Community College Student Analysis

According to the schools and staffing survey the elementary students in the United States spend an average of six or more hours in class for an average of one-hundred-seventy-five days a year, or more depending on the state. This is the schedule that persists for students until their high school career is over. After high school, students may attend community college which is a new experience to them. This community college experience usually acquires students to pay for their credits they gain through averaging a letter grade of D or better. Community college students are told to focus and this will help you gain the degree that will lead you into the amazing career of their choice. This type of college gives students the opportunity to gain a degree higher than an associates in education such as a bachelor or masters degree. It seems mind blowing, that is, the thought of accomplishing your goals through a little more schooling. What's more schooling to someone who has been in attendance since they were at least 3 years of age, it seems so simple. What these newbees don't recollect are the financial dues that will be needed to fund their college education. Most students come from public
schooling which is free or private schooling that their parents pay for. So, most students are oblivious to the prices that college credits cost. Now, it should be a known fact that nothing in this world is free. Just for entertainment purposes though, some things should be free such as a college education because it is essential to the world that their are doctors, teachers, psychologists, business owners and more. But that will be too difficult to discuss in such a small paper. The idea that is going to be formulated in this paper is a plan for community college students to gain a paycheck and earn credits towards a degree that will be earned through working as an aid to their intended career. This is an amazing idea to actually earn a paycheck and earn credits in the community college career. To start off, the reason a student should be employed as their intended career choice, and gain college credits will be discussed.
Focus! Focus! Focus! That’s the action we all are told to do in order to accomplish a goal throughout our life. In every aspect of life a human being is trying to focus but unfortunately the human mind becomes distracted. In the aspect of education, however, a student’s distractions should be diminished as much as possible. We want these people to succeed, the population depends on it for continuation of many services.The main idea I have thought of to diminish student distraction is, if a student has to work while attending school they may work as an aid to their intended career choice. While working as this aid they will also gain college credits to their degree choice as well as a pay check. This will keep the student focused on what they want to achieve, instead of coming home from work and not being interested in any of their studies because work has exhausted their mind. Instead, students may come home from work and be more intrigued by their studies because of what they have experienced in their work day. Yes, it is true that a student will still gain essential skills for their intended profession even if they are not working as what they aspire to be. However, nothing could be more beneficial than learning through other people working as what the students goal is. In the book, The Future of Education and Training in a Changing World it says, “Competencies are acquired through trial and error, simulation, imitation, understanding, training and experience. Informal learning is a master and apprentice relationship that is probably more relevant for competence building than formal learning.” This raises a question, if you were a business owner or hiring manager, who would you have as an employee? Someone who has the knowledge of formal and informal learning, or someone that has formally learned skills but has no experience of actually doing them. It’s like having street knowledge without any book knowledge or vice a versa. You can read all day about a situation, but as soon as you are actually put in the situation your body doesn't know how to react. In the same fact, you can act out your tasks all day but if you are asked to sit and formally write what you are doing your mind could have a hard time comprehending. We can prepare the aspiring degree earning people in all aspects in a way of benefitting the work force and the students.
This reminds me of when I got a job into one of my first careers. Personally, I have worked since the age of thirteen but at the age of 18 I was introduced into my first career. While a senior in high school I took a program to get a certificate as a CNA. I started a job after achieving this certificate as a certified nursing assistant and stuck with it for long while. After a couple years of my time being invested as certified nursing assistant, I found that I became uninterested in this work and started applying for other jobs that were unrelated. Although I applied for jobs that were unassociated with my experience, I soon realized that these jobs were not giving me a call back. I resorted to applying as a certified nursing assistant again to see what would happen. Well, very soon after applying for these jobs that I had experience in I got a call back. Why was this? Well, because I had experience in this field and employers would rather hire someone with experience than someone with none. The point here is simply that employers are looking for someone with hands on experience. If we give students hands on experience they will be more attractive to businesses that are hiring. These students may even get hired in with more pay because of their experience. Also, community college students who wish to be in this program that will allow them to gain credits along with a pay check will have some initiative into which company they could potentially work for after graduating. How could this idea be put into action?
Well, first of all I couldn't make this happen alone. I would need people with the same idea to help me execute this goal. Before I could elect people to be apart of my committee and develop this idea I would need to fully develop my thought. According to, The Center of Growing Talent by PMA, I should determine how to award this scholarship, determine the duration of the scholarship, establish my scholarship criteria, and promote it.
