Develop skills and learn strategies to be successful at college.
The transition to college can be both exciting and a bit scary. As a college student, you will get to make more of your own choices and be more independent. To be successful at college, it is important that you learn skills and strategies to help you make good choices.
Read more below about how you can prepare for college while you are in elementary, middle, and high school.
It is never too early to start planning and preparing for college! Your first formal transition meeting will take place when you turn 14. The purpose of the transition meeting is to discuss what YOU want for your future. During the meeting, you will work with a team to identify what your goals are for life after high school. You will also discuss supports and services that will help you reach your goal.
You do not have to wait until your first transition meeting to start preparing for college. Here are some steps you can take to start preparing for college while you are in elementary or middle school:
There are many opportunities in high school to prepare for college. Here are ways you can prepare for college with support from your school, community, and home:
Your high school teachers, counselors, and peers are dedicated to helping you reach your goals for after high school. Here are some ways you can prepare for college at school:
Being involved in your community can help you identify new interests and gain new skills that are important for college. It is also important to build connections with people in your community. Here are some ways you can use community resources to help you prepare for college:
Many college students have the option to live on campus. To prepare for life on a college campus, consider what you can do at home with your family. Here are some ways to prepare for college at home:
As a high school student, you may have the freedom to try out different jobs and volunteer positions in your community. These experiences are important because you can learn more about the kinds of work you might like to do as an adult.
Nationwide, thousands of teens operate their own businesses. They often learn how to create and run their business through school or community entrepreneurship programs.
When Jonah Taylor turned 16, his parents helped him line up his first job at their neighborhood bakery, Doughboys Donuts. Tony and Kim Taylor knew he loved donuts, so the bakery was a natural choice where Jonah, who is non-verbal and has an autism spectrum disorder, could get some valuable work experience in a friendly, supportive business. So, every Saturday morning, Jonah counts and bags donut holes, using his I-Pad’s assistive technology to vocalize the count.
To prepare for his bakery job, his parents had Jonah practice counting and bagging, using 96 ping pong balls, goldenrod-colored to look like doughnuts. Several years later, they took just as much care helping him start a small business. After exploring different jobs and businesses to find a good match, the Taylor family started Jonah Vending in 2021 with the help of Jonah’s job coach, Dan Freeman of Developing Potential, Inc.
Since then, Jonah Vending, which offers Coca-Cola® products and snacks, has grown from one contract to 15, serving businesses in Raytown, Lee’s Summit, Independence, Belton, Peculiar, Kansas City, and Blue Springs, Missouri. Making his service rounds with his family, or his job coach, Jonah restocks the machines and takes out the money. Not only do his mom and dad view the business as thriving, but Jonah too, who has a sense of purpose and a place in the community.
Growing up, 21-year-old Seth Kalusniak spent a lot of time outdoors. He rode dirt bikes, tinkered with engines, and mowed the family’s lawn with his dad. Seth and his parents, Kevin and Valerie, understood early on that Seth was a hands-on learner.
When it came time for Seth, who has Tourette’s Syndrome, to look for a job, he already had marketable skills and knew how to work hard. His parents understood, too, that Seth would thrive in an outdoor job that required him to be active. When employment specialist Sullivan McKinney of Diversity Placement Services, talked with Seth about his job search, she asked him why he wanted a job when he knew how to do so many different things. Why not a business?
And that is how Seth Kalusniak became the proprietor of a lawn care business, Kalu-Crew LLC, in 2016, when he was 15. Over the years, his parents continued to be his greatest business advisors and trainers. His dad helps Seth maintain the mowers’ engines and creates a daily schedule and map of his jobs. Seth’s mom set up the business up the QuickBooks accounting program, so Seth would learn recordkeeping and business systems.
Since 2016, Kalu-Crew has grown from one client to 30. Seth now fertilizes, aerates, and performs other services for Kalu-Crew’s Missouri clients – who stretch from Smithville and Parkville to Platte City. The business owns and maintains $80,000 of equipment, including riding and standing mowers, which Seth pulls behind his pickup truck to clients’ yards.
Seth’s best advice to future small-business owners?
“Be a hard worker, be active and care more.”
Yousef Tamsamani’s entry into the business world began at age 2, when he first picked up a wooden spoon to help his mother, Ezdahar, in their Kansas City kitchen. As the two of them stirred and blended their way through recipes, Ezdahar noticed Yousef’s deep focus and willing involvement. Diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder about that same time, Yousef was not expected to talk, go to school, or participate much in the world. Cooking and baking turned out to be lifelines that helped Yousef, now 14, connect more with the world and learn important life skills.
Those skills include both culinary – mixing and blending spices – and business – filling and preparing orders to be shipped throughout the United States and Canada. Customers order online from the Yousef Speaks Spices Facebook page, a cheerful mix of spices for sale, cooking videos, and photos of Yousef and the recipes he and his mom cook together. Yousef Speaks Spices, which has 43,000-plus Facebook followers, was recently featured on Flatland, a Kansas City PBS program that highlights small businesses.
To view the Flatland episode featuring Yousef and his mom’s spice business, click here.
For general small business resources in Missouri, check out: