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Tag Archives: education
Book Signing, NACAC 2013, and Congrats to Ted Fiske!
What a busy week it’s been! I had my first official book talk and signing for The Secrets of Top Students at the Columbia University bookstore, which was a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone who attended!
My first book signing!
The next day I flew up to Toronto to join my publisher, Sourcebooks, for the 69th national conference for NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling). I met a lot of great people there. I must say, college admission counselors are an amazing group. They really care about helping students and giving them the best education possible.
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the NACAC conference took place. Love the woodpeckers!
I was also extremely fortunate to take part in the 30th anniversary of The Fiske Guide to Colleges, where I got to meet the man himself – Edward (Ted) Fiske. It’s really an amazing accomplishment. Sourcebooks honored him with a champagne toast and gave away several stacks of his books, which were gone in two minutes flat!
The champagne toast – Congrats to Ted Fiske for an amazing 30 years!
Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at the Stuyvesant Parents’ Association. Back-to-School is a busy but exciting time!
5 Careers You Can Have with a Business Degree (Guest Post)
Earning your bachelor’s degree in business could help you jumpstart your career after graduation. Working within a business industry may be an exciting way to put your degree to good use. Here are five potential careers you might have with a college degree in business.
Considering a career in business? (Photo by SalFalko via Flickr)
Retail manager. So you are considered a fashionista and have a hard time not making a purchase when the shoes sales are calling. If you would like to oversee sales teams and don’t mind working nights or weekends in a retail setting, then a career as a retail manager might be a great career for you. Retail managers might travel frequently, set goals for their team members, try to increase sales, and create training programs. They typically earn around $98,530 a year and the job outlook is supposed to be as fast as average for all careers.
Advertising manager. Advertising managers try to drum up interest in different products, brands, or services. They might negotiate contracts, conduct research in order to plan ad campaigns, and meet with clients to provide advertising advice. At times, they might have to come up with budgets for particular advertising campaigns. They make around $108,260 per year and usually have a minimum of a bachelor’s, in addition to some work experience in the field.
Construction manager. Have you always liked to swing a hammer and been excited about the building process? In the construction field, managers usually earn $83,860 per year and have varied job functions such as coming up with cost estimates for jobs, figuring out about how long each job should take until completion, and even hiring subcontractors and laborers. Construction managers might be called project managers or general contractors because they typically oversee various building projects such as commercial or residential jobs. The job outlook is expected to grow around 17% and is as fast as usual for all careers.
Hospitality manager. You’ve been known to make others feel at home when they visit and you have perfected the role of “hostess with the mostess.” How about a career as a hospitality manager? Hospitality mangers try to make sure that their guests feel comfortable and enjoy their stay. An average salary per year for these managers is $46,880 and most large-scale hotels prefer their hospitality managers to have at least a bachelor’s degree. If greeting guests and answering any questions they may have sounds like a dream to you, then you should look into becoming a hospitality manager.
Management Analyst. Do others tell you that you are organized and efficient? Are you detail-oriented as well? Then a career as a management analyst might be a good fit for you. Management analysts try to come up with ways that a company might run more efficiently. They could look at financial information, create solutions to problems, and make recommendations for improvements. The annual pay is around $78,160 per year and you should have at least a bachelor’s degree for entry-level positions.
Entering into a business related career may be an exciting move for you after college graduation. Sometimes all you need to do to get started is to begin researching potential careers. Read detailed job descriptions, find out what cities offer career opportunities in your area of interest, and speak with a career counselor on your college campus for more information about business jobs that intrigue you.
Pamela Rossow is a freelance writer who works with higher education clients such as eLearners. She is a native South Floridian who enjoys photography, literature, and hockey. You can follow her on Google+.
A great career starts with great grades. Order your copy of The Secrets of Top Students today!
Summer 2013 Update
A lot of my articles have been popping up on the internet recently, and I wanted to share some of them here.
1. What Motivates Top Students? Getting Into the Heads of High Achievers, HackCollege.
What I learned about academic success, from my own experience as well as from my survey of forty-five of the best students in the country.
