Chris Gray, Ph.D.
Founding President, Erie County Community College of Pennsylvania
One of my favorite phrases is, "Not with that attitude." I usually say it with a smile, but I mean it, and not in a cheesy motivational poster kind of way.
Over the years, I've come to believe that one of the most dangerous things a person can learn is helplessness. Psychologists call it learned helplessness, and it can be incredibly destructive. If you have never heard of this phenomenon, let me explain. It boils down to this: whether you think you can do something or not, you're right. Our minds are that powerful!
Here's a powerful example: researchers designed an experiment involving students trying to unscramble words. Some students were given easy puzzles. Others were given impossible ones. After experiencing enough frustration, many of the students who experienced failure stopped trying, even when they were eventually given a problem they could easily solve. They learned that effort doesn't matter, so they gave up and quit.
I think about that experiment often because I see its lessons play out in higher education every day. Many students arrive at EC3 after years of being told, either directly or indirectly, that college just isn't for them. Maybe they struggled academically in high school. Maybe they failed a class. Maybe they have been told they are not "college material." Maybe life has handed them enough setbacks that they have stopped believing success is possible for them.
What concerns me is not the setback itself; it's the conclusion they draw from it. If a student fails a test and concludes, "I need to study differently," that's a challenge. If a student fails a test and concludes, "I'm not smart enough," that's learned helplessness. That's a mindset that we at EC3 are working to overcome.
In previous blogs, I've written that, when people ask me what subject I teach, my answer is always the same: Confidence. I don't teach confidence because it feels good. I teach confidence because it changes student outcomes. Students who believe they can succeed are more likely to ask questions, seek help, persist through challenges, and continue moving forward when things get difficult.
But confidence is often misunderstood. People sometimes think confidence is just a mindset. It sounds so easy, too.
"Just believe in yourself."
"Just think positively."
"Just work harder."
Of course, those things matter, but they are only one part of the equation. Here at EC3, we understand that confidence isn't the result of motivational posters or inspirational speeches. That's not it at all.
Confidence grows from success, and success requires support.
That's why what we do goes far beyond mindset. We have intentionally built an infrastructure designed to help students experience success and build their confidence along the way. In the classroom, that starts with faculty who are committed to meeting students where they are and showing them what they can become. That's an important distinction because we don't expect students to arrive fully prepared for every challenge they will encounter. We understand that our job is to help them get there.
We also provide success coaches who help students navigate the complexity of college life. For many students, higher education is a completely new world. The forms, deadlines, financial aid requirements, and academic expectations can feel overwhelming. It's like arriving in a foreign country without knowing the language. That's why our success coaches help transform what feels like an insurmountable obstacle into a series of manageable steps. And every step completed builds confidence.
The same is true for free tutoring. Students should never view asking for help as evidence of weakness. In fact, some of the most successful students are the ones who know when to seek support. Every tutoring session, every assignment completed, and every exam passed becomes evidence that our students are capable of more than they may have believed.
Outside the classroom, our support continues. Students cannot focus on learning if they cannot get to campus. That's why we work to ensure students have access to transportation resources, by providing free public transportation with school ID through EMTA bus services. We realize that students cannot focus on chemistry or accounting if they are worried about where they will sleep that night. Students cannot focus on writing a paper if untreated mental health challenges are consuming their attention. Students cannot focus on preparing for a career if they don't know where to begin.
That's why EC3 works to connect students with mental health services, employment opportunities, housing resources, and community agencies. We spend a lot of time helping students learn "how to college." That phrase may sound simple, but it's incredibly important. Many of our students are navigating higher education without a roadmap. They need someone to show them how the system works and help them believe they belong in it. This is referred to in higher ed circles as the "hidden curriculum," and we work to make it visible and understandable to our students.
Every one of those supports serves the same purpose: not just helping students solve today's problems but also helping them build confidence for tomorrow's challenges.
Because the opposite of learned helplessness isn't wishful thinking; it's learned capability. It happens in the creation of an environment in which students experience enough success that they begin to expect success. It's helping them replace "I can't" with "I can."
I've seen that transformation countless times. A student who was afraid to enroll becomes a graduate. A student who doubted her abilities becomes a leader. A student who wasn't sure he belonged in college begins helping others discover that they do. The stories are endless, and that's why I continue to believe so strongly in the simple phrase that inspired this blog.
Not because attitude is everything. Life is more complicated than that, of course. Barriers are real. Challenges are real. Setbacks are real. But through it all, attitude still matters. The fact is, the moment we decide something is impossible, we stop looking for solutions and prove ourselves right.
At EC3, our responsibility is to help students see possibilities they may not yet see in themselves. We do that through great faculty, success coaches, free tutoring, transportation support, community partnerships, and a deep commitment to meeting students where they are. Most of all, we do it by helping students build confidence.
After all, confidence isn't the result of success. Often, it's the reason success actually happens in the first place. And whenever someone tells me they can't do something, you can probably already guess my response:
Not with that attitude.
Our community. Your college.
