Just had a really wonderful session on resilience with 27 of our Penn State York awesome Lion Ambassadors! We may not think that the high achievers also need to strengthen their levels of resilience, but in fact, these are a group of students who may hold hidden at-risk factors. They are very used to doing well in school, and at some point in college, they experience their first class that is challenging, or their first lower grade on an assignment or test and can quickly lose confidence and a sense of self-efficacy.

Carol Dweck’s research on growth/fixed mindset can come into play here. If students have been praised over time for how well they do in school, they may start to believe that quality is a fixed aspect of personality rather than something that can grow with hard work and/or new approaches. If their grades start to “slip” they may think that the earlier appraisal of their levels of intelligence may have been “wrong” and maybe they aren’t as “smart” as people thought they were. Instead, Dweck describes a different way to think about ourselves as learners – namely that we can grow beyond the current level of ability in any area that we pursue – with effort and persistence, we can improve. We may be struggling in organic chemistry, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t “smart”. Being “smart”, according to Dweck, means having a growth mindset that says, “With hard work and good support, I can learn more than I know right now!”

These students can also put too much pressure on themselves inside and out of the classroom – juggling classes, work, family & friends, and co-curriculars. Our approach to building resilience in this project means working through the challenges, but also learning to thrive – that means taking time to be healthy (in mind, body, and emotions), finding balance, and working on building positive emotions, beneficial relationships, and learning to manage stress levels.

We worked on several techniques and strategies together that I hope simply reinforced the idea that it’s important to care for ourselves everyday so that when the challenges come (and they will!), we are more prepared to face them!