Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2008 in
Student The Scholarship for Mothers Program, one of the first bills passed by President Obama after being sworn into office, is designed to encourage mothers to return to school and obtain a college degree. Placing emphasis on the importance of women pursuing a higher education, Obama has urged mothers across the country to take advantage of the improved terms of the Federal Pell Grant.
It is important to understand that unlike a student loan which is required to be paid back after graduating from college, a grant is free money that is allocated by the government for designated groups of people that meet certain criteria. The purpose of a college grant is to offer an educational opportunity to individuals that would be unlikely to attend college without such government assistance.
The Scholarship for Mothers Program is structured to help mothers overcome the obstacles that prevent them from furthering their education by providing them with the maximum amount of government funding available. In addition to the $5100 available to poor students through the Federal Pell Grant, these women can take advantage of the American Opportunity Tax Credit Program, which waives tax on the first $4000 that is received for continuing education.
With incentives like these, there is no better time for mothers to apply to the college of their choice. With grant money flowing in at an all-time high and the lack of jobs that have resulted from this failing economy, mothers everywhere are graciously accepting the opportunity afforded to them by this government program.
The program is available to all mothers that are interested in pursuing a higher education. Single mothers, working mothers and stay-at-home mothers can all benefit from the Scholarship for Mothers Program. After obtaining a college degree from an accredited institution, these mothers can demand better jobs with higher pay, allowing them to better support their families and improve their quality of life.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Student Karl Rove and Howard Dean brought the national health care debate to Penn State on Tuesday night.
There was little agreement, but a good bit of name calling, during the event which ranged in tone from heated to humorous.
“That’s a made up statistic, Karl Rove. …For the first time tonight, I’m calling you on it,” said Dean, a medical physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “You made that up.”
Rove had said that Medicare rejects claims twice as often as the overall health insurance industry, and he promised to put the proof in his Wall Street Journal column next week. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my integrity. ..Mr. Dean, you just called me a liar and I don’t appreciate it,” replied Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor. Later, Rove called Dean “adolescent” after the former Democratic National Committee chairman interrupted one of his answers.
The exchange was part of a debate in front of more than 2,000 people at the Eisenhower Auditorium. The two participated in a similar event at DePauw University in September.
Tuesday night’s event was part of the Student Programming Association’s distinguished speaker series. All but one question dealt directly with health care, currently being debated in Congress.
Dean defended the public option, a government-sponsored insurance plan, saying it would provide more insurance opportunity for citizens.
“We have a choice (now) that is between one predatory insurance company, another predatory insurance company and a third predatory insurance company,” Dean said. “Give us the same choice that people over 65 have, give us the same choice that our brave soldiers that came back from Iraq and Afghanistan have, give us the same choice that the Congress of the United States has. Give us that choice.”
Rove replied, “Every one of those programs is subsidized by everybody else. …So let’s duplicate them for everybody, except we’re gonna run out of money. …Somebody has to pay the bills.”
Rove said the health care industry does not need large scale overhaul. Instead, he proposed medical tort reform and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, allowing people to take their health care with them when they switch jobs, allowing small business to pool together.
Earlier in the debate, Rove said 17 million of the 47 million uninsured Americans earn more than $50,000 a year.
“With all due respect, I don’t want to pick up Bill Gates’ health insurance costs,” Rove said. “These are people who ought to be able to find a way to pick up their own.”
Dean said that $50,000 worker would end up spending $13,000 on health insurance in the current system. “Only a Republican could like this kind of thing,” he said.
Throughout the debate, audience members mixed their applause and cheers for both speakers.
But Rove received boos and catcalls from the audience on three occasions. When he claimed the United States health care system was the best in the world, heralded the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 of as an example of bipartisanship, and criticized people for saying George W. Bush “wasn’t a legitimately elected president.”
At one point, in quick succession one spectator yelled out “war criminal” and another cursed at Rove.
“These people must be from Michigan,” Rove said.
The reference to Penn State’s football rival earned Rove some laughs. “Or maybe … Ohio State.” he added.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Student With so many companies around, there are a lot of offers for students to get their first credit card. It becomes difficult to make a correct choice at times. Here are some useful tips to pick up your first credit card.
On his/her way to build a good credit score, the first step for every student is to pick the correct credit card. With many offers around it is not easy to make a selection. You can make a decision based on important factors like interest rates, reputation of the company making an offer and the reward programs. Remember the following points while making a choice:
This is an excellent opportunity for you to pay off the outstanding regularly and create a good credit score.
The company is offering lowest rate will be your natural choice.
After all, the cost of these gifts is going to be recovered from your payments! Many times, these gifts may be of no use to you and may be available at a dollar store.
