Future College Parent Podcast

Not your momma’s CTE program! – Michelle Freidman

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:02:12 GMT

For the second episode of the Future College Parent Podcast, I was excited to speak with Ms. Michelle Freidman, Director of Career and Technical Education at CVES BOCES. Michelle lives and breathes Career and Technical Education or CTE. Her passion for her work is so obvious and I so appreciative of how she is able to explain the work she does in an approachable manner.

Episode Timeline:

[03:06] Michelle’s role in supporting parents and students in getting an education.
[05:40] How CTE is growing in popularity
[09:27] Benefits of participating in BOCES’ CTE programs
[16:19] How CTE programs can help you figure out your passion
[17:23] The difference between being college-ready and being career-ready
[21:02] How parents can prepare students for their careers after high school
[26:03] Michelle’s advice for the higher education system
[30:54] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode.

Five things I learned from my talk with Michelle!

1. CTE offers students the opportunity to “test drive” learning a skill (or skills) or a career path while still in high school. Don’t pay extra for the experience! Remember Michelle’s nursing example of a student who thought they wanted to be a nurse but then when it came time to provide patient care, she wasn’t a fan! She was a fan of the medical field and was able to focus her energy elsewhere.
2. Have conversations with your students early and often about their talents, what their passions are, and what brings them joy to attempt to link them to a career path. Then encourage and seek out opportunities for them to learn and gain skills.
3. Sustainable lifelong learning happens with skill building. Once you learn a skill or trade, you have it for life!
4. CTE does not mean no traditional college or advance level of career. Your student’s education path doesn’t end with certification in a CTE program. Most trades are now looking for an advanced level of academic experience.
5. Use Michelle’s advice to traditional colleges to benefit you, ask colleges to highlight or map occupational opportunities with degree programs.

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Parent Action Plan!: Parents can download the action plan document to actively engage with their student, secondary, and post-secondary professionals to help their student prepare, chose and finance college.

Lesson Plan & Worksheet: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the Lesson Plan and Worksheet for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Referenced links:

Career and Technical Education (CTE): The Division of Academic and Technical Education (DATE) is responsible for helping all students acquire challenging academic, technical, and employability skills to succeed in postsecondary education and in-demand careers. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/cte/index.html

Perkins Collaborative Resource: Look up your state’s CTE Profile here! https://cte.ed.gov/

Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES): https://www.boces.org/

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:25
Michelle, thank you for being here. Welcome to the future college parent podcast. I appreciate you being here and helping future college parents. And thank you also for being one of our first six guests, your guest’s number two, for the sixth episode premiere of the future college parent podcast welcome.

Michelle Freidman 02:46
Well, thank you so much. I am truly honored to have been asked to give a give some feedback at to future college parents after having a couple college students, myself and some little tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way. Well, wonderful.

Justin Alger 03:05
Let’s get right into it if you could share with us your role and describe in what capacity you support parents and students in getting college and career ready.

Michelle Freidman 03:16
I’d love to. So, my role here I work in a career and tech center regional tech centers in New York State. And we work in what we call collaborative sense in what we call a BOCES Board of Cooperative educational services. So basically, in a nutshell, it’s chunking the state into groups of counties where in regionally services can be provided that school districts couldn’t financially support on their own. So, in my part of New York, my centers are located in two counties. And we serve as 16 school districts. So, our students are typically 11th and 12th graders, and they come to the regional technical centers for training in the skilled trades and health careers as part of their journey on to what’s next, whether it’s immediately into the workforce, or if it’s moving on to advanced training and post-secondary.

Justin Alger 04:26
That’s great. And now you there are a lot of acronyms. Right, and you said BOCES stands for

Michelle Freidman 04:32
Board of Cooperative educational services. And that’s exclusive to New York State. states around the country have different ways in which they can regionalize services. But that’s how it’s how it works in New York State.

Justin Alger 04:48
Yeah, wonderful. And actually, I know in our pre interview we talked about because I was unaware whether BOCES or CTE was a national or regional program and I actually did some did some searching myself and, and certainly it’s a national program has been the US Department of Education. Division of academic and technical education is responsible for helping students acquire the academic and technical and employability skills to help them succeed in post-secondary education and in demand careers. And the US Department of Ed website directs you to the Perkins collaborative Resource Network, where listeners can find information about your state’s CTE program. And I’ll of course post the link in the show notes. So, I shared with you I think in our in our LinkedIn conversation, a Newsweek article that talks about how CTE is growing in popularity. And as it again, it provides students with those skills to and credentials to get them directly in the workforce or prepare them for higher education. Are you noticing any enrollment shifts in on your BOCES campus at all?

Michelle Freidman 06:01
Oh, absolutely. Um, you know, there has been an evolution to get to what we now call CTE or career and technical education. Back in a day, depending on what day you were in, back in the day, it was vocational education, and it was very scripted, and that VoTech was world of work, I usually no post-secondary training at all, it was an either or then we morphed into occupational education, which brought more of the employability skills, the scan skills, as we used to call them. And now, the 21st century skills or the soft skills. And then from that evolution, we came to Career and Technical Education, which is where we are right now, where it is not an either-or option. Most technical fields in training fields require some advanced level of education, not always, but oftentimes, it’s not an end stop. Now with the pandemic, and the and the need for what we deemed essential as essential workers, we’re seeing a surge in and a shift. And those students who are aspiring to go into health careers into the transportation sector, the manufacturing and engineering sector, and all of those components, we’re seeing a leveling of the playing field where it’s not either you’re going to college, or you go to a trade school, you go to a career technical educational center for that all-encompassing training of not just the technical skills, but the advanced academic core skills, and the employability skills. So, we were concerned with the pandemic, because everything shifted to virtual learning. However, we were able to embrace that technology, and still teach those hands-on skills. And I think with the ongoing and really renewed respect for the skilled trades through the pandemic, we’re seeing a lot more interest in pursuing those careers. I mean, when you think about it for all of us, if we have a task that we are asked to do, and there is a viable, valid reason why it needs to be done that way, a certain way. And on a certain timeline, we are all much more apt to say okay, I can do that. And that’s what we find in this academic environment, where we are teaching some very high-level academic core content. But in a way that is practical and applicable, the students can understand the rationale behind it, and oftentimes in the research shows, it is learning that will be sustained learning, it’s not just you know it for the test, and then you don’t remember it anymore. It’s sustained learning and it’s ingrained.

Justin Alger 09:22
You say that mentality, if you teach, teach someone to fish, they’ll eat forever type of deal. You alluded to some of the benefits of participating in a BOCES or a CTE program. But can you expand on some of the benefits you see is that students experience from participating?

Michelle Freidman 09:40
Or and from a parent perspective, I think it’s important because at least parents who are of my generation may have grown up in with a mindset that they weren’t equal pathways of a vocational track or a college bound track. And, as I mentioned before, it’s an either-or kind of you either do this or you do that. And what the takeaway I would like for parents to consider is if you were on a college track yourself, and you went through a traditional four year university, you know, if you are blessed to have had parents who saved and were able to pay for that, if you were fortunate enough to maybe get some scholarships, and even some financial aid, and had to take out some loans, there was a point in which you had to work in something else before you got the degree that you were studying for, to get by. I know, for myself, I worked as a waitress many of us did, whatever we needed to do. I wish I had a skill that could have helped me make ends meet a little easier, or a little sooner than having to rely on whatever I could do to get work until I got my teaching degree. So, I say this because if a student comes to one of our centers for two-year program of study and decides to take the New York state licensing exam for cosmetology because they came to our cosmetology program, that does not mean that the path ends as a stylist in at a chair. That just means that now you have a New York State license to practice cosmetology. And you, perhaps could put yourself through a college program making a bunch more money than maybe I was waitressing or working in a dealership and being able to make that labor rate fixing cars. So, I love to tell parents consider what your options are for your kids to participate in a career in tech program while they’re in high school. Because there is no tuition, it’s part of your public-school experience, at least in New York State, and in many other states across the country, and equip your child with a skill they will have for life, it doesn’t have to be their life’s work. But it’s a skill they will have for life, I would have loved to take automotive technology, I could do something more than fill my windshield wiper fluid. Maybe I could change a tire or diagnose something before, you know showing up at an auto shop. So, we need to break the mold that students who come to tech school, that’s all they’re gonna do, which is amazing what they do. But whether or not they choose to make that their life’s work, what an off what a wonderful option. But their training will never be for nothing. If they choose to just carry that skill with them for the rest of their life.

Justin Alger 10:13
It sounds like a tremendous opportunity, and a gift as you suggested.

Michelle Freidman 13:25
I look at my juniors who come in our allied health program. So, they are starry eyed about becoming nurses, for whatever reason, you know, and so by the end of their junior year, they sit for their New York State CNA license, and they get certified as CNAs. They do their clinicals in the nursing homes, and now they’re working with real people’s Nana’s and Grampus you know and really getting in the field. Two magical things happen. One, they are even more starry eyed about what’s next. And what’s next in their career as a healthcare professional. And their summer of their senior year of college. Now they’re working in a healthcare facility, they’re making really good money. The second magical thing that can happen is, they realize they absolutely never ever never in another day want to be in the healthcare profession. And they were able to test drive it they were able to maybe because they were at a at our tech center see some other career training opportunities after realizing after one year all I ever thought I wanted to be a nurse and now that I realize what that means. I don’t have it in me to do that type of care. But what I do have in me, is the business end of it, and the front office end of it. So, we navigate them to our business and health management program where now they’re doing the hippuric and so they were able to know kind of find where they thought they fit. And realize they absolutely love it. Or they absolutely don’t. And then we can redirect. Now what a great way to redirect when there’s no debt. Not a great idea to get into your clinicals as a third-year nursing student, and how many 1000s of dollars that you had to loan because all you ever wanted to do was be a nurse. And now you realize you don’t like it. So, you walk away from your program. But just because you decided you didn’t like nursing and don’t want to do that anymore, doesn’t mean they say, oh, okay, well, we’ll just erase your college loan debt, because you decided that you didn’t like it. And that’s a really critical piece. That parents I think, don’t realize until it’s too late to take advantage of the career and tech training opportunities while the kids are in high school. Because I think for some reason, my generation, and maybe others after I think that we’re selling our kids short, if we’re over asking them to go to a VoTech school, for some reason, and there couldn’t be anything further from the truth.

Justin Alger 16:19
So even if you don’t have plans to enroll in any one of the programs, providing that or getting that exposure to a program will help you sort of prospect or figure help narrow that process down to try to figure out what your interest might or might not be.

Michelle Freidman 16:37
You know what, it’s always a good thing to maybe take the school up on their open house or call and ask if they would do a tour. And so, you don’t leave anything on the table. You don’t get too midway through senior year and say, Gee, I wish I had gone to the tech school. I wish I had gone to that career center. You can go through, and you can make a decision that yes, I saw everything. I looked at everything, but it wasn’t for me. That’s fine. Um, but you never know, if you didn’t go, there may have been something that would have interest you or you might have wanted a little bit more information.

Justin Alger 17:21
It’s an excellent suggestion. I wanted to shift gears a little bit. We’re talking about, you’re talking a lot about being career ready. Right? But is there a difference? Or do you see a difference between being college ready and being career ready?

Michelle Freidman 17:39
Well, I think we all need to be career ready. Because college is another way to get to your career. Um, I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. You don’t get to college and end, you get to college, hopefully to have the career of your lifetime, right. So, my perspective, the career is what we should be focusing towards. And those technical skills are critical. But those soft skills, those employability skills, those professional skills, those are the skills that in my region, we have over 350, almost 400 business and industry partners that we work with. And they repeatedly tell us we can teach them how to run our machines, we could teach them how to shift gears with new contracts that we have. We can’t teach them how to be good team players. We can’t teach them how to be reliable, resourceful take initiative. We can’t teach that we could teach the skill part. But we want people who are coming to us who are willing to learn who take constructive criticism, who know not to be using their cell phone to Snapchat their girlfriend while there, you know, watching machinery that could potentially harm someone. So, for me, I think what we need to do is really shift the conversation. And I mentioned this too, prior, from where are you going next year to what do you see yourself doing? What would you love to do? And then based on that answer, continually helping to find resources and guidance, to continue to feed that desire to move towards that goal. You know, I aspire to be an elementary school teacher, that was my career choice. But because I kept having opportunities to explore new and different facets of education, facets of education that at 16 years old, I did not know existed, none of us did, right? We didn’t, you don’t know the scope. So, we have to create a culture that inspires kids to keep looking at the career as a whole and different ways to navigate on ramps and off ramps. It’s not a point A to point B journey. So, I think right now, we are heavily focused on where are you going next year. And so, although that’s important, I think the shift in the conversation could really help perpetuate more significant and healthy discussions about options within a sector.

Justin Alger 21:01
And that makes a lot of sense. I think you alluded to some, but What specifically can parents do to foster that? What are we doing next to what are we doing after high school next mentality?

Michelle Freidman 21:13
I think we just have to listen, the jabs that our kids are going to be getting, we’ve never heard of them before. So, I think we need to listen, I think we need to know what our resources are. We have to embrace the opportunity for our kids to be employed in ways that are very much outside of our own comfort zone. We come from the mindset. And maybe the pandemic helped us a little bit with this, that you got to get up every day, and you got to drive to a physical place to go to work and dress a certain way and respond a certain way, that world is different for our kids. And the technology that they that are native to them. We are we are immigrants to that technology. Maybe not so much you Justin but I am. So, no matter how versed you are in a second language, you are always an immigrant to that language. And that’s how I look at technology and folks of my generation. We didn’t grow up with it. I can remember when MTV launched, I can remember the first video and right okay, so you know, cable getting cable was a big deal. So, anyway, true. So, we have to we can apply our norm to our kid’s norm because they’re very, very diverse. So, my advice would be to look at their talents and look at their interests, and try to help inspire them to figure out what sector not a specific job, but what sector that could fall in? Is it human resources? Is it health careers? Is it technology? Is it an informational technology? Is it the transportation sector? Is it infrastructure? Is it mechanically based, and then help break down those barriers, that if you are working with your hands, that is just as viable, and just as respectable, as some of the other advanced program components that oftentimes seem to get a little bit more respect? You look at perhaps if your child is interested in doing those cool circuit boards, you know, and the Connect boards have a conversation with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers because they have a quite a remarkable apprenticeship program. And I don’t know if you looked at the national average salary for electricians in this country. It’s remarkable and especially if you have a young person who is inclined that way and loves that kind of work. Those are the we’re so we can’t wait to take our kids on the college tours. You know, we can’t wait to make the circuit you see and on Facebook. Oh, we’re stopping at this college today and then we’re crossing the country where do we go to this college? Have you considered Have you considered the local unions the pipe fitters Have you considered the electrical unions? Have you considered some of those areas of the workforce that are so respected, but yet don’t seem to get the visits or have the conversations? And those are some things that I would encourage parents to have those conversations with your kids, because if you’re having them, then you are letting your student know that these are okay to explore as well. Because they may be thinking like my daughter, I’m supposed to go to college. I don’t know what I’m going to do there. But that’s what everybody’s been telling me since I got to kindergarten that you know, when you get done with high school, what do you do? You go to college? What do you do at college? I don’t know, I just go there. That’s what I’m supposed to do. And then I go to work, and then I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

Justin Alger 25:51
I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that perspective, higher and secondary education, don’t necessarily have a formal way of communicating. Right? So as a spokesperson for secondary education, what advice do you have for higher education?

Michelle Freidman 26:14
That’s a great question. The advice would be to perhaps look at your degree programs, not just as a list of required courses that end in, you know, the affirmation of the degree, which is critical, correct. But perhaps start aligning that degree program with some clear pathways to where it leads. Now, obviously, if you’re in a degree program for education or elementary education, you know that the pathways most likely into the classroom, as a classroom teacher, but perhaps some of the broader based, you’re getting a degree in English. Okay, that’s awesome. What are your options post degree as far as making a living? So, I think it’s now the responsibility of our post-secondary institutions to start mapping the career opportunities that are aligned to their degree programs, because some of them obviously, are self-explanatory. But some of the other ones and you know, we’ve all had families and friends are like, Yeah, my kid just got a degree in art history. What do we do from here? So, if that really is your passion, I think our colleges have the responsibility, especially with the soaring costs, and most likely, very, very challenging debt, to have conversations with students that are enrolled in their degree programs as to their career pathways. As a result of their degree programs, I perhaps even build in more of the work-based learning components that we do in career and technical education to link those careers into the academic nature of the degree programs.

Justin Alger 28:24
So, you’re suggesting that higher education could do a better job broadly, of defining these career pathways for the academic programs?

Michelle Freidman 28:33
I just, I just think it would be in their best interest. Because just like for us, we have the beauty, like I mentioned to you before, when a kid sees the slope formula on a construction trades test, and says Why do I need to know this? You know, we can answer that. So, when you when you have students who are interested in a degree field, I think our role in the post-secondary education realm is to say, if you come to us, and you’re accepted into our history program, here, we’re going to give you all of that academic background. But we also want you to know that these are your options with a degree in this field. I don’t think those conversations ever happen unless it’s at Thanksgiving dinner with your family, when your uncle that always gets in trouble for saying too much says, well, what the heck are you going to do with that when you graduate? And then everybody sits there like, say that, but everybody’s thinking I’ll put the poor kid who loves art and wants to do something has really no idea what do I do with this when I get done? And I think that could be the next phase and really redefining a post-secondary experience.

Justin Alger 30:08
It makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge of the BOCES in the CTE program and you’re, you’re clearly so very passionate about the work that you do. And I again, I appreciate you coming on the future college parent podcast.

