Achieving Middle Class American Dreams
For the American Dream to stay alive, our middle class must remain resilient to change and the challenges of future crises. Serving as an additional resource for educators, The Marketing of You helps educators and students co-navigate a more successful path to middle class adulthood. The program addressing character and soft skills development, helps teenagers find mentors and participate in peer mentoring themselves, and pushes teens to work hard, deal with uncertainty, and fail well.
Scott Galoway, Marketing professor and researcher at NYU Stern Business School, in his latest book, Adrift, depicts the US is already in a crisis of the haves and have nots due to the devastation of our middle class. His thesis is based on our history when, at the end of WW2 (1945), with all the military personnel returning from the War effort, the GI Bill not only funded a free college education but also provided loans for home mortgages. Industry and manufacturing became robust as families grew and required more household goods. The American Dream took hold. Each generation, over the next 60 years, were more successful than their parents. Galloway contends, however, current data shows this is no longer the case.
With US Public High Schools student population being approximately 40% white, 30% Latino, 15% black and 5% Asian, the price of a college education affordable only to the upper middle class and the wealthy and student debt at 1.7 trillion dollars, the middle class in America has dissolved over the past 20 years,...and the American Dream has become an American Nightmare.
I believe today's high school students can achieve more than their parents with the introduction and practice of the Core Principles shared in The Marketing of You:
- living in the moment
- failing well
- fighting for others
- thinking for yourself
- earning everything
With these principles plus strategies for developing physical, intellectual, emotional and financial grit, teenagers will gain the discipline, confidence, resilience and courage to chart their own path to the American Dream.
The Marketing of You shares a process designed to compliment the high school experience while enabling the teenager to make good decisions.
And so, Educators, as you prepare your high school students for college, community college, the military, trade school or apprenticeship programs, please consider including The Marketing of You within your school. The Program's Core Principles and character development strategies are ubiquitous for your students, no matter their future path. As you provide your students with lessons in “reading, writing and arithmetic” for their intellectual development, The Marketing of You can supplement learning as an extracurricular life skills and character development program.
Through instruction and training provide by The Marketing of You, student leaders can mentor younger teenagers within your school and community. The Marketing of You principles are transferrable and easily facilitated through Peer Advisor guidance of National Honor Society students and other student leaders. And, the program can potentially satisfy your NHS service project requirements when facilitated among community youth groups (Boys & Girls Club/Big Brothers-Big Sisters).
A National Honor Society service program
Teens helping teens discover & live what is great in them
Among the relationships influencing teens, peers can be significant sources of both emotional support and emotional damage. The Marketing of You is a program for students to help students through peer-to-peer counseling and support with navigating the chaos and distractions of negative behavior.
The idea of mentoring is likely foreign to most teens. Until now, their learning experiences have typically been from parents & grandparents, teachers, and coaches of youth sports programs. Mentoring offers a new learning dynamic for teens; an all-new perspective and counsel often have difficulty separating the “parenting” dynamic from college and career advice. most parents are rightfully cautious when it comes to “outsiders” influencing their children…especially their character and decision-making. The Marketing of You establishes concepts and skills for facilitating peer advisement and mentorship programs by and among students.
The Marketing of You offers National Honor Society and similar student organizations a disciplined approach to fine tuning their own character and soft skills – interpersonal, communication/listening, time management, problem-solving, leadership, and empathy, among others – while helping others understand character development and good decision-making skills. Additionally, The Marketing of You is an introduction to mentors and mentoring.
Community service
To help your NHS program fulfil its service requirements – 20-30 hours of community service during their Junior and Senior year – The Marketing of You can train your NHS students to facilitate its 10-hour discussion group sessions (6-8 students, 2 hours per session, 1 day/week in a 5-week program). Through this program, your NHS students receive an introduction to decision-making skills, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, negotiating, the art of conversation, social media management, financial literacy and leadership. Following the program training, participating students will facilitate their own student groups, mentor other students and/or facilitate the program among students in the community (Boys/Girls Club, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, etc.).
Leadership skills
According to NHS, student leaders are those who are resourceful, good problem solvers, and idea contributors. Leadership experiences can be drawn from school or community activities while working with or for others. Chapters can require evidence of leadership from within school or the community or both. Each chapter sets its own requirements for this criterion, and The Marketing of You is an excellent program to develop leadership skills among your NHS students.
Character development
NHS students are of good character – cooperative; demonstrates high standards of honesty and reliability; shows courtesy, concern, and respect for others – the principles and skills emphasized in The Marketing of You. The book and program offer your NHS students an opportunity to help other students recognize and apply these principles.
Scholarships available
In addition the NHS scholarships, The Marketing of You offers scholarships to NHS students and students participating in your NHS TMoY programs. Students must first meet this criterion to become candidates for membership. NHS national policy requires that each chapter set a cumulative GPA as their Scholarship criteria.
Mentorship programs
The Marketing of You provides resources to connect students with mentors who have been introduced to the program and are eager to help aspiring and inspiring young adults.
