In this episode, Jennifer Kantor Gershberg, Cornell, owner of JG Talks, empowers prospective and current college students with the skills and habits needed for academic and professional success. She shares actionable steps and advice everyone can use in their personal and professional life!
Hear Jennifer’s journey from lawyer to college professor-turned-campus speaker and educational content creator. Through her campus talks and online courses, Jennifer shares invaluable advice for students and parents, cutting through the noise to highlight effective strategies for maximizing connection, communication, networking and time management. She delves into essential study skills, providing insights and actionable steps to give students (or anyone) a significant edge in their academic journey.
Jennifer believes in complete authenticity--being genuine and true to oneself in every aspect, whether it’s making connections, demonstrating competence or pursuing interests--and shares her wisdom and knowledge for obtaining these life skills. She recounts her Tri Delta journey, explains why she loves being a facilitator and leaves us with final words that will help you feel prepared for the unpredictable in an ever-changing world!
This transcript was created using automated technologies and may contain errors.
Hello, Tri Deltas. I am Mindy Tucker, Tri Delta’s Interim CEO, and today I have the pleasure of welcoming Jennifer Gershberg from our Cornell Alpha Beta chapter.
She received her law degree from George Washington Law School. She's a professor turned campus speaker, educational content creator. We're going to get into so much today. Through her campus talks and online courses,
she helps perspective and current college students build confidence and competence by teaching them the skills and perspectives they need for academic and professional success, which I love this. I love this.
She was on the faculty at the University of Maryland, where she received numerous teaching awards, including the highly coveted Alan Crow Award for Teaching Excellence.
She's an overachiever, obviously. We'll probably talk about that a little bit. She has been featured as a guest on, get a lot of this, multiple podcasts including the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
We might need to talk about that a little bit. Margaret Joseph's Caviar Dreams, Tuna Fish Budget, and now the Tri Delta podcast. That's just such an array of podcasts that you've been on.
So we're so glad to have you with us today to talk about these young people and how we can empower and equip them. Jennifer, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
So I want to jump in first to Cornell and Tri Delta and tell us how you, what drew you to Tri Delta at Cornell. How did you end up in the chapter there? I knew actually the first day of recruitment that I wanted to be on Tried Delta because the first person I met I clicked with so naturally.
And we're still in touch, by the way, which is great. We're still good friends that we don't live in the same place. She made me feel incredibly comfortable. We just hit it off.
It was just luck. I mean, there was no magic to how we were matched. She just picked me up at the door and the rest was history. And I liked everyone else too, of course. But she was really,
she really stood out to me. So many of us point to those, that one person who drew us in and made us feel comfortable and sort of gave us that home and tried out to.
Absolutely. I mean, she drew me in initially. And then, of course, you know, the friendship seemed very genuine. I knew I wanted a very authentic sisterhood,
nice women. I just wanted a place that I could make really good friends and feel at home. Yeah. And that's exactly what I found there.
And what did your collegiate experience look like? Leadership positions. What did you, what did it look like for you in college? Maybe it's not surprising given what I have done since that I was academic development.
I actually don't have a good reason. I'm going to be very transparent because I like to keep it. We're like 20, 21 years old. Do we have a good reason for some of the things we do at that age? Yeah, no,
I have not. I mean, my reason is I was an English major. And so what do you do? You go to law school. I'm sort of half kidding about that, but really not. I knew I wanted to continue my education.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And I felt that law school would give me really good transferable skills to position me no matter what I decided to do.
And I have no regrets. I actually practiced law for years before stepping back and then became a professor where I taught business law for almost a decade.
And now I'm a campus speaker. So, you know, one thing led to another in as it goes, totally unpredictable ways. And, you know,
I'm sorry. So I know at one point in your career, you decided to kind of step back from work and take a break. And what did you learn about yourself when you did that?
Well, the circumstances were tough. tough. My first child had some delays and I was really concerned and thought I needed to take a step back from the law firm and manage his interventions at home.
And what it taught me was, A, that life is totally unpredictable. We don't know what's going to be ever, but it also taught me that I had the skills I needed to successfully help him.
