March 04, 2025

601: Roles and Identities Part 1 (for Students and Parents): A Framework for Exploring Who You’ve Been, Who You Are, and Who You’re Becoming

28 minutes

To kick off Season 6, Ethan shares some practical resources based on a new framework he's been exploring. If you’re a regular listener, you’ll already be familiar with something we call the Roles and Identities List, which is a huge menu of roles (things like “catalyst” and “change-maker” and “party-bringer”) — Ethan has used it as a get-to-know-you exercise with a number of previous guests.

Today’s episode is the first of two where Ethan will dive into a few short, practical exercises for students and parents that can help them figure out things like how they’d like to focus their time as they go through this process. He gets into, among other things:

The philosophy behind the Roles and Identities framework
Some hands-on exercises that students can do — whether in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade — that can help them, for example, plan summer/EC activities, or even map out their college application.
A simple but powerful exercise for parents thinking about who they want to be in this process—since let’s be honest it isn’t the students who are learning about themselves here.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where Ethan will share some exercises that counselors can use to recognize patterns they may fall into at times and how they might practice more self-care and show up more fully for their students.

We hope you enjoy!

Play-by-Play

3:36 - What is the Roles & Identities Framework?
6:57 - Exercise #1 (for both students and parents): The Roles & Identities List
8:59 - Exercise #2 (for students): Using the Roles & Identities list to plan your summer or extracurricular activities
11:30 - Using The Values list to expand on your roles and identities
13:23 - Which parts of you will you show in your college application?
18:21 - Exercise #3 (for parents): Who do you want to be in this process?
27:50 - Closing thoughts

Resources

The Roles and Identities Exercise
The Values Exercise
100+ Summer and Extracurricular Ideas — Based on Your Roles and Identities
100+ Summer and Extracurricular Ideas — Based on Your Values
College Essay Guy’s Personal Statement Resources
College Essay Guy’s College Application Hub

...more

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By Ethan Sawyer

4.5

216216 ratings

March 04, 2025

601: Roles and Identities Part 1 (for Students and Parents): A Framework for Exploring Who You’ve Been, Who You Are, and Who You’re Becoming

28 minutes

The philosophy behind the Roles and Identities framework
Some hands-on exercises that students can do — whether in 9th, 10th, or 11th grade — that can help them, for example, plan summer/EC activities, or even map out their college application.
A simple but powerful exercise for parents thinking about who they want to be in this process—since let’s be honest it isn’t the students who are learning about themselves here.

We hope you enjoy!

Play-by-Play

3:36 - What is the Roles & Identities Framework?
6:57 - Exercise #1 (for both students and parents): The Roles & Identities List
8:59 - Exercise #2 (for students): Using the Roles & Identities list to plan your summer or extracurricular activities
11:30 - Using The Values list to expand on your roles and identities
13:23 - Which parts of you will you show in your college application?
18:21 - Exercise #3 (for parents): Who do you want to be in this process?
27:50 - Closing thoughts