Creating a Vision Board

Vision boards are great tools to help students chart their educational, personal, and professional goals.  They are simple to make and easy to use. 

Procedure for Creating a Vision Board: 

  1. Creating a vision board can be done during part of a Beyond Access session.  It will be necessary for either you or the Beyond Access student to prep for the activity by bringing in a piece of corrugated cardboard or a piece of poster board.  Magazines, newspapers, and access to a computer and printer are necessary.
  2. Help the student brainstorm a list of their academic goals (e.g., better time management skills, straight A’s, for example) or professional goals (landing their dream job in New York City, for example).  These should be goals that they really want.
  3. Next, help the student find pictures in the magazines, newspapers, or on Google image searches that represent their aspiring goals.
  4. Have the student cut out these images, words, or phrases.
  5. Next, the student can glue or paste the images, words, or phrases onto the cardboard or poster board.
  6. The student should not be afraid to write in dates on the board.  These dates would be dates that they want a specific thing to happen by (e.g., landing their New York City dream job).
  7. The student may wish to create a themed vision board such as one for career, one for school, etc.
  8. Encourage the student to not let others’ opinions get in the way of the material on their boards.  It only brings the student down and discourages them from reaching their potential.  When the student uses the board and their goals become reality, others will most likely, reconsider their opinions about the board.
  9. It sometimes helps students to hear of their Strategy Instructors’ personal anecdotes from a vision board.  You may wish to create one for yourself and see if you would recommend the process to your students—all Strategy Instructors hold different opinions about the process.  Creating one for yourself would help you to develop some anecdotes to share with your Beyond Access students.

    Adapted From: 
    http://collegecandy.com/2009/04/25/vision-boards/