Getting In Is Not Enough: The Real Skills Students Need for Life

Date and Time:

Nov 17 2026 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Location:

Regina Dominican High School, O'Shaughnessy Theater

Address:

701 Locust Rd., Wilmette, IL 60091

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Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).

NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

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Ana Homayoun

Founder of Green Ivy Educational Consulting and founder and executive director of Luminaria Learning Solutions

Heidi Stevens

Chicago-based writer and Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health

Getting In Is Not Enough: The Real Skills Students Need for Life

Book Giveaway: FAN is giving away copies of Getting In Is Not Enough to attendees, while supplies last.

For decades, families have been taught that getting into a good college is the key to a successful life. The admissions frenzy that follows leaves many students anxious, demoralized, and, once they arrive on campus, unprepared. Now that artificial intelligence can write essays, solve problems, and build schedules in seconds, the skills that matter most are the ones no transcript measures.

In Getting In Is Not Enough: The New Blueprint for Success Beyond Grades, Test Scores, and College Admission, academic advisor Ana Homayoun argues that acceptance is only the beginning. Drawing on more than 25 years of work with students and stories from her own students past and present, she shows how foundational executive functioning skills help young people build their own blueprints for success. Readers learn how to strengthen organization and follow-through, build social capital through genuine connection, identify their personal energy patterns to create systems that last, and develop the adaptability that turns setbacks into growth. Originally published as Erasing the Finish Line, the book has been retitled and updated with a new introduction on how AI is reshaping both school and work.

Homayoun is the founder of Green Ivy Educational Consulting and founder and executive director of Luminaria Learning Solutions. She will be in conversation with Heidi Stevens, Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health. She writes a weekly nationally syndicated column, “Balancing Act.” Stevens has been a FAN board member since 2021.

This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded but not live streamed and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.

NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.