Some books don’t just age well—they grow with us. What feels like a simple story in adolescence can become something far more layered when revisited with experience.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, explores why Jonathan Livingston Seagull felt like an odd—perhaps overly ambitious—choice for an 8th grade honors entrance exam, and why he now appreciates that decision decades later. Revisiting the book after years of lived experience, Corey reflects on how the story shifts from a meditation on identity and nonconformity to something deeper: the pursuit of mastery, the loneliness of excellence, and the cost of moving to the next stage of growth.

This episode considers how certain texts scale with the reader—revealing new insights as we change. What once felt aspirational now feels honest. What once centered on standing out now centers on discipline, humility, and the quiet work of becoming better.  Ultimately, Corey asks a powerful question for students, educators, and leaders alike: What are you willing to leave behind in order to grow?

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Leadership doesn’t end when the account runs dry—it continues through the returns others generate from your investment. 

In this final installment of the trilogy, Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores The Leadership Dividend, the enduring impact of choices, values, and relationships that keep paying out long after a leader steps away. He reflects on how wise leaders move from spending capital to cultivating culture, from managing balance sheets to compounding trust, and how the truest measure of success lies not in control, but in continuity.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

When students walk out of class in protest, it can look simple from the outside: young people raising their voices in a democracy. Inside a school, however, those moments are layered with legal guardrails, legislative constraints, and the obligation to treat every viewpoint the same.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice in talent and transformation, explores the recent student walkouts in Pulaski, Garland, and other Arkansas counties related to ICE actions and uses them as a lens to unpack the complexity school leaders face in responding. Grounded in the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker v. Des Moines and Arkansas’s 2025 ACCESS Act, he reflects on one of the most difficult weeks of his own leadership during the 2018 national walkouts following the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Marshall County High School, and Heath High School — events that were deeply personal to him.

This episode invites students and parents to better understand the constraints public institutions operate within, offers practical guidance for civic engagement inside school systems, and argues that while outcomes will often be misunderstood, fairness and consistent process must remain the goal.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Achievement often overshadows everything else in the lives of gifted and talented students. But what if their deepest need isn’t to achieve more, but to know they truly matter? Drawing on the work of Jennifer Breheny Wallace and the psychology of “mattering,” this episode explores how educators can reframe success for advanced learners. 

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, unpacks the research behind achievement culture, explains why gifted students are especially vulnerable to it, and challenges schools to build communities where students are valued not just for what they do, but for who they are.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

A single sharp moment can hijack an entire school day—but it doesn’t have to. What if educators got just as intentional about what lifts students up as we are about what sets them off?

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the emerging concept of “glimmers”—small, everyday experiences that spark calm, joy, gratitude, and connection—and why they matter in classrooms that are often built to manage stress rather than cultivate well-being. This episode reframes the work from merely reducing negative triggers to actively designing conditions for positive emotional resilience. Along the way, Corey highlights practical, low-cost ways educators can seed glimmers through consistent micro-moments: greeting students by name, noticing effort, offering gentle encouragement, and creating routines that make belonging feel real. The result is a simple but powerful shift—helping students (and adults) train their brains to spot what’s good, even on hard days, and making school a place that doesn’t just endure, but affirms.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Leaders spend their days managing visible accounts—trust, goodwill, and influence—but the balance that truly determines their longevity is often hidden from view. 

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the idea of a Personal Capital Reserve, or what he calls the Second Balance Sheet—the reservoir of energy, identity, and relationships that sustains leaders beyond their professional role. He discusses how wise leaders protect this reserve through intentional boundaries, steady deposits of time and presence, and the discipline to separate personal worth from institutional success. Ultimately, the second balance sheet reminds us that the work endures only if the leader remains whole.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Some lessons never make it into the textbook—but they can make or break a student’s future. The most gifted learners often know the material, but not the system that surrounds it.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the concept of the “hidden curriculum” and how its unspoken rules—everything from navigating office hours to figuring out which opportunities actually matter—can be the missing link for high-ability students from low-income or rural backgrounds. This episode digs into why raw intelligence isn’t enough, how opportunity is shaped more by exposure than ability, and why “it lives in context, not content.” Through candid reflection and grounded insight, Corey challenges educators and leaders to rethink how we support gifted students who aren’t just underserved academically, but under-resourced strategically.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Early adulthood was supposed to feel like launch—but for many seniors, it feels more like freefall. That unsettling mix of possibility and pressure has a name, and understanding it is the first step toward feeling less alone.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores the concept of the quarterlife crisis as a powerful framework for high school and college seniors beginning to wonder who they are, where they’re going, and why the next chapter feels so uncertain. Drawing on insights from The Atlantic, Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright, and the novels of Nick Hornby, this episode reframes the crisis as a natural part of emerging adulthood—less a breakdown than a crossroads, where identity, meaning, and agency begin to take shape.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Winter break offers juniors something they rarely get during the school year: breathing room. Amid the quiet, students can take their first meaningful steps toward understanding who they are and what they want from the college journey ahead.

Corey Alderdice, a national voice on talent and transformation, explores how reflection, early exploration, and intentional rest can help juniors align their interests with future opportunities. He discusses how taking stock of extracurriculars, surveying potential colleges, imagining new ways to deepen or expand involvement, reviewing academic footing, and beginning to uncover personal narrative threads can set the stage for a strong senior year. This episode offers a calm, grounded roadmap for students—and the adults who support them—who want to use winter break not as a pressure point, but as a chance to reset, rediscover clarity, and move forward with purpose.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.

Some conversations age well because the need behind them never really goes away. As students and schools end the fall semester gear up for a new semester in 2026, this encore episode arrives at exactly the right moment.

ASMSA Executive Director Corey Alderdice explores the deeper dynamics of student well-being, academic pressure, and school culture in this revisit from Season One. This timely rebroadcast examines the forces that shape how students experience rigor, rest, identity, and expectations—and why leaders must think intentionally about the environments they create. Whether you caught it the first time or are tuning in fresh, this conversation offers perspective worth carrying into the months ahead.

For additional thoughts from Corey, visit coreyalderdice.com.

You can also follow him on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads.