Have you been feeding your brain lately? If you’re looking to learn how to study more efficiently or improve your mental alertness in order to achieve better grades, you may have tried all kinds of different study techniques. But did you know that simply choosing foods that fuel the brain can have a significant effect on your academic performance?

It’s true—eating certain foods can improve your ability to focus, retain information, and remain mentally alert in order to get you through the most grueling of study sessions. Want to learn more? Read on for information about the top ten brain foods that not only fill your belly, but feed your brain as well, enabling you to get better grades.

1. Fish

How can eating fish lead to better grades? The answer lies in the high concentrations of Omega-3 fatty acids found in most fish. These fatty acids are essential to proper neural function. Most of our brain is made up of fatty tissue, so it makes sense that eating fish and other foods high in fatty acids would help us focus more and learn how to study more efficiently. According to several studies reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating fish regularly can also reduce your risk of dementia as you get older, another indication of its impact on brain health.

2. Nuts

Want to know how to study better? Go nuts! Like fish, many types of nuts such as almonds, pistachios, and walnuts contain high levels of essential fatty acids that help your brain to perform optimally. As an added benefit, nuts contain a good amount of iron and also provide oxygen to the brain which increases your mental alertness and ability to retain information. A minimum of one ounce of nuts per day is recommended for optimal brain health. Since nuts are high in unsaturated fat (aka the “good” fat) and calories, they make great sources of energy as well. Sounds like a perfect recipe for better grades!

3. Whole Grains

Eating lots of refined carbs like white bread and pasta is not only bad for your physical health, but it also leads to sleepiness, lethargy, and mental dullness. Luckily, whole grains tend to have the opposite effect and can lead to enhanced memory function and even better grades. Chow down on whole grain breads, crackers, and pasta while you study for a quick energy boost.

4. Apples

Apparently, an apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, but can also help you improve your study habits and academic performance as well. The peel of the apple includes a powerful antioxidant called quercetin that enhances memory function. Combine your daily apple with a plan for how to study effectively, and you can look forward to receiving better grades on your next report card.

5. Cruciferous Vegetables

In case you’re a bit rusty on your vocabulary, “cruciferous” vegetables make up a family of vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and bok choy. A long-term study conducted by Harvard Medical School revealed that these type vegetables had the most positive effect on memory retention, meaning they are the most likely to help you achieve better grades. Eating these vegetables raw is the best way to get the optimal nutritional benefit, since cooking them often cooks out the nutrients your body and your brain need most.

6. Dark Chocolate

Not just any variety will do, but a certain type of chocolate – dark chocolate – can feed the brain, not only by improving memory, but also by increasing blood flow to the brain, increasing alertness and clarity. The darker the chocolate, the more benefits your brain will receive.

7. Spinach

Spinach definitely doesn’t top the list of popular vegetables, but it does make the cut when it comes to foods proven to boost brain power, and that could mean better grades for you. Spinach is chock full of folic acid and has even been shown to reverse memory loss. If you don’t like the taste of this dark green stuff, you can always use it in a recipe such as a quiche or smoothie to mask the flavor.

8. Berries

Here’s a quick solution for the problem of how to study better—pop a handful of colorful berries in your mouth as you prepare for your next test or exam. Colorful berries such as blueberries, cherries, black currants, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and even grapes have significant health effects directly related to brain function. Not only do these flavorful snacks reduce the level of toxins in your bloodstream, but they also contain phytonutrients and antioxidants that improve blood flow to the brain and enhance neural activity as well.

9. Legumes

Think eating beans can’t possibly lead to better grades? Think again. “Magic” beans such as chickpeas, kidney beans, and lentils contain substantial amounts of protein which power the brain and make studying a breeze. In addition, legumes of all varieties contain high concentrations of folic acid which improves your ability to recall information.

10. Onions

In Eastern culture, onions have long been revered for their ability to improve important brain functions like memory and focus. Red onions in particular can help you achieve better grades, especially when combined with a program that teaches you how to study better using memory-boosting strategies. The compounds in onions, namely anthocyanin and quercetin, have even been shown to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Adding these ten foods to your diet is a simple and effective way to supercharge your study sessions in your effort to get better grades, but don’t stop there. Eating a balanced diet, staying hydrated and paying attention to your overall nutrition is a great way to complement your study habits. By eating right, you’ll be more likely to remain alert, focused, and energized while you study. So, if you really want to know how to study properly and retain more information than ever before, start feeding your body and your brain the foods they crave.