And he is now, he will be off to college this fall. It's, it's, I mean, it takes my breath away. So, you know, it taught me that skills transfer,
no matter what our challenges are, and that I had what it took inside me to address those challenges. You know,
so many of us have that story of, like, just not, things don't always go as you expect them to and having to make different choices about career and family along the way after being told your whole life,
you know, you can have it all, you can do it all and all the things, but you can't really all at the same time. Right. I think so many of us share that experience in different ways of having to make those choices that are so hard to make.
It's really hard. And, you know, when you're young, you just have no idea and you feel invincible and you don't think certain things will happen to you. And things are just not predictable in any sense.
But that's, you know, it can be a source of anxiety for some, but it's also a little bit freeing in a sense. It's like, okay, you don't have to plan out every step because life has a way of not going as expected,
no matter how stronger plans are anyway. Yeah. Oh, to be able to plan everything out, right? Yes. So it's just never going to go that way.
How did you make the transition from law to speaking? Well, I made the transition from law to teaching to speaking. And the teaching was a really important middle step there.
So I decided when I wanted to go back to work, I always knew I'd go back to work. I just wasn't sure in what capacity. I didn't want to return to a law firm,
but I wanted to take what I loved about the practice of law and leave behind what I didn't love. So what I really most enjoyed about law was the research,
the writing, the collaboration, the strategy work, working with many different people. And I didn't love how adversarial it was because I was doing litigation.
So by definition, it's totally adversarial. And that's not my, you know, personality so much. So I thought teaching would be a really excellent way of,
again, taking what I had enjoyed and leaving behind the rest. So I got myself a job teaching at Maryland and worked my way up and became associate chair of my department and,
you know, a pretty established member of the faculty there and absolutely loved it. And what I loved most was the students connecting with students and helping them and teaching them.
And I taught in the business school at Maryland, but business laws are required course there for all undergrads in the business school. So I got really a whole range.
I taught about 400 students, undergraduate students, every year, and got to know a lot of them well. And it was always gratifying every semester, people had come to me and say, oh,
my God, I want to go to law school now. Like, that was not in the plan. And I'd have to sort of, you know, walk them through that and assure them that it's actually okay to deviate from the plan.
Right. So it's great. It's just, it's nice. And I'm still in touch with many of my students, which is great. And many of them have gone and attend now law school,
which is... Love that. Your motivation comes from these... It does. It does. And the reason I left is that I wanted to have more of an impact.
So I wanted to reach students outside of my classroom. And in order to do that, I really needed to leave because the administrative responsibilities and other stuff,
it just didn't give me enough time to have the impact I wanted to have. So I still maintain a really strong relationship with the University of Maryland.
They have hired me on many occasions to come back and give talks to the students, which I've loved. And I've done some Panhellenic work there as well,
which is really nice and gone to the Tried Alt chapter. And that's always really fun. But I wanted to do more and reach students really throughout the country. So I thought this would be the best way of doing it.
So that's what I do now. I love it. So go ahead. I was just going to say, you know, post -pandemic, I realized students were really struggling in ways that I hadn't seen.
honestly what motivated me to want to have more of an impact because I thought if I can teach them instead of teaching business law, I can teach the skills they need to be competent and effective and give them the academic and professional tools they need for authentic confidence.
And that's what they do. No matter what career they choose. That's exactly right. So that was the impetus for your business, JG Talk. Yes. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the like the course or courses that you offer?
What kind of support do students get as part of your services? Well, so I work in, my business model is that I give talks to groups of students.
I don't do one -on -one live work, but I give, I go two campuses or organizations can hire me to speak with and engage with their students.
So I've given talks at high schools, colleges, for sororities, for student athletes at Division I schools, because they have a lot of time constraints and demands and need some help with managing all of that.
So depending on who's hiring me and what they want me to talk about. That is what I do. I teach them the skills they need academically and professionally.
I do a lot of work teaching people how to leverage their experiences professionally, how to build their networks, how to be service -minded and confident at the same time because I actually think those two things are so closely related.
You know, when we see ourselves giving value to others, we feel more confident. We hold our heads higher, right? Because we need the value we bring. And it's a great way of networking as well.
So I work with students a lot on that. And then you mentioned courses. I have launched a Welcome to College boot camp online course, which is a self -paced 52 -minute,
like short and sweet boot camp containing all my best academic tips for incoming college students. So honestly,
I think every incoming, every college student would benefit. It's really, it breaks down time management and college study skills, all the active study strategies that work,
overcoming test anxiety, how to approach exams, how to approach exams, You know,
because I had had a lot of inquiries about, well, do you do any one -on -one work? So that's my way of sort of reaching individuals, even though I don't do live.
Right. I thought that that would be a good way to be more accessible. So through your experience, you have one heading to college. Yeah. I'm two years away from head to college,
which I can't really get my head around at the moment. It's pretty wild. And then I have twin girls who are going into 10th grade. Okay. All right. Yeah, we're in it.
I'm going into eighth and going into 11th. So got out a little bit. But it's starting to get real. And I know we see them and we see them in their high school years. And then I have a chance to see what we see with women in college because we have,
you know, 20 ,000 members across the country, across North America, who we see what the struggles are. What are you seeing as the biggest struggles with young people right now as they sort of make transitions and think about their future?
Well, there are a few things. I think communication skills have really declined largely as a result of social media and the phones. I mean, they're so used to communicating by a text and on social media and it's,
you know, it's not, it's not a substitute for real connection and it doesn't teach them to communicate properly. So that's one challenge.
And that that plays into their mental health too, because a lot of them feel alone. No matter, you know, they could have thousands of followers, but not any real authentic connections and they get depressed and feel alone.
So that's very concerning. In terms of the academic skills that I saw, certainly time management is a big problem in college.
You know, students haven't been tested. Going into college, they haven't been tested yet with respect to time management because in high school, every minute is accounted for they have parents often sort of riding them scheduling them micromanaging their schedules i don't say that in a judgmental way at all it's just they they're managing their schedules um and in college you know how it is you can have a day where
there's like no class or one class or two classes and the rest of the day is free and six hours of TikTok later, they're freaking out because they've accomplished nothing,
you know. Not ready for the next day or their test the next day. Yeah. Right. So that's a huge problem. And they're not efficient because of the cell phones.
I mean, the cell phones are with them constantly and then they don't, they don't, the focus is not there often for the deeper thinking and higher level critical thinking work that's needed.
So those are some challenges. it.
What do you think as a parent, what advice would you give to other parents, knowing what you know, seeing what you see in your path and your time with these students?
What do we need to know as parents? Well, I tell parents a few things because I do parent talks as well, like PTA talks as well. So there are a few pieces of advice I would give.
So first of all, I mean, with respect to the phones, and I know this is hard because I have three teens, so I totally get it. It's important to try to establish some reasonable boundaries around cell phone use when possible.
They should put their phones on Do Not Disturb when they're doing homework. They should, you know, there are things phones should not be allowed at the dinner table. Things like this,
I think, are helpful. I think that it's important that parents work with their kids on self -advocacy, particularly when they're dealing with teachers.
So this is a big one because I've been a professor and I know how students talk to professors and I, you know, I was well respected, but there is a huge range in terms of their skill level and professionalism when dealing with a professor.
So certainly giving them the length. for real connection.
So encouraging them to get together with peers based on me. And they're real friends and communicate, you know,
sort of old school. Because we're old now, apparently. So old. There's nothing that makes me feel older than having teens. You know, it's like,
it's crazy. helping them develop good time management and organizational habits, you know, encouraging the use of a calendar and just some basic things like that can really go a long way.
And finally, I would definitely suggest trying to, to every extent possible, support your kids' academic schedules when they are in high school and college.
And what I mean by this is don't schedule family vacations when you know your kids have exams. Even if you know they can make it up.
It's not a good look. It's not really appropriate unless it can't be avoided. If there's like a family wedding or something, you do it.
It probably causes stress to them. It causes so much stress to the students and it doesn't reflect well on the students. And you don't want that for your kids. So all those things are things,
you know, we can think about as parents. So as high school kids preparing for college, what do they need to be thinking about? What do they need to, you know, things have changed so much, I feel like.
Our test scores in or test scores out. There's all pieces of like, what am I, what am I looking at is I try to prepare for college. What should I be thinking about if I'm a junior or senior? Okay. So there are a few things.
I know the stress of college admissions is like out of control, but I would remind high school students that what you do in college matters much more than where you do it.
Where you go to college is of secondary importance, truly. What you do there, how resourceful you are, how much you take advantage of the opportunities and form good relationships,
all those things matter so much more than where you go. So that's the first thing. I would also say what has worked for you in high school in terms of studying and scheduling is not likely going to do it in college.
