PirateQ 
The transition from high school to college can be difficult for some students. However, Pensacola State College’s Robinson Honor Program scholars devised a plan to make it easier.
On April 12 and 26, the Robinson Honors Program held The SGA Leadership Conference in the Delaino Student Center on the Pensacola campus.
During the daylong conferences, high school Student Government Association officers were treated to seven different workshops on topics ranging from “Tips for College: Scholarships, FAFSA and Financial Aid” to “What I Wish I Would Have Known as a High School Student: Honor Insights.”
“My philosophy as a leader is not only to maintain but also to leave the organization better,” said Damien Cruikshank, one of the conference’s organizers and a Robinson Honors Program officer.
“This is about giving back to PSC and making high schoolers aware of their options and the resources available at Pensacola State.”
Cruikshank, 20, graduates in May and eventually wants to travel and teach internationally.
“We also wanted to make the conference easy to replicate and allow some of our new (Robinson Honors Program) scholars to learn presentation and communication skills.”
Tate High School SGA members – Alexis Hudson, Elizabeth Lowe, Lexi Nelson and Emma Salter – said they enjoyed the conference and learned so much about college.
“I learned better time management skills,” said Nelson, a senior. “And how to better cope when you have a lot of demands and projects.”
For Hudson, the conference gave her a new perspective on college.
“I’m a junior this year, and I realized college is very different from high school. There are similarities, but college is at a much higher caliber,” Hudson said.
Robinson Honors Scholars and presenters Heaven Lee and Caitlin Anderson facilitated the What I Wish I Would Have Known as a High School Student workshop.
Anderson, a premedical student, encouraged the attendees to take their time with classes.
“Don’t overwhelm yourself with classes. It’s not a race,” explained Anderson, who added confidence-building tips to her presentation.
“Learn a trade or skills to help you through college and even make money. Also, trust yourself and learn critical thinking skills. Become innovative (creativity + delivery). It’s a super-marketable skill, and if you make a mistake, you’ve learned something. And finally, the only thing to fear is fear itself. Get outside of yourself!”
Lee told the high schoolers to steer away from self-doubt and fear of failure.
“Practice positive self-talk, become your own hype man,” she said. “Each morning, write down something positive about yourself.”
Lee also stressed that students should avoid comparing themselves to peers, avoid perfectionism and avoid negative self-talk.
“You’re not going to be like everyone else. Set achievable and reasonable goals – this a good way to avoid burnout,” Lee shared, adding negative self-talk can become a habit.
“If you wouldn’t say it to your family or friends, why say it to yourself?”
Robinson Honors Program Advisor and PSC Professor Amber Carey said close to 90 high school freshmen through seniors from Jay, Pace and Tate high schools turned out for the April 12 conference.
“This was an honors student-led initiative and something they wanted to do,” she explained. “They decided to invite local high school leaders – SGA officers – to the conference because they knew the word would filter down to other students.”
She added that the conference received a lot of support from the college.
The Robinson Scholars is a PSC honors program designed to offer academically gifted students a unique learning experience that takes place beyond the traditional classroom.
The program’s mission is to enrich and educate students by exposing them to culture, history and art, thus allowing them to gain experience and grow beyond the reaches of the classroom.
Other workshops offered during the conference included Using Your Personal Leadership Style to Enact Change in Your Community, The Art of Leadership and Time Management, Technical Literacy: Research and Online Etiquette in Academic Settings and Fostering Team Cohesion and Reducing Stress: Finding Your Flow through Art Therapy.