Maybe Nursing is Not for You…

1 Jun

… but please, don’t be a nurse…

I have never been one to stomp on a student’s dream.  As an advisor my job is to support and encourage a student’s dreams and plans for achieving their goals.  However, it pains me to talk to students who swear that getting a nursing degree is their one and only career goal — and s/he continuously fails basic math AND swears that s/he can’t stand anatomy and physiology.

I believe all human beings are smart, capable, and have something positive to contribute to the world — no matter how big or small.  So if you know a fellow student (or perhaps this person is you…) who just hasn’t figured out what that special SOMETHING is yet, there is hope for you yet.  Please understand:

IT’S OK TO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!

I am 34 years of age and my vision of my “ideal career” shifts as I learn new things about myself.  The person I was at 20 is not the same person I am today (thank God!).  Allow yourself some wiggle room for discovery in your first semester or two of community college — whether you are a student who is fresh out of high school or 45+ years of age.  Take that course that interests you — just because it’s available.  Worst case scenario: even if you don’t like it, at least you’ll know early on rather than wasting time and money on a major that doesn’t suit you.  Best case scenario:  you love it and decide to switch your major to something that moves you!

So, if you are currently a nursing — or pre-nursing major — only because it’s the only health career you know of, please take a look at this site:

www.explorehealthcareers.org

This site offers a wealth of information on at least 100 different careers in the health field.  Once you find something that peaks your interest, make an appointment to talk with your advisor and your career counselor to discuss developing a career path that is unique to your interests.  Just don’t end up like this…

Tags: , ,

Summer School is a Waste of Time and Money

12 May

http://halonayblack.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/consumerconfidencesentiment.jpg?w=146&h=148

Registration.  I absolutely hate it.  If I could give away part of my job to somebody else, it would be mass registration days.  The days when hundreds of new students arrive on campus needing to enroll in a course, “fix” their financial aid, buy overpriced books ($165 for a basic math book is ridiculous #imjustsayin), etc.  Some of them bring their children, parents, baby carriages, and significant others with them to share in this important moment in their lives.  While I appreciate the sentiment, deep down I wish they’d all just stayed home as extra people only adds to the chaos.  Everyone asks the same questions — OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN.  Our office is generally business casual.  Today we traded in our cute heels for sneakers and flip flops so we can make our way through crowds of frustrated students who have been in one line at least two hours, only to be told to go to another line to wait for another 3 hours.  It’s not unusual to have a student or two in desperate need of some home training who cusses out the entire staff just because she’s tired of waiting so long (and it usually is the females — when did young women get so aggressive?).  At least this go-round, I was able to sneak away for 22 glorious minutes of peace during my lunch break.  The first 8 minutes were stolen by a woman who cornered me in the kitchen asking questions about her courses.  I obliged, knowing that she was just nervous about everything school related and just wanted to make sure she was doing the right thing.

All of which leads me to wonder why people enroll in summer school anyway.  Most of the students I saw today are first time college students who are all gung-ho about school and want to do it — all or nothing.  I explain to the student that summer school is only 6 weeks, as opposed to the normal 15 weeks.  There is no time or space for “course shopping” or getting used to the whole pace of college.  If a person has waited so long to finally “do school,” why not wait a few more weeks and start in the fall?  What is it about American culture that makes people think they are “behind schedule” and that they must make up for their lack of a degree by putting themselves through summer school hell?  I’ve taken a few summer courses myself thinking I was keeping myself “on schedule.”  To be honest, I don’t even remember those courses as I was barely keeping up.  I could maybe understand if a student is close to graduation and needed just a few more credits so they could finally “just be done with it” as folks often say.  But is it wise to allow new students who had never been to college before and mostly deficient in basic skills?  School should be enjoyed.  Exercising your brain cells should be fun.  It shouldn’t be plowed through like a chore.

Why Can’t Learning Look More Like This?

31 Mar

Yeah…  I love TED Talks.  If you ever need some inspiration for a new idea — or a new way of looking at an old idea, TED Talks is the place to go.  If I ever got invited to do a TED Talk, I’d just cry.  But back to the video…

Physics, art, theater, world cultures, psychology, technology, a little animal behavior research, and a lesson on teamwork thrown in for good measure.  FOLKS, THIS IS WHAT LEARNING SHOULD LOOK LIKE!

Are Community Colleges Preparing Students for Change?