Card offers from a smaller bank may sometimes look attractive on the face but they’re not good in the long run.
Look for the cash back offer or some credit for purchase of selective merchandise.
Before applying for a credit card, it is advisable to check your credit report. This report is available free one time during a year. Also, you have to be honest with yourself whether
A lot of effort is required for building and maintaining a good credit score. Following the above tips will help you to stay responsible as well as organized in your financial matters.
Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2007 in
Student Christine Lewis and William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Introduction
Strategic planning is a process of defining schools strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources. Strategic planning is the formal consideration of a school’s future. Strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:
”What do we do?”
“For whom do we do it?”
“How do we excel?”
The basic aim of strategic planning is to actively determine the nature or character of the school and to guide its direction
The need for effective strategic planning is very important to the success of our schools. The general operation of schools comes with many challenges. These challenges require educational leaders to develop plans to adjust their practices to meet the academic and behavioral needs of all students. The need for effective strategic planning has intensified because of the constraints in resources and increased expectations for accountability from external agencies such as state governments (Welsh, 2005).
Educational leaders need to effectively meet these challenges. They must interpret the regulations and policies and then develop system-wide action plans to effectively put these strategies into practice. Solutions now require detailed blueprints for systemic change that identify strategic performance indicators and benchmarks. These plans require that educational leaders, teachers, counselors and other related professionals work collaboratively to identify and improve positive academic and behavioral supports across the curriculum. This must be done with simplicity and commitment within the organization. Professional collaboration is critical for the learning and performance of the highly diverse students that comprise today’s classrooms. Incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) can create better strategic plans.
Purpose of the Article
The purpose of this article is to discuss ways our educational leaders in public schools can incorporate the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) to improve schooling. Strategic planning must move from modernism to postmodernism in order to improve education.
Incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning to Improved Strategic Planning for Successful Schools
Educational leaders can change the way they develop strategic plans for public schools by creating plans using postmodernist thinking. Postmodernism can be the new and improve way to achieve success for our highly diverse student population. Educational leaders have to think outside of the box to create working strategic plans that will help students to be highly successful. Schools can close the achievement gap that our nation’s public schools are facing. Educational leaders can create a working strategic plan by incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007). If we do not know what we want to achieve, we cannot make decisions about how you are going to get there. The six realms of meaning can put schools on the path to success.
One of the key attributes of successful schools is that they have a well articulated vision and mission that all members of the school community believe. It is worthwhile spending time to get the vision and mission articulated because all other strategic planning decisions depend on whether or not the schools actions are consistent with the vision and mission.
Symbolics
The first realm of meaning is symbolics which includes speech, symbol and gesture. Educational leaders must establish ordinary language as part of a well planned strategic plan which is well written. The language in the strategic plan must be understood by staff, students, parents and stakeholders. The language should be precise and have a clear message. It should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited. Specific means the language should be clear and understood by all, including those not involved in the process. Measurable means the plan should articulate the desired outcome, not the specific strategies. The meaning
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2005 in
Student Heavy equipment operators are involved in activities that are not only challenging but require a high level of precision. They are involved in the operation and maintenance of heavy equipment that is used in construction work, laying of roads and structural works.
Heavy equipment training imparts training in the operation and maintenance of heavy equipment like backhoes, rock trucks, road graders, bulldozers, excavators, scrapers, wheel loaders, forklifts and road graders.
Reputed training programs for heavy equipment operators are industry developed and comprehensive. In these institutes, students are given sufficient hands-on training so as to gain expertise with each piece of heavy equipment. In this way, their degree of knowledge is high and they will have sufficient practical experience when they are ready for work.
The curricula of the training program have accreditation from the NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research). First Aid Certification might also be a part of the course. This is important since heavy equipment operators often find themselves in situations that could be risky and require these life saving skills.
Before a student can join the heavy equipment training course, they will require a valid driver’s license.
Although heavy equipment training programs starts off with a basic introduction to heavy equipment, students are taught the intricacies of various applications within the industry in a real-life scenario. Along with operation and maintenance, heavy equipment training also includes sufficient exposure on safety procedures, maintenance and rigging procedures. Often courses in heavy equipment training are broken down into different levels so that students can learn as much as they want. This is helpful since students can pick the area of knowledge they desire. Also, it helps when students need to find the necessary financing for the training course.
Students who have completed the program successfully will receive their certificates, wallet cards and transcripts directly from the institute they are training with. Many reputed institutes will also go one step further and assist their students in getting initial placements. These could be entry level jobs only but heavy equipment operators can easily find better opportunities once they have some experience to show in their records.