About the Authors: Study and life skills experts Rick and Teena Kamal founded EduNova to prepare students to lead and thrive in the global economy. They worked with 33 top university education experts and many successful senior executives to produce resources that empower middle school, high school and college students to succeed. Learn more at www.HowToStudyBest.com.

Modern technology has allowed us to communicate with one another no matter how far away we might be, which has changed the way we conduct both personal and professional interactions. But as a college student just entering, or re-entering, the workforce, don’t assume that tech-savvy will be enough to perform well in a phone interview. In the professional realm, interviewing by telephone or video conferencing is almost as common as traditional in-person interviews because it saves time and money for both parties involved. However, the unfamiliar set-up of a phone interview can often be intimidating for interviewees, especially if you’re fresh out of college and have little interviewing experience as it is, and doesn’t always follow the same rules as the traditional interview does. To ace your next phone interview, make sure to consider the following four crucial tips for a successful professional conference call.

1. Always Have a Hard Copy of Your Resume In Front Of You

In a world where we depend on the Internet for virtually everything, it’s hard to imagine that there may be a time when it won’t be around to help when access to important information is necessary. This may sound old-school, outdated, and ‘so 90s’ to the young job-seeker, a hard copy could be just the thing to help guide you successfully through the interview.

Although it’s unlikely that your Internet will suddenly crash during your phone interview, you want to make sure to have a physical copy of your resume, job description, notes and any other important information you’ll need for reference during the interview. A hard copy not only guarantees complete access, it helps you stay more organized during the conversation by taking notes and crossing off topics that were already addressed.

2. Dress to Impress

Do you tend to feel more confident with unkempt hair and sweats or professional attire and excellent grooming? Sure, the former may make you feel more comfortable, and after all this is a phone interview, but it won’t help you get into the psychological mindset of professionalism that you need to ace the interview. Believe it or not, this is no time for casually slouching around the dorm or apartment.

According to career expert Penelope Trunk, people often debate replacing suits in the workplace with business casual attire. To settle the argument, several studies were conducted to see how this new dress code might affect work ethic. The conclusion was made that people take their work more seriously when they’re dressed in professional attire, which is why dressing to impress can help you stay in the right mindset for the interview.

3. Check Your Equipment

Young students might not remember this, but there was a time where a physical wire came out of the wall and attached to the phone! OMG unbelievable! That’s right youngsters, even if you have the best cell phone service in the country, it’s usually best to play it safe by using a landline for your phone interview to prevent the risk of dropped calls, static and other disturbances that can affect the success of the interview. Once you’ve decided which phone to use, you’ll want to check it for sound quality and make sure to disable special features such as call waiting, answering machines and additional phone lines. Doing so can prevent potential distraction and embarrassment, which can interfere with your professional appeal. And you might want to avoid the payphone in the quad or by the laundry room…who knows what kinds of interruptions you might face!

4. Close with a Lead-In

The purpose of a phone interview is to ultimately present yourself in a positive manner that will land you an invitation to an in-person interview. Because this is the ultimate goal, you want to avoid ending the conversation without making a professional effort to accomplish this. To do so, ask the interviewer what the process is for determining who is brought to the next level of face-to-face interviewing. Find out how long you should expect to wait for whoever is in charge to make a decision and ask when the appropriate time is for a follow-up call. Avoid asking too many questions that may make you look desperate, but be assertive about what you’re after to show that you’re interested and serious about the job at hand.

For more information on finding out how you might fit into the workforce after college, check out career guru Richard Bolles’ extensive guidance on the interview process, as well as other tips for acing the interview in his best-selling book “What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers.” By combining the advice above with the information in this helpful text, you can count on a successful phone interview that improves your odds of achieving a face-to-face session.

See larger image What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers (Kindle Edition) By (author) Richard N. Bolles List Price: $18.99 USD Release date August 16, 2011.