Michelle Freidman 30:24
Thank you so much for having me and I just, I love the opportunity

Walton, NY 13856 – Mike MacDonald

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:06:11 GMT

I concluded the 6 episode release by speaking with Dr. Mike McDonald, superintendent of my high school alma mater, Walton Central School! Mike began as the superintendent of WCS in the summer of 2020. Now, I don’t want to give anything away. But you’ll hear at the top of the interview how I met Mike, and I know you’ll see why I asked him to be a guest on the show. I’m so happy that he’s taking care of my alma matter. During the episode, you will hear Mike talk about different ways we can encourage career exploration right from a young age, how to connect the student career pathways with what is going on in classrooms, and how we can work with our students to enhance their preparation for college.

Episode Timeline:

[01:06] Introducing Mike
[02:24] Going back to the fall of 1994
[05:36] Mike’s role in helping parents and students in getting college and career ready.
[07:15] Career exploration and traditional college preparation process.
[09:42] Best practice to move the career exploration at age-appropriate levels down through the elementary schools.
[12:53] Why students’ college and career preparations should start at an early age.
[16:36] Getting the kids connected to career pathways.
[19:50] Tools to connect students with resources outside their region.
[21:30] Advice to students who have not found their interests yet.
[24:21] Differences between being career-ready and being college-ready.
[27:31] Mike’s advice for the higher education system
[33:44] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode

Five things I learned from my talk with Mike!

1. Encourage career exploration early on by connecting what your student is already doing in the classroom with related careers. Example: if your student is responsible for gathering/delivering mail for the classroom, start to show them different career options that are similar by identifying people that are in these roles currently like a manager or postal worker. You can also encourage shadowing, tours, internships, even using surveys and online programs like Career Zone. The goal is to help your student identify pathways that align with their interests. Note, I am not affiliated, nor do I endorse Career Zone and only mention it by name as Mike mentioned using it at his school.
2. Work with your student to enhance their preparation for college throughout their educational journey. As they get closer to applying for education after high school, I encourage you and your student to attend College Career Nights, College Financial Planning/Aid Nights, and any and all programs your school provides.
3. There’s always a way and always a pathway for your student to achieve career goals.
4. Being college ready is being career ready. College or education after high school isn’t a culmination of what is learned during high school. It is part of the student’s career trajectory and pathway.
5. Ask questions while exploring colleges with career goals in mind, do not make assumptions. Does the program align with the recognized professional associations in the student’s goal field? Will the program get your student to their career goal after successful completion, or will there be additional steps they need to take after completing the program?

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Listen to episodes on https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/: Please share the podcast widely with other parents, leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators so they can share with your school district. You can also let parents know the show is streaming directly from the website and there is no need to download anything! The show is also on your favorite podcast platforms as well.

Lesson Plan & Worksheet: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the Lesson Plan and Worksheet for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:00
My name is Dr. Justin Alger, and this is the first six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast.

Mike MacDonald 00:11
There’s always a way there’s always a pathway if you truly want to go and you truly have that passion for that career, whether it takes eight years…

Justin Alger 00:25
Hey, Mike, welcome to the future college pair podcast. And thank you for being here and helping future college parents. And thank you for being one of our first six guests. You are guest number six, the finale for the for the premier of the future college parent podcast. Welcome to the show, Mike.

Mike MacDonald 01:57
Thank you, Justin. It’s a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to reconnect with you.

Justin Alger 02:02
I’m so happy that you’re here as well. And as we’ve talked, this episode is very special to me, because Walton is my alma mater. And before we begin, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about a memory that’s been very impactful in my life. And I’ve shared the story with my wife many, many times, and anyone that will listen, really so if we can go back to the fall of 1994. Can you do you remember what you were doing in the fall of 1994?

Mike MacDonald 02:29
Yes, my very first year, coaching Walton football. And we, I was blessed to, to join at the right time as we made our run for the state championship.

Justin Alger 02:41
This is this is very true. I mean, and I most remember you for from the football team. And you had helped us coaching special teams, right. And of course, as we talked in the pre-show here, I was the star kicker for the team.

Mike MacDonald 02:57
Yes, you were.

Justin Alger 02:58
And towards the end of the season, we are playing Windsor, a wonderful school east of Binghamton, New York. And Windsor, of course had this kickoff return play, where if you kick the ball high and far, they’d all run back to the ball form a huddle, where they would be pretending to hand the ball back and forth to each other, while one of the fast guys gets the ball runs up the sideline for a touchdown. While everyone was utterly confused, and watching the huddle, right. And so as deter said huddle, my job was to kick the ball high and short, but to the sidelines. And this way, our fast guys are super-fast and tough players were able to run under it, and hopefully get the ball. And so, it seemed like I remember the whole week, the whole week of practice. All we did was practice this kick. You know, and I just remember the care and concern that you had, for me as a scared teenager who grew up watching classic Walton Windsor football games. And winning this game meant earning a spot as you said in the New York State playoffs, where this is the first year that Walton would enter the playoffs and so that Saturday came and I knew that if I screwed this kick up, I was going to get flattened on the field. I remember I set the ball up, the whistle blew, and I kicked just as planned and our super-fast and tough guys got under the ball and we got the ball, went down and scored a touchdown on the opening drive and eventually won the game and the state title that year the first year that you were that you’re a part of the team which is amazing, and the point that I wanted to make is that if you are providing the care and concern for my alma mater, as you did for me when you first started I think the school district is in the best of hands and I’m so appreciative of you taking care of my alma mater I mean so much to me so thank you so much for doing that.

Mike MacDonald 04:52
That’s exactly why I came back here was the was the sustain and put back in place. I shouldn’t say put back I can place because the teachers and the staff here at Walton have never ever wavered on the importance of positive relationships with kids. And that’s one of the reasons that drew me back to Walter.

Justin Alger 05:10
He just means so much to me. And I know it means so much to the community. And I know that you’re probably not the guy that gets the thank you every single day. But please, no. And I’m confident that the folks in the district appreciate the work that you’re doing to keep their children safe and secure, and able to foster academic and personal success in that safe and secure environment. Anyway, let’s get let’s get on with the show. So, if you could, can you start by sharing your role and describe what capacity you support parents and students in getting college and career ready?

Mike MacDonald 05:45
Well, I’m currently the superintendent here at Walton Central School. So, we are a UPK through 12th grade school district approximately 808 166 870 students. It you know, my role as superintendent is oversight of all operations. I come from a background of very heavily background and in instruction. So, when it comes to this area, when it comes to instructional programming, up through four, all the way up through from UPK all the way up through 12th grade. That that’s kind of my that’s my jam, so to speak. That’s, that’s my lane. The other pieces, the key pieces are to build a strategic plan. And the strategic measures that will get to get the students from point A to point B, point A being, coming into their education, regardless of wherever we receive that student. In in point B, being graduation, and having the tools they need and the information experience that they need to be successful in life, regardless of whether their career path is to work or their career path is to a technical school armed forces or on to higher education from a college standpoint. Now within that, and what we’re going to talk about a little bit here today, is that career exploration, college preparation process, I’m not talking about traditional college preparation. And I’m going to talk about what I feel and believe is best practice in where Walton in hopefully several schools in our region over time will be moving toward. So, the traditional college preparation, or even career exploration is beginning a middle school, there’ll be some minor career exploration activities, and then possibly a career fair. And then as students enter into ninth grade, they go from eighth grade to ninth grade, they build what’s called a four-year plan. That four-year plan is created with the student, the guidance counselor, and input from the parents, or at least a signature signs off from the parent regarding their four-year educational plan in their actual freshman schedule, so their ninth-grade schedule, and then throughout the high school, there’ll be opportunities for career exploration career. And by that really is having access to a database going through what your interests are, exploring what career pathways are, are within that interest survey. And then potentially, job fairs, career fairs of the like, and then you’re moving on up through making your adjustments as you go along with your programming based on those interests, and those pathway decisions. And that in and then as you enter into your junior year, the conversation was shift if you’re planning to go into the college, or even potentially sophomore year with PSAT work, and then into your junior year with your LSAT, a CTS and senior year as well. And then in your senior year, there’ll be the assistance from the school counselors regarding getting your application done. Whatever questions they can answer, whatever assistance they can give regarding financial aid questions and things of that nature. So that’s kind of the traditional type of exploration in and preparation as you will to Career Exploration pathways on to college and higher education now. Best practice in where we plan to tend to lead is moving to Career Exploration at age-appropriate levels, all the way down through the elementary school. So as students come up through, they start getting experience to what their academics activities can grow too. So, if you’re in a classroom and you’re doing, for instance, an activity of I’m in charge of getting the supplies or I’m in charge of getting my group organized, that could be a manager role. Rather than be going down to get the mail for the teacher, instead of going down, and just getting that now I’m the postal worker, whatever that case may be, just to get that, that at a young age, identifying what that what that is what that means. And also, then you can identify with the actual people in their life that are in those roles. For me, the piece of that is very, very important is to is to get students to understand and as a result, parents to understand what is, the interest level of the student, what is the goals and pathways can be built in then along with that, as they hit middle and high? How can we enhance that? How can we enhance both the exploration, so job shadowing, site visits, tours, all the way up to internships while they’re in high school, so that they really can be exposed to that career pathway, really get? They know, that’s what I want to do. And it’s a skill set that I want for life, or I want for a career pathway. And then the second side of that is, how can we enhance the preparation for college? How can we enhance how can we assist students with getting their application done, whether that is walking them through the process, whether that is career college, career night, financial aid, Knights, mentors to help assist with their essay writing, or whatever the case may be, to just kind of wrap your arms around them to make sure they have all the support that’s needed. So that in the event that they do not have the support at home, either a parent who they either they don’t around the situation of any parent can help them, whether they’re not there, whether they don’t have the ability to help or the knowledge to help. But regardless of what level of knowledge and in access, the parents have to be able to help, I feel it’s a school’s responsibility to wrap their arms around it and help both, both the parent and the child in accessing as many not only to make sure that the application is done soundly, but the access is many financial, potential financial benefits, whether it be scholarships, or financial aid opportunities as available for them to ease the burden of, of the college bill,

Justin Alger 12:53
Lots to unpack there. And I think that, that it sounds like this approach for career readiness starts very, very early when I was putting the show together. And I was thinking that the sixth grade would be the earliest that we’d want to start to prepare students for college, but you’re suggesting that it’s that starts even earlier with doing some of these activities, sort of labeling, I’m going to the mailroom that well, this is what the post the post office worker does, or I’m doing some administrative work, this is what a manager would do. So, it starts even earlier than the sixth grade.

Mike MacDonald 13:29
Yeah, for multiple reasons. One for the career exploration reason, another for the concept of hope. So, when I was, I did my doctoral research in students, educating students that live in poverty. And one of the key research-based aspects of, of exiting poverty, is education is the most powerful tool that they can find. Now, education is multiple levels of education, as we just discussed, to move to appear. But when you’re talking about generational poverty, there has to be a hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, something to drive students toward the education means something, it’s meaningful, and it’s going to get me XYZ. So, one piece of research in best practice is by Eric Jensen. And what he talks about is long, far back as kindergarten and some concepts. Every classroom kind of builds their own microcosm of society so to speak, right within the walls, they have jobs, they each have roles, they rotate and weekly and a lot of times like one student may have in kindergarten or any of the younger grades. One student may have the calendar duty, they got to Change Calendar every day and other one has to change the menu every day. Another one has to has to go get the mail every day. Whatever Those pieces are one of them is aligned leader, one of them is in charge of getting the materials that are needed for a certain activity. So, what they suggest is take all of those roles and activities that you do within those elementary rooms, and put a career to it, and then do an exploration around those careers. So, you think how cool it would be that when they get three quarters the way through a school year, and all of a sudden, you get a visit from the postmaster of your local post office. And they connect it to all those times that you had your opportunity to go down and get the mail. Now, how cool would that be for those youngsters, and it’s going to be somebody, it’s going to be somebody relative, in that classroom, especially in a small rural, it’s going to be somebody that they know. So, you get an opportunity to not only bring in, bring in a guest bring in an adult into your classroom, but you’re able to connect it to something that the students are already doing. So just to give a little background on the kind of the concept of that. So not only are you doing, establishing hope, establishing light at the end of the tunnel, getting them connected to career, and getting them connected to a career, you’re also bringing in positive, respectful adults from your community, into your classrooms. It’s a win win,

Justin Alger 16:20
It’s a win on multiple levels. I love the integration and the synthesis from start to it creates that very positive feedback loop that you suggested and, provides that that hope for students and I’m wondering too, you’re talking about the practical these practical skills of these practical applications that, what about, do you share the same? The same methodology, I guess, in the classroom. So, say I’m taking trigonometry or algebra, or I’m taking chemistry and I’m like, ah, why do I have to do this stuff? This hard stuff that what am I going to use trigonometry or insert skill in the in the classroom in real life? Is there integration there as well?

Mike MacDonald 17:01
There is there should be, one of the biggest now, you know, I have a math degree. And I started I was a math teacher. In eighth grade math here at Walton. That’s how I got hooked. In Walton, I was my student teacher placement throughout my career. And in the last four years, I actually discovered and it’s not something that I did, I actually discovered this practice. And what they did is they took every content area in the so high school content area. And they took that so stakes a trigonometry. And they had a poster and a visual that the round the visual is every single career in job that linked to trigonometry. So, in their classrooms, they have this visual now, what I want what I plan on doing, and in thankfully, here are Walton, without me even saying that the high school team actually has come up with this as a strategy themselves. So, we’re going to be working on that piece, we’re going to take every content area, every class, and we’re going to build the concept and their visual of what are the careers that applied correctly to this subject, algebra, trigonometry, English, whatever it is. And then the second level, this is this is my goal. And my vision is that we will also have a second visual that will take each one of those careers in link it to a regional employer, around Walton, so that the students, not only will they know the connection of their content to a career pathway, but they will also know a career pathway, that that is available to them within that content area, that is within an hour of home. If they choose to go to Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, to do a career pathway, in a career choice, that’s fine. But we want them to always know that what the careers are, that are here at home, whether they want to stay or whether they leave, and then they choose to come back that they will know as they before they graduate high school. Exactly what’s available to them right here within an hour of home.

Justin Alger 19:32
Again, the integration is just it’s just fantastic. Because you’re because you come again, full circle, right? You’re linking the individual experiences that you’re having in the classroom to the to the actual work that students can do, and you mentioned if, if a student wants to do something outside of the region, do you have any sort of resources to connect students with resources outside to the region?

Mike MacDonald 20:00
Skills that I acquired, I think we’re, I don’t know, at the time, if they are as thoughtful, as you’re suggesting. But I do think that that the skills that I acquired were very fundamental in whatever application that I would have applied them to. So, I appreciate the thoughtfulness that you’re that you’re taking in providing this, this approach to education at Walton. And now do you what type of advice would you have for students who haven’t necessarily found their interests yet, or, or have interests that may seem impractical to parents or those around them? There are the traditional career exploration tools, our nationwide Career Zone. And there’s a number of that’s just one of the titles that comes to mind. tools that we use. So, students can get, they can do interest surveys, they can jump in, and they can search careers, and they can search it within different areas, different regions all across our country, probably all across the world, actually, but at least across our country. So there, we certainly have those resources, we actually have more resources nationwide than we have locally, that’s where we’re going to build the local concept. So that when students are looking, they have a full picture, and they can make whatever decisions they choose in life. But obviously, selfishly a little bit, we want our, we want our students to stay in your home. You know, that’s what keeps our population, that’s what keeps our community strong. And in that that’s what, you know, that’s what we would want. As a dad, that’s what I wanted, well, what I would say when I’ll talk about the impractical, if a student has a dream, it has a vision of what they want to do. And it seems like it’s out of reach. Typically, when I’ve, when I’ve come across those conversations, it’s for one of two reasons. It’s not. It’s not accessible, it’s far away, and they don’t see how they get their point A to point B, like, literally distance wise of location, maybe it’s a job that they can only do in Texas, and then they can’t visualize how they’re going to get there. And then to the financial standpoint of being able to attend the right college, or the length of college, to be able to get that done, such as a medical, that’s got the eight years of college. And what I would say to any of those parents, in those situations, in students is there’s always a way, and there’s always a pathway, if you truly want to go and you truly have that passion for that career, whether it takes eight years of education, whether it takes trying to figure out how you’re going to get in move and transition to Texas. It could be I took a year off of college, you don’t know this about me. I took a year off of college and I went to work, I wasn’t sure what my pathway was going to be actually went to work as a metal welder fabricator at a small shop out in the middle of pleasant mount Pennsylvania. And then decided in the middle of that, that that wasn’t what I wanted to do. And I was going to go to school initially for accounting. So, I went to, I left there, and I went to work in a factory saved and saved and saved and saved. And with parental support, went to went to college for counting. From there. My pathways changed. That was a four-year university, I went to Wilkes University and decided that that that wasn’t the right pathway transferred to Brown community college. It was much more financially responsible. I stayed at home, and I commuted. So, I cut down the expense on that way. And then I transferred, I decided, no, I don’t want to go into accounting. So, I switched to the transfer program, and I transferred to Sukkot up to only on a state and got an education. So, you don’t know what the pathways are that you’re going to go on.

Justin Alger 24:20
I think we can maybe shift the focus if you could share with us what the difference if there is a difference, but a difference between being Career Ready versus being college ready.

Mike MacDonald 24:30
The concept is, it’s just career readiness. And you want to provide the educational pathway to meet what the students desire is for the career pathway that they desire. If they want to go directly to a four year institution, and they want to be a teacher, they want to go to a four year institution and they want to have a BS in nursing, a bachelor’s in nursing, then that’s the pathway that we need to help them get to, another student says, You know what, I know what my, what I’m looking for. And what I’m looking for is to be able to make live this lifestyle, make this kind of salary in order to meet that lifestyle in welding is my passion or whatever, whatever the skill set is, is my passion. Okay, well, let’s look at it. You know what, for your passion as an XYZ auto mechanic, HVAC tech, you’re going to need to go to a technical school. So that’s going to be our target, because that’s what your goal and passion is. Now they could change that at any given time, in require more, require less, depending on where their passion is, depending on where their pathway is. So, it’s a really neat concept. If you think about it, of instead of being a one stop, this is where you’re going, you’re going to we’re going to get you prepared to go to a four-year institution. Well, why are we doing that? Why are we not individualizing, expert education, personalizing education, and taking the student on the pathway to where they, where their passion, where their lifestyle goals, lead them. So that, that, to me is what education is all about. Our goal is to create well rounded individuals that are civic minded, that are going to go out and be great contributors to society. But we need all types of people in our workforce. So, if we continue to push in the one direction, we created a couple things. One, we could create a significant gap, which we are seeing right now, in our trade skills, two, we could create a significant inflated debt in college debt, that does not lead to a career path for somebody to be able to handle the debt associated with their college that they want, if we don’t lead them in the right preparation process.

