Tag Archives: Higher Education

Dr. Granville M. Sawyer, Jr. Appears on The Thornton Business Hour Wednesday, January 20, 11:00 AM, WOL 1450 AM

Book Review, Coaching, Events, First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Media Appearances, Mentoring Students, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

Pat Thornton
I’ll be the guest of Pat Thornton, on her radio show, The Thornton Business Hour on WOL 1450 AM tomorrow January 20th at 11:00. You can also listen to the live stream at  http://woldcnews.newsone.com/ if you are outside of the listening area.

Pat and I will be talking about how to earn a college degree in less time with less stress for less money.  If you would like to leave a comment or a question that you would like for me to answer during the show please do so in the comments section below and tag it #ThorntonBusinessHour.

African America Part II: Changing Demographics

Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,
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By Fonna Seldu on Flikr

In African America: What The Media Won’t Tell You, I wrote about growth in the African American population from “The Untold Story”  – a Nielsen Corporation report.  There are other important facts about us in this report I want to share with you.  First, African Americans are, on average, younger than the non-hispanic white population – 31.4 years for African Americans versus 39 years for non-hispanic whites in America.  This means that advertisers have a longer period to build brand loyalty with African Americans and that we should  be careful about what companies we have long term relations with.  Our dollars will be even more important to them in the future so we should spend them carefully.

This will be even more important in the future because Blacks in America are going to college in greater numbers than Whites in America –  70.9% of black high school graduates versus 67.3% for non-hispanic whites.  This means we will consume longer with more money to spend because we are better educated.  The impact of more Blacks going to college is also reflected in the increased African American presence in the STEM disciplines. In 2011,  6% of STEM professionals were Black up from only 2% in 1970.

Finally, Blacks in America are not just focused on making and spending more money.  As our incomes rise at faster rates than non-hispanic whites, so does money allocated for the future in categories such as insurance policies, pensions and retirement savings.  This is important because too much black wealth has been in real estate instead of financial assets.  That’s why the real estate bubble that started the recession we’re recovering from now greatly reduced Black wealth in America.

This is just some of the information that shows  African Americans will continue to play a more important economic and demographic role in American than what is shown in the media.   Let me know what you think about this data.  Next time I’ll share more information with you about how diverse the black population in America is.  We’re not just one group of people.

A Review of ‘Where Everybody Looks Like Me’

Book Review, First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, Non-traditional Students, Success In College, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

bookreviewimage
I just published a review of “Where Everybody Looks Like Me”  By Ron Stodghill on Afro.com.  You can read it at:

http://www.afro.com/where-everybody-looks-like-me-and-the-challenges-facing-hbcus/

Let me know what you think.

African America: What The Media Don’t Tell You

Higher Education, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,

John BullockI recently read a report done by the Neilsen Corporation on African American consumers in America which they titled “The Untold Story”.  There is so much important information in this report that I am going to do a series of four posts on it.  This post is an overview of the report and includes some very interesting statistics.

First of all, our numbers in America are increasing.  From 2000 to 2014 the African American population in American grew 35% faster than the overall population of the country and more than twice as fast as the white population in America.  You need look no further to better understand  the anger and fear some white people are feeling as shown in the news media on a regular basis. By 2060, Nielsen estimates that the Black population in America will be 74.5 million comprising 17.9% of the total U.S. population.

We are also becoming more educated.  The percentage of Black high school graduates enrolled in college was 70.9% exceeding that of both Whites and Hispanics.  Also, the high school graduation rate rose to over 70% outpacing all other groups in America.

We are also making and spending more money.  The percentage of black households making over $200,000 a year increased by 138% and African American income growth rates outpaced that of non-Hispanic Whites at every annual household income level above $60,000.  The result is that African American consumers spend 1 trillion 100 billion dollars annually!

This is not the picture of African America you will see in the media but it is the truth – it is who we really are in America today.  I’ll share more information with you in the next post.  In the meantime, let me know what you think about these surprising facts.  I’d like to hear from you.