I’ve watched more than my share of students have complete meltdowns during final exams, from not showing up for exams, forgetting about an exam, or even crying straight through the test. I know what’s going on, and I sympathize. I’ve been there, and I made many mistakes myself during exam weeks. I’m thinking in particular of my Art History final in 1988, which I took in a haze of exhaustion and alcohol fumes left over from the previous evening’s revels—and my exam results showed that. But I’m older and wiser now, and after learning the hard way, I can offer the following tips to students who may be feeling the pressure of impending exams:

1. Plan Ahead and Schedule: I tell my students that the biggest mistake they can make is to save all their studying until final exam week. Even though things are busy at the end of the semester, get a head start the last few weeks of classes to speak to your professors about their expectations, gather notes and study tips from classmates, round up all your materials, and set up an exam week schedule, including everything from the exams themselves to study breaks. The benefit of scheduling your whole week is that it gives you control, which lowers stress.

2. Use Your Technology: Cell phones offer many new apps that you can use to create study guides, flash cards and notes; remind yourself to take study breaks; memorize formulas; organize a virtual or face-to-face study group; sync your different electronic resources. Check out the Mac apps offered by Deviceopedia, which also provides info on apps for other formats.  Just remember that it is important to curb your social media activities during finals week, or you will be constantly distracted and unable to study effectively.

3. Don’t Drink, Sleep Around, or Party: It’s tempting, I know, to think that it’s a good idea to blow off some stress with a little bacchanalia. After all, there are only so many chemistry formulas one can memorize without wanting to indulge in some personal chemistry experiments of your own. In fact, one student at Cal Poly argues that because orgasm helps lower stress levels. She argues, “finals week stress can wait—go fornicate!”  But this is a bad idea—one of the worst. Not because these are necessarily bad or immoral activities, but because stress can cause you to make bad decisions that you will regret. Do you really want to spend exam week hung over, filled with regret, or exhausted? It won’t help you do well, and that will make you worry even more.

4. Exercise and Eat Right: I know that dorms offer late night pizza study breaks, sundae bars, and many other temptations, but deviations from routine can really throw off your focus. Do you really want to deal with heartburn, tummy troubles, or other effects of overindulgence? It’s important to eat for energy rather than escape, which maintains even blood sugar. Also, try to avoid caffeine. Many students reach for the espresso and Red Bull at exam time, but the overall effect of caffeine is to increase your nervousness and keep you hyper-alert. This causes stress and fatigue. The Mayo Clinic reports that physical activity releases endorphins, your “brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters.”  This will help you approach your exams in a better frame of mind.

5. Take a break: Go out, play Frisbee, have lunch with friends, schedule a massage, take a nap, watch a funny movie. Research shows that study breaks refresh not only your outlook, but also your critical thinking and retention skills. So go ahead and clock some more sack time, without guilt. Sleep is rejuvenating and provides the energy you need to push through intense periods of study. Laughter also releases endorphins and lowers stress. These are all elements of what psychologists call “self-care.” You are taking care of yourself by getting a college education, so take care of yourself in other ways, too.

If all of these tactics fail to relieve your stress, talk to a counselor. Most schools provide counseling centers where they often hold extended hours and provide extra staff during exams. Some schools even offer stress hotlines staffed by counselors or clinical psychologists or faculty during exam week. The most important thing to remember is that you have to take good care of yourself as part of your overall exam strategy!

As a leader in your chapter or your campus community you are constantly looking for ways to improve your organization. You can focus on increasing community service and philanthropy, providing more leadership workshops, or focus on the academics of your organization. All of these are commendable ways to improve your organization, but what if you could do something that caused all of these things to happen as a result? Well, you can.

It’s pretty simple; just turn your chapter into a learning organization.

But what exactly is a learning organization? It is an organization that not only infuses learning into everything that they do, but also encourages all members of the organization to be constantly developing and bettering themselves. When your membership is devoted to learning they will seek out ways to improve themselves and then the chapter as a whole will thrive. Here are a few things you can do to begin transforming your chapter into a learning organization.

Read and Talk

No matter what you may be doing it is always important to know what others around you are doing. One of the best ways to do this is to read. Tap into your campus newspaper and see what other organizations are doing on your campus. See what events you or your members could benefit from attending. If your Fraternity and Sorority Life office sends out a newsletter with information, read through it before you delete it. Be sure to read along with national news as well. You would be surprised what great information you may come across as you begin to look around.

Another great source of information is your own organization. Check out your organization’s inter/national website and see what kinds of articles they may be putting out. This will give you great information about what may be happening at the national level that will affect your own chapter. It also gives you insight into what other chapters may be doing that you can replicate within your own chapter.

Reading in itself is great, but you need to debrief the things you talk about with your membership. This is a great way to see how the same article may have been interpreted by different people and what ideas it may have sparked within each of them.

