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Students, do not doubt that you are worthy!

August 29th, 2016

We are in back to school mode here at Shrop Ed, and want to share yet another relevant article that touches on the feelings of many students as they enter new settings.

Freshman year of college, exciting as it is, can leave many feeling overwhelmed both academically and socially and therefore the fear of failure may begin to creep in. This lack of confidence occurs for many, many students, and can be especially deeply felt for those who come from a disadvantaged background.

Professor David L. Kirp, of the University of California-Berkeley, shared information about research that is helping students, especially underprivileged youth, succeed in school. The interventions Kirp describes are designed to assure students that they are worthy of admission and encourage a proactive approach to performance improvement.

We see important parallels for students just starting out at a new boarding school, and hope that all of our families will consider this article link relevant.

Many thanks to the Shrop Ed parent who brought this article to our attention.

Article below published by The New York Times, August 20, 2016

Written by: David L. Kirp

Although it’s been a long time, I vividly recall my reaction when I learned that I had been admitted to Amherst College: The admissions office must have made a terrible mistake.

I had graduated from a Long Island high school where most students didn’t go to college, so I was convinced that at Amherst I would be overmatched by my better-educated, more sophisticated classmates and sliced to ribbons by my brilliant professors. To my surprise, I fared well academically, but I never entirely got over the feeling of being an impostor. Only decades later, at a class reunion, did I discover that many of my peers had felt exactly the same way.

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