Before anything I will determine how to award my scholarship. I know there are plenty of people attending community college and many of them should be interested in an opportunity like this. Many of these student are already working a part time and full time job while attending school. So, giving students an opportunity that will give them experience into their profession should be very exciting. The way I will choose candidates for my scholarship are students will have to be attending community college for a minimum of one semester. In this semester, they may be enrolled in six credits or more, but no less than six credits. These students may be considered in the criteria of in state or out of state when it comes to tuition purposes. These recipients will have to have graduated from high school, but can also have gained a general education degree. The students that apply for this scholarship will not have to worry about their grade point average from high school or college, if they have already attended previous semesters. I have came to this conclusion because of an article I have read titled, What if the Secret to Success is Failure.
In this article, the headmaster named Randolph, of a school named Riverdahl, had an idea that students who gained a greater grade point average than those who didn't were not going to necessarily do better than those in the future.
His ideas were tested and it turned out that the students that could bounce back from getting a not so good grade went on to get higher education than those students that maintained good grades all the time. Randolph’s idea’s were that it was too much stress and pressure for those that continually had good grades to do bad and then work to do good again. Lastly, these students would have to pass a background test that included a child offender test. This tests would of course, be safety measures. How would long would this great opportunity take
course?
Moving on, the duration of this scholarship would be as long as the student could attend community college in gaining his/her degree. This scholarship would be granted yearly and the student that it was granted to would followed as long as they are receiving this opportunity. This would be to ensure that the student is always qualifying, such as financial aid. Yes, this seems like an easy scholarship to gain, which it should be because the whole idea is to promote success. However, there will be ways for students to squander such an opportunity. This could happen by students not maintaining their work schedule or getting a bad report from the actual person who is mentoring them. They may also be limited by two or more complaints from the workplaces employees/guests. Now to elaborate on a student maintaining the work schedule they agree to. If a student has elected to work thirty hours a week and calls off more than twice in a six month period, then that student will be put on probation for a ninety day period. In this ninety day period a student cannot miss more than 12 hours of work. This student also may not be late more than four times in a six month period. If the student has met this disqualifying factor, that student will be put on a ninety day probation period. If this student is late more than twice in that ninety day period they may be dropped from the reward program. They may however continue working for the employer, if allowed by the employer. On a good not if they bring a note from their mentor after a sixty day period they could be reconsidered for my program. If the student gets a bad report from their mentor then they may be automatically dropped from the scholarship. If the students gets a minimum of two complaints from the staff/guests then that student may be automatically dropped from the scholarship. Now to move on to the credits.
Dependent on the school's agreement, these students who achieve the criteria for this scholarship will gain a minimal of one and maximum of two credits each semester of fulfillment. In all, student may gain up to an additional of six credit earnings in a year. Then comes the biggest and most important question of all, how will all of it be paid for? In this fantasy that I would like to become reality it would all be free. The proposal is that the workplaces and the schools could reach an agreement. This agreement would be beneficial for both places of business and the student. In the workplace, they would gain extra help by bringing students in as aids on their team. It could also improve their staff’s attitude towards their job. For example, if an employer has a lot of employees who call off, this would in hopes keep staffing stable because of the extra help coming in. As for the school, it could encourage students to be more focused on their work. Potentially, giving the school more graduates making it look more prestigious. This would attract more students and therefore more business. This is all just the start of a simple idea that in all hopes comes into fruition.
In contrast, I ran over some information from a man named, Doug Lederman that explains in his news article, that it does not matter how much a student works that will affect his/her grade. He says that it is quite an equal comparison if the student works 20 more or less hours a week. It is that of the own students ability which will make them succeed or fail. I would have to agree with Mr. Lederman’s idea because it essentially puts more emphasis on this fantasy of mine. If everything is dependent on the student's ability we might as well add fuel to the fire and improve their abilities that will benefit them in the future.
To put everything to a rest at this time, the sum of it all is trying to promote success. We want our students to succeed and we want them to be focused on their way to the top. This is an idea that will promote students to be the best of the best at what they do. The encouragement comes by a way of gaining experience, a paycheck, and to put the cherries on top credits toward their community college degree.