The conversations that emerge after reading are just as important as what you may decide to read.

Develop Your Membership

Begin to take advantage of all opportunities you can to help develop your members in all facets of their lives. A key part of this is to know what things your members want so you can direct them to the proper venues.

Look around your own campus and see what types of programming is offered. Do you have members who are looking for leadership development? Then encourage them to attend a leadership workshop series or to take a leadership class that may be offered. If your campus offers any kind of programming directed at the fraternity and sorority population, be sure your chapter is represented at these events.

Your national organization most likely offers some type of a leadership program or other types of conferences that may be targeted at certain skills. Support members that are interested in attending these conferences. Help provide some payment to offset the cost of travel if you are able to do so. Your national organization may also provide webinars on an array of topics. If you think they could be of use to any of your members, make the recommendation.

As with reading an important part of members’ attendance at these programs, conferences, and webinars is the ability for those members to report back to everyone what they may have learned or what additional thoughts may have been created. This will do two things: first it will allow others to learn from their experience and second it will tell the member who attended that their time and effort was valued and appreciated.

Create a Culture of Learning

It is important to incorporate the ideas of the learning organization into everything your chapter does. One great way to do this is to set aside a time within your chapter meetings to talk about some of articles you’ve read or letting some of your members talk about the workshops or conferences they may have attended.

Give members some time to put together a presentation on what they learned at a conference and allow them to give some ideas about what they think could apply to your chapter. Start a discussion based on their thoughts and see where things go. Some of the greatest ideas for your chapter’s growth could come from these kinds of conversations.

Provide reflection time for your chapter leadership. After you’ve completed your annual philanthropy event be sure to ask what went well and what you could do better for next year. By pushing your membership to be reflective they will learn more about themselves and how they can help make your events better.

Lastly, just remember to constantly share what you find with members you think would be interested. As a leader in your chapter, you will set the example for other members to follow and soon enough they’ll begin to do the same.

Today I challenge you to turn your chapter into a learning organization. Remember to read and talk, develop your membership, and create a culture of learning. By doing these things your chapter will begin to grow.

One of my friends once employed a desperate ruse to outsmart her professor. To avoid being called on in class when she had not read the assignment, she pretended to be sick. She covered her face with yellowish liquid make-up and smudged brown eye shadow under her eyes to simulate dark circles. That way, she figured, she would not be marked absent but could just sit in class and not be expected to participate. The ploy worked: not only did the professor not call on her, he demonstrated serious concern and alarm at her condition! After hearing this story, I vowed to always call on the “sick” students—just in case they were faking.

A more modern solution to this problem would be to take an online course, in an environment in which you often can contribute to class discussion on your own schedule. As a result, many of today’s students are jumping at the chance to take some of their courses online, due to busy work schedules, athletic commitments, etc. Unfortunately, most students who sign up for their first online course do not realize that they need to develop some new technical skills in order to succeed in that course, and that online courses require just as much work, and sometimes more, than face-to-face courses on traditional campuses.

However, there are certain expectations in online courses that differ from face-to-face courses. One difference is that you cannot hide in the back of the room to avoid answering—or cover yourself with yellow makeup, pretending to be suffering from the plague. Instead, you are expected to contribute regularly, and the course’s Learning Management System (LMS), the program in which the course takes place keeps a record of your participation. Blackboard and Moodle are common LMS programs, and in those programs, everything is recorded and saved, so it is important to keep the correct rules of engagement in mind.

In an online course, participation is crucial to success; faculty members often report that students who participate more in their online courses learn more and earn higher scores. The content of the contributions is not the only important element to success, however: the form of your contribution can influence the quality of your work. You need to pay attention not only to the content of your work, but also the style of your written communication.

Here are four ways to guarantee that your form and content are of sufficient quality to do well in your online course:

1. Employ Netiquette: Students need to remember that all courses are professional environments, and that they need to communicate respectfully with each other and their instructor. Do not “flame” anyone!

2. Use Formal Language: Vocabulary should not include slang or profane language, and everything should be spelled out correctly, unlike the text messaging that many students are familiar with. The benefit of this is that your grades will improve because your work will have more clarity.

3. Practice Academic Honesty: Just because you are sitting at home in your pajamas doesn’t mean you can take other short cuts. Your work should be correctly attributed, even if you find it on the Internet. It is acceptable to quote in online discussions, but you must appropriately cite the source of your quote just as you would in a research paper. Otherwise, it is plagiarism and grounds for severe academic penalties.