Employment opportunities after the completion of heavy equipment training are vast and varied. Students could be employed in excavation activities, housing development activities, highways contract jobs, plumbing or electrical contract jobs, landscaping, light duty mining operations, excavation or construction. As the country moves out of recession and additional thrust is being given to development and infrastructural activities, people who are interested in heavy equipment training can take heart. The number of opportunities is increasing.
Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2002 in
Student Single mom scholarships. What a great idea, but are they really available?
As a single mother myself I have done a considerable amount of research on the topic of scholarships, grants, loans and other types of student financial aid. The good news is You can benefit from all of my research and get a ton of free information and access to free scholarship and college research resources at my site www.thefreeducationguide.org.
Here is what my research turned up. As a single mom you basically have access to four different types of financial aid.
Work-Study
Grants
Scholarships
Loans
Right from the start, you need to be aware that the first three options (work-study, Grants and scholarships) are forms of financial aid that do not need to be repaid.
Loans, however, need to be repaid with interest.
This is an important point! Recently I heard a report on National Public Radio documenting cases of abuse by “advisors” at some pretty well known online schools who were glossing over this fact and creating mountains of college loan debt for people just like you and me. That is just not right! Please be careful and don’t get yourself underwater with debt when there are other ways to fund your education.
The Beauty of Scholarships
The only financial aid option not always dependent on your household income is scholarships, which may be awarded based on a variety of qualifications including merit, race, gender and a host of other strange things. Did you know that there is a left handed scholarship? Seriously!
In order to be eligible for the other forms of financial aid, you must prove financial need.
Scholarships for Single Moms Are Available
It’s interesting, I have found one scholarship specifically for mothers and moms and two others that moms are eligible for and the best part is all three scholarships require only the submission of some basic information rather than tedious essays, application forms and extensive research.
Each scholarship is for $10,000 and the application process will only take you about nine minutes total for all three scholarships. Another bonus is that these scholarships are awarded each and every month and that your name remains eligible for three months.
Don’t let other people tell you that you can’t go back college! Instead, take control of your future by going to my site, applying for the Single Mom Scholarships and getting a Free Copy of My College QuickStart Guide. The College QuickStart Guide is a compendium of the best articles I came across when conducting my research on going back to college.
Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2001 in
Student Retreats, evenings of reflection, and prayer grouping; these catholic and many other faith-based activities form the core activities of Our Lady of Holy Cross College founded way back in 1916 near New Orleans. Keeping with the faith student volunteers undertake “Bread for the World/Walk for the Hungry” programs. 1250 students attend classes in the institute that has southern colonial type premise.
Concentrating its focus on individuals and small classes, the institute conducts numerous undergraduate programs including the allied health, theology, and history among others. Masters degrees are offered in theology as well as in education.
Pre-bachelor degree courses in medicine, pharmacy, density, and veterinarian are offered for medical career building aspirants. For enrollment the students require at least 2.5 GPA in professional courses besides having the C grade. Online programs for acquiring registered Nursing Degree are also provided by the institute.
Facilities for student support that marks the uniqueness of the institute are written materials, online tutorials, and proficiency and placement tests plus multiple programs preceding the college courses. Students coming on transfer from other accredited universities, high school graduates, as well as the GED holders have the option of open enrollment.
Non refundable application fees are required for the first timers in the institution. In addition all papers for the admission are to be deposited at least three weeks prior to registration date. Three sets of recommendation letters, transcripts of previous course works done, and an essay describing the future career aims and objectives of the student must be produced for enrollment in the graduate courses.
Delivering credit classes for students who have completed their sophomore so that they can attend college classes early, the institute requires permission of the principal concerned for the purpose. Bachelor’s degree examination records and the aptitude test scores are required for counseling and theology programs whereas Millers Analogies Test is required for education program.
For helping students out of problem when they are in some financial crisis the institute offers financial aids. Enrollment counselors stay in the office from morning to evening from 8.30 A.M to 5 P.M. Allowing walk-ins for the students, the institute also engages the counselors for students basing on their last names.
Taking care of the health and fitness of the students there is a Gym opened 24/7 and the Governing body of Our Lady of Holy Cross College functions with the concept of optimizing student involvement in every aspect.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2000 in
Student New Jersey Native, Laryssa Wirstiuk discovered her love for the written word during her teen years. Growing up the daughter of an accountant and a real estate broker, in a home where Ukrainian was the primary language, she was set to pave a way all her own. Armed with her love for writing, Wirstiuk attended Loyola College in Maryland where she graduated cum laude in 2007. Having a Bachelor of Arts in writing and a minor in Spanish under her belt, she dabbled in many of styles of writing before quickly finding a niche.
