celebrating
quizzes
passed,
cxams
taken,
classes
attended,
and
assignments
sub-
mitted
on
time.
What
is
often
taken
for
granted
by
most
students
may
represent
a
major
cause
for
celebration
among
at-risk
students.
Even
small
steps
toward
over-
coming
non-productive
lifestyles
and
study
habits
can
motivate
at-risk
students
to
con-
tinue
their
drive
for
personal
and
academic
excellence.
Help
at-risk
students
practice
their
skills.
At-risk
students
need
lots
of
practice
in
perfecting
their
time-management
priori-
ties
and
skills.
The
more
successful
pro-
grams
have
staff
spend
time
weekly
with
at-risk
students,
carefully
reviewing
their
daily
activity
schedules.
At-risk
students
benefit
greatly
from
constantly
reworking
their
schedules
until
their
program
places
what
is
important
before
what
is
fun.
At-
risk
students
often
fear
that
the
effort
re-
quired
to
achieve
academic
excellence
will
cause
them
to
miss
out
on
desirable
cam-
pus
activities,
Weekly
assistance
with
set-
ting
priorities
and
making
choices
will
help
at-risk
students
to
have
a
full
and
bal-
anced
college
career.
Mentor
at-risk
college
students.
Because
no
one
is
an
island
and
no
one
stands
or
falls
alone,
at-risk
students
need
mentors
who
respectfully
hold
them
responsible
for
their
actions
and
behaviors.
Mentors
re-
quire
that
the
person
being
mentored
take
the
relationship
seriously
by
agreeing
to
seek
advice
on
a
variety
of
topics
and
by
obeying
direct
orders.
Often,
the
mentor
is
not
a
faculty
member,
but
rather
someone
from
the
administration,
staff,
or
commu-
nity.
At-risk
students
often
lack
a
point
of
accountability.
The
effective
and
consistent
mentor
provides
this
personal
and
aca-
demic
structure.
Place
at-risk
students
in
good
company.
At-risk
students
often
find
that
studying
is
not
so
bad
when
it
is
done
in
the
presence
of
others.
One
university
organized
a
for-
mal
study
lab
and
required
at-risk
students
to
sign
contracts
stating
that
they
would
regularly
attend.
The
administrators
soon
made
a
pleasant
discovery.
Many
non-at-
risk
students
made
use
of
the
facility
be-
cause
it
was
a
quiet
place
to
study.
When
at-risk
students
participate
regularly
in
a
managed
study
environment,
they
over-
whelmingly
improve
their
attitudes
and
grade-point
averages.
One
thoughtful
tcacher
invites
students
to
her
home
for
a
three-
to
four-hour
study
party
that
con-
cludes
with
games
and
refreshments.
Establish
a
cohort
cluss
schedule
for
at-
risk
students.
At-risk
students
especially
benefit
from
a
cohort
class
schedule
that
requires
them
to
attend
many
of
the
same
courses.
The
net
results
are
learning
cross-
pollination,
lifelong
friendships,
and
inclu-
sive
learning
communities.
As
at-risk
stu-
dents
interact
daily
to
solve
academic
and
personal
challenges,
they
begin
to
under-
stand
that
carrying
one’s
responsibilities
in
a
learning
community
is
personally
re-
warding
and
consistently
enhances
grade-
point
averages.
Moreover,
teachers
of
in-
dividual
cohort
classes
can
construct
a
master
list
of
objectives
and
suggested
as-
signments
that
fulfill
those
objectives.
At-
risk
students
are
motivated
by
discovering
how
work
in
one
class
benefits
them
in
an-
other
class.
This
transfer
of
learning
is
the
core
objective
of
all
educational
systems,
but
it
often
eludes
at-risk
students.
Build
at-risk
students’
self-esteem.
At-
risk
students
need
the
exhilaration
and
positive
sense
of
self-esteem
that
comes
from
serving
others.
