A new MBA student came to me with a problem. He needed to pay his tuition in two days;  he had the money, he just didn’t have access to it. The problem was that his money was in a bank in his home country from which he could withdraw only $1,000 a day— he owed $4000. If he took four days to get his money, his class schedule would be cancelled and he would be past the deadline to add the classes back again.

I asked the student if he had gone to the source of information– the Bursar’s Office where all fees are paid or the Registrar’s Office to discuss keeping his classes in the system. He hadn’t been to either office. I told him that whenever you need information or need a decision made, go to the source and/or the decider and no one else. Then and only then will you know what’s best to do.

Several days later, he came by my office with a smile on his face. He had taken my advice and gone to the Bursar’s Office first. He found out that he qualified for a $2,700 scholarship just for foreign students that could be applied to his fees immediately. Along with what he’d already withdrawn from his bank—he now had enough to pay his fees. He kept his classes and had a little extra money as well.

One of the cardinal rules in college, and in life, is go to the source for information and to go to the decider when a decision needs to be made. There is no substitute for information and authority, that’s good advice for students and everyone else.

 I just finished reading and reviewing a great book – The Prize: Who’s In Charge Of America’s Schools? by Dale Russakoff. It’s the story of how a $200 million dollar gift to the Newark New Jersey public school system was and is being mismanaged and wasted by Mark Zuckerberg, Governor Chris Christie and  Corey Booker who is the former mayor of Newark. This cautionary tale is a must read for any one who works in education or has children in a public school system. Let me know what you think about the book and the review.

The students in my Public Finance class asked me if they could have a 3 x 5 post card of notes for their first exam. I asked them if they really thought the cards would help them on the exam. They were all convinced that they would so I said yes, on one condition—after the test, they had to tell me how they created their note cards and how they used them.

After the test, they told me exactly what I expected. They tried to write as small as  possible to get the maximum amount of information on the cards. So I asked them if the card was big enough for everything they wanted to write. The answer was a resounding no. So I asked my students how they decided  what went on the cards and what didn’t. They read, reread and studied each piece of information to decide how it fit with all they needed to know for the exam. If they felt they really needed that bit of information on the card, they distilled it to its essence so they could fit it on that tiny card.

I asked if they did the card only once. They said “Oh no!  We had to do  the cards over several times to get them exactly right.”  Then I asked how much they used the cards in the test. At this point, the students began to see what I wanted them to understand. They said they didn’t use the  cards very much because they already knew what was on them. So I said, “In other words, you had to understand and learn what was going to be on the test in order to create the card.  That’s when the learning was really happening. Doing the card is just one way to learn what you needed to know.”

My students were surprised, they didn’t realize that their 3 x 5 “secret weapon,” what they thought  would give them that extra ability to do well on the test was really a great way of learning what they needed to know. I encouraged them to use this approach in any class even if they couldn’t bring the cards into the test. The cards make excellent study notes to use before tests and  are an example of how to study hard and smart for success in college.

Granville Sawyer on The Maggie Linton Show today! http://ow.ly/RadOI

I recently did a review of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In my review I discussed how important Coates parents were in helping him survive and thrive beyond his West Baltimore neighborhood – something he thought no one, including him, would do. What Coates did not realize that he had been born with the key element necessary to help him move beyond West Baltimore—parents who loved him and were willing and able to help him succeed.

Like Coates, we all begin life completely dependent on our caregivers. Typically our parents but they can be grandparents, aunts, uncles, even older siblings; They are our first role models – the people we learn from often by example more than explanation—and those lessons shape who we become. When I realized this I said to my wife that being a parent is, in some ways, frightening to me. When she asked why, I said,

“Because the kids don’t miss anything. They listen to what you say and watch what you do even when you don’t know they’re doing it. Then, one day, they say something or do something to let you know how much you’ve influenced them.”

My wife’s give me some excellent advice, “Be the person you want your children to be all the time.” Like most things worth doing, this is excellent advice is more easily said than done but still excellent advice.

Being the person you want your children to be is especially important for today’s youth. We are fed a steady diet by the media of the ills of black families but the media doesn’t give nearly enough credit to the black families like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ who are guiding and inspiring their children to achieve and succeed the way Coates did.

They exist, they are legion. As a university professor at an historically black university, I know this, I see these success stories every semester. They are first generation college students whose families and friends have sacrificed and invested in them because they love them. They don’t want anything from these precious children—just for them to be successful. They inspire me to mentor and assist these students whenever they need it. I know the students are standing on the strong shoulders of so many people who love them and are willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to help them. Because of that, I do everything I can to support the students, and the parents, in their determination to succeed.