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A poetry enthusiast with an Internet obsession, Wirstiuk started her website TooShyToStop in May of 2008 upon the suggestion of her at-the-time boyfriend. The name was inspired by a line from “In the Waiting room,” a poem by Emily Bishop. It originated as a personal blog and she joyfully reminisced about her first entries on Free Iced Coffee Day at Dunkin Donuts and the Vietnamese restaurant where she celebrated her 23rd Birthday. After a summer internship in North Jersey that turned Manhattan into her playground, Wirstiuk had a revelation. Much of her writing was drawn from experiences in the city and wondered once returning to school if there were others out there wishing to make their voices heard. She placed an ad on trusty Craig’s List … and the transformation from a one-person blog to an online arts and culture magazine began. “TSTS grew from there, almost independently of me. Sometimes I feel like this project is calling me to work for it,” she explained.
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Now backed by an arsenal of weekly contributing writers that provide sundry and thought-provoking articles, Wirstiuk is the chief editor of TSTS. She splits her time between the site and responsibilities as a full-time student at the University of Maryland where she is working towards a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. The ability to provide an outlet of self expression for others like herself is one of her favorite aspects about TSTS and ensures content is of the highest caliber. Single-handedly keeping all her writers on task has proven to be a primary challenge and Wirstiuk is aware of the possibility that catastrophe can happen; a concept she uses to her advantage, “I kind of like the possibility of what my brother and I like to call ‘epic fail’ because the risk keeps me motivated to work hard and stay focused.”
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The varied experiences of her entrepreneurial evolution have taught her to be assertive and remain positive, “I can’t stand negative people! I am really stubborn, and when I have an idea that I want to actualize, I do everything in my power to make it happen. A ‘no’ is just a roadblock.” It is this ambitious attitude that continues driving TSTS to thrive and flourish and as 2009 kicks off… so will the launch of its redesigned website.
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Wirstiuk is a mere 23 years-old and her journey is still very much in progress, but everything she has accomplished is invariable to her future success. She has acquired the skills not only to seek out her goals, but to help others achieve theirs along the way. Looking back, her advice to others is, above all else, to stay calm and follow Nike’s lead, “JUST DO IT. If you keep doing and moving forward, you’ll realize that after a bit of time, you will have at least learned something new, if you haven’t already accomplished something great.”
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Passion, drive, and a little gumption make the perfect stones to pave a path of aspirations.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2000 in
Student Parents often ask about home schooling, does it actually work. They are well aware of the fact that public schools have problems, but really wonder whether they can do any better. One natural response for some parents is to try a little harder to see if they can afford private schooling but, even if this were possible, are the private schools really any better than public schools?
There are many, quality studies which show that, on average, home schooling produces superior students. To an extent of course this is understandable as parents clearly have an effect on education no matter which route they take. A parent who is genuinely interested in the education of his or her children will help to motivate them, producing better results and individual support is certainly an added bonus.
But there is certainly more to it than this, in a variety of situations, to take even this into account and still come to the conclusion that home schooling vs public school produces better results.
Even the United States Education Department agrees. In one study which they sponsored themselves home schooled students produced exceptionally high test scores. The median scores in every grade were far higher than those of public schools and even higher than those of private school students. The average home schooled student in grades one through to vgfour was a grade level above that of public school peers and, by the time home schooled students reached the equivalent of the 8th grade, they were as much as four years ahead of students attending public school.
However , costs were also lower. On average, government schools spent $6,500 per student each year and private schools spent $3,500. By contrast, parents undertaking home schooling spent about $550 per student each year. This figure for home schooling does not of course take into account the time spent by parents on home schooling for which a public school teacher would be paid.
The public school system as we know it today evolved during the second half of the 19th century as one state after another made school attendance compulsory. Perhaps the most interesting question however, and one which rarely seems to be asked, is why, if public schooling offered such superior value, it was necessary for the states to make it compulsory and to force parents to put their children into the public school system.
It could be, and sometimes is, argued that this was due to the ignorance of rural parents who did not see the value of education. However, it is interesting to note that adult illiteracy rates in 1840 Massachusetts were as low as 2% and that, by 1995, this figure had risen to 19%, in spite of apparently enormous advances in the intervening years. In 1840 libraries were rare and today they are everywhere as books are both relatively inexpensive and easy to trade.
Today over a million children are home schooled in the United States and thousands of home schooled students have attended colleges and universities, including many of the most prestigious and difficult to get into.
Whatever your own thoughts about home schooling vs public school there is no doubt that the results clearly show the advantage of home schooling.
http://www.homeschoolingvspublicschool.info provides advice and information on many aspects of homeschooling and public school and can also be your best home school resource with information on such things as the advantages and disadvantages of home schooling and much more.