Here is a link to an article about the advantages for someone interested in getting a four year degree or starting their college career at a community college for two years and then transferring. Read More
Dr. Brooks is the Executive Director of the Office of Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest and previously spent ten years as the Director of Liberal Arts Career Services at the University of Texas at Austin. The author takes a radically new approach to choosing a career path based on what the author calls “Wise Wandering”. The book would be of interest to anyone who has or feels there might be value in a degree that is not career specific like liberal arts. The author points out the value in these kinds of degrees by showing students the type of creativity that is valued in the workplace that these degrees often develop as well as how to evaluate your own life experiences as they apply to the workplace. She then goes on to offer ways to convey those skills to employers in interviews. An interesting book written at...
The Author is the Founder and President of Stone Foundations of Learning, Inc. She also holds a B.S in Human Biology. The book describes planning and organizational strategies as well as study skills a student must have to be able to excel academically in high school and college. The Author advocates that students take responsibility for their own success and failure and not look to others. The book has many examples and exercises on how to do this and is easy to read for students in high school.
Among bachelor’s degree graduates from the Class of 2016, those from the STEM disciplines are expected to receive the highest starting salaries, according results of NACE’s Winter 2016 Salary Survey. The top three projected salaries are for engineering, computer sciences, and math and sciences graduates. Continue Reading
With so many boomers retiring from the trades, the U.S. is going to need a lot more pipe-fitters, nuclear power plant operators, carpenters, welders, utility workers — the list is long. But the problem is not enough young people are getting that kind of training. Read more
This article describes a partnership between a German firm trying to solve its problem of finding qualified workers for its high tech manufacturing plant. Their answer was a partnership with the local high schools and a community college that offered students training beginning in their junior year of high school, the German apprenticeship model. For kids with an interest in this kind of technical training, apprenticeships are a way for them to get the training they need to secure a well paying job without the necessity of incurring a lot of debt obtaining a college degree. In fact the article points out most people earn increasing pay as they progress through an apprenticeship program. CHARLOTTE — As a high school junior, Hope Johnson thought she had things figured out. She’d been hit with wanderlust during an academic trip to Brazil, set her sights on London’s Richmond University and hoped to...
Engineer / Corporate Manager / Entrepreneur Mentor, Tom Naugle Tom’s business career is a good example of what you can achieve with hard work, persistence and the ability to motivate and manage people. Tom paid for his education himself and started working to save for college while he was in high school and then continued to work during the summers while he was getting his BS in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State. After graduating, Tom began his business career as an engineer working for two chemical companies before a mentor encouraged him to apply to Harvard Business School and get an MBA. That degree opened the door to a position with Cooper Industries where he first worked in the corporate planning department and then went on to manage several of their divisions. He successfully turned around one failing business and improved the profitability of others before he was recruited...
A short article on how early planning beginning in high school can make it much more likely a student will be successful in college. Tips for what to do to prepare in each year of high school as well as tips on how to improve your scholarship resume. Test scores suggest a high percentage of high school students are not ready for college. Only a quarter of the 1.8 million graduates who took the ACT college entrance exam in 2013 met readiness benchmarks in all four core subjects – English, math, science and reading. That figure dropped from 31 percent in 2012, according to annual reports by ACT Inc. Students who hit the mark on the test have a 75 percent chance of passing a first-year college course in that subject. Those who fall short are more likely to struggle in college and many will waste time and tuition dollars on remedial courses. Read the full...
This is a recent article in the New York times that points out changes that have been made to the Student Loan program. Specifically it describes the way the program has shifted to an income based repayment program with provisions for debt forgiveness under certain circumstances. There are also accelerated forgiveness programs for people who choose careers in fields like education and non profits. Make sure you understand how this loan program has evolved. Read More