23 Mar

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/change.jpg

Let’s be honest here.  There is no magic ticket to the perfect career anymore.  Students ask me all the time, “What kind of job can I get with this degree?”  That’s exactly the kind of outdated thinking we need to get our students out of.  Career services websites are riddled with those little charts giving a sample of careers that are matched to majors (I’m not against these charts, btw… They just need to be used correctly). The truth is, jobs change, industries change, and people have to change with them — if you want to be employable.

Think about how technology has changed the world of work.  The internet has allowed people to work from anywhere in the world.  New job titles are popping up all the time.  Ten years ago, most people didn’t know what a green job was.  Now everyone and their grandma is thinking of ways to go green.  Think about how social media has changed the way businesses market their products and all the new skills marketing experts had to learn to stay relevant.  How many jobs have you seen that have shown preference for people who speak a foreign language — and many of these are low-wage customer service positions?  Take a look at these articles and you’ll see for yourself that it is seems almost impossible to prepare for careers that don’t even exist yet.

10 Jobs That Didn’t Exist 10 Years Ago

Ten Majors That Didn’t Exist 10 Years Ago

So, I’m curious…  How do advisors and other community college professionals push their students to prepare for rapid change in the world of work?

If you like this post, please subscribe by email or subscribe through your favorite reader.

Bookmark and Share

 

What’s Good Advising Anyway?

26 Jan

http://www.abactoday.com/files/images/Advising%20Logo.gif

Why is it that my students don’t think I actually studied education?  They’re all shocked and surprised when I tell them that, yes, I actually have a master’s in education and took some doctoral level credits — also in education.  Is it because I’m too personable?  They take my attempts at harmless hallway chatter and questions about their family members as simple niceties.  As a demonstration of appreciation, they bring me lots of hugs and food when they have something they know I would like — and I will often do the same for them.  I consider this a big part of my job as an advisor.  My students trust me and my advice because we have a relationship.

Unfortunately, many of my students’ experience with the US education system has often been a hands-off relationship.  Over-crowded classrooms in-part have made it challenging for teachers to get to know their students.  To some advisors, and faculty who also advise students, the job of advising is simply to run down a list of classes, checking off what has been completed.  However good advising should inspire a student to actively participate in the creation of their own professional and personal lives.  And the only way to do that is to learn a little more about the student than just what major they chose.  So when students meet an advisor like me who gets on them for not doing their homework, or takes notice when I don’t see them in the hallways as I often did earlier in the semester, students are honestly shocked. After being shocked, they often come back to me and say, “Hey, Miss Halona, thank you!  You really made me rethink my decision to do XYZ…”   And after 8 to 10 hours of students constantly coming in and out of my office, just when I think I couldn’t crack one last smile without seeming fake, it’s those bright eyes and thank you’s that make me happy to be an advisor.

Low-Income Students and Career Choice

12 Jul

http://galadarling.com/images/08-01/buscemi.jpg

What do you mean selling ice cream is not a career???

Like many kids, I loved the ice cream man. In fact, I loved him so much, I wanted his job! As a Brownie (younger version of Girl Scouts) in elementary school, I remember one of the activities we did was draw a picture of ourselves in our ideal career. The group of mostly white middle class girls drew themselves as teachers, doctors, a chef, a scientist… The mothers beamed with pride as their daughters talked about their future plans.  I drew a picture of myself handing out ice cream from a little white truck to all the kids in my neighborhood. My mom was highly embarrassed — how did I know? Because she told me so on the way home. All the other girls showed so much ambition. And the lone black girl wanted to dole out ice cream from a truck for a living…

Looking back on the experience, I don’t think I really had any idea what it meant to choose a career. I think children base their earliest career choices on what they see around them. If you have parents who are well educated and know how to maneuver their way to the profession of their choice, somehow you pick up tips on how to do that as you grow up. If you come from a working class family, like me, the process of becoming upwardly mobile is a bit more difficult to figure out.

Exposure to Other Options

In my new position as an Advisor at Prince George’s Community College (PGCC), I recently met a 17-year old mother who said she was coming to college to learn medical billing and coding. I immediately perked up and asked why she chose that career. She said they make decent money and she won’t have to stay in school so long. I gave her a polite smile, but inside I was burning up. Was that her only criteria for choosing a career? So many people from disadvantaged backgrounds make their career choices based on the money they think is sufficient for survival and the least amount of time needed to be in school. I understood the urgency of her situation — she was a young mother who needed to make money as soon as possible. However, in the short time I was with her (I am not her assigned advisor…) what was the best advice I could give her to get her thinking of the possibility of life beyond just securing an entry level job? There are lots of career possibilities in healthcare administration, however you need more than just a certificate to do the work.  What I thought this young woman could use was an opportunity to be exposed to other options.

