Today’s teenagers are navigating a complex landscape of rigorous academic demands, social expectations, and the daunting task of planning their future careers. The pressure to have everything figured out at a young age can be overwhelming, leading to stress and uncertainty. Determining interests, passions and abilities, and which to pursue as a career and which to keep as a hobby or outlet, can be overwhelming. Having a trusted advocate to help navigate these hurdles can make all the difference. Jackie Postelnick, owner of Conscious College Planning, understands these challenges all too well.
With a deep commitment to guiding students through their most formative years, she has dedicated her career to helping young people traverse the often overwhelming journey of choosing the right college and career path. Her coaching process also helps the students take a personal inventory and discern their talents worth pursuing as a career vs a hobby/ outlet. Jackie’s approach is rooted in empathy, expertise, and personal experience. She understands that young people need support in honing in on their natural abilities.
As an ambitious and tenacious teenager, Jackie, like many teens, lacked direction. She worked her way through high school, often full time. She had an innate sense that finances would impact her quality of life and has always related to the feeling of wanting something better for herself but not knowing how to attain it. After graduating college with a degree in Business Administration and concentration in Management, she spent the next 15 years in trial and error, career wise, mostly looking forward to Fridays and dreading the Monday morning blues.
Along her journey, she learned that guidance and connection to our “inner knowing” helps us take the reins in our own life. A stint working in student financial aid led her to learn about the devastating effects of loan debt, but she found joy in helping students learn about themselves. She combined these realizations and eventually, her entrepreneurial spirit took over and Conscious College Connections was born.
Always seeking to learn new methods to help students, Jackie was captivated when, through a webinar on aptitude testing, she learned a person's national-born strengths, which she calls superpowers, are solidified. She knew this was a key to guiding students to fulfill their dreams. Naturally, she immediately signed up to take her own aptitude test; results indicated her top patterns were counseling, training, advising, teaching, and entrepreneurship. She wondered how different the course of her life would have been if she had access to this test and information as a teen. For example, the Career Exploration Report gives specific career recommendations and provides critical clues as to what type of work will be most satisfying. As Jackie explains, “Everyone has a superpower, they just need to learn how to lean into them.” Today, this aptitude test is a key component in Jackie’s work with students (and adults).
For deeper insight, Jackie shares some actual scenarios that exemplify the impact coaching assessment tools have on students and how her approach and strategies support our youth in managing their future.
Scenario 1:
A 21-year-old woman contemplated a transfer of colleges. When Jackie asked what she wanted to study, she was dead-set on geology because she loves nature and studying our environment, yet she hadn't done much research on a career in that field. After taking the aptitude test and coaching with Jackie, she realized that geology did not align. An extrovert who needs a fast-paced, problem-solving environment with a variety of activities, her results indicated she would be more satisfied working face to face with people and dealing with ideas, concepts, and policies, rather than heavy hands-on work. Through this process, she realized she would be much more satisfied majoring in environmental science and policy and pursuing a law degree. Her draw to nature could be fulfilled through volunteering or other community involvement.
Scenario 2:
A high school junior, working with Jackie, always thought he would follow in his father's footsteps and "go into business,". Although he thought he had a plan, Jackie encouraged him to begin with the Advanced Aptitude Testing because the results offer essential clues to which aspects are most fitting to each individual. He scored highest for spatial aptitude; indicating an engineering path. Alternately, his personality traits came back strong for leadership and building relationships. These new clues led to options he had never before considered. He began learning which areas of business would draw out his strengths, including acting as liaison between technical teams and business teams, leading him to consider a sales career in the engineering industry. This knowledge while still in high school gave him time to digest and contemplate options, providing a leg up on navigating his future.
Jackie's dedication to her work is evident in the results she achieves. By combining her passion for education with a thorough understanding of each student’s unique strengths and interests, she provides invaluable insights, actionable plans, and unwavering support that set her clients on a path to fulfillment and achievement.
“Everyone has a superpower, they just need to learn how to lean into them.” - Jackie Postelnick
Jackie’s approach is rooted in empathy, expertise, and personal experience. She understands that young people need support in honing in on their natural abilities.