There are just increased demands, higher rigor. It's a whole different animal. So, you know, it's really important that you learn some active study strategies and do some deliberate time management so that you won't be totally,
you know, lost when you get to college. I would also say you should go into college knowing and reminding yourself as often as possible that life is unpredictable.
I mean, this is where our conversation started, but it's so important. And no one thinks about it at that age. You know, I tell students all the time this message because I think it is so important.
And really internalizing that message helps reduce a lot of anxiety and they're all feeling anxious. I think it's like one third of college students now have an anxiety disorder diagnosed.
60 % of college students have a mental health diagnosis. The reality is is not good. And so,
you know, whatever we can tell ourselves and tell our students to help them be open to all the different possibilities, I think will be helpful.
A lot of them are intolerant of ambiguity students are. So, you know, talking about that, saying, look,
like, there are times where there is not a clear And that's okay. A decision and that's okay. And the world will keep spinning,
you know? It's interesting. Some data come in recently about this generation that's coming into college and their need to do all the things that get them to where they need to go and that they're like,
I'm just focused on doing all the right things and this will all lead to this thing that I, and It's so hard to explain to them that that's not how you can do all the right things. It may not end up, you may not end up in that place.
That's right. You may not, you may figure out you don't want to be in that place. Like it's just not as concrete as they all want to make it or want it to be. Right. And what I say to them is you should still do your very best.
Do all the right things. And then you'll be positioned. No matter what life throws at you, you'll handle it and you'll thrive and you'll figure it out. You know, it's like it's not an excuse to not do anything.
It's just, you know, this realization and appreciation of life's uncertainties, which can be very hard for kids that age. Yeah. Or even adults.
So it's true. Those are sort of the categories of, you know, advice I would give to high school students preparing for college.
Yeah. And how is it different for if you were going to give advice to college students heading out into the world? How does the advice change? So I,
when I talk to college students, I focus more on what I mentioned earlier about building your network and helping others.
So I teach students how to build their personal and professional networks. And I say to them, you need to give more than you receive.
You need to listen more than you talk. Listening well and trying to help others with no sort of self interest involved with no ulterior motive is the best way to network truly.
It helps. It sounds, it really is. I mean, networking is done one relationship at a time. It is not about dropping names.
It is not about giving everyone and their mother your resume. It's just not about that. It's not about working a room. It is about connecting authentically with one person at a time.
And it's a lifelong process. I tell, I tell this story a lot when it comes to talking about networking. But I literally got my job on a presidential campaign in 1998 because of five years before that relationships I had been building and people I had been helping it wasn't me it was not me gay like it was just this work I had been doing with these reporters over time so that when someone came and asked them who
should I hire to do this job they all said me yeah I couldn't have known in 1992 when I started this that that was going to be the outcome in 1998 but it was and you're so spot on right that it's just got to not be about you and about helping others and developing the relationships and it does come back.
You think, wow, like, I have a lot to offer. And it makes you see your own value. Yeah. So I'm so big on that. And that is what I really,
really try to impress upon college students. I also advise them to control what they can control and accept what they cannot control. You know,
and that's hard. It's hard for all of us type A control freaks. I'm like working throughout myself. We all are right to some degree. I mean, it's hard when you want everything to go a certain way.
But that is not life. And so there are things we can control and it's up to us to do so. And then the rest you have to accept and go with the flow.
And as I said earlier, I think developing your skills is so important for confidence because it will position you no matter what comes your way,
no matter what challenges are in front of you, you'll know you have what it takes to get through it or to find the people who can help you because a lot of times we need help and that is okay.
It's okay to ask for it. Yep. I'm so glad to hear all of this. What I'm most glad about is that you also get to have such an impact on our Tridalta collegiate women.
So I want to talk to you a little bit about like what your Tridalta life looks like today, professionally and personally. I know you're a facilitator for us, which,
why don't you talk a little bit about that experience. I don't know a lot of people know that that's even an opportunity out there, but I love it that it's offered for people just like you who are so dynamic and skilled to come in and share your passion with our collegiate women.
I really loved it and I was thrilled to learn about it because I hadn't been, I didn't know about it until a friend of a friend of a friend from my chapter told me about it and recommended that I do it.
