Latest / NCSC College Connections / NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 3 - " Overcoming Fears of College"

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NCSC Podcast "College Connections" - Season 2, Episode 3 - " Overcoming Fears of College" · NCSC College Connections

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to College Connections, sponsored by North Central State College.
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  I'm Keith Stoner. This series was developed to help students
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  and parents explore higher education and make the best informed
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  choice for themselves and their families. Well, welcome back to
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  the second in a series of podcasts really exploring how
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  college is changing and how one of the newest items
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  that are changing with that evolution is liberal Arts and
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  how important it's becoming in all things from education, workforce,
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  and certainly to the employability of our graduates. So last
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  time we talked about how that workforce was changing, and
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  today we're going to talk about how students are impacted,
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  how they're coming to us again. Our guest today is
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  doctor Stephen Haynes. He is the dean of Liberal Arts
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  north Central State College, and my name is Keith Stoner.
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  Let's get started. So, one of the things that we're
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  dealing with when when students are coming to us, you know,
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  we're looking at all kinds of options. Some are technical,
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  but certainly some are really aligning well to what used
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  to be just the Liberal Arts as a solution for adaptability,
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  employability and all of that. What are some of the
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  aspects or some of the types of needs that these
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  students are coming to us with these days.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, the needs are endless. It is amazing when you're
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  working with students because everybody's an individual and everybody has
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  individual concerns, and at North Central State College, we are
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  very in tune to working with the individual and seeing
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  what really is going on with their life and how
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  we can help them. That is essential and one of
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  the things that comes out and a lot of people,
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  especially when they're first exploring the idea of college, is fear.
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  It is the concern of going into college doing it.
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  It is a scary time, exciting time, but scary time
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  for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.
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  But to borrow a line from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
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  there's nothing to fear but fear itself. And once you
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  get into it, and once you start learning it, really
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  the fear goes away and people realize that it is
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  for them, They can do it. It is just getting
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  over that. Fear is a huge thing that a lot
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  of people have to work through and get through, and
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  we're here to help them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, don't you think that's really normal. I mean, anytime
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  you try something new, start something new, a new job,
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  a new school, and move through year K twelve, you know,
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  you move from you first to second grade or high
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  school or whatever. You know, you always have the questions
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  can I do this? Am I ready? And you know,
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  by and large, the hardest thing to do is to
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  step in and try. You know, you take that first
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  step and the next thing you know, you're just you're
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  into it, knee deep and you're and you're just doing
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  so well. You can't even imagine. That's the kind of
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  successes that I see our kids getting set up for.
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  I see us setting up these students for the success,
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  sometimes more success than they thought was ever going to
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  be possible.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yes, I can't agree with you more, Keith.
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  And it's that fear that really holds a lot of
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  people back. It's not the reality. It is that fear
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  of what it's going to be. And there's a lot
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  of reasons for that fear, and let's just take some
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  of them. I mean, I'm not good at this class,
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  I'm not good at math, I'm not good at writing.
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  I hate public speaking. I you know the old famous
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  you know statistics, more people are afraid of public speaking
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  than dying. So people rather be in the casket than
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  giving the eulogy, as the old joke goes, right, that
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  is real and those fears I can see are real.
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  But believe it or not, everybody struggles at something. Everybody
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  isn't good at everything.
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  Speaker 1: And in that okay, I think that's okay because that's
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  part of what you're going to college to figure out. Absolutely,
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  what do you excel at? What are you really good?
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  What really puts you on the jazz? What are you
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  excited about doing? Because I guess what I see in
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  the evolution of education, that's what we're talking about. What
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  I see in this evolution is you don't have to
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  follow the same path as everybody else. You get to
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  make your own way. We are so able to fine
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  tune the learning for an individual student these days that
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  I think those opportunities are just outstanding. But they're so
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  so open and flexible. Let them explore who they are,
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  become who they can be, but more than that, find
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  something they really really like doing.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, you're getting a very essential idea here and
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  we're not going to be the same We're not going
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  to sell it the same things, and that's great. I
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  am very humble to say that you, Keith, are way
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  better at a whole lot of things that I'm not.
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  But at the same at the same time, you know,
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  there's some things I'm better at. But together, look at
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  all the things that we can do together. We might
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  have some basic ideas and basic knowledge of how to
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  do these different things, but it's not our strength. But
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  working together we become that much stronger. And these liberal
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  arts classes gives you those foundational ideas. Not only just
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  get the basic ideas, but to really start to see
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  where you thrive at. What where can you really add
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  the value to your position, your job, your career, your life,
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  and how exciting that is to build on that once
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  you discover that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and because I think one of those things used
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  to be, oh, you're in college algebra. What am I
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  ever going to use this in the real world? Well?
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  I use it all the time. But no matter what
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  that is. When you learn how to solve those problems,
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  when you learn the process for writing a speech or
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  annotating a paper or something like that, those are the
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  skills that you're going to be able to adapt into
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  different jobs and different in different workplace areas. It could
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  be industry, it could be manufacturing, it might be public service,
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  but you're going to be bringing those same skills and
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  that ability to discern the nuggets that you need to
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  pull out of that are just a skill that is
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  so valuable and will pay off so many times over
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  your career. I just really think that that's what gives
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  us a leg up on learning how to learn. You're
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  not doing a one and done colleges in a check
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  mark anymore. It's a process. Start here. You don't have
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  to like doing everything, you don't have to learn it
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  all at once. It's a process. And the people who
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  are going to rule the world in the next generation
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  are the people who know how to adapt to it
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  and build on it and use the tools that are
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  available every day of the week to provide good solutions
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  for themselves, their employers, their families.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And when you were talking, it just popped
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  in another fear in my mind that people have. Well,
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  I find this class boring. It's not exciting. College algebra
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  is boring to a lot of people. Citing to some,
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  but it's boring to others. But let me tell you
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  what you said is exactly right. Every class you take
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  teaches you some life lesson that believe in or not
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  will come back in your life and you're going to
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  think like you wouldn't believe that. Thank goodness I took
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  this class. I'll tell you one story from my life.
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  I had to take general logic my last semester of
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  my bachelor's degree yet and I was thinking, Oh my gosh,
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  how boring is this going to be? General logic? That
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  just doesn't sound fun to me. But what I learned
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  in that class I use all the time because it
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  teaches you how people formulate arguments and how they try
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  and convince you of things. And you know how many
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  people I saw through when they're trying to lie to
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  me because I could see the logic that they're trying
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  to use on me. That's a life skill that doesn't
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  stop paying off for me.
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  Speaker 1: Probably save you a lot of aggravation if you haven't
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  cut through that that kind of clutter. But I want
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  to thank thank you for being here again today. I
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  love these subjects. We're talking about how education is changing
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  in the world today and how meaningful the liberal arts
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  really are to providing adaptive skills that can be used
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  no matter what career path you want to get on
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  and when you want to switch those career paths later
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  in Live. So this is a series talking about the
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  adaptability and adaptive intelligence and it's been wonderful to share
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  the day again with you, Doctor Haynes, thank you for
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  being here. I want to thank everybody for listening. We
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  will continue to explore the changing needs of students and
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  their parents and frankly the employers in the world, and
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  how education is changing to meet those needs. This podcast
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  is sponsored by north Central State College and I want
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  to thank all of you for listening today again. I'm
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  Keith Stoner and we look forward to seeing you next time.