2. Struggling to be heard: What it’s like to be a student who stutters, USA Today College.
An account of my struggle with stuttering in high school and college, how I overcame it, and what to do if you stutter or meet a person who stutters.
3. I Got the Highest GPA at an Ivy, But Not Because I’m Smarter Than Everyone Else, Your Teen for Parents.
Some surprising facts about top students and how they got that way.
My book, The Secrets of Top Students, has also received some great reviews lately. I was especially thrilled with this one from the School Library Journal: “…the book is a must-read for students in middle school and up, teachers, parents, and guidance counselors as 21st-century students learn to excel in the new educational landscape in which they find themselves.”
On a completely separate note, a funny article I wrote a few months ago, The Top 6 Reasons You Should Date a Pilot, has been Liked over 14,000 times on Facebook!
7 Careers In Healthcare That Could Change Your Life (Guest Post)
At some point, it seems all children are asked what they want to be when they grow up. If you were never sure of the answer, but somehow knew that you would be most satisfied doing something that helps others, a career in healthcare could be precisely what you’re looking for.
Your desire to help other people may actually benefit you. Psychology Today suggests that helping others fixes a higher happiness set point. The happiness set point theory says that a human’s level of well-being (happiness) is primarily determined by heredity and personality traits that were ingrained during early life. Researchers have found, though, that a person can raise their happiness set point by focusing on helping others.
Interested in a career in healthcare?
As jobs in other fields disappear, healthcare jobs are on the rise. Opportunities in healthcare and health technology will continue to be strong for years to come, according to heathcarecareers.org.
Becoming a doctor is an obvious choice for helping people, but medical school is not for everyone. Fortunately, there are a number of other avenues you can take that will lead you to a career in healthcare.
Registered Nurse
As a registered nurse you would directly treat patients, help educate them and provide emotional support to patients and their family members. A registered nurse is often the first person on the job, and the first to get to know a patient’s history and symptoms. You would most likely be the professional a patient would turn to for answers and encouragement. Nursing is a life-changing career for anyone with a passion for healthcare and helping others.
Pharmacy Technician
As a pharmacy technician you would deal with people when they’re either sick or trying to maintain health. It would be your job to help licensed pharmacists provide medication and health care products to patients who need them. Routine tasks include the preparation of medicine, including properly labeling bottles and counting tablets or capsules. You have options when it comes to learning this job. You can either attend class in person or learn to be a pharmacy technician online. For a people-person, working as a pharmacy technician allows you to be a comforting voice during what might be a stressful time for a patient.
Phlebotomist
While the idea of drawing blood and transporting it to a laboratory for analysis may not appeal to everyone, it is exactly what a phlebotomist does. A great phlebotomist is calm, compassionate and can make the act of drawing blood seem effortless. If you’re someone who can soothe a crying child or calm a nervous adult, this may be the perfect career fit for you.
Physical Therapist
A physical therapist helps restore function and relieve pain in those who suffer from injury or disease. Pain can change a patient’s quality of life and even impact their personality. As a physical therapist you would have the ability to help them regain normal function and to encourage patients as they are on the road to recovery. You would also help patients with permanent conditions find adaptations that make their lives easier, thereby changing a person’s entire life.
Sonographer
Sonographers direct high-frequency sound waves into areas of a patient’s body in order to generate an image that will be assessed for a variety of medical issues. In one day you may do everything from looking for a blocked artery to helping parents determine the sex of their unborn child. No two days are alike in the life of a sonographer. If you like variety and can deal with a myriad of different patient personalities, this career can use someone like you.
Radiation Therapist
Radiation therapists are part of a medical radiation oncology team, working primarily with cancer patients by administering radiation at targeted cancer cells. As a radiation therapist you would work with patients at one of the toughest times of their life. A compassionate nature and professional attitude are both required for such a position.
Dietitian
A dietitian can work in many settings, including: hospitals, schools and nursing homes. As a trained dietitian it would be your job to plan food and nutrition programs for the population you’re working with and to supervise the preparation and delivery of meals. Dietitians change lives by recommending dietary changes that can help people live a longer, healthier life.
