduation? Are they still walking strong with the Lord, serving in their church, and being responsible in their jobs and families?
I’ve listed off quite a few concepts that I think are helpful to teach before students graduate, but are there any that I missed? Please share in the comments below.