Justin Alger 26:58
What I’m hearing is that that college or education after high school, any sort of education after high school is a part of this career trajectory. It’s just a part of it. It’s not the, it’s not the culmination of the high school experience is to obtain or to, you know, obtain entry to a post-secondary educational institution. It’s a part of the pathway to the career that we’re that a student is looking for.

Mike MacDonald 27:27
Absolutely. You picked it up perfectly.

Justin Alger 27:31
Higher Education and secondary education don’t necessarily have a formal way of communicating. Right. So as a spokesperson for secondary education, what advice do you have for higher education,

Mike MacDonald 27:45
My biggest recommendation, largest recommendation which would be stay in tune to whatever the supervisory authority is, in the subject matter that you are preparing people for? So, if it’s education, it’s New York state. If it’s, you know, if it’s medical, then obviously, it’s the Medical Association, in the licensing associations, or however that works.

Justin Alger 28:12
Well. And that seems like a daunting task, because there are so many different educational pathways as we talked about a few of them today, in order to in order to keep track of so I mean, it’s certainly not an easy job, or an easy task to expect that there’s that there would be communication between these two very large and entities. But I guess the follow up is knowing, knowing that there’s this disconnect, how do you utilize this, this information as an educator to inform future college parents,

Mike MacDonald 28:48
The biggest thing that we can instill in individuals is, is the fact that they have to be dependent. The fact that they need to take control of their own destiny, so to speak, and that they need to be aware of that, so you don’t go in. If you’re a young adult, and you’re going to college or your young adult and you’re going to the workforce you’ve already dug into whatever it is, you need to be well informed. I tell that to my own staff members, they need to be well informed of their benefit packages, they need to be well informed of their contractual obligations, they need to be well informed of what the New York State certification requirements are. You need to be in control of your own destiny, your you need to be followed through with what is your responsibilities in life. And that goes for all aspects of life. So that’s part of us building that skill set for all individuals now under mindset for all individuals as they as they grow in achieve.

Justin Alger 29:49
Your advice then for parents is knowing that there isn’t that connection just to ask the question, right just to just to say, hey, what’s going on in insert, field or insert subject matter area and just ask that question. Right. And I think that that’s, I think that’s, that’s a very salient point in that, if you don’t know, something, you are just I mean, educators have a I, in my opinion are the most kind and endearing folks. And just asking the question and expressing that vulnerability really will get you a long way.

Mike MacDonald 30:23
And I think that the key question for me, and I asked this, when my daughter and I entered into a design program is, you know, the goal at the end, the career at the end, is a very, let’s say, be, well, the program that you are putting in front of, of this child, get her from point A to point B, or at the end of successfully completing this program, will she not be able to enter into the workforce in that position of B. So, you know what I mean. So if you’re going in into any program, whether that be a school program, where you expect to enter the workforce at the end of BOCES, program, C, D program, or whether it’s a college program of any level, technical school are higher, if you know what you’re going to the school to accomplish, ask the question, don’t just assume it, ask the question and say, okay, my son or daughter is expecting to be able to do this at the end of this program. If they’re successful in your program, will they be able to do that at the end of your program? Or will there be additional steps that they need after completing your program? Because if they, if they say, yes, you know, they do well, they’re solid, great. But if they say, well, at the end, then they’re still going to have to do 1234, Then you may want to look around and in, in the marketplace, if I and make sure that another one that avoids 1234.

Justin Alger 32:02
Love it. I think we’ll leave it there and Mike again, you don’t even know how much it means to me when I had thought about the idea for this show. This moment was certainly a high priority to make happen to have the superintendent of my alma mater it means so much to me that you that you came on the show. And I really think that your words are really going to help future college parents and I know that they’re helping parents, they’re at Walton now. So, thanks again for being one of our first six guests on the first six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast. Thank you so much.

Mike MacDonald 32:40
Well, I appreciate it. Justin, thank you for offering if we’re asking to ask me to be involved.

Create your locker combo – Suzanne Gluck

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:04:47 GMT

The fourth episode of the Future College Parent Podcast features Ms. Suzanne Gluck, Guidance Counselor at East Williston Union Free School District. This episode is special to me because Suzanne was actually a student of mine back when I worked in the college housing program at the University at Buffalo. I remember Suzanne as an undergraduate student herself, and specifically the joy, the energy, and the passion she has for life. It’s such a thrill to see her now helping students navigate all that is high school and beyond. She’s super knowledgeable and is such as caring professional. What a great honor for me to see how much Suzanne has grown. I’m extremely proud of her! And I’m confident you’ll see in our talk how she provides a solid structure for students but allows them to exhibit their own creativity to achieve their individual goals.

Episode Timeline:

[01:01] Introducing Suzanne Gluck!
[02:50] Suzanne’s role in supporting parents and students in getting college and career ready.
[04:52] Why prepare students for college right from 8th grade?
[06:03] About Naviance and its role
[09:13] How a high school guidance counselor is helpful to students.
[12:18] Solutions for students who don’t advocate for themselves
[14:50] How to include all students on the guidance and counseling radar.
[17:06] Does every school have a counselor?
[17:54] How parents can assist students with college preparation.
[22:29] Putting a student in a safe uncomfortable position
[24:57] Advice for the higher education system
[28:55] Partnering with parents to overcome higher education websites communication issues
[30:43] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode

Five things I learned from my talk with Suzanne!

1. You can start preparing and creating your student’s college going identity as early as the 8th grade by helping your student get to know who they are (I suggest even as early as the 6th grade). Parents can begin to develop this identity by asking open-ended questions to help their student reflect on what they’ve learned and liked. Or parents can challenge your student to step out of their comfort zone, they may surprise themselves or fail. Either is a good thing as they’re growing!
2. Check to see if your school uses a platform to create and track post-secondary plans. For example, Suzanne discussed her school uses the Naviance College, Career, and life readiness platform as a locker to track all the stuff and things her students are doing to become college and career ready. If your school isn’t using a platform, that’s OK, you can start a notebook or begin to create a portfolio of experiences to track everything! Note, I am not affiliated, nor do I endorse Naviance and only mention it by name as Suzanne mentioned using it in her school.
3. You can help your student to be their own self-advocate and learning to speak for themselves by helping them articulate their needs, wants, and how they’re going to be successful. Try this first before asserting yourself as their advocate.
4. Know the name of your school counselor and encourage your students build the relationship with that person.
5. When you’re at the college choice stage, reach out to a potential campus and ask to speak with an admissions counselor and/or student representative that represents or has a similar interest as your student. For example, a specific major or interest. This will help the student determine the feel and fit they get from the institution.

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Listen to episodes on https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/: Please share the podcast widely with other parents, leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators so they can share with your school district. You can also let parents know the show is streaming directly from the website and there is no need to download anything! The show is also on your favorite podcast platforms as well.

Referenced links:

American School Counselor Association: The national average student to school counselor ratio was 415 to one for the 2020-2021 school year. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/About-School-Counseling/School-Counselor-Roles-Ratios

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:23
Suzanne, welcome to the future college parent podcast. Thanks for being here and helping future college parents it also thanks for being one of our first six guests in the six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast and let’s start off if you could please share your role and describe what capacity you support parents and students in getting college and career ready.

Suzanne Gluck 02:58
Sure. So, I am a high school guidance counselor. Many schools call it school counselors, my school it’s titled guidance counselor, it really just depends on where you work. Essentially, I support high school students grades eight through 12. And I am with them all five years. My school is a little unique in that we have our eighth graders in the high school, but I support them all five years that they are in the school. So, I have a portion of the alphabet. My role in regard to parents and navigating the college process is it’s an ongoing process starting from eighth grade, getting students prepared with Naviance, which is a tool that we can dive into a little bit. Many of you may not be familiar with the program, many schools utilize it in terms of career exploration, Hollins traits, as well as resume building surveys to help communicate with the school counselor, as well as navigating the college process in terms of searching for schools, helping find matches a housing spot for standardized tests. And it also is a way for the students to connect with their actual college applications. So, I am in continuous contact with my students as well as my parents on a daily basis. Also coming from a very high performing high school. My families are really involved in the college process, which makes it very easy. So, you know, one of the biggest advices that I could give to a parent is to be involved in the process. Help your child out with the process because when you are in sync with what’s going on, they’re going to have more success with finding the right fit.

Justin Alger 04:50
Thank you for sharing and now, you mentioned that you start in the eighth grade. Doesn’t that seem a little bit early?

Suzanne Gluck 04:56
You know, it’s one thing to go and take tours on an actual college campus. And I do believe students need to start their college going identity. So that belief that they can maybe go off to college, post high school life early. But at the beginning, what’s really important as an eighth grader, is getting to know who you are your passions and what you like, specifically. So, when I meet with my eighth graders, most of our questions aren’t tailored as to what college do you want to go to. And some of them have aspirations already, maybe because they have an adult’s an older sibling. Some of them may have friends or family that have high profile jobs, that that’s what they’re looking for. But getting to know what they’re good at, what they like, is really important, especially helping students start tailoring elective choices, extracurricular activities, as well as opportunities for in school community service, as well as out of school community service.

Justin Alger 06:03
And now is that where this Naviance comes into to track those activities?

Suzanne Gluck 06:08
Absolutely. So, this year, specifically, my school was back at 100% capacity, which was amazing. Since day one, obviously, things were a little unique with math with given COVID however, we had the opportunity to push into our eighth-grade classrooms and ninth grade classrooms, which we haven’t been able to in the past under the regime of a new director. And one of the goals is to get our students even actually earlier than that collaborating with the middle school, onto this program Naviance. So Naviance has access for students throughout the district if the district purchases the program. And at the eighth-grade level, I’ll talk more there or even really, ninth grade is where the high school comes into play. The students have the opportunity to start building their extracurricular resume, which is we go over the importance of that if they’re going on an interview for a summer job for an internship opportunity, a summer program, we want them to be able to start housing their information in one spot. Why? Because when you get to 11th grade, and I asked you for your activity resume for me to write your letter of recommendation, you’re probably going to forget the nuts and bolts and the details that you want to have. So, it’s a really great place to kind of store information I like to tell my students, it’s a locker. So, you have privacy, it’s not getting sent off to a college, but at the same time, you can store whatever you want in there, and we can fine tune it later on. So, a great start is that but then, like I mentioned, there are some career clusters, which will help students connect to what jobs they may be interested in. And you might think, well, why are they thinking about jobs in eighth grade? Well, jobs and skill set that you might be good at, will connect to possibly taking electives in high school. It’s not about taking all the mean academics and doubling up. I see that a lot at my school. And I’ll explain that concept of doubling up, which means accelerating in the math and science areas, maybe taking two or three mathematics, colleges want to see a well-balanced individual. If you love music, you keep your music while four years or five years that you are in high school, we want you to start exploring, we don’t want you to go off to college, not knowing what you like, that’s what’s important, not knowing your major is okay. But really finding that passion, knowing what you like. And being able to balance yourself throughout your time is so critical. So that’s why we get our students started at an early age, we inform the parents that we’re getting them started on the program, and the parents can even have access to their children’s Naviance accounts as well. So that this way they can track some of the information and make sure that they’re completing activities that are assigned.

08:57
So that makes sense to start early track everything. And then, when you get to that point where you’re putting together all of your activities for the college application, it’s all right there in one place. Makes a lot of sense. So, what other types of things can a high school guidance counselor be helpful with?

Suzanne Gluck 09:19
Sure. So, in addition to obviously helping the student program out their time, throughout high school, we really work on a lot of the social emotional aspects of a student and a lot of that is preparing them to become a self-advocate. And what that means is that the student and I see tremendous growth again from the eighth grade to the 12th grade, being able to articulate their needs, their wants, and how they are going to be successful. Some of my students that I’ve seen tremendous growth are even some of my students with disabilities. Why? these students attend their IEP meetings. Really, it’s called the committee for special education. So CSE meetings for their IEP, which is their individual education program, or their section 504, which are is an accommodation plan meeting. And I even had a student in 11th grade, when she was in 11th grade moving into 12th grade now graduated, actually run her own CSE meeting, which is called a self-directed IEP, a phenomenal process. And granted, not every student is going to have this access, if they don’t have a form of a disability and they require services. But learning what you need is our job to help you to start having those conversations come into my office each day, talk about what was great about the weekend, tell me what you did with friends, I want to find out all the things that you don’t do inside a school, that’s part of my job, and then helping you put that to paper or helping you really craft that into clubs, activities, ideas, creating your crafting your essay, these are things knowing your personal story in terms of your family, this is why it’s so important to stay connected with the parents as well, knowing what’s going on, you don’t know the circumstances that go on all the time. But when you have that ability to really connect with the students, you’re going to help them progress. When connecting back with art, my principal this year on a faculty meeting discussing what things would we take away from COVID and bring it to next year? I want to say my students were phenomenal with advocating for themselves and why? Because the parents weren’t actually allowed in the building. And that’s not to say I don’t love connecting with the parents. I absolutely think it’s an essential piece. I think it’s important but having the student being able to come down and feel comfortable to ask the question, our students did that more than ever this year, because parents weren’t allowed in the building. So now they have a question. And their parents will say, well go see your counselor, go see Mrs. Gluck, she’ll be able to help you. I would talk with the student. And if we need to get the parent on the phone, we’ll get the parent on the phone. But having those that ability to be able to talk and speak for yourself is so critical for success moving forward.

12:17
That’s fantastic. Now for those students who don’t necessarily advocate for themselves, or, they don’t have that skill set. How do you how do you follow up or interact with those students?

Suzanne Gluck 12:30
Sure. So, I am extremely fortunate that I work at a really small high school. So, like our graduating class that just graduated yesterday was 147. Meaning I have about 30 to like 35 students per grade. So, it’s a very manageable caseload. And I understand this is not the norm whatsoever. So, for me, I happen to have a really great relationship. And no most of my students and I always say it’s those middle students, right in the middle who really don’t need that much support aren’t necessarily the highest achieving students, or not necessarily disciplinary students. And again, I’m not a disciplinarian, but they’re not the ones coming down for the support after maybe a discipline issue in the school. So those middle ground students, that’s the great question, you’re asking, how do we, you know, help them with advocacy? Well, frequent communication, and this is where the parents should step in a little bit. If they feel that their child is not being seen, if they don’t know who their school counselor is, that to me is a problem. I don’t care if the school counselor has 500 students, they should at least know the names of their caseload, they may not know every little detail. But as a parent, I would want my child to know their school counselor, I would want my child to start building that relationship. And I would almost preemptively say, Listen, go down there, introduce yourself. Doesn’t always happen with there’s definitely students who would not want to do that. But even a call to the counselor saying, hi, my son and daughter or daughter is going through XY and Z right now, or my son and daughter is has mentioned they’ve struggled through this. If we don’t know whether it’s from a teacher, whether it’s from the student, if the parent reaches out, I’m going to definitely meet with that child if I’m made aware of a specific situation. So again, those middle ground students, it’s a lot easier to get lost in the shuffle when you’re in a larger school. But there are definitely ways and this is where it’s so important for parents to step up and then be the voice that hopefully it gets to the point where come junior year, even senior year or when they go off to college at that point that they’re able to, you know, speak from themselves, especially a college where the parents aren’t going to be able to be their voice.

14:49
That’s good. And just, I’m just trying to get to, you mentioned that your scenario your ratio very, you have a very small caseload which is which certainly is unique. And I’m just trying to figure out, how can we make sure that our students are on their guidance counselors’ radar? How do we how do we make sure that that’s happening when the ratio is so? You know, in a lot of cases 200 300 to one?

Suzanne Gluck 15:21
Yeah, that’s a difficult, you know, question that I feel many school counselors that I speak with struggle with, like how they’re going to get to everybody? And the answer is, they just don’t, it’s not okay. But a lot of it comes down to, you know, manpower. However, one of the unique things that my district has added is surveys, a lot of surveying with our students. So especially when we came back this year, and we surveyed our students, we surveyed our parents about like, how they’re feeling their anxiety is coming back, you know, to school, wearing masks, what they’re looking forward to, anything that they struggled with at home during COVID, things that they’re struggling with now. So those surveys are really powerful, because it’s a quick scan to see what the needs are of not only the students, but also the families. And this way you can start connecting. It’s also really important that you have a collaborative, you know, school, my school is extremely collaborative, we work really well with our social workers in the school. So, if I’m not able to see the student, or I’m not available at that moment, and you know, somebody is in need, not only will a social worker step in, but even another school counselor, if I’m not available, will step in and fill me into the situation. We don’t usually work on it alone. But again, if the parent can’t necessarily communicate with the child, it’s really important, I feel for districts to start putting out some of the surveys and feelers for the needs. Because that’s one way that you catch so many students who might fly under the radar, and you really may not get to know.

Justin Alger 17:06
So, every school has a counselor, is that is this true?

Suzanne Gluck 17:10
It depends on the state laws. But New York State, technically you have to have a counselor available within the district, how many is really dependent on the school, there’s a big push through some of the organizations for school counselors to make sure that the out even the elementary schools are now getting staffed with school counselors. So, that’s something that’s up and coming. But you mostly hear of school counselors in the high school as well as the middle school, all schools will have a social worker available, they may not be directly in their building, as well, as a school psychologist, again. It’s however, this district is budgeting their resources.

