Building an Entrepreneur

I wish I was in this discussion! Don Lemon of CNN interviews several influential members of the black community on the current state of education since President Barack has been in office. Check out what Stephen Perry from Capital Preparatory Magnet School poses a challenge to the president. “Take your kids out of private school and into a DC public school” is one of his statements to the president.

After researching Capital Prep Magnet School, they have an amazing statistic. 100% of there students go off to college! Sounds like we should take a look at what is going on at that school and model that throughout the US.

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A recent article does a good job of getting rid of a few myths in education. Why schools are becoming more competitive and how the average acceptance for students is going up. Caroline Hoxby an economist at Stanford University finds that as many as half of colleges have become less competitive over time.

“Typical college-going students in the U.S. should be unconcerned about rising selectivity. If anything, they should be concerned about falling selectivity, the phenomenon they will actually experience,”

Caroline even looks at the differences from decent students to sub-par and their ability to get into college with results that show that both segments have an easy time getting into college since the 70′s.

What she found was that in 1967, the lowest selectivity colleges spent about $3,900 per student and the highest selectivity colleges spent about $17,400 per student. Since then, the lowest selectivity figure has increased to about $12,000 per student and the highest selectivity institutions’ resources have hit about $92,000. (Those institutions in the middle on selectivity have increases in the middle.) Those figures translate into an “average annual growth rate of real resources per student” of about 7 percent at the least selective colleges and about 13 percent at the most selective colleges.

What I personally took away from this article is that students across the board will be receiving a better education all around. Even if they are going to Universities and Colleges that are not as well equip as prestigious Universities.

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This commentary reviews the evidence regarding the impact of interracial roommates on friendship diversity in colleges. It argues that policies designed to maximize interracial roommate assignment may foster better interracial relations on their campuses and perhaps throughout their students’ lifetimes.

Elizabeth Stearns from Teachers College Record touches on a very important interaction that has personally helped shape my interracial experiences with White students. Freshman year in undergraduate I had two white roommates from very homogeneous communities. Their interactions with black students was as limited as mine was with white students coming from a predominantly minority high school. Living with these guys helped us build commonalities through experiences and growth on campus.

However it wasn’t all fun and games. Misconceptions about our culture seem to challenge black students while living with roommates from non-diverse areas. Since there are often negative stereotypes that identify black students, it is almost a game of disproving misconceptions to their peers. An easy approach to avoid DRAMA is:

1. Work on building a relationship based on commonalities versus differences
2. Respect each others personal space and boundaries(this is just a good rule for anybody you are living with)
3. Stay away from generalizations about interests, hobbies or expected behavior based on race. Al teast until you are comfortable enough with each other to start clowning(pop-culture term meaning to make fun of) around.

People would be surprised how easy it is to form relationships with people from different backgrounds.

“Touche”

Emma Thompson  is pretty upset over a few incidents that have occurred to her son at Exeter University.

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I want us to all think about what we wanted to be when we were kids. I know that I have always had a call for public service as I went from dentist, doctor, activist to now “author.” I find myself going into new career paths that I NEVER had imagined myself going into. Eilene Zimmerman from the New York Times discusses the conversation of how parents can assist their child toward a professional calling. Tamar E. Chansky a child-and-adolescent psychologist says “it’s best to have conversations with teenagers about their strengths and interests, rather than a specific career, and then listen to what they have to say.

Finally a voice of reason! Coming from my immigrant background it seems that many students have felt the pressure to fit into the box of doctor, lawyer or “profession that makes other people happy.” Now that I am working and in graduate school I find that what is more important about my professional development are habits and a good work-ethic. Our generation more then those of the past seems to stay in positions and career paths shorter then any other generation before us. A few attributes that I believe are important and will become even more important as time comes are below:

• how pro-active are you? When the tough gets going do you simply move onto something else? Do you have the ability to stick to one challenge and see it through!
• Adaptability, ability to make changes and move quickly to things that are out of hands. Recent example are the economic challenges we have faced. In what might sound twisted and hopefully not taken out of context, I think these recent financial challenges were much needed for people my age. This is the first time that I really have seen my friends start understanding how to spend their money wisely. I wish it could have come under different circumstances, but none the less it is starting to happen.
• Information Technology, now please understand that I might be a little biased in this area. I am currently getting my masters in Information Management and I am starting to see what used to be a small part of how business was done is now helping out with almost every segment of business. An understanding of how to utilize information management systems is a must, or at least will give you an upper hand. To prove this, simply research on your own what segments are growing.

