The Sunnyvale Sun

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Coach helps his students earn degree in life studies

By Erin Hussey

During a fight with his college girlfriend more than 10 years ago, Clint Pardoe told her, "If I don't call you next week, that's us breaking up. But if I call you, we can work on things."

He never called.

Although he was miserable at the time, it was probably one of the best decisions he made.

"For a year of my life, I was completely depressed," said Pardoe. Instead of surfing or hanging out with his friends in Santa Cruz, Pardoe went to the local Barnes and Noble and buried himself in the self-help section.

"I started reading all kinds of books on what is possible for us as human beings," he said. "My depression actually took me into a place where for the first time in my life, I looked at who I was and what was possible in life."

Pardoe said he read 100 self-help books that year, ranging from money management, parenting, psychology, well-being and religion. Unlike the undergraduate marketing books he had from San Jose State University, this material greatly interested him.

It wasn't until he attended one of his sister's communication classes at SJSU that he realized self-help was his true calling.

"That day changed my life," Pardoe said. "I decided in that moment that I wanted to teach this stuff."

Pardoe enrolled in graduate school at SJSU. In 2000 he graduated with his master's degree in communication and began teaching at various colleges in the Bay Area, including De Anza College, West Valley College and his alma mater. He also took a year-long training course to become a certified life coach.

"A sport coach's job, in my opinion, is to see the potential in an athlete and take them to a level that they themselves wouldn't have gone," said Pardoe. "That's what I do for human beings in all areas of their lives."

Today Pardoe is a full-time professor at Santa Clara University and specializes in life coaching for college students. He recently held his seminar The 4 Secrets to College Life Success...and Beyond that was attended by 30 local college students.

"I thought it was going to be about college studies and more focused on academics," said De Anza student Francesca Ryon, "but I thought it was really good because he talked about all the other aspects of college and how to better balance your life."

Pardoe's main goal is teaching students how to distinguish who they are in their lives as well as learning what drives their actions.

"There is an old saying, '80 percent of success is just showing up,' " said Pardoe. "My intention is that you gain an awareness of what that other 20 percent might be."

According to Pardoe, tapping into that other 20 percent means understanding what he calls the four secrets to success: self-care, healthy relationships, support structures and action.

Alexis Loevenich, a student at West Valley College, is now a member of the student team that helps moderate the seminar.

"I just felt like I was lost and wandering through life," she said. "I knew there were tools that I didn't have, and I wanted more in my life. Clint really helped me figure out and identify what powers I do have and what is stopping me from reaching my greatness.

"I work as a personal trainer, and it's just amazing how people want to work on that area of their lives but completely neglect the foundation of who they are," Loevenich said.

In addition to Pardoe's private life- coaching sessions and his seminar, his book The 4 Secrets to College Life Success...and Beyond: A Survival Guide for Your Life During and After College and website www.fourfortyfour.net will be coming out within the year.

"This is what I am here for," said Pardoe. "A lot of colleges prepare students for work but not for life, although they value it. What I'm looking to provide is a supplemental thing to help people have a college experience like they never have before."

The next "4 Secrets to College Life Success...and Beyond" seminar is scheduled for March 24 at the Pruneyard Plaza Hotel in Campbell. For more information or to contact Clint Pardoe about private life-coaching sessions, email clintyp@yahoo.com.