“It is incredibly common for students to get to college and just question everything. That’s when all the wheels fall off…What am I even doing here? ” — Kara Matejka, College Coach
When all the excitement of arriving at college for the first time, getting to know roommates and starting your courses begins to die down, some students may suddenly discover they are over their heads with college classes.
Away from the familiar supports of home and high school, they need to find new supports and self advocate…. (almost continuously) for themselves.
Good thing there are student success tutors like Kara Matejka. Kara most recently has worked as a Student Coach or Advisor at Stanford University’s Office of Accessible Education.
Kara shared some of her experiences working with bright university students with dyslexia and ADHD.
One of the interesting things that Kara brought up was the need to understand some of the broader challenges that students may be facing as they navigate living far from home and grappling with new academic demands. It is not enough to give a list of things to do – issues like time management, working memory overload, and organization all take their toll on what students think of themselves and how they respond to school as well as other life challenges.
In one example, Kara spoke about a client who felt rushed and overloaded about everything and these feelings extended beyond the classroom, impacting how she saw herself and her competence.
Kara encouraged her to find her own ways of doing things and to give herself more time if that was what she needed. Instead of internalizing voices that say
“Why are you so slow or this is taking forever,” she put her headphones on and gave herself more time to walk the rows and see what she needed as well as where things are.
“We’re told we have to do it fast, go fast, go fast. So if we can’t do that, then all of a sudden It becomes a competence thing…(then) I’m not going to be good at this. So I would just rather not do it.” – Kara Matejka
Kara has an eclectic background with training as an educational therapist, high school counselor, and travel to 30 countries with teaching as an English as a Second Language teacher.
