Seven skills that decide whether a student stays through freshman year.
Sleep, money, time, food, body, communication, anchor.
Drawn from Chapter 9 of Persist, this is the curriculum Dr. Tremayne Thurman, OTD built and runs in his own home with his own teenager. Built for parents who refuse to send a junior or senior into the world without sleep, money, time, food, body, communication, and anchor.
Getting in is not the same as staying in. The College-Ready Life Skills Lab teaches the seven skills that decide whether a high school junior or senior makes it through the first year of college.
The high school system is built to graduate a student. It is not built to launch one. Across the United States, a significant share of students who start a four-year degree do not finish on time. The cost is not just tuition. It is identity, debt, family confidence, and the silent shame of returning home.
Nine times out of ten, the breakdown is not academic. It is not intelligence. It is not preparation in chemistry or calculus or essay writing. The breakdown is a failure of the seven life skills that high school does not consistently reinforce before move-in day.
Sleep. Money. Time. Food. Body. Communication. Anchor.
These are the skills that determine whether a student will get to class, get to the meal, get to sleep, get to a parent on the phone when something cracks. They are not soft skills. They are survival skills. They are the difference between persistence and dropout.
Junior and senior year is the runway. The Lab is built to use it, and you can start any week.
Each skill gets its own week of focused practice. Every skill connects to a clinical or research foundation drawn from occupational therapy, behavioral science, and applied psychology.
Sleep hygiene as a clinical practice, drawn from Dr. Thurman, OTD's clinical occupational therapy work. Why a student who does not sleep cannot learn, regulate emotion, or persist. The non-negotiable bedtime conversation every parent should have before move-in.
Personal finance basics that many high schools do not consistently reinforce. Checking accounts, savings, credit, the campus debit card trap. Budgeting with real numbers. The first job conversation. How to refuse the credit card pitch at the freshman welcome table. Cash flow, not investing.
The transition from parent-managed time to self-managed time. The freshman year time disorientation that explains many first-semester GPA drops. Building a real calendar. Office hours, study blocks, recovery time. The Sunday reset that prevents Monday collapse.
Cooking three real meals. Eggs. Pasta. A sheet-pan dinner. Grocery shopping with a list. Reading a nutrition label. The truth about dining hall food across the semester. Coffee, protein, and the freshman fifteen reframed. Eating as a recovery practice, not a vanity practice.
How to find a campus health center. How to advocate for yourself in a medical visit. Basic first aid. The annual physical schedule. The mental health conversation, with permission to start it. How to read your own warning signs before someone else has to.
How to call. How to email a professor. How to ask for help. How to handle a roommate conflict without your parent stepping in. The hard conversation script. The boundary with friends back home. Emotional intelligence applied in real time.
The practice that holds the student to who they are. Faith, family, identity, purpose. The Sunday call home that does not get skipped. The journaling habit. The reading practice. The thing that does not move when everything else does. Without this skill, the other six wear thin.
Weeks eight through ten turn knowledge into reps. Stress mapping and conflict roleplay for roommate, faculty, and friend scenarios. A full first-month-of-college simulation walked through start to finish. The Lab closes with an assessment recap, a written year-one game plan, and a certificate of completion.
The Lab opens with a baseline assessment and debrief, then runs ten weeks. Each week contains a thirty-minute family conversation, a parent reflection, a student practice block, and a measurable behavior anchor.
Bedtime as boundary. The sleep contract.
Checking, saving, debit. Budget with real numbers.
Calendar literacy. Sunday reset, weekday rhythm.
Three meals. Grocery list. Label reading.
Health center, first aid, mental health start.
Calls, emails, hard conversations, boundaries.
The practice that holds. Faith, family, identity.
Stress mapping plus roommate, faculty, friend roleplay.
The first month of college, walked through.
Assessment recap, year-one game plan, certificate of completion.
Before the first skill, every student completes two validated assessments and a debrief. This is the baseline the whole Lab is built on, and it travels with the student into college. Every edition includes both, at every price point.
The EQ-i 2.0 Higher Education report measures the emotional intelligence skills most tied to grades and first-year persistence. Research links stronger interpersonal and stress management skills to staying enrolled. Every student receives a baseline and a debrief.
The Maxwell Method DISC profile maps how the student communicates, handles stress, and makes decisions. It gives the family a shared language for the conversations that get hard during the transition. Included in every edition.
Self-guided, live group cohort, or private one-on-one. Every edition includes both assessments and a debrief. The group cohort is where most students thrive, and it is the one we recommend.
Schools, college access programs, churches, and Christian schools can bring the Lab to a whole cohort, with the assessments included and pricing scoped to your budget.
A grant-ready cohort program for the students you serve, priced per participant or as a flat cohort license. See the overview →
Workshops, seminars, and conference events that prepare your students to persist in faith and life. See the events →
Tell us which edition fits your family. We respond within two business days with next steps.
The Self-Guided edition is available immediately through checkout. The Fall 2026 Group Cohort is enrolling now with rolling entry. Private 1:1 is by application and limited each term. Institutions and college access programs are welcome to inquire here too.
A reply is on the way within two business days.