Posts Tagged ‘mentoring’

Creating a college-positive culture

Monday, August 9th, 2010

By 2018, nearly two-thirds of available jobs will require some form of higher education. But Alabama lags behind the nation in getting our young people to college.

Alabama’s median household income is $9,443 less than the national average. According to the Southern Education Foundation, 60 percent of that gap is due to Alabamians’ low educational attainment. For every dollar earned by individuals with a bachelor’s degree, high school dropouts only earn 32 cents and high school graduates only earn 51 cents. College graduates elevate their personal earning capacity and bring nearly $1 million in spending power back to their local communities. (The Big Payoff, US Census Bureau – PDF)

A college-going culture includes the environment, attitudes, and practices in schools and communities that encourage students and their families to obtain the information, tools, and perspective to enhance access to and success in post-secondary education.

How can you create a college-going culture in your community?

1. Have high expectations. Young people will follow your lead and work to meet your expectations.
2. Share your passion/vocation. Teens are often conflicted about the career path they wish to pursue. Share your story about why you picked the career you did, how you got there, and what you hope to see in the future. This simple act can serve as an invaluable resource to a teenager struggling to choose a career path.
3. Utilize your business or occupation. Invite local teens to shadow you or your colleagues for a day. Giving young people the opportunity to experience a career they may have not have ever considered could be one of the biggest gifts you can give.
4. Mentor a young person. Children that come from homes without a college-educated parent often do not see the value of a college education. By sharing your educational experience and encouraging a young person to pursue post-secondary education, you will dramatically increase her chances of being exposed to new opportunities.
5. Answer questions. Young people can be timid and may not always ask the questions they need to. Answering what seems like simple questions may turn into a larger conversation and guide young people to a more successful future.
6. Participate in or produce a college or career fair. Hosting a fair could be one of the most beneficial activities that you can provide for your community.
7. Contribute to initiatives already underway. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, and by financially supporting organizations already undertaking initiatives, you allow them to increase their impact.

Check out our page on the Blueprints college access initiative for more information on why increasing college access for all Alabama students matters.

Posted by Kristina Scott

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Posted in Making A Difference, education | No Comments »

32% of persistently impoverished children stay poor into adulthood

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Children born into poverty are more likely to have negative outcomes and remain in poverty into early adulthood, according to a study released by the Urban Institute.

Nearly half of kids born into poverty will remain persistently poor throughout childhood, meaning they spend at least half of their childhood at or below the poverty line.

And 32 percent of persistently poor children will remain impoverished into adulthood. They are also more likely to become unwed teenaged parents, drop out of high school, or have a spotty employment record – all of which significantly impact their economic status.

“Because poverty status at birth is linked to worse adult outcomes, targeting resources to children born into poverty and their families would help particularly vulnerable people,” the authors of the study note. In Alabama, 22% of Alabama children live in poverty, and over 1 in 10 live in extreme poverty.

And we still have a racial divide: “Black children are roughly 2.5 times more likely than white children to ever experience poverty and 7 times more likely to be persistently poor.”

What can you do?

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in Economics & Employment, Making A Difference, education | No Comments »

Illiteracy in AL: not just about driving tests

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Tim James recently made headlines by suggesting that people who can’t pass the Alabama driver’s test in English would not be safe drivers. But what about all the Alabamians who speak English and just can’t read?

Alabama ranks 37th in reading proficiency, reports the Annie E. Casey Foundation. And according to The Literacy Council, approximately 1 in 4 of all Alabama adults is functionally illiterate.

Why are we concerned about this? Not because of road signs. Literacy and poverty are directly linked: 43% of adults with low literacy skills live in poverty (Birmingham Metro, “Illiteracy’s Devastating Impact on Alabama”). And our literacy woes are directly related to our education system. In a 2007 assessment of 8th graders’ reading levels nationwide, the average student score in Alabama was lower than 48 other states.*

This video from the Literacy Council shows the impact of illiteracy on individuals:

How do we solve this problem?

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in Economics & Employment, education | No Comments »

“I can afford to go to college when I thought I couldn’t!”

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Above: Montevallo High School freshmen visit the University of Montevallo with mentors from UM and APP.

“I learned today that I can afford to go to college when I thought I couldn’t!” -Francis-Marion High School Blueprints Student

Last week, we wrapped up our first semester of Blueprints, which matched college student mentors from Montevallo, Birmingham-Southern, and Judson College with high school students in Montevallo, Hueytown, and Marion. The goal of Blueprints is to show Alabama high schoolers that they can go to college, while getting college students out of the classroom and into a rewarding service-learning experience. We received consistently positive responses to our 8-week pilot program.

Your donations made this program possible! Thank you to all of our donors for helping improve higher educational attainment in Alabama. We rely on your continuing support to ensure that Blueprints thrives into next semester and beyond. In order to sustain the relationships we have built with students, teachers, and counselors at our Blueprints sites around the state, we need your help.

Thank you also to all our Blueprints mentors and partner schools. Your hard work and dedication showed us that through relationships and a servant-based approach to leadership, change is possible.

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in Making A Difference, education | 1 Comment »

A chicken-and-egg conundrum?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The Alabama Select Commission on High School Graduation and Student Dropouts recently made recommendations to reduce our high school drop out rate, which currently stands at over 40 percent.   Those recommendations included:

  • tracking students at-risk for dropping out
  • creating a positive, pro-learning climate that reflects multiple learning styles
  • establishing recovery academies for dropouts who would like to complete their education
  • changing disciplinary measures to encourage positive behavior, not dropping out

Why does the drop out rate matter? Well, as the Montgomery Advertiser editorial board noted,

The fiscal cost of such a high dropout rate is staggering – billions of dollars in lost income potential over the lifetimes of dropouts, with corresponding losses in tax revenue. But more importantly the human cost is incalculable, a terrible toll in stunted human potential, in lives far less productive and satisfying than they might have been.

