Teaching the Essentials
Students will learn to:
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Overcome procrastination
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Plan and prioritize by setting clear goals
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Master time management and flexibility
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Be more independent
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Strengthen their impulse control to think before they act
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Boost their working memory and internal dialogue (self-talk)
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Increase their self-motivation by tapping into their internal drive
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Enhance problem-solving skills
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Stay organized with systems that keep track of assignments, deadlines, and responsibilities
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Self-advocate by clearly and confidently communicating with faculty, friends, and parents
Who We Serve
We support a diverse range of students across higher education, from first-year students to Ph.D. candidates. Our students attend four-year public and private universities, Ivy League colleges, and community colleges. They are involved in athletics, music and arts, Greek life, and numerous clubs and organizations.
Tailored support that unlocks student success.
Coaches work with students with a range of learning challenges, including ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, and executive function disorder. We empower students to better understand their unique brains and develop personalized strategies that support their learning needs.
Our coaches work with young adults who are taking a gap year or failed out of school and are navigating their new reality. We offer career exploration, resume and cover letter support, financial literacy, and practical strategies to find employment and build executive function skills.
Explore the Curriculum
We accelerate academic success by equipping students with essential executive function skills, including the tools to plan ahead, set goals, stay organized, manage time, regulate emotions, and adapt to change.
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Navigating your Academic Portal/ Learning Management System (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, etc.) and learn how to find and submit documents, such as homework, study guides, and course syllabus.
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Study Strategies – Develop techniques that support long-term learning.
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Forming Healthy Habits & Routines – Focus improves when students develop healthy habits and understand the role of wellness, mental health, exercise, sleep, and nutrition.
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Planning and Prioritizing – Defining what needs to get done and making a daily To-Do List, deciding what's the most important, and breaking down the work into manageable steps.
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Homework & Exam Organization – Consolidating multiple syllabi into one streamlined system, such as Notion, a Google Calendar, a homework planner, etc. Students will explore multiple systems until they find one that works.
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Navigating Accommodations (if needed) – learning new technology (Genio, Speechify, etc.) scheduling exams at the testing center, reaching out to faculty, and self-advocacy.
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Goal Setting & Self-Motivation – Purposeful learning is at the core of all we do. When students see alignment between their goals, daily actions, and results, they begin to hold themselves accountable and build momentum.
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Syllabus Savvy – Reading the course syllabus thoroughly can make the difference between passing and failing.
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Grading Awareness – Understanding how grades are calculated and what is required to succeed in each class.
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Self-Care & Independent Living – Managing personal needs, chores, financial literacy "adult-ing".
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Campus Navigation & Social Life – Becoming comfortable with the campus environment, utilizing resources like the writing center, the math lab, or campus tutoring, and cultivating a balanced, healthy social life.
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Emotional Regulation & Intelligence – Identifying, managing, and regulating feels of anxiety, frustration, and perfectionism.
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Resume Writing & Workplace Etiquette (optional) – Building a resume, basic workplace etiquette, and executive function skills make college graduates career-ready.
College Student Development
Student development theory provides a framework for coaches, educators, and counselors to understand the progression of a student's skills, abilities, and maturity as a result of their experiences in higher education.
For example, Nevitt Sanford’s theory of challenge and support shows that students grow best when they experience a healthy balance of both. Too much challenge without support causes stress; too much support without challenge leads to disengagement, and ultimately poor executive functioning skills. Growth happens in the middle - the discomfort - the leap forward in skill development happens when the student can use their working memory to remember the success they had when they overcame the challenge.
Boost Executive Function Skills to
Unlock Academic Success
Executive Function skills are often referred to as the air traffic control system of the brain, providing the ability to organize information, make decisions, and self-regulate. Ages 18 to 25 are especially critical for the development of the frontal lobe of the brain responsible for developing self-management/ executive function skills. For students with ADHD or Executive Function Disorder, this developmental window often extends into their late 20s, early 30s. Waking up for class, turning in assignments, living independently - it all starts with equipping your student with strong executive function skills. 10 Executive Functioning Skills Adapted from Dr. Russell Barkley's research Task Initiation / Self-Motivation / Goal Directed Persistence The ability to take action without procrastination. Being productive and sustaining attention even when completing non-preferred tasks, such as chores and school work. Emotional Regulation Identifying and managing feelings like anxiety, frustration, and boredom. The ability to regulate our feelings builds emotional intelligence (EQ), which supports better decision-making, relationship, independence, and self-awareness. Planning & Prioritizing Defining what needs to get done, forming goals, breaking tasks into steps, deciding what's most important in order to meet deadlines. Time Management The ability to sense time, organize behavior across time, and anticipating future goals or consequences based on time. Accurately estimating how much time a task will take and creating and following a calendar or routines. Working Memory The ability to both remember and use information while completing a task. Non-verbal working memory (visual imagery) helps us to draw on past experiences to inform the present. Verbal working memory (internal dialogue or self-talk) supports emotional regulation, productivity, and task initiation. Organization The ability to create and maintain systems for managing time, tasks, and resources. One's ability to keep track of things physically and mentally. Problem-Solving The ability to identify challenges and obstacles, analyze options, weigh consequences, generate possible solutions, and then select the most effective approach forward. Cognitive Flexibility Adjusting behavior or thinking to unexpected circumstances, situations, rules, or view points. Allowing one's self to adjust strategies or behavior, to be flexible or resilient when viewing a situation from multiple angles to problem solve or make decisions. Impulse Control The ability to use ones working memory, visualization and internal dialogue, to stop and think before they act on an urge or emotion. To delay gratification, make thoughtful healthy choices, resist distractions to support goals. Metacognition The ability to understand and monitor one’s own behavior and thinking processes. To be self-aware of how one is doing in the moment with learning, planning, emotions, problem solving, communicating and adjusting strategies when needed. Strong self-reflection can improve decision making and learning.