Let us accept that most students, families and schools are struggling during the pandemic. We are anxious with uncertainty. We are becoming more depressed and disconnected as our hopes are deferred another month. We need something to inspire us, beyond a vaccine. Our children, our neighbors and our schools are each capable of success and have great potential, but we each need to learn and live differently for 2021. This year is time for many of us to reprioritize, optimize our development, and learn to live better lives.

If your family is like most families, especially this year, you are searching for meaning and ways to live better in 2021. Many families are uncertain about paying for their next meal and rent; parents are searching for work.  Before 2020, in the United States, we could expect fewer than 15% of families have food insecurity; now, however, we expect far more families to experience food insecurity. We recognize that if children are hungry, it is very difficult to learn academics; reading and writing are more difficult on an empty stomach. Today, families with excess finances can tremendously impact their community with donations to schools and organizations, who need help feeding children in healthy ways.

If you are interested in how our world class students learn academics and other important lessons in life, in 2021, they are volunteering in medical clinics, food distribution initiatives and other projects to support communities in need. In the Hallways to School Success, we hear great advice from young people with great purposes that achieved success. Students who have achieved prosocial goals with projects to deliver clean drinking water, microfinance community projects, provide medical care during the pandemic, and innovations in the arts. Teenagers are capable of great success and resiliency to hardships, so in 2021, we have the opportunity for all of us to emerge from this better than before. We work with youth who inspire us. We need everyone’s help supporting more youth to achieve their goals during the pandemic.

At home, we encourage our children to adapt their everyday, healthy habits. Each day and week, our children state planned goals. We have high standards for goal-setting, but we cannot set goals for youth. We have youth write down what they will accomplish each day and week; then, we celebrate as they check off small steps towards their life goals.  We also build regular routines with exercise and stress relief into their schedule.  We encourage all families to set and maintain a structure of regularly waking up, eating meals, doing schoolwork, exercising and enjoying life together during the pandemic (Routines).

Youth, and adults, who have purpose in life are more likely to have healthier habits of exercise, diet and better school outcomes (JPSP), and also experience lower levels of depression and substance abuse (IJBM).  Youth projects directing productive work toward community service benefits the recipients of such service and efforts, and also benefits the person carrying out the volunteering or service. Everyone enjoys the good feeling of doing good; youth also develop connections with others, interpersonal skills, and self-confidence by working with purpose on projects that make a difference in the lives of others (WCSU).

It is important to encourage our children to take on a project or calling that goes beyond their own personal needs and impacts others.  Some schools call this a service, signature or capstone project, which is valuable in demonstrating a student’s purpose of life while laying the foundation of comprehensive learning and life skills needed in future endeavors.  Our team at College Inside Track shows students how to Pick Two. Pick Two Projects are meaningful to the student and make a difference in the world beyond the student. Katie and Mattea in Mankato, MN, worked with Tiffany Kolb of College Inside Track on their project to repurpose clothing and sell on Instagram, donating proceeds to charity.

Do you have an idea for a project? Schedule a meeting with us to discuss how a project will help you fulfill your college and career dreams.