17:53
Let’s shift our focus to your thoughts on what parents can do to assist with the college preparation.

Suzanne Gluck 18:02
Excellent. So again, this starts with open communication, whether it’s at the dinner table, on the car, ride to soccer practice, wherever you have a moment with your child, let’s be real. Most families are on the go these days. And therefore, they’re not always sitting down having that family dinner. I know for me; my husband works different hours. He’s a paramedic. And therefore, when we talk, sometimes our talk is in between him on a job at work, or sometimes our talk is actually at a dinner table like tonight. And with that, start having conversations with your child, how was your day again, you think it’s basic, this is Elementary School Talk, but you will start getting information out and teenagers are not going to want to open up. So, you can’t always ask those, you know, how is your day because you’re going to get good? What was your favorite part about school today? Give it a little bit more open-ended questions and these open-ended questions, you know, will help facilitate, you know, interest again, and knowing what your child likes, the biggest thing I get from some parents says my son or daughter does not know what they like. And I’m like, well, one way to do that is either make them get a job, make them have an experience, whether it’s going off to you know, a summer camp or a program, put them in like an uncomfortable situation or have them interview somebody in a field that they might be considering. So, these conversations are ongoing. So that’s the first piece of it. The other thing is that again, I know we touched upon, and you mentioned you know whether eighth grade is too early to start the college process. We’re not going to start selecting a list of schools in eighth grade. My goal is not to say we need to apply to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, all these Ivy League schools in eighth grade, but if you happen to be traveling, and you are near a college, go visit the College I would say any In high school is really that appropriate time to start visiting, unless you have an older sibling and you happen to go there. Why? Because now you get a sense of what a college campus looks like. And you start to develop the feel, and the fit. Do you want more of a city life? Do you want more of a campus life, suburban, urban, rural, what do you want on that college campus? You could get a lot. And again, I live on Long Island. So, if I went to NYU, Stony Brook, Liu, post, and Hofstra, I would get totally different feelings from each of those campuses. Some are more compact like Liu, post compact, beautiful looks like that old school IV feel NYU is spread out throughout the entire city and Stony Brook, it might take you 20 minutes to get from one end of the campus to the other end of the campus. So, you have to kind of get that idea. And it gets students excited to start feeling Wow, this is something that I could be doing. I like this, I don’t like this, I don’t want to walk across the campus that large. So, if you are traveling, I would say go visit. And I always tell my students, you know, sometimes visiting schools that you never even heard of, is an awesome idea. One gets you to think outside the box. I know, especially on Long Island students really think very narrow minded and very much in a bubble of set schools. Why because they hear from a friend who heard from a friend who heard from a friend that they went to a school, and they loved it. I always say Ohio State was not a thing about 10 years ago, 12 years ago, it is a thing for Long Island students at this point, why one person went, they loved it, and they pass that along. So now put yourself on a college campus that you may not even apply to why because you are going to be more critical, and you are going to start figuring out things that you like and dislike about the school. So that’s one way at the earlier stages that you can get involved as a parent to start facilitating, you know, the college process with your child is just by making those visits and establishing, you know, the likes and the dislikes, and you know, you want list you want a needs list is important.

Justin Alger 22:13
And it starts with having those conversations and meaningful conversations, because the time that you have to have conversations is limited. So, making sure that the time that you’re spending with come in conversation is meaningful and impactful. And I wanted to go back to the comment you made about putting a student in an uncomfortable position, I’m assuming a safe uncomfortable position. Of course,

Suzanne Gluck 22:38
Absolutely. Always safe. Safety is always our number one priority. But things that you that, you know, are hard is a good thing. Because it’s a learning lesson. It’s great. It’s you know, a student who plays it safe. You know, I had a student who was taking all regents classes where there’s nothing wrong with New York State Regents classes. For those of you who are listening, New York State has classes that they take. And they’re the curriculum is geared off towards the New York State Regents examinations, great classes. However, when you are getting as across the board, let’s take a little bit of a risk. And again, it doesn’t have to be in every subject area. Let’s go ahead and pick one or two and advance yourself into advanced placement courses. Those are called AP courses run through the College Board, and they’re streamlined across the country. So, taking risks, and sometimes you surprise yourself and sometimes you fail. And if you fail, it’s you know, it’s a learning experience. I mean, we are often you know, I would say the biggest uncomfortable situation that I would say many of our students face and it’s not just students at my school is, well, I don’t like this teacher. And you know, they’re in that uncomfortable situation where they don’t work with the formatting of the teacher or it’s not the way that they’d want the teacher to present information, or they got one poor test grade. So, all of a sudden, I hate that teacher. Growing Pains is part of the process. And is it uncomfortable? Yeah, it’s uncomfortable if you fail the test to approach a teacher, but why are you going to go with meet with that teacher, you’re going to meet with them so that you don’t make those same mistakes. Usually, those mistakes are the ones you’re going to remember at that point and hopefully get it correct the next time. But that teacher is going to help you try to succeed. The other piece too. If you don’t agree with the learning style, that’s okay. You’re going to work with colleagues, you’re going to work, you know, go off to college and meet people again. You don’t have to like everybody you’re surrounded by you have to be respectful. And at the same time, you need to do your job and if your job is being a student, then your job is going to be going to extra help. If you’re struggling. Your job is going to be doing your homework and come to my office complain all you want. Totally fine. I’m not necessarily changing your teacher. And we’re going to talk about what we use to work through it.

24:57
So higher education and secondary education don’t have a formal way of communicating. Right. So as a spokesperson for secondary education, what advice do you have for higher education as a system?

Suzanne Gluck 25:10
one of the things that I have is being more transparent on their website. The website is obviously a huge poll for students and their families. And it would help actually alleviate a lot of anxieties why I anytime a college admissions rep connects with our school, and we actually invite the reps into our school building this year, we had them virtually, but they come into our building they meet with our students. One takeaway that I always, you know, at, you know, share with them be transparent about your documents when they are due on your, on your website, because parents will panic when parents are involved in the process. And it says the application deadline is November 1 or November 15. And then their high school transcript is not there. By November 1, they panic. But often the counselors have ample time after to submit the documents. So, they need to be a little more transparent with communication in terms of what is do when it’s a really sensitive time. And, and it’s a real anxiety-stricken time in the life of a high school senior, they’re coming into senior year, all excited, you know, they’re running the school at this point. They have all these dreams and aspirations. They’re taking tough academics for them. They’re trying to balance their extracurricular activities. Now mom and dad are nagging them about getting these applications done and ready to go writing their essay SCT classes if they have to continue being transparent about these deadlines are really critical. And to help alleviate anxiety, one props to the Common Application, which is one of the main applications that students use to apply it has over 500 members colleges to it, it’s one application, one main demographic piece, and then you link individual colleges to it, it now can actually show when my portion, if it’s linked to their Naviance account that we use, and not all schools will use it. But for my school, it’s super helpful because we it’s linked, they can see the date that I send everything and just having that helps alleviate anxiety is. And I think my last piece and bridging that gap too is, you know, admissions reps, depending on the school, sometimes come and go in the position in higher education, they may not be there for a while making sure that the admissions team understands the area that they are recruiting is really important. Some things are more of a priority and specific areas that they might be traveling. I know specifically, I have a phenomenal relationship, I’m going to throw it out there named Tulane University, Jeff Schiffman, amazing director of admissions, Jeff takes care of us so well. And he his admissions reps that his team knows Long Island. And when he had a change in personnel, he made sure that they understood the needs of the community and the students, knowing your audience is so important. And I think that’s a huge area that can be bridged better within college admissions offices.

Justin Alger 28:41
Okay, so then the follow up becomes, right, so you’re suggesting that maybe college websites aren’t as transparent as they could be? Or admissions counselors don’t necessarily know the audience all the time that they’re serving? How do you take that advice and share that advice with parents to say, hey, how do we overcome this, this disconnect between website communication and understanding the audience?

Suzanne Gluck 29:08
So, one area is that many college admissions offices will also have student representatives. And although they may not have somebody from every area that you live in, somebody who might be able to relate to you whether it’s through a major that you’re interested in, going into or if you are an athlete, maybe this person plays, you know, the same sport. This is one way to kind of build that connection. So, when a parent calls an admissions office, and says, oh, can I speak to the Long Island counselor? Oh, we don’t have a Long Island counselor. We have somebody who oversees all of New York State. Okay, great. Do you have a counselor who specializes in athletics, which might be your key and your gateway in that then they can also connect you with a student because even if the counselor isn’t the individual who’s really going to connect you to the school There’s always somebody at the school that’s going to draw you in. It might be somebody on a sports team, it might be a professor in a specific department. So don’t be afraid to ask for what you’re looking for and seeing if there’s somebody that they can connect you to.

Justin Alger 30:16
Well, good. I think that that wraps it up for the questions that I have. I thank you so much for being on the future college parent podcast.

Suzanne Gluck 30:25
Thanks for having me.

Where is your post education home? – Jermaine Williams

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:01:43 GMT

For the premier of the Future College Parent Podcast, I was honored to be joined by Dr. Jermaine Williams, president of Montgomery College and a first-generation student himself. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and he’s all about providing access and equity to higher education. I couldn’t think of anyone better to start the show out with! Jermaine and I talk about college preparation, choice, and finance.

Episode Timeline:

[01:05] Introducing Jermaine Williams!
[01:46] Justin’s Disclaimer
[02:48] Jermaine’s journey to transition from high school to college
[03:14] Some useful resources for a seamless high school to college transition
[08:00] Having conversations with parents and students as the president of the college.
[10:39] What types of students are accepted into community colleges?
[12:39] Are community colleges any lesser?
[16:09] Addressing the stigma associated with community colleges
[17:56] Skills to develop to be successful out of community college
[20:18] How parents can encourage students to seek out community college resources
[23:29] Impacting students to feel a sense of belonging.
[25:15] Jermaine’s advice to the secondary education sector
[29:46] Advice to four-year institutions
[33:43] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode.

Five things I learned from my talk with Jermaine!

1. Community Colleges are typically open access, which means anyone who completes a high school education or equivalent can get in! Congratulations! Your student CAN attend a community college! However, this doesn’t mean academic rigor is lesser. CC’s are accredited or confirmed they meet the same standards of academic quality as four-year institutions.
2. Students who start at a community college can succeed at a four-year institution with the foundations they gain at the community college. The diploma your student will receive from the four-year institution will read the same as a student’s who began at the four-year school. The only difference is CC students will likely pay significantly less for their first two years at the CC.
3. Parents should know seamless transfer isn’t always guaranteed, meaning all the credits earned at the CC may not transfer to the four year. It’s important to check with the four-year institution for details.
4. Your community college can be accessed NOW! There are programs and services for high school students like the ones Jermaine mentioned such as taking college courses in high school, summer programs, or even taking your senior year at a community college. Check them out NOW, do not wait!
5. Last but not least if you don’t know what to ask a potential college start with what you do know. Remember Jermaine’s bucket analogy. For example, you know college cost money to attend, you can simply ask how does someone pay for college? I promise you it’s OK to not know but start with what you do know.

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at:www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Lesson Plan & Worksheet: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the Lesson Plan and Worksheet for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Referenced links:

‘A Co-Curricular Partnership’ between Adelphi University and Nassau Community College: Nassau Community College students are able to pursue their associate degree programs while living a four-year institution! https://www.ncc.edu/admissions/adelphi_co_curricular_partnership.shtml
‘Pre-college programs’: High school students can enroll in pre-college programs at Nassau Community College such as:
1. Concurrent and Dual Enrollment: High school students are enrolled in both high school and college courses. Courses can then be applied at NCC or can transfer to other two- and four-year schools.
2. Early Admission: High school students who have completed their junior year, may be able to enroll at NCC as a first-year student.
3. Enrichment Program: Explore courses to see what a student likes while earning college credit. https://www.ncc.edu/admissions/precollege/index.shtml

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:00
My name is Dr. Justin Alger, and this is the first six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast.

Jermaine Williams 00:10
My parents didn’t know the questions to ask, but they knew to some extent the buckets like they knew cost money. They knew there was supposed to be a goal. And I think if you have that framework, then you can start to formulate your questions around that.

Justin Alger 00:27
Jermaine! Welcome to the future college parent podcast. Thank you so much for being here and helping future parents’ future college parents. And thank you for being one of our first six guests, you our guest number one for our six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast. Thanks Jermaine.

Jermaine Williams 02:40
It is an absolute pleasure, Justin, thank you for having me. I’m very excited to be with you today.

Justin Alger 02:46
Well, let’s jump right into it.

Jermaine Williams 02:47
Fantastic.

Justin Alger 02:48
Can you share with us? What about your journey from high school to college do you think informed the path that you’re on now?

Jermaine Williams 02:56
The resources that came with my journey and realizing the individuals who helped me along the way. And that’s really what as has informed, you know, where I am now, knowing that those resources were so essential, and so much more than I thought I over whatever needs to successfully transition.

Justin Alger 03:14
So, what type of resources your folks your school?

Jermaine Williams 03:18
Absolutely, that’s one of the great things about the podcast, Justin, and why I’m so excited to be here is because I didn’t even know what those resources were when I was transitioning as a first-generation college student. You know, it’s not only until I reflect back, and think about that, given my time in higher education professionally, that I identify what was important and you started to hit the nail, you know, right on the head, you know, community resources from, you know, my, my church, to my coaches, excuse me to teachers, to the counselors who were in colleges, there was so many resources and such a such connectivity with a large array of individuals and groups, I didn’t even I didn’t even expect I would need all that support to successfully transition and looking back I realized that all that support was absolutely critical for successful transition.

Justin Alger 04:16
Tell me if you don’t understand or you don’t have a sense, or your parents didn’t necessarily have a sense of the of the processes. How can colleges respond to, parents in that, in that scenario, that situation?

Jermaine Williams 04:31
from me from my lived experience as a first-generation college student and from my professional experience, so it’s identifying what individual’s what parents in this case, what they do know and then leveraging that to provide information that we know will help them to support their students. So, you think of the major components of institutions of higher education, whether it be financial aid or support services or academics, and then You’re going to want to get a baseline of what do your parents, you know, their influencers, we know they can support their students and they want to, but we got to get a baseline of what they know. And then once you know that, then we can appropriately provide information so that they can be more knowledgeable and be able to have a greater impact on on their students.

Justin Alger 05:21
So essentially creating an environment that’s where colleges are student and parent ready for the process?

Jermaine Williams 05:27
Absolutely, absolutely. As we’ve discussed, you know, having this paradigm shift of being student ready, and that involves the parents, right. So, we want to know, what students were embracing, as far as you know, where they are with everything from socially, academically, culturally, emotionally, we also want to know that about their parents, right, because we know that parents are such an integral part of our students lives. And we know that when they go to community college, look where I work, we don’t have to now our students are going back and forth every day, they’re going back to their family components. So, we need to be able to ensure that their parents are there and are able to support them with, you know, some useful knowledge about colleges and universities that as first-generation college students, first generation parents or first-generation college students, we may need to be able to support them with.

Justin Alger 06:33
And so, in your role, when you’re when you’re getting to do the work that you really care about, you know, the work that led you to take the job, what kind of things are you doing?

Jermaine Williams 06:41
Asking a lot of questions, what can we do to enhance right, what can we do to better support Students? What can we do to meet our regional workforce demands? Right? What? How is our demographic changing? And how do we need to change, right? Why are we doing things this way? And what can we do differently in order to equitably enhance student access, completion and post completion success and a manner that is data informs. So that’s what I’m doing when I’m, you know, really, you know, having fun, which is all the time. And it’s, you know, looking at what we’re doing, and how we can make systemic and systematic change together as a college and as a community, in the entire ecosystem. So that we can advance in an equitable and data informed manner, student access completion and post completion success, knowing full well that we want our students to leave with a job that as a livable family wage provides social mobility, are they transferred to an institution where ultimately, that occurs?

Justin Alger 07:59
Yeah, I think a lot of times when people think of, or maybe when parents think of the president of a college they normally see, you show up at an orientation, you show up at a, you know, campus event, you’re shaking hands, and you’re kissing babies and that type of thing. But there’s really a lot more to, what it is that you’re doing outside of those very surface level conversations that you’re having with parents and students,

Jermaine Williams 08:25
I would also add that those conversations are exhilarating and extremely important. Because, you know, I take those back, and, you know, pull pieces and share with other folks, I was just talking with a parent, and this was their experience or talking with a student. And this was their experience, I was the until COVID. I used to walk around a lot, and just randomly engage students and ask how they’re doing. And that was also one of the best parts of the day is when I would just leave the office, get out of meetings, and, you know, go find out from the students exactly what their experiences and you know, how they were faring at the institution?

Justin Alger 09:07
If you have parents that have no clue what questions are to ask, or what type of questions should they be thinking of what type of thing should they want to know?

Jermaine Williams 09:16
It’s a really interesting question, given the, you know, the kind of infrastructure of higher education and all the nuances and the jargon that I’m trying to stay away from during our, during our conversation, the questions you think about as far as think about the purpose of the experience, and then the questions that apply, right. So, let’s think about the purpose of college or the foe side, right? I mean, you think about the academic purpose, you’re thinking about the social development, right? The cultural development, you’re thinking, you know, about the professional development, and those just kind of a few categories. You’re obviously thinking about the financial component of college. Right? So, all those things if you put them into large buckets, as a, you know, individual’s a first-generation college student, my parents didn’t know the questions to ask. But they knew some sorts of some extent, the buckets, like they knew cost money, they knew there was supposed to be a goal. And I think if you have that framework, then you can start to formulate your questions around that, even if they are, you know, kind of, you know, just like the So, what will my student be able to do after they graduate? Or academically? What will they experience? And that can kind of go deeper into other questions as the person responds.

