No, They Don’t Just Figure It Out: Executive Function Prep for College-Bound Students
A Common Summer Struggle
The other day, I was talking with one of my college students who is coming home for the summer. Like many students, she needed to take a summer class at her local community college. Here’s where it got complicated.
Back in high school, she’d taken a dual-enrollment course through that same community college. So technically, she was already in their system—but her student account was tied to her old high school email address, which she no longer had access to.
This created an unexpected roadblock. She couldn’t log in. She couldn’t register for the class. And she wasn’t sure how to get help.
When I asked if she had contacted the registrar's office, she said she had tried, but never managed to get through. Time zones, class schedules, and general overwhelm had all gotten in the way. So during our coaching session, she picked up the phone and tried again. I sat with her while she was on hold, chatting and keeping her company. It sounds simple, but this kind of support is often what students need: someone in their corner while they figure out the logistics.
But that wasn’t the only challenge she faced…
The Executive Function Skills Behind the Scenes
What this story really highlights is that college students are expected to be their own executive assistants—handling everything from scheduling to problem-solving to self-advocacy. But few are explicitly taught how to do this.
The skills involved in navigating these situations are executive function skills, housed in the brain’s frontal lobe. In this case, she needed:
Cognitive Flexibility – to shift strategies when her usual approach wasn’t working.
Planning & Prioritization – to figure out what needed to be done first.
Task Initiation & Follow-Through – to actually pick up the phone and call (again).
Self-Advocacy – to explain her situation clearly and ask for what she needed.
Organization & Resource Management – to locate the right office and figure out how to get accommodations at a new school.
Unfortunately, many students don’t even know where to go for help, let alone how to ask for it. Offices like the registrar, disability services, tutoring centers, and counseling services are vital for college success—but they don’t always feel accessible.
That’s where executive function coaching comes in. As coaches, we don’t just tell students what to do. We sit with them—literally and metaphorically—as they do the hard stuff. We help them identify resources, build a plan, and take those small but critical steps that add up to independence.
Wrapping Up the Story
Once we finally got through to the registrar and her account issue was resolved, we moved on to the next challenge: accommodations.
At her primary college, she has a well-established accommodations plan. But now that she’s enrolling at a different school for the summer, she’ll need to go through a whole new process. Another set of emails, another office to locate, another story to tell.
Together, we looked up the disability services department at the community college, figured out what documentation she’d need to submit, and drafted an email to get the process started.
This might not seem like much—but these moments are exactly what teach students how to manage their lives beyond the classroom. Helping students become their own executive assistants is not just about passing a class. It's about building confidence, resilience, and lifelong problem-solving skills.
Final Thought: For Educators
As educators, we play a powerful role in preparing students before they ever set foot on a college campus. While we focus on academic content, we also need to equip our students with the executive function skills they’ll need to manage their time, advocate for themselves, and access support systems when challenges arise.
How do we help students learn to be their own executive assistants before they graduate?
By making executive function skills explicit, teachable, and embedded in everyday tasks—whether it’s walking them through how to email a counselor, modeling how to navigate a school portal, or talking openly about how we manage our own tasks and deadlines.
Let’s set students up not just to get into college—but to succeed once they’re there!