Healthcare jobs are here to stay. It’s just a matter of finding the one that speaks to you and investigating what it will take to get you there.
Guest Post by Chuck Flint.
Chuck teaches Pilates and writes about health and wellness from his beachside home in California.
The first step to getting a great career is getting great grades in school. The Secrets of Top Students can show you how!
A book review that warmed an author’s heart
Every once in a while, someone says something about my book that makes all the hard work I put into it worthwhile, and makes me feel like I truly accomplished something. I received such a review today, from someone called Stew Mulligan. I was so excited about it, I had to reprint it on my blog. The original review can be found here. Thank you Stew Mulligan, wherever you are!
The author and her book
“The Secrets of Top Students, by Stefanie Weisman, is a great book!
As a Stuyvesant High School alumnus, I know what it means to be that school’s valedictorian. Stuyvesant is not just any high school. It is a school that if you become a doctor you are considered an underachiever. They expect you to at least become head of a department in a major hospital or medical school. Stuyvesant graduate David Axelrod, is ONLY an advisor to the President; Stuyvesantian Eric Holder, is US Attorney General: not bad, but not a Supreme Court Justice. It’s where if you get 800 on your math SAT nobody lifts an eye. But in all seriousness, this is a school of really, really smart kids and, as such, I am awed by Stefanie’s academic accomplishments — not only the Stuyvesant valedictorian but she also graduated with the highest GPA from Columbia College. That’s like being the baseball Rookie of the Year and then following up by winning the MVP and Triple Crown. Stefanie knows how to hit academia’s fast ball, curve and knuckleball, and all for homeruns.
As a rule, if you want to learn something well, it is a good idea to learn from the best, and Stefanie Weisman’s Secrets of Top Students is now THE SOURCE on how to maneuver through the obstacle course of higher education. I guarantee that this book will not disappoint.
If school, in general, and tests, term papers and the like, in particular, give you anxiety attacks, then this book is definitely the relaxant. By all rights, Stefanie should never have become valedictorian. In fact, she probably should have been mediocre at best, since she has a certain learning disability. But by putting excuses aside, she learned how to use her strengths to overcome her weaknesses, by developing a relatively simple system of studying. In Secrets of Top Students she conveys her system, no longer secrets, in a clear and concise manner. And, I might add, with a particularly droll and somewhat self-effacing sense of humor. In other words, she explains how to walk the walk, how to traverse through the killing fields of the classrooms with the least possible pain and suffering. She explains how to avoid being an academic casualty or also-ran and to get through it all, knowing you did the best you can, while actualizing your potential.
This is not a textbook. But it tells how to penetrate the textbooks. This is not a lecture, but it tells how to absorb and retain what the lecturer is “trying” to expound. Being smart is not enough. You have to know how to learn. This book shows how to do it in an efficient and intelligent manner. Stefanie’s prose is concise and easy to follow and the book develops in a logical manner. (It ends with a chapter on “How to Take a Test”, by the way, since test taking is where the rubber meets the road.) The use of well placed bullet points and bold font help to highlight the most important concepts. At the same time, the book makes clear that there are individual differences, and that students have to make adjustments in their own studying methods that work best for them. Nevertheless, these basic concepts are still applicable, to different degrees and with different emphasis, to all types of learners.
Nor does the book sugar-coat the reality. It tells it like it is, which is to say that the most important thing in becoming a good, or a great student, is commitment and a willingness to work hard, damn hard. There is no easy way. There is only a EASIER WAY, a SMARTER WAY. This book is the roadmap.
I guess my only complaint, after reading this book, is that it was published 40 odd years too late. If only there had been a Stefanie Weisman to write such a book for us baby boomers, to help us get through the morass known as education, like a machete in a rain forest, who knows what grades I would have gotten. But today, 2013, if you are a young person wanting to maximize your potential in school, or if you are a parent of a student and would like to see your child rise to the top, take my advice and go out and purchase this book ASAP.”
The Best Birthday Present Ever
My copies are here!
