Aaron Rasmussen on navigating college challenges

Thought leaders share ideas with WorkingNation Overheard at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022
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College can be daunting, but a new cost-free resource is now available to help students navigate their postsecondary experiences.   

Aaron Rasmussen, founder and CEO, Outlier.org says, “We are launching our free College Success course to anyone in the world who wants it. This course teaches you the skills you need to be successful in school.” 

WorkingNation sat down with Rasmussen at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022 in New Orleans.

The course covers topics like productivity, avoiding procrastination, and how to read a syllabus. “Part of the class has a productivity expert that helps you figure out ‘how do I balance my job and the job skill training that I’m doing,’ whether that’s college or a micro-credential or upskilling that you need to get done. Everybody needs help with that, including myself,” says Rasmussen.

He says College Success offers information about ways to reduce student loan debt. “It teaches you the skills and information you need to get things like financial aid by filling out the FAFSA. Avoid things like loans which are very easy to get, but obviously people make money off of you. Teaches you about scholarships, grants, and anything else you can get to help offset the cost of college so when you graduate, you have much less student debt to pay off.”

He also notes that the free course can help people who might not be looking toward the college route. “It has an initial part that can help direct you into, let’s say, a trade school or maybe certifications or job training, et cetera. All of the skills that you’re going to learn in this College Success course will help you

Partners in the College Success initiative include Amazon, Chromebook, NACAC, Jobs for the Future – JFF.

Learn more about Outlier.org: https://www.outlier.org/

Learn more about College Success.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.