From Campus to Career: The Teach For America Debate (Part 3)

That’s right, I’m back for one more installment of the Teach For America series—first we took a look at the overall organization and all sides of the related controversy. Next, I talked to a former TFA teacher to get her take on her experience working for the organization. Now I’d like to share the perspective of Molly Burke, who studied sociology and education at Occidental College, where she also earned her MA in teaching.

From Campus to Career: The Teach For America Debate (Part 2)

In order to gain insight into the Teach For America debate, I talked with a friend who worked as a TFA teacher in a Los Angeles middle school for two years.

From Campus to Career: The Teach For America Debate (Part 1)

Teach For America is an extremely popular program with soon-to-be college grads. So what makes it so controversial?

Is Getting a Tattoo in College a Bad Idea?

The ankle butterfly. A Chinese symbol (which may or may not mean what you think it means). Everybody’s favorite barfly bulls-eye: the tramp stamp. You know you’ve thought about it. You’re 18, you’re out of the house and now that a tattoo is a legal option, it seems like a good one. That’s college. The world is laid out before you, waiting to be claimed. Surrounded by optimism, idealism and freedom, it’s easy to feel invincible. It’s a time when we begin making plans for the rest of our lives to define who we are and where we want to go. But the paradox of the college experience is that we are expected to know who we want to be before we really know. Society gives us the impression that at this age we should know, so we often convince ourselves that we do. We make choices that later on, [...]

Skillz

A recent USA Today article titled “Colleges not training students for careers that are growing” can be summed up nicely in with following illustration: I mean, if you really want to, read the article… © image by Nick Schwartz

Why College? Part 8 — Learning to Think

Higher education is not about money, not at the heart of it. Higher education is about learning to think, and while the ability to think is not as tangible as a cold, hard paycheck, saying “No way!” to college is saying “No way!” to a lifetime of both financial and cultural growth.

Plan C: Wake Up, Colleges!

This article is in response to “Plan B: Skip College” by Jacques Steinberg, which was published on May 14 in the New York Times. “Plan B” details many reasons why some high school students may be better off pursuing a vocational course or apprenticeship rather than a college degree. Included among these are the high cost of time and money that goes toward college education, the urgent need for workers in many fast growing industries like nursing and customer service that require specific skill sets but not a college degree, and the fact that some students are “unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree” or “may not be ready to do so” and would benefit from more “credible alternatives.” Professor Richard K. Vedder, an economist at Ohio University who advocates for the need for multiple pathways to college and career, likes to ask why 15 percent of mail carriers [...]

Mother’s Day, or: A Celebration of How Your Future Is Decided?

The apple often doesn’t fall far from the tree. We all know that adage. For better or for worse, our moms (and dads) make a big difference in our college and career success. What to do if your parents were not well-educated or high up on the professional ladder.

If Some is Good, More is Better: Why the Trend of One-And-Done College Athletes may be Fading

Today, Parade Magazine announced their selections for their annual High Boys Basketball All-American Team. According to Parade, Jared Sullinger, the magazine’s 2010 Player of the Year will be headed to Ohio State next, likely to shore up an offense who will miss AP College Player of the Year, Evan Turner, as he is likely to bolt Ohio State for the glory of playing in NBA. Ohio State’s Evan Turner, Kentucky’s John Wall and Demarcus Cousins, are part of a growing class of exceptionally talented first-year players who otherwise would have made the jump after their senior years of high school to The Association (the nickname for the NBA). The only rule that stopped them from doing just that was one enacted in 2005 by current NBA commissioner David Stern. Concerned with the number of recruiters and agents making their way into high school gymnasiums, and the notion that many of [...]

Why College? Part 1 — Opening (and Shutting) Doors

For me the question of “Why College?” is something I have considered very seriously in the course of completing my degree. I am technically an alumnus of University College London. When I finish the degree I started in 2005 I will also be an alumnus of the University of Westminster. One degree, two universities: I have asked the question “Why College?” not once, but twice. The first time I asked myself that question I barely had to think about it. I was already going to college and I was going to a good one. I got into UCL, described as a “British Ivy League university.” I met interesting people, I had a great time, and through it all I even had time to study and write essays, which are the basic elements of a History degree. Why ask “Why College?” when things are proceeding as people expect and life is [...]