Dear Students: 10 Letters to Empower and Transform Your Higher Education Journey is a higher education guide that prepares students to authentically and intentionally “do school.” This is not your typical “how-to” guide. Dear Students uses narratives to illuminate critical topics that will foster the reader’s understanding of valuable matters such as getting noticed and having your experiences centered; building a circle of support; the significance of faculty relationships including building those relationships in spaces like office hours; addressing fears of speaking, disrupting silence, and engaging voice in the classroom; developing deep listening; cultivating community; nurturing belonging; preparing to participate; and keeping hope alive. Readers will engage moments of critical reflection and leave with many diverse “know-how” strategies that will position them to “do-school” from a place of empowerment and for the purpose of transformation. This book will support the journey of all students, and the people who support them, but is an especially important resource for students holding marginalized identities such as first-generation college students.

Dear Students: 10 Letters to Empower and Transform Your Higher Education Journey is a higher education guide that prepares students to authentically and intentionally “do school.” This is not your typical “how-to” guide. Dear Students uses narratives to illuminate critical topics that will foster the reader’s understanding of valuable matters such as getting noticed and having your experiences centered; building a circle of support; the significance of faculty relationships including building those relationships in spaces like office hours; addressing fears of speaking, disrupting silence, and engaging voice in the classroom; developing deep listening; cultivating community; nurturing belonging; preparing to participate; and keeping hope alive. Readers will engage moments of critical reflection and leave with many diverse “know-how” strategies that will position them to “do-school” from a place of empowerment and for the purpose of transformation. This book will support the journey of all students, and the people who support them, but is an especially important resource for students holding marginalized identities such as first-generation college students.