Student Series: Seven Years Later, Coaching Finally Clicked
Welcome to Episode 7 of the Academic Coaching Podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by my former client, Frankie Trevor, to talk about his journey from struggling in high school to making the Dean’s Honor Roll and becoming a presidential scholar in college. Enjoy this episode in one of two ways:
▶️ Watch — Prefer video? Watch the full conversation on YouTube
🎧 Listen — Perfect for your commute, workout, or whenever you're on the go:
You'll Hear Us Talk About
Frankie's "begrudging acceptance" of needing help and the shame he felt around his grades and asking for support
Looking at his online grade portal together without judgment, even when it showed zeros and missing work
The planner and "first steps" strategies that eventually became part of how Frankie manages college work
The one-page planner, binder system, and other organizational tools Gretchen used with Frankie in high school
How the Study Cycle, Hone It Notes, and creating a "survival sheet" became useful study strategies later in college
About Frankie Trevor
Frankie Trevor is a senior at California State University, Sacramento, where he currently holds honor roll standing. He is preparing to take the LSAT and plans to pursue law school after taking a gap year. Frankie worked with Gretchen Wegner as an academic coaching client during his junior year of high school, where they worked on organizational systems, study strategies, and self-advocacy skills that he later carried into college.
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Apple Podcast: Student Series: Seven Years Later, Coaching Finally Clicked
Questions This Episode Answers
What was Frankie's academic situation when coaching started? Frankie began coaching at the start of junior year of high school with a 1.39 GPA, low grades since freshman year, and a lot of missing work. He knew he was capable of more; the gap between his intelligence and his grades left him feeling ashamed rather than motivated.
Was Frankie eager to start coaching? No. He describes his acceptance of coaching as begrudging; he wanted to succeed but resisted the idea that he needed help. That resistance didn't disappear once coaching began — it eased gradually, as small wins (like a 3.7 partway through a semester) started to shift how he felt about looking at his own grades.
What made it hard for Frankie to look at his own progress? Shame. He'd dim his laptop screen so classmates couldn't see his grades, and at one point learned to edit a webpage's code to fake a screenshot of better grades in case anyone looked over his shoulder. He was willing to review his real grades with his coach, but not with peers or, aside from his parents, almost anyone else.
What two setbacks hit right after coaching began? A month into coaching, Frankie got a concussion playing club soccer and was out of school for about six weeks. The following month, he was in a car accident. Both happened within the first two months of starting coaching, compounding an already difficult semester.
What coaching tools and strategies stuck with him long-term? Two in particular: a one-page weekly planner (due dates on one side, daily to-dos on the other) and the "first step" technique — forcing himself to take one small action on a task he was avoiding, even if it didn't lead to finishing the whole thing. He also credits a binder system that consolidated separate class materials into one place, which cut down on losing things.
Did Frankie use these tools consistently during high school? Not really. He rarely filled out the planner between sessions, and he never adopted the school-issued paper planner at all — keeping track of a physical object was hard for him. The habit didn't fully click until college, when he built a Notion planner on his own, seven years after first practicing the skill in coaching.
What's a "survival sheet," and why does Frankie prefer that term to "cheat sheet"? A survival sheet (what coaching called a "Hone It Note") is a condensed, one-page summary of everything learned for a unit or class, often used as a study tool or an allowed reference sheet during exams. Frankie credits a college professor with reframing "cheat sheet" as "survival sheet" — the exercise isn't cheating, it's a legitimate strategy for consolidating and retaining information.
Did study strategies from coaching show measurable results? Yes. In one class, Frankie's grades on a series of math tests went from an F to a B to an A to a 98 on the final — progress he attributes partly to building his own "cheat sheet" for each test.
What's Frankie's academic path since high school? He started at an engineering program in Oklahoma, struggled with six lab-heavy classes and mental health challenges while away from home, and left after one semester as COVID hit. After a period at community college — where he graduated with honors — he transferred to Sacramento State, made Dean's Honor Roll his first semester and Presidential Honor Roll the next, and switched his major to criminal justice. He's now planning a gap year, the LSAT, and law school.
What advice does Frankie have for academic and executive function coaches? Don't be judgmental, and don't give up on a student who isn't showing results yet. Progress can take far longer than a coach — or the student — hopes for, and that delay isn't necessarily a failure on either side.
What advice does he have for parents? Prioritize a student's mental health and wellbeing over their grades or perceived intelligence. Frankie says knowing his parents cared about him as a person, not just his performance, made him want to succeed and made him prouder when he did.
What does Frankie wish he'd understood sooner about asking for help? That needing help doesn't mean something is wrong with you. He reframes it as no different from going to class and learning from a professor: everyone draws on other people's knowledge, and asking a coach for support is the same kind of exchange.