As a young entrepreneur and a college student, I am beginning to learn a lot about the value of working well with others and forming partnerships. We see it everywhere--companies and non-profits, musicians that feature each other on songs or athletes who train together. Likewise, collaboration is very important for today's high school student and will help you reach (and surpass) your goals.
Collaboration for the high school student includes forming study groups, discussing and sharing ideas with fellow students and club members and bringing together student organizations to make a certain event successful.
Study groups are key because they usually are more fun and productive than studying alone. Yes, I said productive. If you can avoid the goofing off that tempts most study group members or overcome your stubborn belief that you learn better alone, you will be much more productive and earn better results in school. I actually enjoyed studying with other students because if there was something I didn't understand, it's more entertaining and easy to understand when a friend breaks it down for you. And if there's something I did understand and someone else didn't, I could not only repay the favor by explaining it to them but also teaching material to someone else is one of the best ways to remember something and ensure a thorough understanding.
Sharing ideas is something that should be integrated into your daily conversations and activities, but making a conscious effort can further stimulate the benefits. Get together or at the end of the class try to discuss ideas on classes, events, programs, colleges, scholarship opportunities or financial aid offers. When you have different students with more diverse situations you can learn a lot more than just one way research. For example, I heard a friend of mine was going to Yale for virtually nothing--so I wondered about whether another top school like Harvard could offer me something just as good. Without hearing about it from him, I would not have pursued financial aid so aggressively--it took his experience to open my eyes. We all like to think we're well informed--which we are generally--but sometimes info just slips through the cracks or we forgot about something or no one told us--whatever it is, there's always something to learn.
Bring groups together. The power of people can be seen at its best when student organizations with shared visions or common goals come together. Perhaps your BETA and Key Club can get together to do a citywide project that will achieve much more than a schoolwide project that your club could only do by itself. In my case I brought together teachers who had provided SAT prep and tutoring with students who were National Merit Scholars to form Bridge Education--a student-led college and SAT prep group. Only collaboration could make this possible.
Always be thinking about how you can work together with others to make something big(ger) happen.
