WELCOME TO THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!

Welcome to the Time of Your Life! 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a new book by Dr. Will Keim for the orientation, education, inspiration, retention and graduation of students entering or in college.

The book has 21 lessons organized in four stages:

ARRIVE:
Scholarship, Writing, Speaking, Character, Relationships

SURVIVE:
Stress, Freedom, Health, Eating Disorders, Letting Go

THRIVE:
Peacemaking, Diversity, Service, Spirituality, Financial Literacy

ASPIRE HIGHER:
Leadership, Citizenship, Sportsmanship, Trees of Self-Realization and Self-Defeat

The lessons are presented in a workbook format, providing experiential as well as conceptual learning.

NOTE: The book can be customized to have an institution-specific cover and orientation information (consolidating into a single book results in significant cost savings). Ole Miss was the first to do this.

BUZZ ABOUT THE BOOK AND WILL

“Welcome to the Time of Your Life! is an outstanding orientation and retention resource written by a person who knows students as well as anyone in our nation! This book will serve as a valuable tool to help students take control of their lives in college and beyond. We recommend it to every student, their parents, and their university’s first year reading program.”

Dr. Tom Hill and Liz Kurt
Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of New Student Programs
Iowa State University

“Will, about your book Welcome To The Time of Your Life!, it’s fabulous! Our Provost
loves it! Thank you for providing us with a great resource. We are using it this year in our
Freshman Year Experience Course.”

Dewey Knight, Coordinator
Freshman Year Experience Program
The University of Mississippi

“Dr. Will Keim speaks to our new students six times during the Summer Orientation
and Advising Program. He touches the hearts of students at California’s most ethnically
diverse campus with his honesty, love of students, sense of humor. We utilize Welcome To
The Time of Your Life! for all of our incoming students and it is having a huge positive
impact on our retention and our campus morale!”

Mark Hartley, M.A.
Director of Student Life & Development
California State University, San Bernardino

“I was honored to contribute to the Diversity Perspectives Chapter of Welcome To The
Time of Your Life!” Dr. Keim has presented at our college to rave reviews and his ability
to inspire students to achieve success in college and beyond is amazing! This book has
the power to inform, inspire, and empower students to make life-giving character-driven
decisions. I hope every student in our nation will read it and act on it.”

Tondaleya G. Jackson, M.Ed.
Director of Service Learning and Leadership Development
Benedict College, South Carolina

“The college experience is at once a personal story, told millions of times, but also one reflecting our collective national consciousness, given the link between higher education, economic prosperity, and a civil society. It is thus fortunate that Dr. Keim offers this valuable resource to today’s college students who represent America’s future.”

Daniel J. Hurley, Ph.D.
Director of State Relations and Policy Analysis,
American Association of State Colleges
And Universities, Washington. D.C.

“I am living testament to the power of Will’s work.”

Dr. Walter Kimbrough
President
Philander Smith College

“In my more than 30 years as campus chief executive or chief academic officer, I have not
met anyone who knows more about motivating today’s students, staff, and faculty than
does Dr. Will Keim.”

Dr. Ronald Eaglin,
President Emeritus
Morehead State University, Kentucky

“You have a unique ability to relate to students that is incredible in that it gives you the
power of a peer but the wisdom of an elder.”

D. Kuh, Student
Whitman College, Washington

“Will Keim is one of the best speakers I have heard in holding the attention of college
students and coaches today. He is relevant, humorous, empathetic, knowledgeable and
entertaining. He is always welcome at our school and in my clubhouse. Will is the best!

Patrick Murphy
Head Softball Coach
The University of Alabama

WORDS FROM WILL

“Welcome To The Time Of Your Life!” is an extension of my vocational calling as an Educator. Dr. Martin Buber wrote:

“Education worthy of the name is essentially the education of character.”

Education in Buber’s view, and mine, leads students out from the darkness of ignorance, self-absorption, and cynicism, and into the light of knowledge, response ability, and hope. Buber proposed:

“To educate character we do not need moral geniuses. We do
need men and women deeply committed to the creation of
authentic interpersonal relationships that prepare students to
leave campus and go out into the world and participate in
the creation of genuine human community.”

Education then, while personal, has at its core the implied assumption that the real good, the true purpose of learning, is to serve the larger good. My greatest hope is that you, the reader, will internalize this truth and act on it. I wrote this book to inspire you to look beyond yourself and I wrote it because students asked me to write it.

WORDS FROM KEVIN (The Editor)

I have been a close friend of Dr. Keim’s for over 25 years. We both live in Corvallis, Oregon. Our children are close in age and are close/best friends. Our families have shared many vacations, holidays, tragedies and triumphs. I have had a very successful career as a chemical engineer, bringing cost-effective solutions to difficult environmental problems and transformational improvement to manufacturing processes – moving towards enhanced performance, profitability and sustainability. Dr. Will Keim has had an amazing positive impact on my family through some incredibly difficult times, and I have seen first-hand the significant and widespread impact that he has made on students across the nation. He has been a one-on-one, life changing crisis support contact to students many times. He has travelled on a magnitude that would measure significant on a NASA scale to orientation, retention, education, and emergency visits to colleges and universities in all 50 states and every Canadian province. He envisioned/created/delivered an amazing 1990 satellite-linked televideo conference that brought nearly 200,000 students from over 125 campuses together in auditoriums across North America for more than two hours to hear presentations on critical college life issues (Dr. Keim served as emcee and lead speaker along with ten college life issue national experts).

I am teamed up with Dr. Will Keim to bring positive change to the lives of college students in times where it is needed more than ever, and when resources are tight. I believe Welcome to the Time of Your Life! and Dr. Keim’s 21 lesson-specific video segments provide a highly affordable resource that can provide immediate transformational impact on students and life-long lessons for success. We believe this book to be the best available. The 21 videos scheduled for completion this year will provide the extra bonus of Dr. Keim’s spoken words and wisdom.