TEAM EXERCISE #4 Team members: Family Participating members: Jeffery Davis Robin Lawyer Latesha Green Lindsay Moran Ryan Carey Kevin Malooly Melissa Damewood We looked the overall questions of: Can anyone who really wants to get into college? Is it a level playing field for all students who want to go to college? The way we investigated this was by breaking down the information into different subsections. Then we discussed the overall questions. Some members of the group assumed 'Jamie' was female and others thought 'Jamie' was male. What obstacles exist to get Jamie into college? Even though there is no one to pay for her college tuition, she might not even get accepted to college. There are always community colleges, and I think here that might be her only solution. She went to a high school that didn't challenge her and had teachers that shouldn't have been teachers. Going to this high school hurt her chances on getting into a good college and even getting an academic scholarship. There are always colleges that accept you on a conditional basis, but there is no way of knowing if she would qualify for that. According to the NIU CHANCE program homepage, () "beyond the ACT and high school performance records, CHANCE looks for characteristics such as special talents, significant activities and accomplishments, leadership potential, personal commitment, and goal orientation."Assuming she wants to go to college, there is no way her mom or her could pay for it. Money is often a huge issue when it comes to college. There are people worse off than her that goes to expensive colleges everyday. She could get loans or even financial aide. According to , "More than 45 percent of all financial aid for colleges comes from the private sector: corporations, foundations, trusts, memorials and religious groups. While most of these aren't advertised as obviously as, say, Fruitopia, these scholarships and grants can be found; you just have to get busy and track them down." She needs to meet with a school counselor that knows what they are talking about and she would be able to conquer this obstacle. Jamie needs to continue to work, not to pay for her college education, but to help her mom with the family's bills. It would be very hard for her to continue to work 30-40 hours per week to help her family if she was going to college. She is going to need that money to help pay for things while she is in school. She might get financial aide and loans, but that doesn't guarantee that it is going to pay for everything. There was a catchy quote on the website ,that said, "The way you handle your money today can affect all of your tomorrows." Maybe some of her younger siblings can start working and help out while Jamie goes to college. Jamie's mom needs to realize that Jamie is not always going to be there to help her out and she needs to go out on her own and do something to better her life. What job would work for Jamie based on him going to school from 8-3 and needing to work at least 30-40 hours a week. Also what will Jamie do for fun to relax? With Jamie's skill level being low because of not being in a good schooling environment, his job options will be very limited. One option that would be open to him is to work in a retail store. When I called and asked Bergner's department store, a representative told me that job applicants need to be at least 17 years of age to work in the store. Hours are flexible and generally stores are open from 10AM-9PM during the week. When working a closing shift employees generally get out of work at approximately 30 minutes after store closing. If Jamie can work from 3:30-9:30 five days of the week, he would be able to work at least 30 hours of the week to help pay for bills. There is also the opportunity to work on the weekends as needed. Since Jamie has school during the week, this would be another good time that Jamie could pick up some extra hours. With the necessity of working 30- 40 hours per week, Jamie will need to refigure his studying time as well. He will not have the time to be actively involved in after school programs such as mentoring, computer training programs, or reading and writing programs as discussed in the textbook. He would need to stay up late often and use as much time as possible on days off to get this accomplished. With this in mind, Jamie will have next to no free time. He will constantly be on the go either studying or working. Jamie would have to spend his fun time wisely and use the time to relax from his draining work and school routine. Jamie would have to do "relaxing" things such as see a movie, read a book, go for a walk, etc. rather than more "traditional" things like as going out and partying for fun. This is the trade off that Jamie will have to make if he expects to succeed in working full time and getting his grades up enough to get in to college. What could be done to help Jamie get into college, while staying with in the guidelines of the case study? In 21st century America, school children are told from day one they can go on to college, no matter how much money their parents make, no matter how far they fall behind academically. Attending college should be a privilege and not a right. If students work hard and show they will continue to do so in college, they should be admitted. If people goofed off in high school but want to turn their study habits around in college, they have ample opportunity to attend one of the many colleges in the Chicago land area, until they prove to themselves and to administrators they're serious about their education, sources say. If extenuating circumstances negatively affected a student's high school performance, as in Jamie's case those should be taken into account. I also found that cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are looked at too, so minority students aren't automatically put at a disadvantage. Jamie's choices are to apply for Financial Aid, which if he completes the proper paperwork, he should be guaranteed to receive. He first needs to work with his counselor now, before graduation to see about possibly doing a COOP program, where he can work and go to school at the same time while receiving both credit and money for participating in the program. He needs to start look for a work-study job, for when he starts college. There are student loan options available. More importantly, He should go out into his community and go to his church, civic group or social service to see if other scholarship or loan options are available. Also local business may give him a little seed money to help a high school student seeking to attend college to make a transition becoming a college student. On the academic level, Jamie needs to get a tutor that can help bring him up to a 12th grade reading level. There are literacy programs in mostly all cities, especially one as big as Chicago. He can make into college if his heart is truly in it. There are many alternatives to making it in. Budget for Jamie's parent When figuring out a budget for Jamie's parent we need to stick to the assumptions that were made by the other team members. Let's assume that Jamie lives in Chicago and is going to first attend a city college. This is a good idea not only because Jamie needs to catch up to the rest of college bound youths, but also because it is very inexpensive compared to four-year institutions. According to their website Kennedy King college in Chicago charges $52 a semester hour. Assuming that Jamie needs to take at least 15 hours a semester to catch up with remedial courses, and to fulfill requirements for an Associates degree, the cost per semester is $788. Add $200 for books and supplies and we have $988 a semester or $1976 a year. So lets see what we can do with that. On the HUD website it says that qualifying families will have to pay no more than 30% of their income for rent. At $25,000 a year in Chicago they should not have too much of a problem qualifying. So by this standard they would pay $7,500/year in rent. Let's also assume that Jamie will only work 30 hours/week to concentrate more on studying. We'll say Jamie can earn $8/hour. This gives them another $7,680 a year to work with. Here is a basic yearly budget to see if Jamie can make it to college. Rent $7,500 Transportation $2,400 Food $4,800 Clothing from good will $1,000 Utilities/ no cable $2,000 Total $17,700 Total family income $25,680 Total remaining after expenses are paid $4,980 Provided that this budget is a very rough estimate there seems to be plenty of money to pay $1,976 for Jamie to attend college. After Jamie works really hard for a couple of years attending UIC would be a good choice. Jamie would be able to stay at home and save student housing costs. UIC offers a variety of scholarships and student loans on it's website. With a lot of hard work and penny pinching Jamie should be able to attend college. This is the case of a bright student who is disadvantaged because of her environment. So what can be done to get Jamie into college? People are responsible for their actions and should be encouraged to try to take control of their lives. Sometimes it's not easy, or even possible, and once in the hole it's hard to dig out. There are some obstacles facing her: 1. Context: She's bright, but doesn't have the skills because her school didn't train her. Short term, after graduation: She can enroll at a Chicago city college part time to build her grades up and start saving for a college. When she gets an associate degree, she can be accepted into a state college like NIU automatically by law. She should be encouraged to take remedial courses to prepare her while she saves money. Long term: High school personnel should be trained to help kids prepare for post-graduation college training. 2. Economic and class problems: Jamie's parents are at the poverty level. Poor people have poor-people problems. Our text (p. 251) notes that children in poor, single-parent families face special difficulties including chronic psychological stress, health problems, and poor academic performance. They tend to get along poorly with peers, suffer from mental illness, and likely start their own single parent families. While not in the lowest economic category like Team D is doing, and although she has two parents, she is still highly disadvantaged. Short-term: Make sure that Jamie is getting proper health checkups. Encourage her to continue following her dream, because it's not easy. Get peer counseling from others in her situation that've made it. Today, according to a Chicago Tribune article, 2/3s of high school seniors to go college. 80 percent of them receive financial aid. Encourage Jamie to look into Pell grants and other forms of financial assistance. She should begin early to explore financial aid. Long-term: Reduce costs of colleges, clean up the inner city, and start nurturing students early who show promise. 3. Race: If Jamie is Hispanic or black, there's a racial problem. A Chicago Tribune article on February 21,2003, page 21, notes that "In the Chicago area, the majority of white high school students attend schools that are 90 percent or more white, and the large majority of black students attend schools that are 90 percent or more black." Another Tribune article noted that about a quarter of the nation's high school students are black, but only 16 percent enter college. At NIU, the racial dropout rate for minorities is much higher for whites. We need to find out why and close the gap at NIU. This means that even if Jamie does go to a basically white school like NIU, she won't have professors like her, and this might make adjustment hard. I heard a black student here say that they would like to take classes from "people like me" who have the same experiences." (This assumes that she's a minority) Short term: Get Jamie to a fairly mixed community college where she can experience diversity so that NIU won't be a culture shock. Long term: Work with schools to improve diversity, make white profs more sensitive to black and Hispanic issues. Desegregate Chicago schools and set role models that encourage kids to go to college. 4. Preparation: If Jamie is from a poverty level family, it means that she's in an impoverished school district, most likely. Jamie is bright but doesn't read well. She will have problems in an online course like this one, and in her other courses. A community college with remedial programs for students wanted to transfer is essential. Get her into one of the city colleges to beef up her skills. Have counselors nurture her and encourage her. Long-term: We need to put money into Chicago's inner schools and keep kids in school. Chicago schools in impoverished areas have high violence rates according to a recent tribune article last week. Violence and disruptions are on the rise, and this cut into learning. Student assaults and teacher assaults make learning difficult. For the long term get schools back under control in inner city areas and create a culture that college is a good thing, not a bad thing. Another Chicago Tribune story reported that although the student achievement gap between whites and blacks is narrowing, minorities are still less-well prepared, and when controlling for school type and resources, the gap is smaller. So long term we need to work on building resources in schools. Rather than bussing kids to other schools like we used to, we should pump resources into existing schools. We should return to mandatory testing and end the social promotions that a weekend Tribune article said is now the policy in Chicago. This makes it harder to teach people like Jamie when so many other kids aren't prepared. Is the belief that anyone can attend college if they want to a true statement? I believe this is a true statement. The two biggest obstacles everyone going to college has is paying for it and getting in. Those two obstacles can be overcome by anyone. All you need is to take out student loans that don't have to be paid back until 6 months after you graduate, and start off at a community college. You should also apply for financial aide. You might not think you are going to get any money, but it doesn't hurt to apply. Even if you don't think you are smart enough to get into college, you can always start off at a community college. You can build up your academics and transfer to a university. Is it a level playing field for anyone who might want to attend college? I don't believe it is a level playing field for anyone who might want to attend college. Different colleges have different requirements and if you don't meet them, you are not going to get accepted. Also, although most colleges say that they don't discriminate, they do. Some colleges want a certain percentage of different races and ethnicities at their college or university. This might cause them to accept people of that race or ethnicity that they might not have accepted if they weren't 't part of that race/ethnicity. No, it is not a level playing field for anyone who may want to attend college. Most students do not have to work full time to get them selves in and put themselves through college. If the student if truly motivated and dedicated then it is possible to get in to and succeed in college.
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