From the desk of Kris Mathis, Academic Counselor for Boarding:

Most people have a tendency to look for shortcuts.  It is human nature and not just an issue of an individual’s background that will cause someone to slack off when they think no one is watching or that their lack of effort will go undetected.  This is particularly true if they do not enjoy the task at hand.  It is difficult for anyone to push themselves as hard as they need to for as long as they need to in order to achieve their best.

It is extremely hard work to be the best you can be.  It is very true that if you only put in a minimum effort you may get by in some situations (many even perhaps).  But in the long run you will not fully develop the talents that God gave you.

The world we live in today has become a bottom line society obsessed with the end result.  But, many times what is more important is the process that produced the result because it is that process that allowed for learning, growth, and knowledge.

This focus on the bottom line concerns me as an educator.  More than a few times in my years in the office of admissions at Texas A & M I had students tell me they were not challenging themselves academically so that they could maintain a higher grade point average.  Even their parents were not immune to this bottom line thinking.  I remember one parent in particular that was going to make their students drop a math course their senior year because it was not required for him to graduate so that he could maintain his higher class rank even though taking a fifth year of advanced math would benefit him more in his post-secondary studies than maintaining his class rank would.  With more students than ever applying to colleges and being admitted the process is without a doubt more competitive than ever before.  Most students and parents that I have met over the past several years equate being the most competitive applicant with academic perfection as defined by a 4.0 GPA and a high standing in comparison to their peers.  However, universities are not seeking perfection.  They know it is unattainable.  What they are searching for is a commitment to excellence.

Universities want to know that a student pushed themselves to be all that they could be and took as difficult a course load as possible at their school.  Let me give you an example.  Let’s say student A is in a college level course and receives a “B” while student B has a 100 average in a course that is only for high school credit.  Admissions committees are just as likely to give the nod to student A for admissions because they are going to wonder why if student B did so well in the course they were not taking the more difficult one that student A took because they were obviously capable of doing that level of work.

This type of preparation will give students confidence.  When they are as prepared as they could possibly be, and they know they have the tools to handle most of the unknowns that might come their way, they will be in control and self-assured in any situation.  They will be positive and believe in themselves and their abilities.  The will be able to embrace difficult situations and rise to every occasion without being fearful or intimidated.

Society today has developed a mindset that I equate to the Apollo 13 missions: “Failure is not an option”.  But, I would argue we would all be better served both individually and collectively as a society if we heeded these words of Teddy Roosevelt:

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Vince Lombardi is famous for saying “winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” but instead of taking that at face value maybe we as individuals should dig a little deeper and discover what our definition of winning is.  This thought came to me of all places at a recent football game when we ran out of time before we could take the lead.  It was our first game back on the field after our bye week during which all of the juniors had traveled to visit colleges and the seniors were on a group expedition to Catalina, California.  I do not know if a few extra days of practice on the open week would have made a difference in the outcome of the game.  But, what I do know, having attended the junior trip and listening to the seniors at chapel is that these opportunities are life changing experiences that will benefit our students beyond college. That is not just a win, but a win that matters.

In closing I would just encourage you to let the students you come in contact with (even if you are a student yourself) to dare to be the best they can be even if it is hard work and at times a struggle.  They will benefit not only from the greater knowledge that more difficult courses will provide but also from the growth and maturation that the challenges and struggles will produce.  It is those mature, determined, hardworking students that the top colleges and universities crave and not the ones who play it safe and take the path of least resistance in their high school years.