Cornerstone Building On Your Best - Concise

The Concise Edition of the popular Cornerstone: Building On Your Best is designed to help unprepared first-year students become more academically prepared and to help all first-year students adjust to college life. Material and activities in the text empower students to make responsible choices in college and in life. It shows, rather than tells―its real-life vignettes and self-reflective exercises both engage students and help them look at themselves and their lives through different eyes. The text promotes student growth, change, and responsible decision-making―whether the student is looking at his/her own study habits or making difficult decisions about career goals. It maintains a sharp focus on motivation, values , and diversity; provides thorough coverage of “nuts and bolts” issues near and dear to students (studying, test-taking, and succeeding in college and in life); and discusses important new ideas about critical thinking skills, learning styles, and cooperative learning.

The Concise Edition, 2/E consists of 12 of the 16 chapters in the full version of Cornerstone―focusing on core study, presentation, and goal-setting skills. (The full version includes 4 additional chapters on relationships, wellness, stress, and responsibility).

RHONDA MONTGOMERY is Associate Professor in the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has been teaching in higher education for 16 years. Rhonda has been responsible for developing and incorporating first-year orientation/study skills curricula into existing introductory courses and programs.

Currently, Rhonda is teaching a first-year orientation/study skills course as well as hospitality education. Because she believes in the holistic development of first-year students, she volunteers to teach first-year students each semester and uses a variety of experiences such as field trips, exercises, and case studies to aid in their retention and success.

Rhonda is the co-author of six texts including three student success texts, Cornerstone, Capstone: Succeeding Beyond College (2000), and 365 Things I Learned in College (Allyn & Bacon, 1996). She has also presented at The National Conference on the Freshman Year Experience and spoken extensively to first-year students and educators about building success into their curriculum.

PATRICIA G. MOODY is Dean of the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management at the University of South Carolina, where she has been a faculty member for over 20 years. An award-winning educator, Pat has been honored as Distinguished Educator of the Year at her college, Collegiate Teacher of the Year by the National Business Education Association, and has been a top-five finalist for the Amoco Teaching Award at the University of South Carolina. In 1994, she was awarded the prestigious John Robert Gregg Award, the highest honor in her field of over 100,000 educators.

Pat frequently speaks to multiple sections of first-year students, incorporating personal development content from her trademark speech, "Fly Like an Eagle," as well as numerous strategies for building self-esteem and for achieving success in college. She also works with first-year classes on subjects such as goal setting, priority management, and diversity.

A nationally known motivation speaker, Pat has spoken in 42 states, has been invited to speak in several foreign countries, and frequently keynotes national and regional conventions. She has presented "Fly Like and Eagle" to thousands of people from Olympic athletes to corporate executives to high school students. Her topics include Thriving in the Changing Corporate Environment, Perception is Everything: Powerful Communications Strategies, Gold Star Customer Service, and The Great Balancing Act: Managing Time at Home and at Work.

An avid sports fan, she follows Gamecock athletics and chairs the University of South Carolina Athletics Advisory Committee.

ROBERT M. SHERFIELD has been teaching public speaking, theater, and study skills and working with first-year orientation programs for over 18 years. Currently, he is Co-Director of the Faculty Center of Learning and Teaching, and a professor at the Community College of Southern Nevada, teaching study skills, orientation courses, and drama.

Robb's extensive work with student success programs includes experience with the design and implementation of these programs―including one program that was presented at the International Conference on the Freshman Year Experience in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Some of Robb's responsibilities have also included serving as Coordinator of University 101, Director of Student and Cultural Activities, Director of Orientation Programs, and Director of Student Media at the University of South Carolina at Union. He also codesigned a student success course at Florence Darlington Technical College. For the past 3 years, Robb has traveled extensively throughout the United States assisting colleges, universities, and professors build, enhance, or revise their first-year orientation programs.

In addition to his coauthorship of Cornerstone: Building on Your Best, he has also co-authored Roadways to Success (Allyn & Bacon, 1997), Capstone: Succeeding Beyond College (2000), and the trade book, 365 Things I Learned in College (Allyn & Bacon, 1996).

Robb's interest in student success began with his own first year in college. Low SAT scores and a mediocre high school ranking denied him entrance into college. With the help of a success program, Robb was granted entrance into college, and went on to earn a doctorate and become a college faculty member. He has always been interested in the social, academic, and cultural development of students, and sees this book as his way to contribute to the positive development of first-year students across the nation.