Staying Focused and On Track Pays Off

Junior year requires focus and consistent attendance. Your junior’s confidence may be well-established with two years of high school completed, but now is not the time for complacency. Your student’s chosen pathway to education or training after high school should be kept in mind this year, and daily attendance and good grades remain very important to academic and future career success.

Why It Matters

Your student’s future is affected.
Absenteeism can lead to chronic absenteeism, which can lead to increased frustration and stress about missing key concepts and ultimately an overall lack of interest in school and academics. Students with frequent absences have higher drop-out rates, leading to long-term consequences, such as a lower average income and higher incidences of unemployment. Additionally, school attendance is a strong predictor of college success.
Employers are affected.
No matter the business, employers rely upon their employees to show up on time and ready to work. If someone is missing, others have to work harder, which can impact morale and impede project completion, resulting in lost revenue for a company.
The surrounding community can suffer.
Communities rely upon strong schools and businesses to attract people to them. Without them, fewer people are attracted to a community. Fewer residents can lead to an economic downturn for the community, making it more difficult to attract quality educators and businesses.

What Your Student Can Do Now

Show up and do the work.
Many of us want to take a sick day every now and then, especially when facing a task that isn’t easy to accomplish. Overcoming obstacles and facing fears happens throughout a lifetime, building resiliency and adaptability to inevitable conflicts.
Take challenging courses to stay focused.
Maintaining a good grade point average is one component to college acceptance, but colleges take other key factors into consideration. They typically prefer students who take more challenging courses over those who achieve high grades in easier classes. This year offers your student a chance to explore the rigor of Advanced Placement (AP) and college credit courses to gauge preparation for college.
Expand volunteer efforts.
Explore extracurricular activities with a focus on community service, which can then be featured on college and scholarship applications. Discover other ways to volunteer within the community and tie them to career exploration. Colleges and employers are impressed when strong time management skills make room for opportunities outside the classroom and work setting.

What Your Student Can Do Later

The reward is in the effort.
Employers appreciate when an employee is intrinsically motivated to perform well, and strong performance tends to result in a promotion or pay increase. An individual’s work ethic is established at an early age. Your student’s good grades and a well-deserved “great job” are definite rewards, but at this age, your student would probably appreciate a more tangible reward you’ve both agreed upon, such as extra spending money or a later curfew.

What You Can Do

Show by example.
Talk about your own work ethic and how you stay motivated at your job. Share different times you may not have been motivated and the reasons that occurred. Your student should know that it’s common to have days where inspiration and motivation are not at optimum levels. Explain how you interact with others in your workplace and how a task or duty is impacted if just one person is absent. Delays cost the company money and time, resulting in an unmet deadline. Relate it to actual dollars and how those costs eventually are passed on to the consumer. Most jobs have multiple working parts involving many talented employees who must work cohesively toward a goal.
Highlight other workplace benefits.
Working closely with others establishes friendships and relationships that have positive socio-emotional outcomes. Personal interactions and working toward a common goal provide a sense of teamwork and satisfaction, which also validates a person’s inner sense of worth. Stress how teamwork is always a trigger word that employers use when hiring, and more demonstrations of this characteristic will set a job candidate apart from others. Teamwork doesn’t happen when team members are absent.
Set expectations.
If attendance and work expectations haven’t been previously determined, now is the time to set them so your student develops responsibility and accountability. Attending school isn’t an option but a requirement; it’s better to set that standard before entering college where your student has more freedom to decide how to spend time. A typical high school day has a rigid seven-hour schedule, whereas a college student taking 15 credit hours has a total of 15 classroom hours each week, leaving a lot of extra time.

Next Steps

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