Most
service
opportu-
nities
are
low-tech,
impossible
to
botch,
and
generally
appreciated
by
the
recipients.
Involving
at-risk
students
in
community
clean-ups,
assisting
or
visiting
the
elderly,
tutoring,
and
literacy
programs
has
three
direct
benefits.
First,
at-risk
students
Icarn
the
joy
of
being
valued
not
for
what
they
know,
but
for
who
they
are;
Second,
many
of
them
discover
a
career
path
while
serv-
ing
others.
Third,
many
are
able
to
see
up
close
and
personal
the
consequences
of
ignorance,
poverty,
and
wasted
oppor-
tunities
in
the
lives
of
others.
This
first-
hand
knowledge
and
experience
frequently
motivates
at-risk
students
to
do
all
they
can
to
avoid
a
similar
future.
No
Limits
to
Learning
Howard
Gardner
quotes
from
a
book
based
on
presentations
to
the
Rome
Club,
in
which
Botkin,
Elmandjra,
and
Malitza
note
that
“[f]or
all
practical
purposes
there
appear
to
be
virtually
no
limits
to
learn-
ing.”
In
spite
of
this
optimistic
assess-
ment,
many
college
students
still
have
dif-
ficulty
succeeding
academically.
Teachers
are
challenged
to
find
ways
to
help
them
improve
their
chances.
Clearly
Gardner
believes,
as
we
have
attempted
to
suggest,
that
student
success
36
ADVENTIST
EDUCATION
«
APRIL/MAY
2000
At-risk
students
need
the
exhilaration
and
positive
sense
of
self-
esteem
that
comes
from
serving
others.
18
directly
related
to
motivation.
Gardner
notes
that
“proper
motivation
to
learn
may
well
be
the
single
biggest
difference
between
a
successful
and
an
unsuccessful
educational
program
(and
learner).™
He
offers
a
critique
of
the
Suzuki
violin
method
of
Japan,
noting
that
its
remark-
able
success
at
motivating
students
is
due
to
what
he
calls
“a
comfortable
fit
between
the
abilities
and
inclinations
of
the
target
population.
.
.and
the
particular
values,
opportunities
of
the
society
in
which
they
happen
to
be
growing
up.™
$
teachers,
we
must
help
our
students
learn
specific
information,
tasks,
and
skills,
but
in
doing
so,
we
must
not
forget
our
re-
sponsibility
for
the
at-risk
students
in
our
classes.
We
must
encour-
age
them
and
convince
them
that
they
can
succeed.
When
we
have
achieved
this
goal,
truly
there
will
be
no
limits
to
learning,
Joseph
W.
Warren
teaches
writing
courses
at
Andrews
University
in
Berrien
Springs,
Michigan,
and
consults
regularly
on
issues
relating
to
at-risk
students.
Bruce
Closser
teaches
composition
and
writing
theory
courses
and
directs
the
Writing
Center
at
An-
drews
University.
REFERENCES
1.
Howard
Gardner,
Frames
of
Mind:
The
Theory
of
Multiple
Intelligences
(New
York:
Rasic
Books,
1983).
2.
L.
8.
Vygotsky,
Minds
in
Society:
The
De-
velopment
of
Higher
Psychological
Process
(Cam-
bridge,
Mass:
Harvard
University
Press,
1978),
3.
James
W.
Borkin,
Mahdi
Elmandjra,
and
Mircea
Malitza,
No
Limits
to
Learning:
Bridging
the
Human
Gap:
A
Report
10
the
Club
of
Rome
(Oxford
and
New
York:
Pergamon
Press,
1979),
p.
9,
cited
in
Howard
Gardner,
Frames
of
Mind:
The
Theory
of
Multiple
Intelligences
(New
York:
Basic
Books,
1983),
p.
369,
4.
Gardner,
Frames
of
Mind,
p.
373.
5.
Ibid.
p.
382.