Larry Lee’s Daily Yonder Piece, “Two Counties and the Difference Education Makes,” has an interesting take on this issue, particularly its impact on rural Alabama.  As Larry points out, there is a chicken-and-egg conundrum: if rural students get a high school diploma, they are more likely to go off to college, move away and find a job elsewhere – a rural brain drain. Yet if students are undereducated, the county is less able to attract economic development. And what incentive do students have to pursue higher education if there are no jobs for them?

We frequently write about how Alabama’s low educational attainment hinders economic development, as shown in this Southern Education Foundation report “High School Dropouts: Alabama’s Number One Education and Economic Problem,” or this National Report Card on Higher Education, which states,

Alabama’s underperformance in educating its young population could limit the state’s access to a competitive workforce and weaken its economy over time…[these trends] undermine the state’s ability to compete successfully in a global economy.

Alabama needs jobs. And to attract employers, Alabama needs higher levels of college graduation. But first and foremost, we have to fix our high school dropout epidemic.

How can you help? The best way to make an impact – and something that many of us already do – is to mentor a child or young adult. Reach out to students in your community, your church, and your neighborhood. Provide encouragement and support. Mentoring doesn’t need to be formal, although you can connect with an at-risk child through programs such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Mentoring is a small thing that goes a long way towards helping our schools and our teachers support Alabama’s students.

For more insight into the high school dropout crisis nationwide and its economic impact, see this excellent post from Compassion in Politics. For more resources on mentoring, visit our resource page.

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in Economics & Employment, Making A Difference, education | No Comments »

We Have a Winner!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

We are proud to unveil the winning logo for our Blueprints college access program:

It is the design of Christopher Murphy, a senior in UAB’s graphic design department. Chris is a 27-year-old from Birmingham, and his design was chosen out of over 15 entries from his design classmates.

Over a coffee meeting to choose a bright blue color for the logo, Chris talked about his design process. His enthusiasm for the project and his commitment to Blueprint’s mission led me to ask how he personally connected to the project:

“I have to connect with my design,” he said. “I could personally relate to what Blueprints is trying to do. Graduating from High School, I didn’t know what to do, where to go, how to get to college. I could really have used help from a program like Blueprints.”

Chris is not a first generation college student, but he is the first in his family to pursue a career in design – and he “gets” how kids must feel when they are the first in their family to enroll in college. “All the other men in my family are engineers, and all the women are nurses. They don’t really ‘get’ what I’m studying!”

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Above: Chris and Kristina sort through Pantone color samples for inspiration.

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Chris incorporated the color blue into his design from the very beginning, and not just because the program is titled “Blueprints.”

“My nickname is actually ‘True Blue’ – Christopher ‘True Blue’ Murphy. To me the color blue represents faithfulness and loyalty” – two traits that Chris values highly. The Blueprints program is also built on loyalty, commitment and enduring relationships between mentors from Alabama colleges and local high school students. To Chris, the color blue is just another layer of meaning in his design.

After hearing details about the Blueprints mission to equip students for college, Chris was inspired and immediately started sketching. The apple with a fingerprint was his very first idea.

The fingerprint design, aside from playing with the idea of “Blueprints,” also reflects a personal touch from the designer. Chris used his own fingerprint for the logo, inking his right index finger and scanning it into the computer.

This personal touch is something that Chris strives to add to all of his projects. “People need to know you’re reaching out to them in your design,” Chris said. “People need something to connect to.”

One of Chris’s design inspirations is artist Frank Chimero, whom Chris admires because “He talks about design with heart…and says you have to make sure your work has heart, because it is made for the people. It is very important to me that my own designs have meaning and heart.”

After graduating, Chris hopes to find a job in the Southeast working in design. His dream job would be designing packaging for Nike.

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in Uncategorized, education | 1 Comment »

Colin Powell: College readiness crisis hurts our economic prosperity

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This morning, President Obama, General Powell, and U.S. Secretary of Education Anne Duncan addressed the nation about one of the leading determinants of economic prosperity: educational attainment. Powell’s America’s Promise Alliance launched a new campaign, Grad Nation. Their goal: to make the U.S. a world leader in college graduation rates by 2020.

How does Alabama fare in the national trend towards more educational attainment? Not so well. In the year 2005, only 23 percent of Alabama adults had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is much lower than the national average and places us 43rd in a national index of college education attainment. We also ranked 45th in a national index of high school graduation rates, with just 84.1 percent of adults boasting a high school diploma.

In 2008, Alabama’s median household income was $9,443 less than the national median household income.  The Southern Education Foundation reports that 60% of Alabama’s low earnings potential is due to low educational attainment. Many studies have confirmed that lack of a college degree leads to significantly lower earnings potential over a person’s lifetime. On average, people with college degrees earn 45 percent more than those without a bachelor’s degree, and 64 percent more than those without a high school diploma.

On his blog, Powell writes

“The simple proposition is this—improving graduation rates is not just an education issue; it’s a community issue.”

We agree.  What to do about it?

  • Mentor youth. Students whose parents did not complete college enrolled at rates of only 56 percent, and students of parents with no high school diploma enrolled at even lower rates; these first-generation college students need the most encouragement.
  • Support college access programs (such as our Blueprints College Access Initiative) in our efforts to connect students to the resources they need.
  • Be the change you wish to see: urge local high schools to institute more college readiness programs, or volunteer to strengthen existing initiatives.

Posted by Robyn Hyden

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Posted in education | 1 Comment »