So I did it last year in April of 2023, and I loved it. I had the cohort of chapter presidents,
and I really enjoyed my co -facilitator. And actually, this is great. She was a PhD student, I remember, in New York and was talking to me about needing someone to co -author with.
And I happen to have a friend of Maryland who was looking for a Ph .D. student. There you go. So it's great. It's like this type of thing. There are just opportunities to help people at every turn.
And it's really gratifying to be able to do that. So the facilitator role was great. With my chapter, I serve as a pansy pal.
So that's fun. And I actually, I've done a couple of talks just informally for my chapter over Zoom.
And one of the members contacted me and asked if I would be her mentor because she's applying for law school. So I'm now her mentor and helping her through that. And I was really impressed that she just reached I was thinking,
good for her. If you're going to ask, of course I will. Yeah. And then at Maryland, I have a lot of students who are tri -delta's.
So they invited me to do a resume workshop at the house. And I did that. And then it's funny, I saw a number of them at CLC when I was facilitating. So we all got coffee together and we're laughing about how funny that was because,
you know, I was their professor and also seeing them in Dallas at the sorority event. So it was funny. A lot of people, I hear a lot of people talk about this sort of lifetime journey in Tridelta and how we're always learning along the way.
Have you had any additional learning or development that you've gained from staying involved and being active like you are in so many fronts with our members. So,
you know, I developed a number of the skills when I was in the chapter. You know, being academic development chair, I developed skills.
And I always tell people, I mean, sororities, if you look at chapters, they're like branches of a big office, you know,
it's a business. That's true. Yeah. And I tell people that's great. It's a really good reason to stay and stay involved because you're getting so much professional experience just existing in that chapter.
You're dealing with so many different personalities and external constraints and internal ambitions and all of these things that businesses contend with every single day.
And you're, you're learning the skills to navigate all of that by being part of the sorority. So, you know, those are some skills I've learned as well.
And then I really just benefited from meeting so many people, even as an adult. I guess I was technically an adult then, but like a real adult, you know as an alum you know it's still it's still great to be able to connect and give back and and work with people from the organization so I would say all of those things and I you know on a personal level I'm still really good friends with many from my chapter so
that's so nice yeah so what's next for you. What do you have going on professionally or personally? Where are you headed? Well, I would love to write a book. I have the outline written,
but I have to sit down and do it. With all my tips, I mean, I want to make everything I'm saying as accessible to people as possible.
So I think a book is another way to do it. I will likely develop more forces. So that is another plan I have.
And more talking, more speaking and more trying to be helpful to people. Yeah. I love it. Where can people find you? They heard your podcast here.
They want to get more. Where do they find Jennifer? Oh, I love it. Okay. So my website www .j .j .g .org. So j -G -T -A -L -K -S .org.
And my Instagram is J -G -Talksorg. That's the Instagram handle. And the Instagram, I'd really encourage students to follow because I use it exclusively as a way of giving free advice.
I just give tips all the time on it. So there's a number of. Make your son. Make my son. Sign up. Make your son. Exactly. But the Instagram's a good resource.
I mean, it's not as in depth as my talks. You know, it can't be. But there's a lot there. So it's great that you do that. Yeah. Well, I can't thank you enough for joining us today.
And for all that you do for Tri Delta’s members, you're doing so much. I love it. Thank you for your service and your volunteerism and just for being willing to come and share your wisdom with us today.
It was really great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. It was great. All right. I know that was really helpful for a lot of our listeners to take a listen into.
Hopefully you'll go after her Instagram or website, check it out. we all have people in our lives, whether it's us or other parents or students that could benefit from her knowledge and our wisdom.
Changing the subject, does everybody like summer and wine? I hope so, because now you can sip a little wine and support Tri Delta’s Foundation with our very own perpetual Napa Valley wine.
And right now for summer, we have our newest release of our Delta Love Rose. And it's on sale through our special partnership with Fairwinds Estate Winery, they donate 20 % of the purchase of our wine to Tri Delta’s Foundation.
So we hope you'll all grab a bottle of the new rosé at perpetual napa .com. I hope you will like, subscribe, and rate our podcast. We love those five -star ratings,
even though we have three stars in our Crescent. Thanks everyone for joining us today. Until next time, Delta Love.