At PGCC, there seems to be a huge push to get students to choose a major in their first semester — and I can appreciate the reason why. Students who do not have the proper guidance can wind up taking a slew of courses that never really lead to an actual degree. Pushing students to choose a major early gives them a planned course list that they can follow during the time they are enrolled in the school. It doesn’t mean they are not allowed to change majors — it just gives them a plan early on. However, the whole idea of picking a major assumes the student is coming to college with an ideal career in mind. It assumes that they come from high schools that had a fully resourced career planning office or even participated in overpriced career focused summer camps. The truth is, many of my students don’t know much about careers beyond what they saw in their immediate environment. So how do I properly advise my 17-year old mother/student?

  1. Don’t belittle student career choices. How do I know that the student’s mom did not feed her family and pay the gas bill with a career in medical billing and coding? I have seen advisors and counselors outwardly laugh when they hear their students talk about their hopes and dreams. They perceive the student to have low expectations, and never really offer any advice to get them thinking about other possibilities. Belittling a student’s thoughts and dreams only makes them not trust you; you can’t properly advise a person if they only see you when the meeting is mandated. Instead of belittling choices, let them know that that is a great place to start. Perhaps medical coding and billing can be a great job while going to college. But what other courses can she take that lead to other positions in medical administration and offer greater professional mobility (and yes, bigger paychecks and benefits…)?
  2. Ask about their feelings towards work and career choices. I went to a careers conference earlier this year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center on Education and Work. It is a conference aimed at career counseling professionals who work mostly in universities, however there was some representation of community colleges and community based organizations. I enjoyed the conference (and do recommend it…) however I was a little annoyed with the fascination with aptitude and personality tests. I have nothing against these as tools for choosing a career, I just think it doesn’t make sense to start off an advising relationship with them. Does the student come from a household where both parents are working? Some of my students come from families of multiple generations of dependence on public assistance. How does that affect a student’s career choice? Many students are already fearful of tests and may be feeling like their intelligence is being questioned — particularly after being placed in developmental reading, writing, and math courses.

Do you advise college students who come from families with low-income?  Do you feel like advising these students is different from advising other groups?  Tell me about it!

Tags: , ,

Twitter for Adult Educators (Don’t be afraid…)

4 Jul

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/clip_image002_0023.jpg

***Note: This post is about finding Twitter conversations relevant to adult education by using hashtags.  If you are new to Twitter, you may want to view this Slideshare presentation on Twitter for Educators by Samantha Morra.

It seems that Twitter seems to be a bit scary for some of the adult educators that I meet — and I cannot understand why.  Some say they don’t see the value in it.  Others say that they don’t know what to talk about.  Still others say they just don’t get the whole social media “thing”.  What makes Twitter valuable for me is access to conversations on topics that I want to know more about.  Think of it as the daily gossip column on your topic of interest.

I know there is a lot of other “stuff” going on in Twitter.  One way to filter out the conversations you don’t want to “hear” is to use hashtags.  Hashtags are keywords — metadata for my web 2.0 geeks — that people put into their tweets to alert others of what they are talking about.  Those hashtags then become searchable by anyone on the internet who wants to find others who are talking about the same topic.

Hashtags are noted by the pound sign and your keyword (NO SPACES!).  For example, one of my interests is vegetarian cooking.  I found a website that I used for recipes for a July 4th cookout that I wanted to share with other Twitter users.

FirstTeacher 7:23pm via HootSuite

#Summer #BBQ recipes for the #vegetarian http://ht.ly/26UWK #vegan

Notice the 4 hashtags I used:  #summer, #BBQ, #vegetarian, and #vegan.  How did I know what hashtags to use?  I did a hashtag search in Twitter’s search function to find the terms that come up the most.

Here are a few hashtags related to adult education that I find most useful.

#adulted

  • This hashtag is for any and everyone interested in adult basic education, GED, and a little bit of ESL.

