Seniors, counselors and founders on what comes after graduation.
Coach D, a self-described post-secondary and workforce readiness coach, interviews recent graduates, district leaders and youth business founders about how a teenager gets from high school to a solid next step. The talk stays practical: application lists, scholarship hunting, mentors, senior checklists and the case for trades alongside degrees.
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Coach D Wants to Know is a conversation show about the hinge between high school and adult life, and it refuses to treat college as the only door. Coach D, introduced as a post-secondary and workforce readiness coach, author and speaker, names the alternatives plainly: trade school, the military, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship. The guests then test those options against real lives. Some of the most concrete material comes from The Super Senior Series and other interviews with graduating seniors. Ariana Boyd, headed to the University of Georgia, describes outlining her college essay the summer before senior year, sorting about twenty applications into safety, target and reach schools, and pursuing local scholarships throughout. She also talks about keeping a mentor for every part of her life, from service work to academics to her job. Aubrey Jordan-Yarbrough has a sharper note for administrators. She and her peers did not know what the Common App was until August, so she proposes a senior checklist introduced to rising juniors. Destiny Sutton, bound for Spelman College, lays out a SMART goal for releasing her first EP, down to the savings she needs, and walks through a week crowded with rehearsals and practice. Coach D works here as part interviewer, part cheerleader. The encouragement flows freely. Yet it usually lands on something usable, like a reminder that counselors need open time in the day for genuine conversations with students. The adults get their turn too. Nyanna Langford, founder of Business Owners of Tomorrow, traces her work to a business unit she taught at a school for the deaf, where she noticed how many students were not headed to college. She describes a summer workshop where young business owners teach other kids skills like sewing and jewelry making, along with activity books that build entrepreneurship vocabulary in stages. The conversation with Ian Barrett, a program manager at College AIM, Inc., spends time on the students in the middle, the ones who are neither stars nor discipline cases and rarely get one-on-one attention. In the episode with Dr. Edwina Perrin, a district mathematics coordinator, the talk moves through teacher retention, equity for multilingual learners and girls in coding, and a defense of dual enrollment and skilled trades such as HVAC and electrical work. Other titles show the same spread of concern, including 'Healing Begins with Belief | Shift Your Mindset with Jerecia Lee' and 'Helping Teens Find Their Path: Advice for Parents + Empowering Peer Support After High School'. The feed also holds episodes dated 2018, some under the name Educate Equip Empower, on testing, bullying and summer learning. What a listener takes away is less a theory of education than a stack of concrete moves: build the list early, find the mentor, talk to the counselor, keep a second path open. It is earnest, affirming and practical, and it hands teenagers the floor to tell adults what they actually needed.
Made for: Suits a counselor, school leader or parent who wants to hear recent graduates explain what helped and what was missing on their way out of high school. Also suits a teenager weighing college against trades, service or starting a business.
What sets it apart: Students do much of the talking: recent graduates walk through their own application lists, scholarships and mentors, then tell school adults what they needed, and Coach D turns each answer into a practical note for educators.
Coach D Wants To Know is the go-to podcast for educators, counselors, parents, and school leaders who are passionate about guiding students toward success beyond high school. Hosted by education consultant and postsecondary success expert Coach D, this podcast dives deep into the realities of college, trade schools, military service, entrepreneurship, and more because every student deserves a pathway that fits.Through insightful conversations with school administrators, counselors, business owners, and industry experts, we'll uncover what's working, what's missing, and how we can transform postsecondary readiness for all students. Each episode delivers real talk, practical strategies, and in…
A music dream raises a question about the business behind the mic; your next student conversation gets sharper.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Ariana Boyd connects purpose, after-school curiosity, school involvement, and open parent communication to finding a next step.
Ariana Boyd's conversation with the host looks past grades to the harder question of how students begin finding direction. Her guidance is practical and low-pressure: stay open-minded, notice what classmates choose to do after school, try an activity, and treat the result as…
A grounded conversation about curiosity, college readiness, and the support students need before campus life begins.
Curiosity gives the episode its center, following how interests in politics, art, arts advocacy, and arts education can begin to point toward a working life.
A grounded episode about injury, interrupted momentum, and the patience recovery asks for.