4. Collaborate Fairly: Online learning often involves joint projects between students, especially in business classes. These assignments prepare you for collaborative work in the professional world. Take advantage of the opportunity to refine your professional communication skills by sharing information, dividing up work equitably, and respecting the needs and strengths of your group members.

If you keep these tips in mind, your work will reflect a serious commitment to the class, a high level of academic standards, and enthusiastic participation. You will learn more, benefit from interactions, and probably achieve higher grades.

As a college students and new graduate you might feel you have nothing to include on a resume or when filling out job applications. As a student any work experience might sees to be unrelated to your future job and career aspirations. Without relevant job experiences, the only information left to include is your (yet-to-be-completed) education.

But wait! There’s good news! You can construct your college student or new graduate resume with a focus on transferable skills.

Transferable skills that you might already possess or have developed through work or life experience include the ability to communicate well, the ability to work well with numbers, sales skills, or an ability to solve problems by looking at the big picture. These are only a few examples and they are all skills that can be useful in any industry or position.

So how do you list transferable skills on your resume, job application or cover letter? Here are some ideas that could help set you apart from the competition.

The Summary or Profile

The word is.. Objective Statements are out. Profiles are in. Open with a brief introductory paragraph describing your most “sellable” points. Briefly list your transferable skills here, or present them in a keyword summary list. This is exactly as it sounds: a list of keywords. Use those that show your transferable skills.

Education

Depending on your college major, you surely had to write papers, complete projects, or both. What were the outcomes of these? Did you conduct comprehensive research on a subject? Design an engineering plan? Were these published or put into use in the “real world”? Use as much of your educational experience to your advantage as you can by focusing on the outcomes or skills exhibited or gained. You can also include a summary of coursework, which often demonstrates transferable skills that are used in the educational setting and in the world of business.

Employment History

Like many college students you might have a work history unrelated to your targeted field. If this is true, take heart. You can still include many transferable skills on your college or new graduate resume. At the most basic, you likely gained professional skills such as dependability, working with others, collaborating on projects, communicating with clients or customers, and much more. Your work history may not be as unrelated as it first seems when you change what you’re looking for. You’ll also be changing what the employer sees.

Additional Information

If you’ve done volunteer work or served as a member of an organization, you activities might have earned you some transferable skills that you don’t want to forget to include.Volunteer and committee work also demonstrates a commitment to helping others. If you’ve fulfilled any roles in a professional organization, this too can show transferable (and sometimes directly related) skills.

Take a  fresh look at your experience, education, and other related activities and with a focus on the transferable skills you’ve developed. Identify them and use them to your advantage! Your resume, college application, job application, or cover letter will be much stronger for it.

Now go out there and kick some…

PEACE.

That time has come again for end of semester final exams and the competition to earn high grades is fierce. After all, there are only so many top grades that professors can distribute when working with the ‘curve!’ The hope is that everyone does well so that the curve is set higher. But what if most people, including yourself, don’t perform as well as you wanted to? At that point, what happens for you? Do you feel like a failure; do you say “I gave it my best shot,” do you walk away feeling glad that you didn’t get lower than a C,” or do you have a hard time sleeping at night because that grade negatively impacted your GPA – and in your mind, your chances of getting a decent job?”

Regardless of what your response is, are you able to consistently keep cool under pressure? How does a person know what ‘keeping cool’ means for them? Well, as described in The College De-Stress Handbook recently published by the Institute of Heart Math…

“You first experience stress in your feeling world. This is the space within you where you register feelings and moods. If you don’t know how to read them, your feelings of tension, irritation and worry can escalate into stronger emotions of frustration, anxiety or anger. You end up overloaded and exhausted, and you accumulate stress when you carry around distressing feelings without resolving them.”

To me, this means that in order to keep cool under pressure, I have to be able to interpret my feelings and emotions as quickly as possible so that I can feel better. So, the next time you say to yourself “I’m so tired I need another nap,” it just might be a result of those stressful feelings from the pressures of grades that haven’t been resolved.