Justin Alger 10:38
I wanted to shift gears, and I wanted to talk about what are what are the types of students that are accepted into community college, sort of a broad generalization of, who the community college student is?

Jermaine Williams 10:50
The beauty, one of the beauties of community colleges, is and the way in which they were founded in terms of open access institutions of higher education. For the most part, community colleges, you know, are not that old, around 50, 60 years, you will find, I mean, the first, you know, community college out in the Midwest is, you know, 100 years old, and you’ll find some others that have been around for a while, but for the most part, you know, 50, 60, 80 years, I’m really founded on this idea of being open access, institutions of higher education, that support the community, right, in more ways than one they support the community, in a sense of, they’re close by so close in proximity, you don’t have to travel far within your community to receive a high quality education. They also support the community in terms of I’ve mentioned this before, you know, workforce, right, and the, in the economy, the economic vitality of the community. So when you think about the open access in nature, and you think about the other components of the historical mission of community colleges, that’s really what you think about another kind of add on to that is, you gotta have your comprehensive is a jargon word community college, which looks at not only it looks at transfer students who are going to transfer after two years or a certain period of time, and students who will go directly into the workforce. And then you have community colleges that are solely focused on one or the either, they’re solely focused on the transfer component, or they’re solely focused on, okay, the job the workforce component, and I’m lucky enough to work at a comprehensive community college. So, our students want to, you know, some of them want to transfer to a four-year institution, and some of them are really looking to come in and, you know, get into an Allied Health Program, occupational therapy, radiological technology, surgical technology, and they’re looking to go into the workforce. So that’s a little bit of a brief overview.

Justin Alger 12:59
And I think you talked about open access. And I think about when I was a youngster entering the college search process. And I started, we had a, we had a small technical school that was, you know, 16 miles down the road. And I sort of had this perception that, you know, they let anybody into this school, so maybe it’s, it’s lesser, or maybe it’s not as academically rigorous just because they let, they let anybody into the institution.

Jermaine Williams 13:27
There is a high level of academic rigor, and when we think about it, and this is kind of where I thread the needle of, you know, our conversation and too much jargon. And you think about what I say, authenticates an institution of higher education in the United States, and then, of outside of the United States, think about accreditation, community colleges are accredited by the same accrediting bodies as your four year institutions, your small, you know, private institutions, your large research public institutions, they’re all accredited by the same agencies, and those are reasonably beings, but you think about a nursing program, right? The same accrediting body that is looking at a nursing program at a four-year institution is going through and making sure that community colleges are as rigorous with their nursing program. So, you think about if there is a certain standard and a benchmark institution of higher education, you know, I have to seek and a lot of that oftentimes is through accreditation, and community colleges are accredited institutions of higher education. I mean, another one of the things I’ll share with you is, you know, you look at interestingly enough, you can look at the students who spent two years at a community college getting a great foundation, a fantastic academic experience for an affordable cost. then transition to a four-year institution. And you can compare their graduation rates with students who started at the institution itself. And in my experience, and it depends, it’s not across the board. But I think that would be a question you may want to ask if you’re thinking about rigor, because in my experience, those have been pretty close, if not even higher for the students who start at community colleges. And again, that depends, it’s not across the board. But it just illustrates the rigor, that a student can successfully transition to a four-year institution because of the great foundation they’ve received at their community college.

Justin Alger 15:39
So if I’m, so if I’m a parent, and I’m on the fence of well, or I have this perception that in order for my student to or my students going to attend college, they’re going to attend, they need to attend a four year institution, because those two year schools, who knows what’s going on with those, and I think in your in your, your four pillars, your four pillars addressed you, suggest that we must eliminate the stigma in the community that people might associate with attending community college, and I know that rigor is certainly one of those things, but taking a look at graduation rates or retention rates, once students do transfer into those four year schools, you’re suggesting that they’re even comparable or, or potentially better, in a lot of cases, maybe not most cases,

Jermaine Williams 16:33
It definitely is something in my experience is definitely something you would want to research individually with this institution. But having been at several institutions, you know, in the in the East Coast, in the Midwest, and in New England, I can say that I’ve often found them to be comparable, if not, you know, slightly better depending on the on the population. Another thing I would say is, you know, as far as the idea of a community college and you think about, at the end of the day, when you graduate, if you choose to go to a four year institution, and you have received your associate’s from a community college, at the end of the day, you also receive a credential from the four year institution, there’s no there’s not an Asterix, there’s not something that says Jermaine only attended this institution for two years, there’s that diploma that says, insert your four year institution, here, it’s, it’s the same diploma that you’re getting, except for the fact that as a student, you pay two years of community college tuition and fees, and not four years of public or private tuition and fees, but you leave with the same end result.

Justin Alger 17:47
That makes sense, regardless of where you start, where you finish, it’s the same, it makes a lot of sense. So, what type of what type of skills or aptitude or knowledge base or awareness, do you recommend that, that students develop to be successful at a community college?

Jermaine Williams 18:08
You know, students bring, you know, the, the energy, the excitement, to experience newness, the transparency, to share what is occurring. And sometimes that takes courage, because community colleges or higher education have different experiences. And I said, the transparency encouraged because listening to students is how we make change, and I go back to being student ready. If we don’t know that something is impacting a student, or several students in a way, a certain way that maybe you know, deleterious to their trajectory there that we can’t adjust to that we can’t make the change. Right. So, when I say, you know, kind of that idea of want to be open to things that are new, but also transparent and courageous with sharing your experience, because that provides us an opportunity to learn and provides us with the, you know, opportunity to really change and pivot so that we can best support students. So those would be some, some big ideas, really, you know, the faculty and staff at community colleges, they want to see students succeed. And I’m sure that you know, it’s colleges and universities across Russia speaking specifically as a community college president, you know, we want to see students succeed. So, you know, we want to know what we can do to help you to help you succeed. So, I think, you know, the energy along with the energy is you know, the dreams. Take what you want to do and bring that kind of just as passionately as you can. And let’s pursue it together. Right. This is a place for you to start your dreams and ensure you can accomplish what you want to accomplish.

Justin Alger 20:06
So, what about from an academic preparedness standpoint? It’s just it’s my perception. And I think there’s data support that a lot of community college students come to the community college academically underprepared. How can you? How can we leverage if our If our parents know that our students aren’t, aren’t the most academically either gifted or academically focused? Right? How do we advise our parents to encourage their students to seek out resources and help that the community colleges or that the community college provides?

Jermaine Williams 20:49
So, I’d say that’s for parents, you know, you can ask the questions in terms of how things are going. Specifically, I think that’s one of the things keying on, you know, having really worked with parents a lot in the past, especially with you, Justin, it’s, you know, parents are so filled pride and so much care for their students. And when you’re having that college journey, that community college journey, specifically, it’s how do you ask that level of detail? How was your x class going? Why is it going like this? How was this exam? How was, you know, what are the names of your professors? How are you feeling? And then are you taking advantage of the Writing Center? What resources are there? Have you seen your academic advisor? What did they say? What did they say, when you went to the Career Services Center? You know, because you’re just so you know, parents out there, you’re paying for all that. All that’s included, all these great support services, including your tuition and fees. So that’s a part of the package deal. And you really can leverage that as a holistic community college experience.

Justin Alger 21:59
So, college is more than just being in the classroom, essentially, right. So, you learn, you go to the classroom, and you learn, and you engage with the academic material, but then there are opportunities on the outside, outside of the walls of the institution, or the walls of the classroom really, to, to help get a deeper understanding, or to get an understanding, if you didn’t understand the first time.

Jermaine Williams 22:25
Or, and or to become kind of a more connected to the institution, which will make you more excited about, you know, attending classes, right, being able to see yourself at the institution, whether it’s through a club or organization, or as a student athlete, or as a student worker, you know, as something else for, parents, as far as what, you know, what work opportunities are there at the community college, whether it’s through work study, so financial aid, or student worker, or something completely different, and just, you know, within the fabric of the institution, as a sole kind of institutional employee. But when you think about that, is, are there other opportunities that will help your students, you know, be able to see themselves fully at that institution, like, oh, I, I see myself here, this is an educational home. For me, I am excited about attending class, I’m excited about seeing my academic advisor.

Justin Alger 23:27
And you think anything that’s, that’s realistic that students those students feel that way? Let me let me get up and go to class. Let me go see my academic advisor.

Jermaine Williams 23:37
Yes, I’ve had those relationships with as an academic advisor. Absolutely, I think if we can, and we can get students seeing themselves. And it’s, I mean, it’s a lot of research about sense of belonging, and the impact of sense of belonging and having, you know, being involved in an atmosphere, in this case, a community college, where one, I can see myself there, I feel as though I belong. Two, I believe that people there genuinely want to see me succeed. And thirdly, the individuals there are willing to put forth the time and effort to help me succeed. So, can I see myself there? You know, is this like an educational home? Do I believe like, am I the second like, am I actually embrace them? And do I believe that people are wanting to see me succeed? And then the next step is, you know, do our people there actually taking action to help me succeed, right? Cuz, you can believe it, and not take action, right? You can see yourself there. But if nobody else sees you there and no one can think anybody, you know, people that you see. So, it’s kind of that those three parts and there’s a lot of research on sense of belonging. I’ve kind of distilled it to some things but His sense of belonging is very powerful and having an educational home. You know, I mean, it’s meaningful.

Justin Alger 25:09
So, I’m going to ask, I’ll get into those last two questions that I have. And these are the questions that I’m asking of everyone. So higher ed, and secondary education don’t necessarily have a formal way of communicating, right? So, think of yourself as a spokesman for higher education. And maybe can you share some advice that you have for secondary education as a whole.

Jermaine Williams 25:34
We need to capitalize on what we know works. There’s a there are a lot of partnerships out there that work, whether they be individual college to high school, college school district, or whether they be legislative, there’s some great things happening across the country with legislation that really encourages a higher education, secondary education, collaboration. So, I think it’s, you know, we’re getting one of the takeaways and one thing I would share is we know, some promising practices, successful strategies. Let’s really dive into those, investigate those. And the one other piece I would add, and I share this with superintendents we share back and forth, I’ve shared several times with you on our roof conversation is how can we ensure were addressing equity gaps with what we’re doing? Right? How can we ensure that we’re looking at what’s occurring in a way that’s, you know, socially, just, and everyone has an equitable opportunity for really for access, completion and post completion success, and we’re not just continuing with the kind of the haves and the have nots? Right, but this is, there are some great components that are happening. There are some fantastic conversations that at Nassau Community College, we’ve had with several superintendents, and we have a couple of programs that are slated to start in the fall, where we’re going to have high school students who are at the college, you know, pretty much taking their entire senior year of their high school at at Nassau Community College. So, there’s great partnerships there. And we think we just have to really bolster those, because there’s fantastic things that we can do together.

Justin Alger 27:29
So, you have so you’ve created a program where seniors are going to sit in their senior engage in their senior work at the community college.

Jermaine Williams 27:41
Yes, through a partnership with a few school districts we have we have done that. And, and again, I wish I could say it’s new, and it’s innovative. And the reality is, you know, we know that that keeps students engaged, we know it works, we know it will have positive outcomes, and we need to, you know, again, kind of dive into what we know works.

Justin Alger 28:04
You’re suggesting that higher education should in communication with secondary education, look for the best practices and see what works is, as you suggested, right? And then and then replicate. Right? So, my assumption, then is that that isn’t happening broadly, between higher education and secondary ed. So how, how could parents use knowing that use that information to inform how they interact with their students or the advice that they give to their students in choosing colleges?

Jermaine Williams 28:35
I appreciate that. And I think I would share kind of the adoption versus adaption, right, so, so replication as much as is, you know, adapting. So, we’re not, you know, it’s kind of taking what works and just reproducing it right. We’re figuring out how it actually adapts to our different cultures, our communities. And then so basic frameworks and tenants and then the idea of thick because it’s so dispersed, both higher education, and secondary education. I think that’s where, you know, the opportunity comes into play, because again, there are great opportunities, and it just similarly to the college or the university, it says Community College, there can be a specific focus of the high school. Right, so at some point time like it, you know, it may make sense for high school to have a different partnership with a different college or university, you know, so the kind of it’s interesting, look at it across the board. It really does kind of go to, you know, who you’re supporting what the goals are of each educational institution. It’s kind of went to hit on that piece.

Justin Alger 29:46
And so, bonus follow up question for you since you’re at a two-year school, there also isn’t a formal way within higher education and specifically two-year schools and four-year schools to communicate, right there, isn’t there? There’s not always a formal way of communication between two- and four-year schools. So as a spokesman for the for the two-year schools, what advice do you have for four-year institutions?

Jermaine Williams 30:15
For four-year schools? I mean, I may sound like a, like a broken record. But do we, we know a lot in higher education, we’ve done all thinking on a lot of initiatives, and even community colleges that are 50,60 years old. So, when we know something works, so what works, having students be able to seamlessly transition from a two-year college to a four-year institution, right? Meaning all their credits go and they can transfer it as junior status. Right? So, they have two years. We know that’s advantageous. Alright, as opposed to not all of their credits transferring. So when we continue to work, and we do this at Nassau Community College, you know, it’s done nationally is, but looking at our what we call articulation agreements, and ensuring that students are able to transfer ideally, all the credits that they’ve earned at the community college, right, because the last thing you want to do maybe the last thing, but you don’t want to spend two years two and a half years at a community college and think, wow, I am now Junior status, and go to a four year institution to find out that you have three more years of higher education to receive your undergraduate degree. Right. But we know kind of to my point earlier, it’s kind of growing what works. We know that that works. And you can see that with SUNY seamless transfer and the efforts to try and help students transfer seamlessly. We have an articulation agreement, we have a circulation agreement, and NASA Community College with several institutions, we just enhanced articulation agreement with a Delphi University, which is fantastic, actually gives students the opportunity to, to live and experience a Delphi University firsthand, while they’re enrolled at NASA Community College, and also provides that opportunity where they’re working with advisors from day one. So, we can do the best possible thing, put our best possible effort forward to ensure all their credits transferred to a Delphi and they transfer and as juniors. So, there are again, promising practices successful strategies out there, and really diving into those and within equity focus, and a data informed lens. Because what we can do and what a lot of two-year four-year institutions have been doing. So, there’s a lot of good work going on out there.

Justin Alger 32:41
And I will link because I recently read the Adelphi Concurrent Enrollment Program, which congratulations, it’s fantastic. It really speaks volumes to the work that you’re doing, and the direction that you are leading the institution. But I will link that to the show notes so listeners can read as well. So, I think at this point, that’s all the questions that I have for you, and your man, I really want to thank you for coming on the future college parent podcast. It’s been an absolute pleasure. It’s always good to chat with you.

Jermaine Williams 32:50
Likewise. Always great to chat with you. The pleasure has been all mine, Justin, thank you for the opportunity. And thank you for providing this resource to parents.

It takes the community - Robert Beach

Justin Alger — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:32:40 GMT

The guest of episode ten is Mr. Robert Beach, School Counselor and Student Equity Action Committee Co-Sponsor at Lockport Township High School in Lockport, Illinois. Robert has a large number of students assigned to him in a massive school district. In this episode Robert and I discuss how school counselors help support students in three areas: social & emotional, academic, and college & career support. It’s very obvious to me how passionate he is about helping students achieve success in these areas. I hope you enjoy my interview with Robert!

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

College is like a slice of pizza – Pedro Martinez

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:03:17 GMT

In the third episode of the Future College Parent Podcast, I had the honor to speak to Mr. Pedro Martinez, director of Admission at Cal Poly Humboldt. Pedro and I first met for the first time recording this episode. And I have to tell you, this is one of the most genuine humans I’ve met in my higher education career. I was really appreciative of Pedro sharing his narrative of being Hispanic, from a small town and the struggles he faced growing up. He’s proof you can come from anywhere and do anything! During the episode you’ll hear Pedro talk about Humboldt State University becoming a certified Cal Poly institution in the coming months. I’m happy to announce Humboldt State University is now Cal Poly Humboldt. Pedro mentions this designation will immediately change the admissions process but will add some more academic programs to the institution. Congratulations, Cal Poly Humboldt!

Episode Timeline:

[00:56] Introducing Pedro Martinez
[02:19] Pedro’s role in supporting parents and students in getting college and career ready
[04:04] Pedro’s journey from high school to college
[08:18] Cal Poly Humboldt admission requirements and study levels
[15:21] Meeting basic admission requirements is enough to get admitted
[18:58] Questions parents should be asking about Humboldt
[22:08] Pedro’s advice to the secondary education system.
[26:07] Developing a relationship with the administration.
[29:15] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode.

Five things I learned from my talk with Pedro!

1. Cal Poly Humboldt currently admits over 90% of students who apply! Most of these students have met the California Department of Education graduation requirements referred to as the “A-G course list.” Congratulations! Your student CAN attend a public four-year institution! If you’re worried your student won’t exactly meet one or more of the admissions requirements, reach out to admissions counselors at an institution. They are trained to work with you to develop a pathway to admission. Listeners outside of the state of California can check their local school district or state education department website for their state’s graduation and higher education institutional requirements for admission.
2. Check with your local high school administration to see if they have connections with colleges, both local and beyond. If they don’t ask them to help you to make the connection to a school!
3. Applying to a college isn’t just about applying and going. Remember Pedro’s funnel analogy. Starting with good high school preparation and gaining an understanding of your ability and willingness to pay for college, your student can then apply and follow the steps to be proactive and make sure they are on the path from preparation, through admission, to course registration.
4. Ask a potential school where you as a parent fit in. Often we hear in the popular media of overinvolved parents reaking havoc on campuses! This doesn’t have to be the case for you, ask the question about where you can provide support both from afar, and when you visit the campus.
5. Say thank you to your high school faculty, staff, and administrators. They create the environment for your student to be academically and personally successful. We cannot thank them enough for the work they do.