The episode is strongest when it stays close to the student’s stalled momentum. Coach D guides a conversation about waiting on an MRI, moving through surgery, and losing access to the things that had been giving shape to the school year: dance auditions, sports, and almost the…
A warm, candid review of how steady school support helped make scholarship guidance a shared effort.
Coach D Wants to Know turns its Super Senior Series toward the kind of steady post-secondary support that can shape a student's next step. Its clearest thread is Latonia High School's Student Success Center, where scholarship opportunities were not just mentioned, but printed,…
A youth-business model treats entrepreneurship as part of school, home support, and growing up.
Coach D frames the episode around a practical post-secondary question: what about students who do not want college, cannot afford it, or already imagine working for themselves?
Cultural careers, traced through the turns that shaped them.
Nursing careers explained by the nurses living them.
Coach D interviews Ariana Boyd, a Rockdale County graduate who describes pursuing cellular biology at the University of Georgia after researching Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Coach D interviews Aubrey Jordan-Yarbrough about choosing North Carolina A&T for political science on a pre-law track after high school.
Coach D Wants To Know follows Destiny Sutton, a Latonya High School graduate headed to Spellman College for documentary filmmaking with a possible entrepreneurial innovation minor.
Coach D interviews Tyleek Jones, a Lithonia High School senior and percussionist preparing to study music education at Savannah State.
Coach D and youth entrepreneurship coach Nyanna Lankford-Harris discuss Business Owners of Tomorrow, a program shaped by her daughter Destiny's paid baking orders at age nine.
Coach Dee interviews licensed clinical social worker Jerisha Lee about youth mental health, school support, and the mindset changes behind healing.
Coach D interviews Lindsay Hutchins about helping teenagers and families plan for college, trade school, military service, apprenticeships, and work after high school.
Coach D interviews Ian Barrett, a College AIM program manager who leads AmeriCorps-supported college and career readiness work across five DeKalb County schools.
Coach D and Chuck examine whether public schools prepare students for college, careers, trades, military service, and entrepreneurship.
Coach D and Dr.
Coach D interviews former student Shay Smith, now an assistant principal in Greenville County School District, about becoming an educator and school leader.
Gabriella Boatwright, an 18-year-old North Springs student athlete, discusses balancing four AP courses per semester with varsity basketball, leadership, and community activities.
Kimberly Wilson Daniel uses Educate, Equip, Empower to prepare teen girls and their parents for the transition from middle school to high school during July.
Kimberly Wilson-Daniel uses Blossom's 16 boards, six academic medals, five pins, and $540,000 in merit scholarships to examine preparation for college.
Kimberly Wilson-Daniel interviews entrepreneur David Shands about teaching children to think entrepreneurially, including a classroom pop-up shop where students compared baking costs with purchasing inventory.
Educate, Equip, Empower features Kimberly Wilson-Daniel interviewing Travis Chapman, an instructional coach at North Springs Charter High School with 20 years in education.
Kimberly Wilson Daniel reads seven questions collected from students in her classes and answers them through the lens of communication between youth, parents, teachers, and communities.
Kimberly Wilson Daniel hosts Shamar Logan, a high school counselor trained in crisis prevention, on bullying, suicide risk, school reporting, and prevention.
Kimberly Wilson-Daniel hosts Ebony Frazier on Educate, Equip, Empower to discuss Jeremy Anderson’s work with students, teachers, and communities.
Kimberly Wilson Daniel uses a ninth-grade student's anonymous question about a boyfriend cutting himself to argue that adults need direct, two-sided conversations with young people.
Kimberly Wilson-Daniel’s Educate, Equip, Empower episode urges parents and students to plan education and career paths before senior year, using UGA admissions data as a case study.
Kimberly Wilson Daniel’s Educate, Equip, Empower episode gives freshmen and sophomores a preparation plan covering grades, summer opportunities, career exploration, testing, and college planning.
Host Kimberly Wilson-Daniel interviews Coach Tanique Frazier about her basketball career and transition to coaching, focusing on guiding students toward postsecondary success.
Host Kimberly Wilson-Daniel introduces her new podcast focused on helping teenagers and communities through education and collaboration.