Academics for Young Adults

NorthStar Academics are focused on helping students achieve independent academic success.  To do this, we need to provide them with a supportive but honest assessment of their strengths and their weaknesses as we empower each student to take ownership of the direction of their lives.  Whether the student left high school without finishing a diploma or GED, or whether he or she started college and dropped out, self-knowledge is key to independent functioning in educational settings.

For students who left high school or college as a result of an inability to deal with the course content, assessment of performance is our starting point. Student’s basic reading, writing, math and computer technology skills are measured early in the program to help them recognize where they stand in their ability to compete in college. We firmly believe that “the closer you get to the truth, the more likely you are to succeed.”

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Parents and students often wonder why the student cannot begin college classes immediately. PLEASE NOTE that our goal at NorthStar is to prepare our students for SUCCESS in the college environment. This means handling the many pressures inherent in an academic setting including regulating the intense emotions that often accompany academic involvement for many of our students; overcoming a historical sense of academic failure; managing peer relations and sobriety in a college setting; and mastering many of the executive functioning skills with which many of our students struggle. Years of experience working with young adults has taught us that students and parents usually overestimate the student's ability to handle a stressful college environment while newly sober. Our initial eight-week curriculum helps ensure that students will have the tools they need to succeed when they arrive at college or, for some students, as they are evaluating their options for the future.

In addition, students have made commitments to building other critical life skills in the NorthStar program, and this requires juggling a complex schedule. Our goal is to use the year students are with us to teach them as much as possible about how to use their strengths to overcome these challenges and make sound choices about their academic future.

Courses that refresh the student's abilities in basic skill areas are offered to give the student an opportunity to review what has been forgotten or, possibly never learned, either as a result of being absent from classes in high school or being too overwhelmed to focus attention on the building blocks needed for college performance. NorthStar classes therefore include College Preparatory, Language Arts, Refresher Math and Computer Technology. Tutors are often used to assist students with dyslexia and other language processing challenges to gain additional opportunities to bring performance up to an age-competitive level.

Students who have multiple diagnoses that pair emotional difficulties with substance abuse or learning disorders may experience difficulty in college classrooms. So NorthStar also offers courses in Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotional Regulation, Study Strategies, and Career Development. These courses are designed to help students learn to advocate for themselves and to manage their behaviors when traditional learning environments prove frustrating.

Central Oregon Community College (COCC) is located within walking distance of NorthStar and provides a convenient resource when our students are ready to take a first college course. It is possible for students to take up to 12 credits during the time they are at NorthStar if they have already completed high school or a GED when they arrive. The community college is ideal for our students because classes are small and the focus of faculty is excellence in teaching rather than publication. Students take a placement test upon entry to the college, which identifies courses they should begin with to be successful. Most of our students choose to take courses that are typical freshman requirements or high interest courses. COCC offers vocational/technical certificates, a two-year associate's degree and college transfer programs, allowing our students a wide range of choices as they begin to explore career options.

In short, most of our students can be described as very bright, high average to superior IQ “non-traditional” students in several senses of the word. They often do not learn using traditional mathematical/logical or verbal/linguistic intelligences. They may not have been in school for some time, and they have had negative academic experiences that undermine their confidence about returning to school. They may need to take fewer courses at a time than more traditional students just to overcome differences in the way they learn.