1.  Please answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.   Are you interested in applying for one of the CVS Health paid summer internships?   Please state your answer in a complete sentence with perfect spelling, good grammar, correct punctuation and short sentences to my email address by Thursday, February 23rd at 3:45am.  For instance, “Yes, I will apply for the CVS Health paid summer internship.”  Thank you.

2.  Please answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  Are you interested in applying for a sponsorship to this summer’s National Youth Leadership Forum on CSI and Law in Washington, D.C.?  Please state your answer in a complete sentence with perfect spelling, good grammar, correct punctuation and short sentences to my email address by Thursday, February 23rd at 3:45am.  Thank you.

3.  Please answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.   Do you feel your brand has improved, become more positive, since September of last year?  Please state your answer in a complete sentence with perfect spelling, good grammar, correct punctuation and short sentences to my email address by Thursday, February 23rd at 3:45am.  Thank you.

1.  You, the Life Skills students, identified and listed a number of important skills a person would need to be hired on Adam Rojek’s Lifespan team.  The skills we identified are often called ‘soft skills‘ or ‘human skills‘.  Many companies focus, as much and sometimes more, on a person’s ‘soft skills‘ than ‘hard skills‘ like computer programming, marketing, accounting, math, pharmacy, etc.  Identify 2 of the skills listed on our classroom white Board that you already possess.  Then, explain why a company should believe you already posses these skills.  This question brings us back to a former class lesson on ‘story telling’.  Your answer will reflect how well you tell your personal story during a job interview and how convincing your story telling abilities are.  Companies will not automatically accept you have these skills you claim you possess.  Companies want examples where you’ve exhibited these skills.  Please send your well expressed, convincing statement with perfect spelling and well constructed, short sentences to my email address by Thursday, 2/9, 3:45am.  Thank you.

Here is your list of important skills needed to be successful in a job. Please note, there are NO hard skills listed. Examples of hard skills are computer programming, accounting, graphic design, etc. Instead, many companies are looking for people with the human skills (also called ‘soft skills’) you listed today. Companies believe they can teach ‘hard skills‘ to the people who already have these ‘soft skills‘.

President Obama greeting Jack Ma at a Business Expo.

Former Professional basketball superstar and now entrepreneur, Kobe Bryant (left) and Alibaba Founder and President Jack Ma at a Business Chamber event.

2.  Read the story of Jack Ma in our “Change” textbook from pages 30 to page 34 posted on this web site.  Please  identify, in a well expressed statement, the ‘soft skills’ Jack Ma possesses which have enabled him to become one of the most successful business people in the world today.  You may identify ‘soft skills’  which we didn’t list on our classroom white board today but you believe have been critical to Jack Ma’s success. Please send your well expressed, convincing statement with perfect spelling and well constructed, short sentences to my email address by Thursday, 2/9, 3:45am.  Thank you.

3.  Our next guest for our Life Skills class will be Don Mays, the Director of the Intercultural Center at Roger Williams University.  Get to class early.

Don Mays (right) speaking to students at the Roger Williams University campus Intercultural Center.

1.   This first assignment is from the geography survey I gave you a couple of weeks ago.   Check the map survey answers I gave you.  Then, check out my brand perception of each country listed on the sheet attached to the map.   Finally,  give me your brand perception of the country of Russia.  Watch the news this week; listen carefully to what is being said about Russia.  Check out your favorite news source for Russia information.  If you don’t have a favorite news source, you should find one.  As students preparing for college and networking with successful people, you need to know what is going on in the world.  Russia is one of the most talked about topics in the news TODAY.   There is no right or wrong answer. I am asking for your opinion, your perception of Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Send your statement about your perception of Russia’s brand with perfect spelling, short sentences and good punctuation to my email address by Thursday morning, January 26th  at 3:45am.  Thank you.

2.  Lois Kelly today spoke about the importance and the benefit of knowing what is important to the person you are speaking with during a conversation about ‘change’. Since we are frequently speaking about change in our class, I am curious about what’s important to you.  Please tell me what is important to you.   As always, send your statement with perfect spelling, short sentences and good punctuation to my email address by Thursday morning, January 26th  at 3:45am.  Thank you.

Lois Kelly’s communication workshop at the Hope Life Skills class on January 20th, 2016.

3.  If you haven’t established a LinkedIn profile of yourself, please set one up this week and then, send a ‘connect’ request to me.   LinkedIn is an important networking tool for getting jobs and getting into the college of your choice.  If you have trouble doing this, ask Sara, Mohamadou, Yael, Imani, or Justin for help.  They have set up profiles successfully and connected with me on LinkedIn. Thank you.  I look forward to adding you to my LinkedIn network.

1.   Today’s guest, Richard Lewis, encouraged all of us to

set up our profile on LinkedIn,

a popular,  employment social networking web site (www.linkedin.com).  LinkedIn is used mainly for professional networking; people looking for jobs and companies looking for credible candidates.

Go to the LinkedIn web site to set up your profile.   Check out Richard Lewis’ profile on LinkedIn.  You can also

check out the LinkedIn profiles of Hope Life Skills graduates Hafzat Akanni, Valentina Gomez, or Manuel Rivas.

Once you’ve finished setting up your profile, connect with me.  You can find my LinkedIn profile by  putting my name, Stephen Cronin, in the inquiry bar at the top of the site.

Once my profile appears, click on the connect button.

This will send a message to me asking if I want to connect with you which I will.   I look forward to connecting with you on linkedin.  Please do this as soon as possible..

1. Last week’s homework asked you to read the first 21 pages in the Telling Your Story textbook.  The purpose of the assignment is to prepare you for your future challenges and opportunities for telling your story.  Job interviews.  College admissions interviews.  Meeting new people in networking opportunities.  Asking for a prom date.   You will encounter storytelling opportunities your entire life.  I’m 67 years old and I’m presented with storytelling opportunities each week.   Imagine you are at a college admissions interview.  Write the first paragraph of the story you will tell to the Admissions Director of a college you really want to go to.   Please send your well written opening paragraph of the story you will tell with good grammar, perfect spelling, short sentences and periods at the end of these short sentences to my email address no later than Thursday morning, January 12 at 3:45am.  Thank you.  I look forward to reading your story. 

2. Starting on page 20 and continuing onto page 21 in the Telling Your Story book, I introduced a very important part of storytelling.  It’s called “the ask“.    Please read these pages again to familiarize yourself with this part of storytelling.   Then, watch the following video from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as he interviews Malala Yousafzai.  Malala shares her story of growing up in her Swat Valley neighborhood in northern Pakistan terrorized by a gang called the Taliban.  Listen to her words and observe her body language closely. Malala appears sincere and passionate as she tells her story. She speaks about the day when gang members came aboard her school bus and shot her in the head because she had been encouraging young girls to go to school when the Taliban forbid girls going to school.  Thankfully, Malala lived and continues to share her story and encourage girls to go and work hard in school.  See if you can figure out Malala’s ask as she shares her story with Jon Stewart and his international audience on the Daily Show.    Please state Malala’s ask ‘Malala’s ask’ in ONE well written sentence with good grammar, short sentences and periods at the end of this short sentence to my email address no later than Thursday morning, January 12 at 3:45am.  Thank you.    See you next Friday.  I’m looking forward to it.  We have another young guest, a student and business man from Syracuse University who, I believe, will be very successful and very rich some day soon.  Amazing.