I’m always surprised to discover who’s visiting my site, and I review the “analytics” really to help me decide on article topics based on what visitors are looking for. I’ve had blog visits from professionals at various colleges, universities, and state departments of education. It appears that they’re looking for professional information, such as college transition strategies for students with disabilities and intervention strategies for students who are struggling in college.
Based on this interest, I plan on incorporating more information that can be used by various professionals, and will likely add an entire section dedicated to them. For now, if you are visiting from a college or K-12 school system, please know that:
1. This is not a strictly “theoretical” blog. While I might write some informational posts, many topics are based on face-to-face work that I’m doing with college students to help them effectively plan, transition, or get re-started if they do poorly. I’m on campuses each week and have distance clients in various parts of the U.S. This gives me exposure to many colleges, students, and families, as well as the innumerable “lessons learned” that I hope to reflect here.
2. I am not a high school guidance counselor. My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in clinical psychology, and I‘m the former director of a center that dealt with educational and young adult issues. This is where I first saw the need that I’m now addressing. While many of my colleagues are in fact counselors, we all agree that the “traditional model” of transitioning to college needs to be supplemented because of the high level of problems or even failure in college. My work is at the national level, and I use an integrated model of advising, direct academic help, and other elements.
3. My consulting work involves both general and specialized college planning, in-college support, and a special “re-entry” program that helps students who failed get restarted. I’m working form a very comprehensive model that considers all phases before, during, and after college. For example, I bring the known success or risk factors, like student engagement and known graduation rates, to the pre-college planning phase. The specialized re-entry service to help students who have done poorly is time consuming, but it works. In the least, it accurately identifies why a student did poorly, and can refer for diagnostics or treatment if necessary before a student can get re-started. Unfortunately for many of these students, I’ve found that some parents want to read about failure-to-success stories here, but rarely act. Do-it-yourself interventions rarely work, as I’m sure you’ve seen in your field.
4. I consult with colleges and K-12 schools on the issues of student retention, performance improvement, and effective transition-to-college strategies for many types of students. Students with disabilities, gifted students, and many others have benefited from my work, so please feel free to contact me if you’d like (see contact section). I always look forward to meeting new professionals.
5. I am posting amid my direct work with colleges, students, and families, so I apologize for the inconsistency of posting. Again, if you really need information, please feel free to contact me.
Jeff
Jeffrey Ludovici, M.A., is a national level Higher Education Consultant based in Pittsburgh, PA. He’s worked with students and parents across the U.S. about college issues since 2001, and is a member of CSRDE that focuses on best practices in helping students. He is also a member of NACADA, the national college advising association in the U.S. Please see the program page for services Jeff offers.