Here are 3 Key Tips to Understanding Stress

1. Know that you first experience stress in your feeling world. You will not see it.
2. Know how to read your feelings. (For example, when you feel anxious, how does that affect your mood, body, and thoughts? Does your heart race? Do you dive into doing more things or do you procrastinate?)
3. Know that you accumulate stress when you carry around distressing feelings without resolving them. Accumulated stress can turn into lots of negative judgments, irritation, blaming others for the smallest things, stomach aches, eating junk food, or even having to take medication in order to function day-today.

Don’t allow yourself to get to that point! There is a simple two-step technique available to help you transform stress and keep your cool under pressure. It was created by Heart Math and it’s called the Quick Coherence® Technique. Here are the steps:

Quick Coherence® Technique

Step I: Heart Focused Breathing – imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart area to help you calm down and reduce the intensity of your reaction to the stressor. Take slow, deep breaths; inhale for 5 seconds and exhale for 5 seconds. This helps to balance the two branches of your nervous system while interpreting your body’s stress response.

Step II: Activate a Positive Feeling – think about what you are grateful for or what you have a great appreciation for, like your pet, a special person, or special place you visited that resulted in a good feeling inside.

That’s it! It takes less than 5 minutes to practice these techniques which help you keep your cool. So, try them out now and let me know how you feel. I bet you will begin to feel more self- control and a sense of calmness. By engaging in this Quick Coherence® Technique, you will already be practicing self care, which is one of the key steps to living a Growth in Motion lifestyle!

I wish I had these techniques when I was in college! Oh well, I’m using them now and my life is calmer as a result of it.

Take Care of Yourself,
Felicia Harlow
“Living a Growth in Motion™ Lifestyle!”

See larger image The College De-Stress Handbook (Paperback) By (author) Jeff Goelitz and Robert A. Rees

If you are a college student attending a school some distance from your home, you will need to find an apartment close to campus. You may even be looking for a new apartment over the summer or need to move closer to that new internship you just landed. While it is exciting to venture out on your own for the first time, there are some renting tips that all students should follow to make the experience a fun and successful one.

1. Start your search early. You will not be the only student in search of an apartment close to campus so you will have keen competition for all available units. The best time to start searching is the summer (or semester before you will begin) to leave yourself plenty of time to look around and find the apartment that best meets your needs in terms of location and budget.

Start by visiting the neighborhood and walking around making note of both appealing and unappealing areas. By visiting the neighborhood, you may also come upon “For Rent” signs posted by landlords. You will also have the opportunity to pick up community papers, which often list apartments for rent. In either case, you will be able to avoid costly broker fees.

2. Visit at least three to four apartments. To get a good idea of the range of apartments available in your budget, try to schedule at least three or four views on one visit. This will enable you to obtain some perspective of what’s available in your price range. You may also find that the apartment you fell in love with was rented to a prior applicant so it’s always good to have a backup or two.

3. Make a checklist as your view apartments. Before venturing out to view apartments, make a list of things to look. Questions include whether the apartment has working plumbing and electric? Are the refrigerator and stove in working order? Is the apartment located in a commercial district or otherwise noisy area? Does it provide sufficient light? What, if any utilities are included? Are pets allowed?

4. You will also want to examine how the complex is managed. Is there peeling paint in the walls or broken light bulbs in the hallways? Does the building provide ample security? Do the grounds seem well tended to? You will need to weigh the factors that are most important to you as not all apartments will meet your every need. For example, it may be a great apartment in terms of your budget, space, and overall condition but faces the back of the building with not much light.

5. Be ready to leave a deposit. Since competition is keen, you want to be sure you can leave a deposit when you find the place you want. As per Corcoron.com, one of the largest brokerage firms in the country, most landlords that rent to college students will require co-signer willing to put their name on the application.

Since most college students do not have an established credit history, the co-signer will need to have strong credit since this person will assume responsibility in the event you are unable to pay the rent. In most cases, the co-signer will be a parent, other family member or family friend. Once you rent the apartment you can build your credit by researching student credit card deals offered by most major banks.

6. Read the entire lease carefully before signing. When you find an apartment and have been approved it will be time to sign the lease. Make sure you and your co-signer read it thoroughly before committing. Chances are that it will be a boilerplate document but make sure you know the terms as many landlords insert specific languages such as “no pets” “no shares” or “no sublets.” Other important items include when rent is due, amount of security deposit, penalties for late rent, and who you should contact for help with maintenance issues. You may also want to request one final walk-through before signing to ensure the apartment is in the same condition as when you first viewed it.