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Listen to episodes on: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/
Please share the podcast widely with other parents, leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators so they can share with your school district. You can also let parents know the show is streaming directly from the website and there is no need to download anything! The show is also on your favorite podcast platforms as well.
Lesson Plan & Activity: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the lesson plan and activity for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:19
Pedro, welcome to the future college parent podcast and thanks for being here. And helping future college parents and thank you for being one of our first six guests. You our guest number three in our six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast. Pedro, welcome to the show.

Pedro Martinez 02:12
Hey, it’s great to be here. Thanks for letting me be here and speak to the parents and yourself and answering questions.

Justin Alger 02:17
Absolutely glad that you are here. So, if we could start off, can you please share what your role is and segue into describing in what capacity you support parents and students in getting college and career ready?

Pedro Martinez 02:30
Yeah, I’ve actually been in higher education for 20 plus years, and I have spanned almost every aspect of that career that included. Being an ambassador for a university tour guide, an office assistant with recruitment became you know, as an admissions counselor, and raise the ranks into administration. And now I’m the Director of Admissions at Humboldt State University. But within that duty, not only do I help with the students coming in for various different classes, from graduate programs to undergraduate programs, I also am responsible for enrollment communications, basically the communications that go to all students and parents, as it pertains to what the university is doing. And various topics from admissions to continuing registration to safety updates, a variety of different things that relate to information that gets relayed to families and students themselves. In addition to that, I also run other programs on campus such as Project rebound, which is a special program for those that have a formerly incarcerated background to also other programs that focus on special needs of students and underrepresented student populations. So various things get kind of introduced to me. And I’ve been doing this for several years and focused on trying to support students achieve their dream of academic college success and being able to obtain a degree that allows them to live the dream that they want to live each day. So, I’ve been excited to be here during these 20 years.

Justin Alger 04:05
If you could tell me a little bit about your journey from high school to college, what do you think informed the path that you’re on now?

Pedro Martinez 04:14
I’m born and raised in California. So, I came from a small farming community outside of Fresno, California, that town being Parlier, California, which was a small, small community. We had a very small graduating class and during that time in my journey, college was different for us. You know, we lived in a farm labor community we saw so many students go through the journey and try to find opportunities. I had a special journey in junior high where there was a moment in my career that some people that I looked up to, didn’t necessarily see that opportunity for me in this type of position. They would never have seen me as a Director of Admissions. They never saw me in that awkward because of, you know, my background, being Hispanic and being in small town, and at that moment that kind of shattered my dreams at the moment, and I, you know, spoke to my family and kind of looked at it, my dad was all about education, my mom was one about just achieving your dreams. And at that moment, looking at that, it really drove me through my high school years to do that. And I had, I had a moment there. And I shared this with a lot of students, a lot of families, I found college through pizza. Pizza has always been my big thing. And I’ve shared it so many times with people. Because I sat there as a kid, enjoying pizza, and really thought about the college journey. And the college journey centered around, there’s so many colleges I looked at, at different name brand, pizza, companies, pizza A, pizza B, pizza C you know, all they all created pizza, they all looked almost the same, but they all tasted different. And it really hit me at that moment that that’s what I wanted to do is really learn about colleges and understand the differences between this one college and another college because they all serve as the same type of product, but they did it in a different way. And it helped me understand what I was looking for. And I wanted to try everything. And so, I talked to my parents, I wanted to learn more about these opportunities about going out there and seeing what we have in store. And so, they took me to places they helped me explore campuses, I had other individuals as I got into my high school years explain that. But all I knew at the beginning was I needed to get good grades. And I needed to start off on the right foot. There was one person from Fresno State that was a young ambassador, young student that came in our freshman year and reiterated just the idea, get good grades, get good grades, starting in your freshman year. And so, I spent my whole time just focused on that as I tried to learn more about every campus I could think of. And as I went through that I had a long list and I whittled it down and it whittled down and to the point where I became a senior and came down to my big, big opportunities. And I got I got East Coast schools to admit me I got in state schools and big schools, small schools. But throughout that entire journey, as I tasted, every single moment that I had on a college campus, I learned something different from each of those campuses. And I learned with my family. And I learned about my family and what really made me, me, and my decision for a college had to be about me. But it also had to do with what influenced me. And so, I learned a lot from that journey on where I would go and what campus I would pick. But at the end of the day, I had to pick the one that best suited me, and it was my alma mater, Fresno State, I went to that, that location and I started my degree path there. And to become a teacher, I always wanted to be a teacher and kind of went that route. But since junior high when I had that opportunity. And it even goes back to even my third-grade teacher, Miss Multimo, which I still can go to and talk to She was an amazing teacher. And she inspired me to be an educator and to be in that pathway. And as I went to junior high, it had my experience and the negative experience from it. That really drove my next four years to really drive it to be the very best and to prove everyone wrong, that I could do something amazing. It could be somewhere. And everywhere. I learned everything I could I explored everything, and I went through the process.

Justin Alger 08:18
Can you share with us a little bit about humbles the admissions requirements, the programs of study and levels of study these types of things?

Pedro Martinez 08:26
Yeah, definitely. So, Humboldt State University is one of 23 C issues in the California State University system. And our admissions requirements are common through all 23 campuses, we basically if you’re a first-time freshman, or basically a senior that’s graduating, that’s going to become a first-time freshman at our campus. We require A through G requirements, which is not always depending on your audience across different states would not necessarily have that language in your high school. But basically, that’s four years of English three years of math, two years of biological or are other types of science, foreign language, arts, extracurricular. So, there’s various topics that we have on our admissions website that explain more. And currently we’re not requiring the essay T or AC t as far as admissions requirements across our CSU due to the fact that not every student has been able to take that exam on a regular basis. And so, we modified a requirement to a multiple factor. So, we take the A through G, we take the GPA, and various other factors that we get from our application data and make a determination if you’re CSU eligible. And each one kind of each campus is a little unique in some of the ways they do it. But for the most part, it’s pretty consistent with GPA and A through G requirements of coursework. We also accept lower division students as well lower division students are those that are less than 60 minutes but are now attending a community college or have other college coursework that don’t make them an upper division student, but they’re not a high school student. And so, they’re kind of in between. So, we have various ways of accessing ASU through our admissions process. So basically, almost any student has access to what could be in the next few months of potential certified Cal Poly institution. Right now, we’re just a State University and we hopefully to get we’ll get that designation soon, which won’t necessarily change our admissions process. But we’ll add some different types of programming in the future. So, our university has three academic colleges, undergrad, we have a professional studies College, we have a College of Natural Resources and sciences, and we have an arts and humanities, each of which have various programs and each of their areas.

Justin Alger 10:37
Now tell me again, what are the big set, you call them the Big Six for admission?

Pedro Martinez 10:42
They’re basically in California, we have A through G requirements, which basically encompass various high school disciplines, from mathematics, to science, to arts, and so forth. Each category has a particular topic. And we require certain coursework in each of those classes to help students enter the campus, when it when it comes down to preparation. And so, we take all of those courses into account along with the GPA that will help us build our admissions offer.

Justin Alger 11:10
So, is when I look at the iPads data? And if I if I do the math correctly, you accept about 92% of students? Is that correct?

Pedro Martinez 11:21
Yes, we’re very, accessible. And we’ve been continually growing our access, when the recent time because we have, we’ve lowered our GPA to a point where allows greater access to students, and we’re in a position of growth. So, we’re looking to access even more students to our campus through their academic performance.

Justin Alger 11:41
So, it’s not difficult per se to get into Humboldt?

Pedro Martinez 11:44
At this time, No.

Justin Alger 11:45
As long as you meet, these AG requirements.

Pedro Martinez 11:49
Yeah, we’ve created an opportunity for access, we’re looking to grow our student population, and when we look to see ourselves expand, and so factors being what they are, currently have a lot of a little bit more rain to create even more access for students, we definitely want to support any student to try to go through this process. We have admissions counselors that are on my staff that work with families and do constant presentations. So, regarding these requirements, and we have those that just specifically understand how to work with families outside our state of California and focus on the different areas that they need to go ahead and help prepare themselves because like I mentioned, maybe your audience doesn’t live in California, your audiences on different locations in the US, some of these states don’t require the same requirements as California does. And so, some of the students would not be aware of those requirements, we take that into consideration. So, we look at those items, and we understand what state they’re coming from. And we try to help prepare them to meet all the requirements as easily as possible and assure that they meet everything. And if it’s something that we can quickly suggest, we encourage that. And many of our see issues also have other departments just like mine, that have a specific branch focused on supporting students that want to look at our admissions process and can actually sit with a counselor or do a group presentation to better understand and ask questions to help them meet these requirements. Because they, they see they seem simplistic, but they sometimes get a little bit more complicated when now you start looking at your situation. And there’s people here in the CSU system, and all 23 to help those students and families really understand those requirements. And I think that’s the critical piece, we walk away from that worried about what the requirements are, because they’re unique slightly within each campus, even though they’re based in the same foundation. But really, where do I get the support? How do I go get the answers to my questions? And how do they help me go ahead and process these items every step of the way. And you know, every student that we get, we walk through what we call the funnel winning missions, it’s a funnel, they go from one stage to the next stage to the next stage. And as they go through it, they have new things that they have to either accomplish or do. You know, when you first submit an application, you’ve got to send in some documents for us to verify. As you go through that next stage, there is a stage of okay, now I’ve been offered admission, I need to go ahead and actually get some other things done, like get my scholarship application, give my other items. And as far as any missing item that I need to finish any requirement for tuition, any residency documents, anything like that. And so, for each phase, these individuals that I talked about are present in each of our campus to help kind of migrate themselves through each of these phases and get to the point where, when may come around, it’s decision time. And they have to pick that one campus and if they’ve selected us, they had, they basically would have completed everything that they needed to do to prepare themselves for registering for courses in the summer for the coming term that they’re coming into, or if they’re in spring, doing it in January. So, the biggest point or like I said that I would walk away from I’m not really worried about the requirements, really worried about making sure you get in front of people that can answer your questions, and that’s the admissions counselors or the outreach teams that are available each of our campuses.

Justin Alger 15:04
And that’s great. And to speak to your point about my listeners, I think for the show, I’m hoping that with a with a big draw like Pedro Martinez on the docket that way that I draw some California listeners, right. That’s what we hope right. And I do grant that, or I do understand that each state, of course, and each school specifically has their own admissions requirements. But the point that I’m trying to get to be that, you know, a see in the popular media, right. So specifically, I think about the recent admissions scandal, you hear of, all these, or you hear these stories, where people are doing all these crazy things in order to gain access to higher education, and humble and in a lot of the CSU. And I think it’s a mission of the public access, right? That as long as you meet these minimum requirements of the secondary education, during your secondary education, then admission is pretty much a formality at that point, as long as you’re, as long as you’re meeting these basic requirements, is that accurate to say?

Pedro Martinez 16:21
That would be accurate. And I think one of the other points that I think many people when we’re when we’re here at our campus, that each issue, my team is strategically positioned to help students find that out, if for some reason, a student and this is, again, something similar to all of our campuses, is, if a student comes to see us and communicates with us, and looks at us and say, I really want to be at ASU, I have a goal to be here. And we look at the requirements. And if for some reason, we see something that is probably going to be problematic, and them getting admitted in the fall that formality and they have something that comes up that puts a red flag on us. My team is trained on trying to find a solution to help get them admissible as soon as possible. So that might be taking a semester not to be here and actually starting in the fall, because there’s something we can do and prepare, get them regularly admissible. And so, there’s not the need to try to fight to get in here, we’re preparing the pathway to get here, if we can find the pathway to do it within the term that they’re in, and they’re able to get in the cycle we will do. So, if it’s something that is going to take a little bit longer, we provide that pathway of different steps that they need to do. And if they accomplish those steps, they’re going to find their pathway. And so even if they’re not admissible immediately, and they’re working with us, we will find a pathway to get them here. And that’s, I think, something that he prides itself on is that we’re trying to create, access. And if you’re wanting to be here, there’s a pathway as long as you’re willing to walk that pathway. So, I’m not necessarily as easy as others. But once we can do that, those parents, those students feel much more comfortable and know that they’re still going to get there. But I think the other portion that comes with that, as in the preparation is that you’re still working towards a degree. So even if you’re not admissible at that point, I still train my staff to make sure that they’re looking at the best steps that move forward, that help those students, one gets admitted to ASU in the future, but also are still moving towards a degree. So, when they arrive here, it’s like they did start here with us and continue moving that degree forward. So, they can still graduate on their on the schedule, they’re planning. That’s our ultimate goal. And I think that’s something that I think many parents and students should be looking at is the idea of like, even though I’m not ready for that, maybe I’m not prepared to come in directly, that there’s a plan for me to get that still that obtain that degree in the schedule I need to have.

Justin Alger 18:53
Can you share some of the questions that that parents and families don’t ask that you wish that they would ask about humble?

Pedro Martinez 19:01
Oh, what would they ask about humble? I think, when a parent comes on the campus, and they’re in there looking at it, I think, you know, most parents ask you, how can I stay connected? And are not they don’t ask how they can stay connected as often as they can. I think they’re the thing Hawk is that in the future. No, ask it today. And really, really dive into how can I stay connected? Because again, when I think I mentioned it in, our discussion, is, you know, staying connected, it’s a family thing. There’s a legacy here, there’s multiple families, and I think when a when a student decides to come here, and if they’re the first one in their family to come here, we want parents to be involved. And so, we actually have different ways for parents to stay engaged. And they don’t answer those questions. When they arrive on campus. They don’t ask, how do I get connected? How do I stay connected? What’s going on? And there’s ways there to do that and families when they ask that question, finally themselves, also looking to become humbled state. And I think that’s something they too can be humbled state as much as their, their child. And we’re not saying, you know, I’m not encouraging the parent to be like, I’m going to go to college you have too No, not necessarily. It’s, bringing them here to be a part of that experience with them. Because they’re here for four years. They’re here exploring, they’re here diving into this. And I think we’re the parent, we want them just to visit just as much to explore and experience this because that that child is getting experiences that they probably realized, I’d love to share with my family, I’d like to take them to a local restaurant that I love totally. And they’ll never get to experience if they don’t come visit. So, making that welcomed visit and asking that question of like, what can we do? Where’s it for us? It’s an unusual question that no family’s ever really asked. But I think our tour guides and our staff are ready to kind of mention those things and explore those things. Because then they feel I can be part of that experience, too. Maybe only for a day or two. But it can be for me. And I really want to encourage that. You know, those are, you would think I’d be saying, hey, they should ask more about our academic colleges, and, and so forth, we’re going to give that to the student, we’re going to share that with the student. Because that parent, ask those types of questions. They’re going to have a conversation and say what you think, oh, I like this. I really like that because of x. And this is why I’d love to see you attend there. Because when I come there, we’ll be able to do stuff. So hopefully you enjoy yourself. But we find we see ourselves coming to visit you more often. Because how many times do, we hear that same? I’m sending them off to college, and they’re gone. And then they sit back. And they and they think about they’re gone. I can only imagine how many parents like myself, I’m going through it with my young one. She’s about to graduate, and she’s about to go into a college search and go look for what college and maybe our campus and maybe another and in her search and going to do that. I went with her, and I looked at the same thing. Where can I come bond with you? Because I’m not I’m going to miss you. As soon as you’re gone.

Justin Alger 22:07
The last question that I’m asking everyone is that higher ed, and secondary, I don’t have a formal way of communicating. And so, in your role, let’s just let’s make you a spokesperson for higher education. So, can you provide some advice to secondary education?

Pedro Martinez 22:26
So, we’re looking at the high schools and so forth out there in the humanities. Okay. So, are you sorry, I’m sorry, I take that back? So, you’re talking about our universities? Looking at universities?

Justin Alger 22:38
Yes, I’m saying the higher ed doesn’t talk to secondary ed in a formal way. I’m sure you have articulation agreements with high schools, and you talk specifically, or you have some superintendents or such that you that you reach out to, or communicate with you from saying broadly higher than secondary, I don’t necessarily talk

Pedro Martinez 22:58
Yeah. So, you know, when it comes down to it, luckily enough, we talk a lot. We’ve created, I think an environment that we try to talk more often than not, we try to keep open dialogues, I think, I think our superintendents and our counselors and our different staff at secondary education levels and can connect with us at any time. And we create opportunities. And I think, most of the time we go in and obtain facts, information and take back in our case, and I guess I could speak to it because I do try to practices is trying to be in constant connection with them. You know, I have superintendents directly texting me and talking to me about issues and understanding things. And really, the reason why we do that is simply because we’re all on the same mindset. We want our students to excel and succeed. And sometimes there are barriers that get presented some that are presented to us some that are surprises, others are unintentional. And they are just we discovered them through the process of moving through something. And I really encourage every institution to really just think, connect, connect constantly, figure out ways chat beyond the basic facts, figure out ways to deliver things. And at that point, when we deliver those solutions, we’re answering those questions for schools, and we build a greater bond, because now we feel like we’re connected, yet we’re different. Right? And sometimes we discovered that, you know, there’s an issue that we never thought about, because we didn’t vocalize that. And I think conversation continues to develop and then it becomes to action. And if we can take that conversation and create an action that’s thoughtful, and that’s meaningful. We end up seeing change and positive change, positive change for the families, positive change for the student. And it’s definitely something that that all of us should really continue to take part in, constantly is to stay open to communication. I actually, just recently during COVID. During this time when students were not at school, and they were all virtual, everyone was attending virtually. But we had moments here and there where we could meet with administration, because we had to pick up paperwork or we had to do something, right. I went to my local high school that my kids attend. And I literally as a higher ed institution, going to this school district and literally said, I feel for all of you, I understand how different this must feel. And thank you for trying your best to stay connected, when you don’t have that natural way of connecting with your students, my children, when they walk the halls, you got to say hello every morning and connect with it, learn about them discover them. Today you don’t. But that’s a bond between us. And now we can work together. And we tried to create those bonds create opportunity. So, I think when it comes down and secondary, there’s moments like that, plus so many others, simply because we try to sit with you and have a nice conversation. Stay connected. So that would be my advice.

