Episode 15 | Candice Preston | Teacher, Learner, Entrepreneur

On this episode we chat with Candice about her lifelong passion for learning and the courses she presents to enable students to study and learn better.

Candice:

My focus has been around combining teaching and coaching to help young people achieve greater success in their lives. I love learning and believe that education transforms us in amazing ways. Society is shaped by our schools and how we develop our youth. As teachers we have so much power to create and destroy.

I met James Jooste who created Ascend Whole Brain Learning in the 90's and helped over 15 000 students improve their learning methods and results. Together we rebranded as studytothrive.com where we started offering the courses online as well as in person and we are focusing on expanding into other content and skills that the youth of today need to succeed sooner in their lives. (Such as financial education, social etiquette, relationship building, etc)

Our study skills methods are incredible. When I learnt them I wished I had learnt them sooner because they help you think about the material you are learning in a very different way and enable you to learn anything with ease. We combine education and academic coaching to empower students to achieve greater academic success. However, that is not the end goal. We use study skills courses as a vehicle for helping students develop vital soft skills that will give them the advantage in the new and changing world of work. 

Whole Brain Learning methods are focused on developing both the left and right hemisphere of the brain so that students have greater synchronicity between these hemispheres enabling them to learn more effectively and developing their higher order thinking skills (evaluating, analysing and creating new ideas). But it is not a one size fits all because we can look at each student's brain profile and use their learning style and preference to help them apply the methods in a way that suits them best. Every single one of our students has improved academically and as they do they feel more confident and motivated to spend more time studying and thus they get even better results. 

The education system is changing and what students are learning is changing but the point of education is still to develop students' ability to think and that is what our methods help students do. 

When students perform better academically and feel more confident in their ability to learn they start to enjoy learning and pursue more learning opportunities. As they do this they develop themselves and open new doors of opportunity to not only better their lives and their families lives but to contribute something unique and valuable to the world. 

Focusing on coaching students for ultimate success

Academic success leads to financial success but we need to learn how to manage our money and make our money work for us. Thanks to meeting and working with Kathryn I am able to empower students through financial education as well. 

Book

From Teen to Adult: The Real Stuff For Success

I wrote a book connecting teenagers with the key things that can help them achieve success sooner in their lives.

https://www.studytothrive.com