 Guest Blogumnist Daniela Baker helps parents and college students evaluate student credit card offers at CreditDonkey.com.

Drive-by service opportunities are not quite what they sound like and provide immediate benefit to the local community. They are projects that are ready-made for students to jump right into, take only a few minutes, and provide solid impact. They are accomplished by partnering with local or national community service groups such as Habitat for Humanity, the United Way, Special Olympics, Food for the Poor, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and others.

Though I’ve been student leadership and community service trainer for over two decades, over the past several years in particular I’ve been working with organizations such as the APCA and on campuses across the country to improve the drive-by aim… and nobody gets hurt!

Here are just three specific examples of drive-by opportunities available to students:

1. Making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Hosea Feed the Hungry & Homeless Foundation (www.HoseaFeedTheHungry.com). Rev. Hosea Williams was a civil rights leader who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. Assembling boo-boo bunnies for Children’s Health Care of Atlanta (www.choa.org). These are little wash cloth animals with room to slide in an ice cube so a child can place it on a boo-boo to feel better.

3. Creating encouragement cards for children with cancer through Cure Childhood Cancer (www.curechildhoodcancer.org) and military stationed overseas through Letters From Home (www.lettersfromhomeprogram.com)

At one APCA conference alone student volunteers made 75 boo-boo bunnies, more than two dozen creatively decorated cards, and a whopping 142.5 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! All of this in just under two hours! The impact of these projects was huge and immediate. Because of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches alone, more than 100 people were fed that day through the caring of APCA students. And the total cost of the PB&J project was a mere $50.

Clearly, community service is an inexpensive programming option. But, how does a school engage in and create a program on their campus? I’ve facilitated round-tables and direct service-related educational sessions to answer that very question. Because this topic is trending on campuses everywhere, I’ve also presented the education sessions on how to create and sustain a community service program on campus and on planning and conducting service projects and fundraisers.

Sarah Smith, Student Activities Board President for the University of Virginia-Wise has said this about the sessions: “A lot of great info and I feel more confident about raising money & planning service projects with my organization.”

Why this focus on community service? Here is what APCA Executive Director Eric Lambert wrote in the organization’s publication, Student Activities Journal: “Anything we can do to publicize and aid in the effort with or generally promote charity and activism is good with me. Activism is a necessary and integral part of student development in my opinion. Regardless of the direction of community service that the student is interested in, a passion for becoming involved in the community is a prerequisite to becoming a leader in that community. I believe colleges help to produce experts. Student Life should help to produce citizens.”

Sure, the impact on the communities and campuses from these activities is huge and immediate. But what about the impact on the students? One student wrote this after attending one of the ed sessions: “I aspire to be a leader, so one day, I can make a difference. Thank you for showing me that it’s possible.”

Learn more about this topic from Dave on
THE COLLEGE SPEAKER SERIES

“How to pull off a Drive-By Community Service Project”

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Let’s talk about two different students: Student A and Student B. (I know, you are blown away by my creativity in characterization!) Student A came to my office all the time, frequently stayed after class to chat, shared career goals, family background, etc. We had a very good relationship; our conversations were always engaging and enjoyable.

Student A started strong: Early submissions for me to review. Excellent grades. Later in the term? Student A’s proactiveness fell off. Life apparently got in the way. Unfortunately, when Student A started to falter, it was with an assignment that had a lot of points attached – 200 points, to be exact, which could definitely impact an A-grade goal.

Student A wanted an A. Student A ended up with a C. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that; however, Student A strove for more). Before I get on to Student B, let me be clear that Student A did continue to communicate with me. Not at the same level as when the A-work was happening, but Student A was honest that other personal situations were impacting work quality.

Okay, now for Student B:

I’ll cut to the chase and say that we had a similar excellent relationship. Student B submitted work early and achieved strong grades on speeches, outlines, and written work. Student B kept momentum through the term. Not surprisingly, at the end, Student B’s average was a 94.5%. Rounded up, 95% = 4.0 (I always round up).

There was NEVER one moment in my mind where I thought, “I know these students really well. I see them all the time. They come to my office, they talk with me after class, they work really hard… therefore, I’m going to help Student A out with a higher grade because of a good attempt, or round up Student B’s grade because of my familiarity with him/her.”

But there seems to be a perception, and there is some college advice out there indicating that profs may give you a higher grade if they are more familiar with you, or, if they like you! There are many reasons why you probably do not want to count on this happening for you.

Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, “Ooh… I really liked Chatty Prof, but now I’m thinking she’s sort of a hard-ass…”  I’ll explain myself:

1. Let’s say I’m called into a grade dispute (and I’m proud to say that I can count those on one hand in 13 years – I’m a super-transparent grader who offers tons of samples, rubrics, early review. And I’m also a hard-ass. Kidding!). My division chair or dean is going to expect me to show hard numbers. I can’t just say that the GPA spirit (you mean there isn’t one?) moved me to give the student a different grade than he/she deserved because I knew the student really, really well.

2. Okay, so what if I do grade a student that I know and like a teensy bit higher than another? Students compare grades all the time. “Like” is awesome on Facebook, but shouldn’t be my criteria for grading. Let’s not even mention my credibility as a fair prof if I grade based on how well I know a student. Gone. And, what if the student with a lesser grade also worked hard, but had a job that prevented him/her from becoming more familiar with me during office hours or staying after class? Again, not fair.

3. At the core of my educator’s soul, I wholly believe that grades are earned, not given. One of my degrees is in education. I believe in objectives. . . I believe in outcomes. . . I believe the children are our future–oh wait, that’s Whitney Houston . . .

Seriously, I believe that grades should reflect a student’s individual level of mastery of the material learned, based on the assignment’s requirements. At times, I will take into account a student’s individual level of improvement, such as quality of speech delivery from one speech to the next.

So what’s the communication lesson here? (Because there always is one!) First and foremost, my message from me to you–with love:

If you believe that some students get better grades because they chat up the professor a lot, and the professor seems to know them well, you probably aren’t getting the whole story.

The reason those students are likely getting better grades is because in the midst of the chatting, the student and the prof are talking about the assignments more, the student is asking for help more, and the prof is reviewing the work… more.

Think about it: If you’re hanging around talking to a prof about something you’ve seen on television, or about your mother, or about your job, a strong possibility exists that one of you is going to bring up an upcoming assignment. You might say, “Yeah, you know I’m a little worried about that speech.” Or, your professor might move the conversation out of the personal and into work: “So, how’s it going with your outline?” Then, the comfortable relationship between student and professor creates a feedback loop.

Let’s look at a conversation I might have with a student after the “chatty” is out of the way:

Student: “Yeah, you know, I’m really struggling with that outline. I have no idea where you find credible sources.”

Me: “Well, where have you looked?” or “Have you talked to one of the librarians? You know they have Ask-A-Librarian 24-7, right?”

Me again: “You know, you can send me your outline so I can review it ahead of time. I’m glad to give you feedback.”

Then, the student would hopefully take me up on that offer and submit work early, I would make comments/suggestions for improvement, the student would make the changes and possibly even ask if the changes are correct. Voila! In so many cases, a better grade ensues! It didn’t happen because the professor simply knew the student. It happened because of the conversation and subsequent feedback on the work.

I would not count on sheer familiarity with your prof translating into getting a little help for your grade. It’s a gamble that you don’t want to risk! Want a better bet for your grade? Say these things:

“Professor Jones, I’d like to meet with you to discuss how I can reach my grade goals in this class.”

“Are you willing to accept early work? How early?”

“Once I submit work to you for review, are you willing to review again? How much time would you like to do that?”

If the prof refuses to review work ahead of time (I hear that some simply won’t review), then do the work early anyway and ask him/her a couple of strategic questions:

“Can you look over these two equations and make sure I’m doing them correctly?”

“Can I run my thesis statement by you to see if I’m on the right track?”

Then, if you get a lower grade than expected, your comfort level with the prof could give you the courage to say:

“Can you give me more information about what I could have done better?” or

“What part of the requirements did I miss?” or even

“Can I redo this and turn it back in?” (May not be realistic, but at least if you got a better grade, it would be based on action, not just the prof liking you).

Do you see where I’m going here? All of this conversation revolves around work, your involvement with the work, and your ownership and responsibility for the work. Certainly, if your prof were to ever write you a letter of recommendation, he/she will discuss characteristics about you. However, hard examples or stories about you will revolve around tangible action. In other words, your work.

I’m going to close this post by quoting my tweep, Allen Grove, English Prof, Alfred University (@Gotocollege on Twitter). He made this great statement in a recent CollegeBoundNet tweetchat:

“Knowing your work ethic is more important than knowing your face.”