#BlackEd

  • Every Thursday evening at 9pm EST there is a Twitter conversation surrounding issues concerning black students in education.  I will admit that much of the conversation focuses on the K-12 experience, however that doesn’t mean adult educators couldn’t find anything useful in the conversation.  Every week there is a different topic.  A few weeks ago, the topic was black girls’ experiences in school.  It made me reflect on the black women I teach and what may have led them to drop out of high school.  I HIGHLY recommend you look up twitter user @ileducprof — aka Dr. Winters, one of the stars of this ongoing conversation.  She is a professor who researches the sociological aspects of education.

#wkdev

  • This hashtag is short for workforce development.  This is sure to be useful for those of you doing combined GED/ESL and job training programs, career pathways, community based job training, etc.

#comm_college

#edtech

  • Adult education is in desperate need of more teachers who know how to use educational technology for the benefit of their own professional development and that of their students’ learning.  Again, this conversation is filled with mostly K-12 folks, but we can learn from others.

#highered

  • I have seen some good posts pertaining to nontraditional students in the higher education environment.  It is also a good hashtag for those seeking information on how higher education continues to change (while others argue that higher education hasn’t changed a bit in years…).  In any case, I find it a valuable hashtag to add to my list.

#esl, #efl, #tesol, #tesl

  • These hashtags are for those specifically concerned with teaching English.  Lots of people in this conversation specifically work with adult learners in community colleges, community based organizations, etc.

It’s great to use these hashtags to search for others who are having conversations on the things that matter to you.  However, in order to get the full benefit of Twitter and hashtags, you must PARTICIPATE in the conversations.  Share articles that were interesting to you, then tell us why you thought they were interesting.  If you keep a blog, announce new posts with relevant hashtags.  Ask other Twitter users you find intriguing a question about the work they do — I promise, most will be happy to talk with you online.

Are there other hashtags that you have found to be particularly useful?  Please share!

Tags: , , , , ,

The Power of the Collective

28 Jun

http://aminahhanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/BWBLogo.jpg2_.jpg

On June 19th I attended Blogging While Brown, a conference bringing together bloggers of color.  The conference highlight for me was Gina McCauley’s presentation as part of a panel called, “The Future of Blogging.”  Gina is the founder of Blogging While Brown and blogs at What About Our Daughters.  In short, Gina showed us through a YouTube clip how white Republicans utilize bloggers as a way to sway public opinion.  And it’s not only public opinion, but money and votes.  It demonstrated how blogging can be used to create social capital.  Gina then turned to the sea of brown bloggers in the room.  We represented a wealth of knowledge from every subject imaginable — natural hair, business ownership, STEM, money management, even politics.  But what were we doing COLLECTIVELY to create monetary and social capital?  The room fell quiet.

So Gina hit us over the head with why Blogging While Brown is necessary.  It is not about brown folks getting together once a year for a party.  It’s about making connections that can possibly change the course of the world’s history.  So Gina, I heard you girl!  I am toiling away on blog post ideas, thinking about how my blog will not just benefit me, but others too.  I look forward to Blogging While Brown 2011 in Los Angeles.

Tags: ,

More Than Just Spanish

23 Jun

http://rlisu.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/immigration.jpg?w=508&h=285

My experience working with African women as a Peace Corps Volunteer and development consultant has made me sensitive to the needs of the immigrant women I have had the pleasure of serving over the last few years.  I especially feel a strong connection to African women — for obvious reasons.  The challenge of working as an educator in community based organizations is that you are often asked to provide services or referrals to services that have nothing to do with education.  Whether or not they persist in your class will often depend on whether or not they get access to those other services.  Some of these services can include healthcare, affordable housing, domestic violence services, and general access to public benefits.  Requests for such services are not unique to immigrant women; however one’s immigration status can make access to services much more difficult.  I continue to struggle with finding appropriate resources for the African women I work with.

I have been married to an African man for the last 8 years and during that time, I have seen many of his African friends — mostly male — come to our home asking for assistance with getting acclimated to the US.  The men are usually at least 25 years of age and single.  What is interesting to watch is the use of African male social networks that assisted my husband and many of his friends to find employment, enroll in English classes, find a cheap room for rent, and many other resources.  Oftentimes, they did not know each other before their arrival in the States.  I have seen young men walk up to my husband and other African men on the street asking for help.  They exchange niceties, phone numbers, email addresses and within a matter of 2 to 3 weeks he has secured what he needs to clothe, house, and feed himself until a better opportunity comes along.  I have not seen that level of networking work for African women.