Today is my birthday, but more importantly – for me, at least – it’s also the official release date of my book, The Secrets of Top Students: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and College! As a birthday gift from my publisher, I got fifty free copies of my book – which I now have to distribute to influential people, I suppose. (Anybody in the media or education want a copy?) But it’s such a cool feeling to hold my own book in my hands. It’s kind of like holding your baby for the first time.
It’s also been a crash course in marketing and publicity for me. I’ve already had some mentions in the press (for example, in the New York Post and the IMT Career Journal). And I’m lining up talks and at least one book signing. It’s pretty exciting, and a bit overwhelming!
I’m in the process of making a nice-looking flyer for my book, but for now, here it is in draft form:
Pssst!
Want to get better grades?Then get The Secrets of Top Students:
Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and CollegeWritten by Stefanie Weisman,
Valedictorian of Stuyvesant High School
Highest GPA, Columbia UniversityWith insight from 45 of the best students in the country
Includes:
• How to take killer notes, improve reading comprehension, and write amazing papers
• How to get and stay motivated
• 50 Grade A test-taking tips
• Three game-changing learning techniques
• The mind-body connection
• And much, much more“An insightful guide for high achievers—and those aspiring to such status—from an authoritative source.” –Alec Klein, Northwestern University professor, bestselling author and award-winning journalist
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine booksellers.
Published by Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN: 9781402280795
New Book Reveals How to Get Better Grades
The following is my book’s official press release. It’s getting closer!
Valedictorian Reveals Secrets to Being a Top Student
New Study Aid Features Straight Talk and Practical Advice on Making the Grade
Stefanie Weisman is the epitome of the successful student—valedictorian at Stuyvesant High School and recipient of the Albert Asher Green Prize for the highest GPA in her graduating class at Columbia University, among other honors.
How did she achieve academic success?
It may be surprising to learn that Weisman developed the skills that led her to become a top student because of an undiagnosed learning disability in which she struggled with listening comprehension.
Weisman, along with top students including valedictorians, Rhodes and Fulbright scholars, and even a National Spelling Bee champ, shares learning tips and techniques in her forthcoming book, The Secrets of Top Students: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and College (ISBN: 9781402280795; MAY 7, 2013; $14.99 U.S.; Study Aids; Trade Paper).
Weisman contends that being a top student is a lifestyle and outlines practical strategies for studying smart, learning well, and staying motivated.
The Secrets of Top Students features a holistic approach to learning that includes:
- How sleep, diet, and exercise can affect a student’s GPA
- What motivates top students to academic success
- 50 “Grade A” test-taking tips
- Three game-changing learning techniques
- The trick to taking killer notes and improving reading comprehension
Written in a conversational, down-to-earth tone, The Secrets of Top Students shows students how to maximize learning and get the grades they want.
About the Author: Stefanie Weisman was born and raised in Queens, New York. She was valedictorian of Stuyvesant High School and graduated from Columbia University with the highest GPA in her class. She has a B.A. in history, a B.S. in computer science, and an M.A. in art history. Stefanie has received numerous awards including Best Performance in Columbia’s Core Curriculum, Best Senior Thesis in History on a non-U.S. Topic, Phi Beta Kappa, and Summa Cum Laude. She was a Craig Hugh Smyth fellow at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, where she specialized in ancient Greek and Roman art. She works in the technology industry in New York City. https://valedictoriansguide.com/
Media Contact: Liz Kelsch – Asst. Publicity Manager – 630-536-0595 – liz.kelsch@sourcebooks.com
The galleys have arrived!
The Secrets of Top Students Galleys
There’s nothing like the moment when you see your first book in print! I just got five galleys (advance, uncorrected copies) in the mail today from my publisher, Sourcebooks EDU. It’s such a strange and wonderful feeling to see all your hard work finally coming to fruition.
The book’s coming out in May, but you can also pre-order it on Amazon here:
The Secrets of Top Students: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and College
U.S. Education vs. the World – infographic
Very cool infographic!
Via: MAT@USC | Master’s of Arts in Teaching
Going to college? Give yourself the gift of good grades with The Secrets of Top Students!
Stefanie Weisman 