Justin Alger 26:07
So even though there isn’t formal communication, pathways that are established, it’s not that you’re not or higher education specifically isn’t? Is it willing to have these conversations at the campus level, or at your level? You just have to facilitate that conversation from the from the secondary level. And so, for parents, maybe the take home would be if there isn’t any sort of or knowing that there that there isn’t a direct communication pathway to speak through the administration of the school, to reach out to a higher education institution to develop that relationship.

Pedro Martinez 26:55
Oh, yeah. I mean, they can encourage I mean, there’s so many times that I tell I tell parents, I’m like, if you really love what we’re doing, because I have, like you’re doing amazing things, share it with your administration, go tell your principal, your superintendent, whoever, and let them know about us and the experience that you have, because they may not know and they may want to have a partnership like that, but we never thought about it. And they go build it. And then next thing, you know, they’re connecting, and we begin to develop a relationship. Because we dive in a little deeper, we go ask those tough questions of each other. But what we’re doing is really building a bond, we’re helping them understand we’re in the same boat you are, we’re just at a different stage of it. And so, we need to understand what your families are dealing with and are now coincidentally one of your families came to you and told you, this is amazing. You might want to connect and when we bridge them, greater things can happen. So, I think informal conversations can lead to formal relationships that will really develop and improve our communities and improve our relationships. And they can start small and grow wide. And that’s the amazing part. It can it all has to start with just one brave comment to say, I’m going to take an extra five minutes. And I’m going to reach out to the person. And hopefully it plays itself out

Justin Alger 28:10
Well. And then on the other end, once you have that conversation, taking an additional five minutes to share that conversation with other folks. That could be valuable too as well. Well, I honestly, I think that finishes my question. So, Pedro, I really want to thank you for coming on the future college parent podcast and being guest number three of our first six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Pedro Martinez 28:36
No problem. I appreciate and love being part of it and answering the questions and I hope that all the parents feel that this was supportive and helpful.

Parent Moves - Matthew Brownstein

Justin Alger — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 12:00:18 GMT

The guest of episode nine highlights Matthew Brownstein, Assistant Principal at an elementary school – including grades kindergarten through 8th grade, in Queens, NY! In this episode we discuss how parents can help students be authors of their own lives! This may sound very broad and potentially overwhelming, but I think you’ll find the advice Matthew provides will give you a strong starting point. I also hope you’ll see how developing relationships and taking responsibility can help students prepare for any and all post-secondary adventures. I hope you enjoy my interview with Matthew!

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Grants, loans, and scholarships…OH MY! – Deb Sutliff & Sue Tripp

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:05:52 GMT

In today’s episode, I had the honor to interview Ms. Susan Tripp, Director of Financial Aid emeritus from Herkimer College. Also appearing on the episode is Ms. Deb Sutliff, Bursar Emeritus at Herkimer college as well. I had the absolute pleasure and honor to work directly with Deb and Sue at Herkimer College and saw firsthand the care and concern they provided to individual students, and it was just unparalleled. Their baseline was beyond the best that I’ve seen in my career and was simply a part of the fabric of who they are.

I want to mention to you that this episode will not cover all that is paying for college, I intend to have future episodes dedicated to this critical and complex topic.

Episode Timeline:

[00:56] Introducing today’s guests to the show
[03:30] Deb’s and Sue’s roles in helping students be college-ready
[06:15] What all parents should know about high school to college transition
[12:03] Taking advantage of the local community college
[13:10] What is financial aid and how can students apply for it?
[16:09] The financial aid application process
[20:30] Stigma around the FAFSA
[25:46] When to file for the FAFSA
[27:18] Looking into the financial aid letter
[34:32] Common mistakes students and parents make related to FAFSA packages
[39:19] What role should financial aid play in a student’s decision to apply to a school vs another school?
[43:21] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode

Five things I learned from my talk with Deb & Sue!

1. Begin to learn about the financial aid process with your student prior to attending college! This will make the process much less stressful when it’s time to actually apply for financial aid. There is a wealth of resources available including your high school guidance counselor, admissions representatives that visit your high school, or contact your local community college bursar and financial aid offices to learn more about financial aid programs and workshops they may provide. They may also have staff and services available to help you navigate the process.
2. Do not be quick to dismiss your local community college. There are potential monetary savings, similar general education courses are offered in the first two-years at both a community college and four-year institution, and some of the community college faculty may even work in the field they are teaching.
3. To apply for federal financial aid students must fill out the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid annually. This means every year a student is attending or considering attending a college. Filing the FAFSA will determine a student’s eligibility for grants, loans, and work-study. Individual states may offer financial aid as well, please visit your state education department website to see if your state offers financial aid.
4. After a student completes the FAFSA and supplies any supplemental information required by a respective campus in a timely fashion. The campus will send the student a financial aid award letter. Some awards are given to the student such as grants and scholarships. Grants and scholarships generally don’t need to be repaid. Some awards are offered to the student such as loans. There are limits to how much a student can borrow. Also, students can borrow less than what they are offered. If there’s a difference between how much financial aid is offered and the cost of attendance, it is up to the student and their family to determine how to pay this expense.
5. There is a difference between the financial aid award package and the bill a student receives from a respective campus. The financial aid package is based on average costs of items such as room and board and indirect costs. The bill reflects actual costs charged to the student.

Resources

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Referenced links:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid: https://studentaid.gov/
New York State Higher Education Services Corporation: https://www.hesc.ny.gov/

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:18
Deb and Sue OMG. Welcome to the future college parent Podcast. I’m so excited that you’re here with me on the show. This is the fifth episode in our six-episode premiere. Thanks for being on the show.

Deb Sutliff 03:21
Thank you.

Sue Tripp 03:22
Thank you,

Deb Sutliff 03:22
I’m happy to be here.

Justin Alger 03:23
So first, if you could, and you can go in order that you want. But if you, can you please share your role and describe in what capacity you support students and parents through the college journey.

Deb Sutliff 03:39
Alright, I can start. So, Justin is the former Bursar, who’s still working a little bit part time, my role has been in trying to make sure that students and families could understand the bill. So, our office took an active role in trying to make sure that students were well aware of the costs associated with college, both for those commuting students as we are Community College. And for those who would be living on campus because there is a wide discrepancy in terms of how much a family would have to pay if the student was commuting, you know, coming from the local area to drive up the hill to our campus, or if they were living in one of our campus housing facilities. Because in that case that they were doing that that would be much more like a four-year institution for a student who was coming from a distance away, say to reside on campus. So, we wanted to make sure that we had payment plans available that we have very clear and accurate information on our website. And non-COVID times we gave a lot of in person presentations at orientation events, open houses, registration nights or weekends. When we had a presence always to make sure that families were very comfortable and knowing how they were going to pay their bill.

Justin Alger 04:56
It’s fantastic so a Bursar on campus is the person or the office that collects the bills.

Sue Tripp 05:04
Correct.

Justin Alger 05:04
Well, good Sue?

Deb Sutliff 05:05
My role is to make sure that students and families are aware of all the financial aid programs that are available to them for to take care of any of the college costs. You know, we are stewards of tax dollar monies. So, we have many compliance regulations that we are under, and we want to expend everything that was offered to the institution to award to our students. So, you know, in our office, we do a lot of administrative work, but our other half 50% is making sure that families and students understand all the regulations and understand what aid that’s out there available to students. And so, the key is to help students to help them with whatever we can that’s available to them to offset college costs, which is not decreasing. It’s, it’s rising and rising. And you know, and funding is, is there, but it is limited. So that information needs to go out so that they’re prepared, and how to take care of college costs.

Justin Alger 06:11
Okay, wonderful. Thanks for providing that overview. Can you share with us what is an important lesson or piece of advice about the transition from high school to college, that you think all parents should know?

Deb Sutliff 06:22
You know, with high school, you know, parents were quite involved, and believe it or not, probably did a lot of stuff for students. And when you enter college, you know, depending on what the government considers that person as an adult, and expects a lot from the students and not, you know, actually having too much of what their parents do for them. So, our responsibility is to make sure that students really understand a lot of the rules and regulations. Parents sometimes like to be helicopter parents, but the department doesn’t sometimes allow the parents to be involved in certain those, you know, situations. So, you know, the kids have to step up and start learning and understanding and a lot of 18 year old’s, Mom and Dad did all of that stuff, you know, and so now, this is our job, to make sure that the students understand what types of aid that are receiving, whether they’re receiving the student loan, the repayment, so many rules and regulations that it can be very daunting for them. And that’s what we’re here for. However, you know, staffing at every institution is limited, based on the number of students that come in, a lot of things are done online, you know, at our institution, we are still very hands on, we’re known for our customer care, in doing that, and I would always reach out, you know, tell parents and students to reach out to the colleges, see if they can make the appointment to come in and actually talk to someone regarding all their concerns. It’s not something that can be done for every parent, but that would be my wish to do that. And at Herkimer, whether the student attends here or not, you know, as a community college for our community, we do that for everyone. Whether you’re planning on attending here now or not, we can give the same type of advice for them so that they’re prepared on what they need to do.

Justin Alger 08:19
So, you’re so you’re suggesting that you’d prefer to interact with students when they’re on campus, but had that learning take place, about the college financial aid process prior to prior to come into campus?

Deb Sutliff 08:32
Absolutely. I mean, you know, financial aid can be very daunting. But we’re here to make it simple. And you know, the government in a couple of years, they’re going to actually simplify it even more. And they understand that as myself as a first-generation student, parent, my parents didn’t speak English very well. You know, it can be very daunting, and you need someone to come and, you know, help them and guide them. And I and that that happened for me. I had older siblings that had that helped me but also the, you know, the financial aid office, it all depends on, you know how well they’re going to welcome you and explain all of that. And we do that here at Herkimer. And I think we do that very well, you know, when parents and students leave our office, or they say, oh, I understand it now, that makes me feel good. And this is what I try to preach to our staff, that we need to take the time to explain all the details, or at least get to the you know, to the direct points of what all of these processes are so they understand. I would echo a lot of what Sue said, Certainly it is a change, I think transition from high school to college and that students should, even if they’re not thinking that they should, but they should start to take responsibility in terms of knowing the terms of financial aid, how they’re going to pay their bill and trying to get comfortable with that whole I think set of regulations. In terms of what’s required from them, I think that if they become familiar, it’s much less stressful. I also think that students in high school shouldn’t be very quick to dismiss their home community college, because that’s certainly where they’re going to find the best deal monetarily and financially for their family, but also in terms of thinking that the first two years of college are mainly spent trying to get a lot of the general classes out of the way. So, taking an English one or taking something that’s a general requirement is probably going to be the same type. Of course, they may take at a private college or at their four-year college or university that they might be looking to get their baccalaureate degree from. So certainly, give consideration to your local community college, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The faculty are top notch, you know, that’s another thing that Sue and I have found working here all these years is that you typically work with a very distinguished faculty at a community college level, you know, some have a lot of experience in their field. You know, many are teaching full time, but many are teaching on an annual basis in addition to the jobs that they do, most often in the field in which they’re teaching. So, I think sometimes students and families are quick to potentially dismiss their home community college, but I think that they should give a lot more thought and preparation into where they want to do their first two years of school.

Justin Alger 11:29
So, Deb, your advice is to don’t overlook your local community college. I think a lot of times, I think there’s the perception that because the institution offers open enrollment, that the academic quality or the academic rigor is somehow may somehow be compromised. But you’re suggesting that that’s not necessarily the case. And by the way, the logic behind open enrollment is to educate the public, and it’s, and it’s for the public good. So. And then also, your, your point was to make sure both of you suggested that you should take advantage of your local community college, or your local college, the programs and services that they that they provide, because you certainly provide services at Herkimer. To help students regardless of what institution they’re that they’re going to attend, to help them understand and navigate this financial aid process

Deb Sutliff 12:27
Coming, Justin coming to a community college is a big savings under the financial aid, especially when a student, you know, is undecided as far as what they want to do. And so, they should check with your community college have very many articulation agreements with some of the other institutions where you know, your first two years you can get your feet wet, and you can get those courses all transferable to your four-year institution. So, your savings is close to be at home. And then in case you know, the student at a community college is usually you know, a whole bunch of different programs that the student can get there. They can try it out and so forth before they make that decision without having the higher cost at some of the other universities to do that.

Justin Alger 13:10
Okay, so I’m going to shift gears and move into some expertise focused questions. Deb, tell me what financial aid is and how do students and parents file for financial aid.

Deb Sutliff 13:22
As I mentioned earlier, financial aid packages actually consist of loans in grants. The process even for a student who is only eligible for student loans has to file that FAFSA. And again, that’s the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, has to do that year when they file that FAFSA, that will determine their eligibility for grants and or loans. And some of the common grant is the Federal Pell Grant doing the FAFSA yearly will determine the student’s eligibility for grants like the Pell Grant and for federal student loans as well as campus basting, which is a limited amount of an allocation that a college gets where we can distribute aid such as college work study, or another grant called supplemental educational opportunity grant, s. E. O G, for sure. So those are the basic types of financial aid that a student would be eligible for under the FAFSA filing the FAFSA, and again, that’s a yearly process. Students may also be eligible for scholarships that come from their high schools, or from there you know, even doing some research in the area. I another recommendation I would highly make is that a student in their junior year probably in high school would check with their local guidance offices in their high schools to see what scholarships may be available that they need to write a separate essay or do an application for. Sometimes places like the American Legion or the Rotary Club, or student’s employer might have scholarship or pair Yeah, students, family’s employer might have scholarships eligible, you know, for dependent children. And then many community colleges will have special scholarships for students who are at the top of their class. So, for example, our college has a scholarship that would cover full tuition for students in their first year, if they graduate in the top 10% of their high school class, or I’m sorry, the top 15%, we want to edit that to the top 15% of their high school class. And then in the second year, we pay 50% of their tuition. So, it’s good to look into programs like that student are enrolled at a college also, there may be more scholarship opportunities for their following years. So, we have a process where students could apply through an application a one-page application for scholarships in their second year, and some of that they could take with them to their baccalaureate college for their four-year degree. So, things like that are all good things to keep in mind for students as they’re navigating their billing in their financial aid.

Justin Alger 16:09
So, when I apply for financial aid, I fill out the FAFSA. And then that information is populated at the at the campus level. And that determines what type of loans and grants that someone is eligible for?

Deb Sutliff 16:26
That is correct, Justin, you know, that is specific for, you know, her comer and, of course, many other institutions. But for in general for the nation, you know, students really, you know, for where they want to plan on going, they need to first go to those colleges’ websites, which have plenty of information out there regarding what they need to do to file for financial aid. So, in general, the FAFSA which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid is one that if a student would like to see if they’re eligible for that Federal Pell Grant, which is that is a form to complete. And most schools use the FAFSA information to determine what institutional aid that may be awarded to the student, in addition to any loan eligibility that the student is going to receive, and any internal scholarships. Some schools may use that information that’s on there to determine the type of scholarships but there are other schools that may require their own institutional application on top of the FAFSA. And then there are certain schools that use the CSS Profile form, those are very limited, but that’s the college scholarship service form. So, it’s very important depending on where the student is going, that they need to do the research ahead to look on the College website. Absolutely. You know, in admissions, I’m sure that they will say, you know, if you’re filing for financial aid, these are the required forms for this institution. So, a FAFSA may not be for every institution, so they need to new do their research ahead of time. So they have their plan I used to do and tell parents that put a little sheet of paper you have, you know, six or seven schools, you’re thinking of reach out to all those seven schools go to their websites, find out what the deadlines for every school, every school may have a different deadline to, for you to get your information in on time to be considered for everything available. You know, this is not unlimited funds, there are limited funds. So that’s why you need to file early on what the deadlines are. In addition, we’ve been talking about federal aid and institutional aid, but there’s also state aid. Okay, so if you’re a New York State resident, there’s another avenue of financial aid that the student can apply for, and that’s the, you know, New York state award payment application, which was called the tap application. So not every state has state a so what’s nice about New York, they do have one of their own, and that’s part of the FAFSA, that they will give the student the availability based on what they answer on what state they live in, a flag will come up a question will come up to alert them to say, you know, you have the ability to file your New York State tap application and at the end of this app of filling out this application will take you to that link. So, it’s like a one stop as long as the student sees it, they can click on that link, and it will forward them right to the New York State tab application for them to complete. And you know, New York State has also many other scholarships that they offer. One of the newest ones which is now going on four years old is the Excelsior scholarship. That was out that came about and it was geared for a lot of our middle-income families which is really nice that they get a little bit of help where they middle income families typically don’t get, you know, a lot of financial aid some but this is geared for specifically for that group of families. So, it’s certainly something that you know, they need to do to make sure that they’ve reached out to all different avenues when they’re applying for college expenses?

Justin Alger 20:06
So as a follow up, why is it that you think that, that parents are apprehensive? Or they’re nervous, or they’re excited about filling out the FAFSA? Is it because they have to enter in their tax information? Is it because they’re afraid of what the results might be? Why do you think that there? Why What do you think that there’s this sort of stigma around filling out the FAFSA?

