Bobi L. Swan currently serves as Dean of Admission for Concordia University.  Ms. Swan’s career in the field of recruitment, marketing, and admissions started at Concordia in 1989 where she worked for five years. In 1994 Ms. Swan accepted a position with Washington State University at their Vancouver campus for four years in the role of Assistant Director of Admissions.  As Assistant Director, she led the land grant university to develop an admission and recruitment program that launched Washington State University to a significant role in Southwest Washington as the fastest growing university in the state of Washington.  In 2002 Bobi realized her dream to one day return to her roots in Christian Higher Education and returned to Concordia University as Dean of Admission.  Starting with 800 students, her task to lead the university in growth and expansion has resulted in one of the fastest growing, non-profit, Christian universities in the Northwest as enrollment soared over 2,000 students by January, 2010.
    Born in Lexington, Kentucky to Church of God pastor, Dr. Charles R. Tarr and wife Betty, Ms. Swan loved living the life of a pastor/evangelist’s daughter.  During her adolescent years, Ms. Swan traveled with her dad while he led camp meetings and revivals throughout the United States.  Through these experiences, she fell in love with public speaking, singing, and evangelism.  After college graduation, Ms. Swan found her passion in motivating youth to continue their education beyond high school to the world of higher education.  
    Ms. Swan attended Anderson University, Concordia University, and graduated from Warner Pacific College in 1988 with a degree in Human Development.
    Throughout her career, Ms. Swan has worked hard to balance her professional life with life at home. She has been happily married for 20 years to husband Todd Swan, CFP®, who serves as a financial consultant for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  Together they are raising two children, son, David, a high school freshmen, base player, singer, song writer to be ~ and daughter, Taylor, a 7th grader, french horn player, volleyball setter, and actress in the making.

Outline & Notes

Inspiring Your Teen to Achieve:  Taking a Biblical approach to motivating, challenging, and supporting our teenagers through their journey into independence and young adulthood.  

·    UNDERSTANDING THE GENERATION CALLED “THE MILLENIALS”:
o    Seven Core Traits and behaviors of Generation “Y” (Millennials go to College)
·    THE TEEN CHALLENGE-Motivated to make Christian choices:
o    Faith is not inherited.  Thoughts and questions teens deal with but are too afraid to say out-loud (Bible, Parenting with Love & Logic)
    Realistic ideas to open this discussion with your parents
o    Relationship is everything.  How to handle conflict with maturity (Bible, 5 Love Languages, Parenting with Love & Logic)
    Five tangible and Biblical ideas to earn your parent’s trust
·    THE PARENT CHALLENGE-Loving our daughters and respecting our sons; God’s design, parenting by gender (Love & Respect)
o    God designed men to need respect.  
    How do we parent accordingly to help our young men become responsible and confident decision makers?
o    God designed women with a need for love.
    How do we encourage young ladies in a loving way to promote positive self image and wise choices?

Discussion Question

1.    How do we motivate the Millenials from a Christian world view?
2.    How do you think these principals help our kids make better choices for their future?
3.    How do we support our teens when they make bad choices?
4.    How do we encourage our youth when they don’t feel or see God in their lives?
5.    How can we teach respect for diversity through the lens of absolute truth?
6.    What happened to my son; He came back from college a different person?

Resources

Resources: Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version Study Bible, 10th Edition ©1995 by the Zondervan Corp. William Straus and Neil Howe, Millennial Go to College (2000). Foster Cline, M.D. & Jim Fay, Parenting Teens with Love & Logic (1994).  Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, Love & Respect (2004).  Gary Chapman, 5 Love Languages (2010)