Dev

Dev was an International Baccalaureate® (IB) diploma student in his 12th grade from Gurugram in India.

He was interested in pursuing a post-secondary education in Canada, so he connected with a Youthfully coach to receive guidance in figuring universities would be the best fit for him and ensure he had developed the skills necessary to succeed in his university applications.

In the initial discovery session with his Youthfully coach, Jon, Dev walked through his personal background and academic history.

He was inspired by the numerous entrepreneurs within his family and had developed impressive analytical skills through both his education and participation in extracurricular activities related to financial literacy.

Most notably, Dev founded an e-waste collection organization called Green Future, which facilitated door-to-door collection and environmentally friendly disposal of e-waste.

Given Dev’s passion and skills, it became clear that pursuing an education in business and finance was a strong fit.

With Jon, Dev collaboratively put together a prioritized list of his preferred business schools, taking into consideration factors such as the reputation of their business program, the school’s international community and culture of the city.

Identifying and Actioning on Skill Development Opportunities

Dev and Jon worked together to identify the skills that each of Dev’s top university selections valued the most in admissions, while also ensuring these skills were applicable to Dev’s longer term career ambitions in obtaining a job in finance.

Dev had accumulated a strong breadth of experience across numerous academic, athletics and extracurricular activities, with many notable experiences that exemplified his leadership and critical-thinking skills, but there was a clear opportunity to further develop Dev’s written and verbal communication skills, particularly in his ability to communicate with professionalism and clarity without losing any authenticity.

To start, Jon provided some frameworks to support Dev initially in structuring his thoughts that Dev could apply when he’s answering a question or telling a story. To continuously test and reassess Dev’s skills in these areas, Jon facilitated multiple live mock interviews and activities, with questions and prompts aligned to what Dev might expect in job and university applications to allow

Dev to practice his skills and receive live feedback. At the end of each of these sessions, the two of them collaboratively set realistic goals for Dev to accomplish in between live coaching sessions based on the feedback Dev received that day.

Putting these Skills Into Practice

After many hours of practice, Dev’s storytelling, interviewing and professional writing skills dramatically improved.

In his writing, he was able to write about complex topics in a concise manner, while simultaneously showcasing his passion and excitement for the topics he was writing about. In terms of his verbal communication, he demonstrated much more comfort in answering interview questions and telling stories, being able to speak with confidence and professionalism about various topics, without losing his authentic voice.

Dev applied these new skills to his university applications and found incredible success. He received offer letters to attend 11 premier universities across both Canada and the UK, as well as multiple offers for major entrance scholarships, with some being worth upwards of $100,000.

However, based on some of the upfront evaluation Dev had done for these universities, Dev ultimately chose to accept an offer to enroll in McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management Bachelor of Commerce Program.

Included within his offer was 30 transfer credits along with approximately $40,000 worth of major entrance scholarships, including the Erin and Matt Giffen Entrance Scholarship, a scholarship awarded to select outstanding newly admitted students joining McGill’s Bachelor of Commerce Program.