Many of the African women I have met in my community work and even in formal schooling environments are timid and clearly dependent on a male figure to schedule their time.  One woman from Senegal who had been in DC for at least 10 years had never used the metro system before.  She used the local bus on occasion but was afraid to go beyond the one bus line that took her from her apartment to the grocery store about 10 minutes away.  Oftentimes she would miss out on job interviews and doctor appointments because her husband or brother were not available to drive her.  This woman’s story is unusual.

A Ghanaian woman I met who was undocumented for the last 5 years had absolutely no idea how to become documented — even though she watched her husband go through the same process during the time she had been in the US.  I suspect he didn’t want to assist her in getting her papers because it may give her too much freedom.  What is worse, she was concerned about the fact that her belly was quickly growing and her menstrual cycles were getting heavier and heavier to the point of chronic fatigue.  She feared she had fibroids, however she is not eligible for any real medical care that will afford her the minimum of a diagnosis.

So where do these women go for help?  There is a serious lack of resources for African immigrants even though they are the fastest growing immigrant group in the DC area.  DC, Maryland, and Minnesota have the highest concentration of African immigrants in the US.  Furthermore, about 1/4 of immigrants in Prince George’s County, MD (a close suburb of DC) come from African countries.

I am sure that the challenges facing the women I talk about in this post are not exclusive to African women.  There is such a variety of immigrants from all over the world living in the nation’s capital and I cannot understand for the life of me why the DC area chooses to focus most of its energy on serving Spanish speakers.  I am not arguing for taking away any of the resources being used to serve them, I am just asking for some diversification.  DC has a significantly large number of Ethiopians, yet there seem to be only 2 organizations that reach out to that community in any way — and one of those organizations is in Northern Virginia…

So I am curious how educators and service providers around the country are learning to serve “minority immigrant” populations?  What have you found to be helpful?

Tags: , ,

The Courage to Start Again

17 Jun
beginningsNEW.jpg new beginnings image peacebabyrox
Sometimes you get to a point in life where you just can’t take it any more…  And I know I have surpassed that point.  I have had a very unhappy career and home life for a while now and it was time to make a change because — let’s face it — I’m not getting any younger.  The stress of trying to make it all work was taking a toll on my health.  Last summer I had fibroid removal surgery.  A year later I am being told they are slowly growing back.  After all that pain and healing time, I can’t fathom scheduling a second surgery in the next few years.  My weight is out of control and my blood pressure is steadily increasing.  I was so busy with grad school, and an unfulfilling job, and fighting at  home that I was not unable to find the energy to cook much of anything anymore.  People said I was crazy to take on a part-time teaching job last semester in the midst of everything else that needed to get done, however it was the only thing I had to look forward to all week.  Something had to change.
So I quit my day job and took a temporary position as a Retention Advisor in the TRIO Program at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, MD.  It’s temporary through the end of August pending a federal grant.  So I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that it will work out as being employed in a community college has been a big dream of mine for a few years now.  If it does not, I will be teaching and seeking adult ed consulting work come September.  The day job I had was completely sucking the life out of my love for working with adult students — mainly because I did not get to do it as much as I thought I would when I took the position.  So at some point, you’ve got to raise the proverbial white flag and scream, “MERCY!!!”
However, letting go of the job was not enough.  I have been married for 8 years — perhaps about 4 years too long.  So my husband and I made a mutual decision to separate.  Is reconciliation possible?  At this moment — not a snowball’s chance in hell.
So now I’ve got a temp job, I’m living alone for the first time in 8 years, and I need to move to a new apartment in October.  A couple of close friends have asked me about dating again.  I don’t even know how to do that…  It’s much too soon.  I hate not knowing what my income is going to look like so that I could get an idea of what kind of rent I will be able to afford.  But I guess this all part of learning how to let go and let God (as my brother-in-law hinted I have a hard time doing…).  What I do know is that I enjoy going to the gym 3 nights a week.  Getting to bed by 10pm so I can be fresh in the morning is such a luxury.  Choosing not to go to summer school so I could have time to focus on ME and ONLY ME for a change was probably the best decision I ever made.  I can’t wait until my students come back from summer vacation. And I have been craving my red lentil and sweet potato soup.  The summer is turning out much better than I thought it would!

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.