Deb Sutliff 20:32
I think it’s because you know, when someone It’s like someone says, well, you got to do your tax return, oh, I don’t know how to do texture, you know, has numbers and so forth. So, they are they, it’s daunting for a lot of the questions that are being asked, and they’re really not the FAFSA now has, you know, has checks and checks and balances as far as I’m not used? I’m not sure if I’m using the right word, not balances. But you know, the paper FAFSA when I remember had over 100 questions, and every question had to be answered. So yes, it could be daunting. Alright, but now with everything is done online, based on the things that you answer, you’re going to skip 20 questions. And so, you know, a family may only be completing, instead of 100 questions, they could only be completing now 30 questions. And soon and you know, the year 2324, it’s going to be as simple as less than 30 questions are going to be asked. So that would be in the year that I wish came this year, that I think that it’s going to make it a lot easier, because the Department of Education realizes how it can be daunting, and how it can be intimidating for families to fill it out. So yes, the information is requiring tax information, because that is a big part of financial aid, whether or not the family income, can you know, help with your own students going to college? I mean, I tell families all the time, that when you know, when you’re coming to college, we’re looking at what is you as a family, you know, you’re very, you’re the very first resource, what is you as a family going to help with your son and daughter going to college, we’re here to supplement, but it one comes from you first. And it’s and based on income information, the department may say, I don’t expect anything from you, okay, because of your family situation already that, that, you know, you need what you’re receiving to take care of just normal household duties, and you’re not able to help with those expenses. And that comes out from the FAFSA. Okay, and many times rarely goes, well, where are they coming up with some of these figures of where they think that this is out what we can help with? Well, this is a federal methodology that Congress have come up and every question on the FAFSA has a formula in there that what they were going to come out with, as far as what they feel that a family can help with your son and daughter going to school. And they take everything into consideration depending on even the state that you live in, you know, you can live in a state like New York that has high taxes, and you can live in another state that doesn’t have high taxes. So, your family income is more protected, or you have more availability to use, you know, example, I always say is household size, you know, a family can make exactly the same income as your neighbor. Okay, but if your household size is six, and that household size is three, okay? The person that is a household size of three has more availability to help that student go to college, where a household size of six, there is more of that income to be used for living. Okay, and so far, so all of those things are factors, okay, your asset information, how many go into college, if you have three in your household going to college versus someone that’s only one going to college? Well, there’s a difference, it’s going to cost that family more. Okay, so your financial aid changes, we’re doing that. So, it has a lot of factors that go in there. Okay, and doing that, and I think there are some families that don’t want to give that information out. You know, regarding you know, do I have to fill out your FAFSA, and that’s part of the requirement, you know, the department needs to see that they need to, to come up with their answers based on the federal methodology so that they know to be fair across the board on what they can offer students and this is what we’re here for, to make it more simpler to explain it. They just need to make that part and doing the first step in trying to get to us to do that. And there are avenues giving the college a call going to your local high schools, look at when there’s going to be workshops. We work very closely with Herkimer guidance counselors here. They invite us to do workshops, we invite them up here. We invite all of our Herkimer guidance counselors to come up. And then we, there, I’m invited in to tell them all the new and important things that are happening in financial aid, because the high school students are typically going right to their high school guidance counselors. And so, you know, you have to have a good rapport with your guidance counselors, because they’re going to be the people that are going to advocate for our institution and other institutions to, so we work very closely with them. And we appreciate them. You know, they if they can answer we sometimes we also do a little tutorial for them. So, you know, they so they know the basics of the fastest, they can answer the simple questions. But we’re always on a phone call away, I get calls all the time from guidance counselors say, Sue, you know, we have this special circumstance, how can you help us? And we do that?

Justin Alger 25:44
How, how soon should I file for financial aid? When is that when is the financial the FAFSA form due?

Deb Sutliff 25:52
October one of every year is when it’s available for students to file their FAFSA for the school year. So, example for this October coming up. And like our freshmen coming in, starting in September, right, they’re coming in, in one month, they’ve only been here one month, the FAFSA is available for them to complete for their sophomore year. Now, your way I just started school, I only been in school, not even a few weeks. Okay, and now your FAFSA is available to apply for the following year, because that income information is there. But you want to get that information early because of limited funding. Okay, especially with any institutional money that’s being offered to the student. As Deb mentioned, they’re called campus-based aid. Okay, they’re limited. And so, if you fall very late, you may have qualified for that aid. But the funds have already been distributed. We don’t want to keep anything, right, we want to use all the money that’s given to us to give to our students. So, it is important that they file early. And this is the opportunity that they can find almost a year early for them for that for that year.

Justin Alger 27:01
Wonderful. So, file starting October 1 And as soon as possible, and then check your institutions specific financial aid process, because there may be an application that you need to file at the at the institution level as well. Correct. So once, once I’ve filled out the FAFSA, I’m coming to Herkimer, and I get a financial aid letter. What does that look like? What are the key terms? What am I looking at when I’m looking at a financial aid letter?

Deb Sutliff 27:31
So, when you receive a financial aid letter in a Herkimer, we try to send our award notice, okay, sometime in April, okay, we normally started doing that, at that point, that also means that the student has gone through anything that the institution may have requested from the student. Okay, so filling out a FAFSA is great, you have all your information in, information may go out to the student, okay, again, goes to the student. All right, and students will, you know, will be asked to turn in certain things to us. And that’s why it’s very important that they shouldn’t delay it and keep it on the dresser and just ignore it because it’s holding back their financial aid package until that information is provided so that we can verify everything works smoothly, no corrections need to be made, then an award notice will go out to the student. And again, at her, it’s usually we started around April. And doing that. As part of the financing plan, it will tell you what the cost is to attend our institution. And that will be different for every school, of course, right. So, it will give you the breakdown, tuition, fees, room board, all those would be representative there. It is important for the family to realize that this is not the bill. This is an estimated cost of attendance for the student. Okay, this is an average course we know where our tuition is. But you know, again, if you’re living in housing, if you live in a single apartment, or you’re sharing an apartment, a double room, a triple room, it’s going to be a different cost, okay? That’s where the actual billing part and student accounts will show the actual costs. But on the award letter, it’s an average, it’s given you a total and expenses include on your award letter, it will have direct expenses, and also indirect expenses. What’s the difference? Difference direct expenses is typically what shows on your bill. indirect expenses are typically things that our students will have costs with, but we’re not billing them for them. So, for example, transportation costs, personal expenses that they need to buy toiletries, and so forth. Those are indirect costs for the student, but they will incur it and those are part of the cost of attendance what you a student can receive financial aid for because that’s the total along with the student award letter. It will then show what awards the student is eligible for some of the awards are given to the student, some of the awards are going to be offered to the student and the student needs to respond. Typically, awards that are given to the student are the Federal Pell grants. So, grants, you want to see grants as much as possible on your awards, you want to see scholarships as much as possible on your wards because that is not a payback, that’s a given to you okay, in doing that, all right. So, you know, Federal Pell Grant and your say, tap grant, the supplemental education opportunity grant, yay, those are all good if you have them. Okay. And based on the college policy of what aid they have, it will be different for every school, because every school has a different pot of money that they can award to the student, the Federal Pell Grant is the same across the board, whether you attend a college that costs $60,000 a year, whether you have a school that costs $15,000 a year, your Pell Grant is across the board the same. Okay, so New York State tap, alright, which stands for tuition assistance program, which can be different because it’s based on tuition, my tuition is different from Syracuse University’s tuition, okay, and so forth. So that could be different. In addition to any of those grants, if a student qualifies for the federal work study program, that’s where the student actually works on campus. Some have we’re off campus, and it is a financial aid program, that you have to have financial need for which is all determined by the college’s policy that will also be on their award letter, they have to understand that work study earnings of the student can earn throughout their school year is not there to pay for any direct costs. Remember, I talked about that the tuition, the billing, those things are direct costs, this is more for those students, for the students, indirect costs for those other expenses, personal expenses, travel expenses, and so forth. I really enjoy that. And then lastly, scholarships are listed there, if the student was awarded any scholarships, and loans, okay, and you know, the word loan, I hopefully, you know, students know, a loan is something that they will need to repay back. And it is a financial aid program, and it will be offered to the student. And there are limits on what a student can borrow, and whatever they’re eligible for would be offered to the student. And when I say offered, that means the student has to accept if they want to borrow, and of course, you know, they certainly don’t need to borrow, they certainly can borrow less than what’s being offered to them, but they typically can’t ask more than what was already offered. Because the institution is already offering them, they’re their limit of what they can borrow. So and then, of course, um, even with all the aid that they’re eligible for, they need to realize what it would cost to attend that school, what the aid that they’re receiving, it’s, it’s sort of like simple math, okay, it cost this much to attend, this is the A that are receiving, used to tell you do the subtraction, and there, there’s still a bottom line is positive. That’s something where the family needs to make up for that, okay, make up for that amount, they can take out a parent loan, they can look at other options that are available to take to offer those expenses, but they need to remember that indirect costs are involved in there. So, it’s really not the bill. And that’s where they need to talk with our office talk to student accounts to say really, what is the bottom line of what I owe, because that’s just an average

Justin Alger 33:29
The financial aid award letter is really a listing of all the direct costs, which are tuition and fees, right, maybe housing charges as well. Indirect costs, which are costs that you transportation, if you live off campus, meals, right, these types of things. And then it also on the other side lists, the awards that you’re able to or that you’re given, those are the grants, right and potentially the scholarships from the from the institution level, and then also lists the, the loans that you are able to take out to borrow should you need. And then if there is a bottom line, that’s funds that the family or the student will have to come up with in order to settle their bill in Deb’s office. So, Sue, what are some of the common mistakes that you see students and parents make related to their financial aid packages?

Deb Sutliff 34:37
Um, well, the most common is when parents fill out an application for their student and they end up putting, you know, the parent as the student, which can cause a lot of issues and in doing that. Another common mistake is many students think that they don’t need to provide parental information and the Department of Ed Education has their rules of whether or not family information needs to be provided a mom or dad or just a dad, if the parents are divorced, and so forth. So, a lot of a lot of times, you know, you’re the FAFSA application would come in rejected or needs more clarification and doing that. So again, that’s where, you know, they need to contact the school to clear that all that information at another time. Another thing that they ask times is, you know, they, because they’re looking back two years, you know, families would say, Well, you know, why are you asked me two years ago, where right now, you know, I, especially with, you know, our pandemic, and so forth with COVID, that, you know, I, I don’t make that much money anymore, you know, I’ve lost my job, or I’ve gotten a divorce or someone passed away, or I’m retired now. And so those are not a done deal. Those are absolutely where a college professional can do a professional judgment call. And, you know, and revise and look at more current data. Because, again, as I mentioned, you know, the whole point of filling out the FAFSA is to verify information. So, they always look at a tax with for tax return, thinking that the income that was being reported is going to be the income while your student and son are coming to college. And when there isn’t that, that there’s a big discrepancy, we can make those changes. Again, another thing is that families think that they can file, you know, their application two or three days or a week or two weeks before school begins. And we will have that information all set. No, it takes time to look that information over, they need to file early to do that. So that we can give everything that it’s available to the student. And again, when they file very late, they can be missing out on that. We’ve had many students, especially at a community college, thinking that student loans are not a financial aid award. And absolutely, it is a financial aid award. Because, you know, if you typically go to a bank, how many banks are going to lend to a 17 18- or 19-year-old money? Okay, so this is where the FAFSA will determine the type of loan that the student qualify for. And again, it’s based on the family’s income, but they’re absolutely eligible for a loan, they don’t expect them to have a job prior to that before a loan is given. So, this is this is this is a great opportunity for students to use that, but they need to be absolutely sure that they know that they’re borrowing every year, it will increase. And you know, just as an FYI, you know, at any state operated campus, after four years, you know, the typical loan, if they borrow every year, they’re looking at about $28,000 in being in debt, you know, so they need to really look at their award letters, they need to make sure that what they’re borrowing that they’re able to repay that loan back. And of course, there will be information for the student to learn all about their loans in their repayments. So, a lot of those types of errors are at the beginning where our students think they’re independent, and they’re not independent, filing, you know, a couple of days before school begins knowing that they’re going to have information that doesn’t happen. There are students that are they know that they’re very needy. And they’ll sometimes I you know, have no other years, I’ve here as well, we’re very needy, I’m going to get full financial aid because we’re very needy. And I said, yes, you are very needy, but there is not enough aid out there. For institutions to give you enough aid to cover all your expenses, they’re limited, we’d love to do that. Okay, so they need to do and plan accordingly. And this is where this is where they need to look at colleges and their cost of look at their award notice, look at how much still needs to be fulfilled to take care of those costs. Look at everything they reapply for and those decisions that they’re trying to make, whether it’s going to be you know, whether or not they’re able to afford that institution.

Justin Alger 39:17
Wonderful. Thank you. Maybe Deb, you can start us off on this one. Can you tell me what role should financial aid play in a student’s decision to apply to a school versus another school?

39:28
That was probably being at the discretion of the family, you know, as they’re having a discussion as to what can they reasonably afford for their son or daughter. So, I think if a family is very needy, and they haven’t been able to put any money aside until they start the application process and the financial aid process, financial aid will indeed play a huge role in you know, in contributing to the decision for that student in year one and year two especially. So again, I think it does come down to, you know, the family’s income and ability to pay.

Justin Alger 40:06
Sue, I know you have some thoughts to share.

Deb Sutliff 40:08
Basically, you know, when you’re when a student is looking at colleges, the key is what do they want? What do they want to pursue? You know, and again, a lot of 18-year-old don’t know what they want to pursue. But if you have students who say, you know, I want to be a teacher, I want to be a doctor, I want to be an accountant. You know, and, you know, basically, we should tell students to apply to all the schools that you think you want to go to never leave anything out. But the student is saying that I just wanted to be a teacher, you could go to a school that has a teaching degree that they costs $50,000 a year, and you can go to a school that also has a teaching degree with a with a, you know, that has a good reputation that will cost $25,000 a year, you know, so you have to kind of weigh that and do that just not pick one, you got to get choices that are out there. And that’s what we tell with the FAFSA application, when they file the FAFSA, you can list as many colleges as you want on the forum. So, your information is set to all the schools. And that’s the whole reason why you file early so that those decisions can be made early the award packages can be made to be looked at. And this is where you know, the family can sit down with the student and make those important decisions.

Justin Alger 41:24
So as far as the application, financial aid shouldn’t necessarily impact the decision to apply to an institution versus another institution. But when you when it comes down to the decision making of which school to attend, then that’s when we’re really going to take a look at our finances, what school has, the fit as a good fit for us, or excuse me a good fit for the student. Depending on a variety of factors, including the major, the students should be looking at the financial aid after they’ve applied to the institution to make that decision?

Sue Tripp 42:02
And there are many schools that will send out a financial aid package even before they’re actually accepted. They will do that too to say, you know, if you plan on attending here, this is what we can offer to you. So sometimes that makes a decision of whether students plan on attending or not, and that there are certain schools that do that.

Justin Alger 42:19
And don’t let the sticker price or the posted price deter you from absolute lying for school. Right?

Deb Sutliff 42:26
Absolutely.

42:27
Entice them with a package. But state colleges and can’t do that, unfortunately. But we’re lower cost. Yeah.

Justin Alger 42:37
Well, I think that’s all the questions that I have for you. I just It really means a lot to me that that you have taken your time to come and be guest number five of our first six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast, I again want to wish you the only the best in your retirement. And thank you again so much for being on the show.

Grad Skool Already? - Andy Crawford

Justin Alger — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The guest of episode eleven is Mr. Andy Crawford, Acting Associate Director, Undergraduate & Graduate Admission Operations at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. In this episode we discuss graduate school preparation, choice, and finance! Our focus is on the Master of Business Administration degree, but the discussion is relevant to admission to a variety of graduate programs. Andy really enjoys the work he does helping students gain admission and graduate from the programs at Bentley! I mention in the episode that the idea of attending graduate school is aspirational for future college parents in that this episode assumes that students have made it through a traditional undergraduate program and have graduated! The points I want to make are twofold. One, I want to inspire you to not only believe your student can attend a traditional college if they want to but can also earn a master’s degree as well, it’s not out of the realm of possibility, I promise you. Second, I hope you see the good work that you’re doing to help your student now will be applicable in helping them navigate admission to graduate school as well. I hope you enjoy my interview with Andy!

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Podcast Trailer

Justin Alger — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:00:34 GMT

The Future College Parent Podcast is here to help #originalinfluencer parents’ guide their students to prepare, choose, and finance college!

College does not have to be a debt sentence - Denise Thomas

Justin Alger — Wed, 18 May 2022 14:00:52 GMT

I present to you the guest of episode eight, Ms. Denise Thomas, Chief Executive Officer and Debt Free College Coach of Get Ahead of the Class, where she “partners with parents to put their kids through college debt free.” Denise is a TEDx speaker, keynote speaker, author, podcaster, and has a mobile app! In this episode we discuss Denise’s five steps you can take right now to help your student not serve a college debt sentence. I hope you enjoy my interview with Denise!

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Denise’s Don’t waste the middle school years eBook: Download here!

Denise’s TEDx Talk: Costly Myths: Scholarships, True Cost of College, and Dream School

Denise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisethomasdebtfreecollege/

The Second Pedro - Pedro Sanchez

Justin Alger — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:18:55 GMT

The guest of episode seven features Mr. Pedro Sanchez, Director of Financial Aid at Wheeling University. Pedro is student and family focused, and to top it off he knows financial aid and leads the league in financial aid credentials. In this episode we discuss FAFSA completion, the Federal Student Loan Program and Professional judgements. I hope you enjoy my interview with Pedro!

The Next Great Step - Beth Hendler-Grunt

Justin Alger — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 01:22:44 GMT

The guest of episode twelve is Ms. Beth Hendler-Grunt, President of Next Great Step where her sole focus is to help college graduates land the job they deserve. In this episode we discuss the concepts she teaches in her upcoming (at the time of this recording) book, The Next Great Step. The parents’ guide to launching your new grad into a career. It’s so invigorating to see a caring professional tackle a problem that isn’t always completely addressed in our education systems, helping your student get a job after college. I mention in the episode that the idea of your student getting a job after college is very aspirational for future college parents, in that the episode assumes that students have made it through a traditional undergraduate program and have graduated! The points I want to make are twofold. One, I want to inspire you to not only believe your student can attend a traditional college if they want to but can become gainfully employed after receiving a degree. Second, I want you to see the type of work it will take in the future for your student to get the job they deserve and get a jump on it now. I hope you enjoy my interview with Beth!

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Beth’s Website: Next Great Step