In addition to the blog posts, I am going to begin podcasting my content in an effort to share information with more people.  If you are interested in subscribing, please let me know in your comments about this post below.

How Good Is That High School Diploma?

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,
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Copyright State Farm

I’ve been reading with some concern about accountability for k-12 education going back to the individual states as a result of No Child Left Behind being discontinued.  This will make national evaluations of high school students’ abilities harder.  Every high school graduate should have some idea of how he/she compares with graduates from other high schools across the nation because the market for jobs is national and becoming more international every day.  Allowing states to be individually responsible for assessing what their students know and can do will make this more difficult.  An article from the New York Times shows why this is so important.

How can we ensure that all students get the quality public school education they deserve?  Let me know what you think.

Is That Ivy League Education Really Worth It?

First Generation College Students, Higher Education, Mentoring Students, Success In College, The Costs and Benefits of Higher Education, Uncategorized, , , , ,

Take a look at this article.  It has some eye opening numbers in it concerning earnings ten years after graduating from some of the most expensive colleges and universities in the nation.

GradeUP Challenge #25: College Success is a Team Effort

College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge, Mentoring Students, Success In College, , , ,
Teamwork © by Kim S on Flickr
Teamwork © by Kim S on Flickr

Well, here we are at the end of the semester and the last week of the GradeUP! Challenge. I going to use this post to talk about building your Success Team. All of the information I shared with you throughout the Challenge was geared to help you learn to create and effectively use your College Success Team because no successful person gets through college, or life, on their own. You need a team to support you as well as strategies to manage your team effectively. Let’s look at who’s on your team:

  • Your teachers
  • Your advisors
  • School administration like the registrar, departments heads, financial aid, or anyone who can help you with important decisions
  • Your peers
  • People who support you outside of the academic setting (your family and other stakeholders).

While all of these people can help you, you are the coach, the one calling the plays. It is up to you to use the members of your team effectively for success in college. Even though it takes a team to help you, ultimately YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU.

Below I’ve grouped the GradeUP! Challenges posted over the last 12 weeks based on how they help you make the most of your Success Team. Refer back to the Challenges to see how you can apply the tactics I shared with you throughout the semester to make strategic decisions that will involve your success team and direct them on how they can support you throughout your college career.

GradeUP! Challenge #24: When You Study – the How is More Important Than the What

College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge, Mentoring Students, Success In College, , , , , ,

examsIn Challenge #23 I talked about the importance of diet, rest and exercise in preparing for your final exams. In this post – we get down to work. The first thing you should know is that how you study is more important than what you study. You know what was covered in your classes and what you need to know for your finals – at least you should if you’ve been taking the GradeUP! Challenge this semester! Now you’ve got a semester of material to study and the challenge is knowing how to study all it all to be ready for your tests. Here’s how you do this successfully:

  • Give yourself enough time to study. I put this first because many students are doing more than just going to school – you may be working one or more jobs and taking a full load this semester. You have to carve out more time at the end of the semester to study for your tests and this means making some tough decisions about how to balance work, school and your personal life. Put school first at this critical time in the semester, you can rebalance your schedule when finals are over.
  • Organize, organize, organize – spend time pulling together everything you need to study and organizing it so you’ve got what you need when the time comes. Two o’clock in the morning is not the time to find out you don’t have what you need to study for a test the next day.
  • Start out studying for understanding – not memory. Read and study to thoroughly understand what you’re responsible for. It’s much easier to remember material and concepts you really understand instead of unrelated facts, figures and formulas. The concepts you understand are the ones that stick with you after class is over. When you leave college and seek employment based on what you learned in college, this is what you’ll have to show for the time, effort and money spent in class this semester.
  • Use the study tips in GradeUP! Challenges #5, #6, #7 , #8 and #15 to make your study time count so, when you see test questions and problems based on what you studied, you’ll be able to recognize them and come up with the right answers.

All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week-by-Week page.

Be sure to take advantage of the free eBook giveaway of College in Four Years through Friday, April 24. You’ll find details on the eBook Giveaway here.