To get a better understanding of what future challenges students are facing check out this thought provoking video Shift Happens

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Jessica Markowitz at the age of 14 has been running her own charitable group called IMPUWE( The Rwandan word for compassion) also meaning “inspire and motivate powerful,undiscovered women with education.” The group that she started focuses on teaching Rwandan kids to read English, many of whom have lost their parents to genocide and war and could not afford school. Each of the Rwandan child that she supports can go to school for an entire year for only $40 US.  From the article it seems that she has grown up in a service centered family and received support from her parents.

One thing that caught me off guard but only for a second was the negative feedback and comments that many of the people left on her article. True, Jessica apparently does come from a family of economic stability and very possible that she will utilize her work to help her as she applies to college but SO WHAT. This young lady is turning into a powerful leader and will be a positive asset to any organization, company and community she joins. If more affluent members of the community were able to help out without being attacked then you would see a huge difference in community involvement.

I can only laugh now at some of the feedback I have received from different commenter’s(Haters) regarding my Seattle Times Article. Jessica, keep your head up and stay focused on your ambitions and dreams.

Another  group of excited and pro-active students, this time at Suffolk University. Within the 40 students who showed up to my workshop I witnessed a wide range of diversity. Many of the students came from diverse geographic and cultural backgrounds. From Cape Verde to Nigeria, many of the students where also navigating the first generation experience in the United States. The non-structured discussion that students shared was about the feeling of being isolated or being one of only a few students of color in the classroom. Each student sharing their own “horror story” about a classroom experience and how they dealt with it. Giving the underclassmen a few more tools on how to navigate the college experience.

I was glad to see several white students participating in the discussion and being very active as well. From discussion of walking in late to class or speaking up and talking to the professor these are challenges that are universal to being a student. Suffolk being more of a commuter school in the heart of Beacon Hill(downtown) comes is similar to my University in that it is easy to get lost in the shuffle, students have to to work rather hard to be active on campus.

The workshop went rather fast as students were engaged throughout the entire time. Ready to answer questions and participate in the role playing scenarios brought the workshop to a quick end. Next time I will make sure to assign a time allotment to each discussion and conversation piece.

“Some will find ways to establish a network of new schools or develop models to turn around low-performing schools,” he said. “Others will find new ways to use technology. Others might explore how to engage children in the arts.”

This is a great idea! Being that our country is built on innovation and creativity it is nice to see Education going the same route. The federal Department of Education has created a competition for schools and nonprofit groups to help schools become more innovative in their attempts to improve education. Working on ideas that are untested and unproven will get the chance to be explored.

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Hopefully a few ideas developed focus more on Entrepreneurship(My Favorite) and give kids the opportunity to see the value in exploring and creating their own ideas, projects and eventually businesses.

For those of you that missed a pretty intense interview you can check it out here. Dave Ross discussed several topics related to my book and also a few that went off on a tangent.  The discussion between African and African American success in the US became a focus that I had not expected.

I thought the interview was well balanced and gave me a good chance to discuss many of the issues facing students of color on campus.

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Derrius Quarles is another great example of a person who doesn’t use excuses and is more successful for it. Derrius is a foster child that was taken by the state as the age of 5 from his mother. At the age is 17 he was living on his own in Chicago’s South Side. These challenges forced him to grow up fast and also shape his own future without the guidance of a parent or guardian. He instead pursued education when the majority of people in his place have made excuses.

“You can’t go around thinking you are inferior just because you didn’t have parents,” he says. “For me, it’s about knowing where you are from and accepting it, but more important, knowing where you are going.”

The great thing about Quarles story is it only took ONE teacher Nivedita Nutakki to realize that he was talented in order for him to start believing in his own abilities.  In high school after being forced to take summer school for failing his courses Nivedita recognized that Quarles was a highly talented student and pushed him to do better. Quarles motivation and new found confidence helped get him from a 2.5 GPA to a straight A student within a couple years. A huge turn around that is accredited to his long hours and determination to get to college.

Now Derrius finds himself at Morehouse College, one of the most prestigious black Institutions in the country.  With five different scholarships awarded to him that total in 1 Million dollars. This story speaks volumes about the journey that many people have taken and been in worse situations then YOU or ME. Although I find myself to be independent I have always have had a family support system to get me through challenging times if needed.