Say Brother; An Educational Workshop

Good evening and welcome to say brother. My name is Beth dear and I'm your host for this evening. Tonight we have planned a show that we hope you will find especially informative. Our program is called an educational workshop because we've asked four members of Boston's college community to come and share with us some of the facts and realities about their school's programs. Our guests were selected because of their knowledge of Boston's educational scene in general as well as the fact that there are schools border and offer programs of interest to the third world community. So keep pen and paper handy if you are thinking about continuing your education or know someone who is without further ado. Let me introduce my first two guests. First I'd like to introduce Mr. James Patterson. James is the executive director of the mass PRI engineering program for minority students at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Welcome Jayne agreed. James has been with mass prep for six months.

Before that he was the coordinator of the minority program at the University of Michigan where he was also pursuing his doctoral studies in Mark correct in educational administration. I also have Barry Richard Sid Barry Richard sin has been the director of admissions for Roxbury Community College since the spring of 1978. Barry is the new chair person for the Human Rights Committee of the Executive Committee of the New England Association of College admissions counselors. She holds a master's in education from Harvard University say brother welcomes you Betty. Good evening. First of all I'd like to address my questions to James I have a great deal of curiosity about mass Pip and what it means in terms of directing more minority students into technical areas. James how does mass Pip work. What what does that program consist of. Almost but basically

it is a program destroying tew. Increase the number of blacks Hispanics and Native Americans and other minorities in the area of engineering and primarily engineering is a component of the technological field of technological areas and the primary concern with working in the public school systems with seventh and eighth grade students motivating them about the careers that exist in engineering providing them with role models and doing a number of activities with young students amass Pip is primarily concerned with seventh and eighth grades. How is math Pipp affiliated with Wentworth Institute. Mast Cup is affiliated before what institute in the advisory capacity Institute along with all the other schools of engineering north east and University of Massachusetts am her toughs Boston University and MIT schools of engineering. All but dissipate and then by a jury

council that kind of provides some direction in the kinds of activities that are developed for mass power. Has the level of enthusiasm in terms of the students that are participating high. Yes the level through the ASM among the students in Boston is very very high and matter of fact we just had a parent student seminar. I recently held it in this time which we had about 200 and some students and parents show up on a Saturday. In addition to having role models in the area of engineering science and technology on here and to talk to young men and women and their parents about the whole area of engineering science and technology and the payoff Orden What are some of differences. James are you an engineer yourself. I am an education administrator you are right. How do you had mentioned to me earlier that engineers are now

beginning to take a team approach to introducing engineering to students both through mass as well as through Wentworth Institute and other engineering schools and in the academic community. What is this team approach. OK the team approach is that. Industries must indicate too that there are a lot of the industries here in Massachusetts that are involved all the technical kinds industries and they have the primary concern because they are concerned about increasing the number of nice to be able to become in managerial positions. So they are the ones who starting the impetus for this program and trying to work in the public school system in conjunction with engineering colleges in conjunction with parents and the community to try to enlighten students about the kind of opportunity exist in the necessity of why are they taking the algebra 1 in science right now and it will pay off in the long run.

I was just going to ask you I'm one of those people that trembles that I have some addition or some math bad. Many. Minority students have difficulty with man and and reading skills. But in terms of introducing young people to such heavy subjects as trigonometry and calculus how has that how have they responded to their kids. Let me say young people young people in the seventh grade are very motivated towards a hands on type of activities developmental kinds of activity that they can actually participate. The concept of having a contest building a bridge out of toothpicks is really a civil engineering project. Civil engineering process and concept and you can teach them that in directly as they build upon the kinds of bridge or having them. So it's almost not natural right that showing them the relationship too important is

having a role model there. A civil engineer right there working with them that they can see of their likeness or having a minority airline pilot come in and assist in the presentation of making a paper airplane contest and showing the kinds of relationships that exist between what they are studying now and what the engineer or the airline pilot is using. Tell me at Wentworth Institute as students come out of high school. Moving beyond the massed pair program alone just to a normal high school student applying to a technological school for study what kinds of courses could they expect say the school like Wentworth Institute. Ok this kind of course is the same kind of course they can expect almost anywhere the same kind of course that inspect at the Franklin Institute or at some of the engineering colleges such as MIT ne in Boston U.

That student will encounter pre-calculus they will count mathematics to encounter science and communication. So it's very important that that student gets a solid foundation in algebra during the amici calculus all at the high school level high school so that by the time they enter into these institutions of higher learning they will have had the adequate exposure in preparation to deal with some the kinds of courses that they will have to Upon entering where he thought northeasterly MIT does Wentworth Institute offer of financial assistance and students who have that need. Yes they as well as the other institutions offer financial assistance to all students to use the basic. I think educational opportunity grant program. Excuse me. And then there's a lot of state scholarship programs and then there's the national direct student loan program from students who know who needs financial assistance. The federal basic educational opportunity grant program is a

program that the federal government is providing to students and they can get applications from their guidance counselors in high schools about that. But then also for those interested in nearing there's a program set up directly for engineering students and that's called a national fund for minority engineering students and those students will apply to four year institutions of higher learning that are happening programs can apply for the National Front for the engineering students by contacting the admissions office at individual schools of engineering that they're interested in. Thank you. Moving on to Betty. I'd like to just again say thank you for being with us today Betty and Betty is once again the director of admissions at Roxbury Community College. What are the advantages of attending a community college. Well the first advantage the obvious advantage would be. Number one we have open admissions which means that any student who is a high school graduate

or any student who holds a GED certificate would be eligible for admissions automatically. That means they were able to pick up a lot of students regardless of what courses they may or may not have taken in their high school program. Regardless of what program they wish to come into in the college and regardless of the level of academic preparation and how good or how weak their grades were we are able to pick up that student automatically an admit them. A second advantage would be the low cost of attending a community college because we are subsidized by the state. The cost to the student is the lowest tuition that they would be able to find in Massachusetts. It was actually Navy college tuition lower in fact than a state sponsored four year university like UMass are two wishing would be slightly lower. UMass is also state sponsored as we are. So the cost the actual cost of the education would be much higher but the state is underwriting it so what

it costs to the student would be the lowest available in the state. Well speaking of costs as it deals with Roxbury Community College is there a need for scholarships and financial aid. Yes because so many of our students come from low income families. We find that we have about 90 92 percent of the students in our college receiving partial or total financial aid today. What are some of the courses that Roxbury Community College specializes in. Well we have about four kinds of programs. We have career programs for students who are interested in learning something that they could use to help prepare for or improve on job skills so that they would increase their employee ability right away. And we also have transfer programs for students who are aiming not at Simmy technical career but our business career but who are planning to go on to professional careers. Those students will need at least a bachelor's degree so we offer a full range of transfer programs to

give them the first two years of their b a program with the community college and then they will transfer onto a four year institution it's a two plus two concept to Weir's with us. And two years in a four year college and they will earn a B.A. in four years and students are planning to go into professional careers need our transfer programs outran a third kind of program we offer would be continuing education programs courses. Some of them career some academics some just general interest for people who don't really want to be in a degree program who just wish to take courses primarily in the evening. And then we finally have the fourth kind of thing we offer would be GED programs a full range of courses for people who would need. Some structured support and instruction in learning the material needed to pass the GED the high school equivalency May I ask you a question. Yes you are an admissions counselor in fact director of admissions. It is as far as the GED is concerned that is a high school

equivalency diploma and read correct. Is that given the same amount of weight in terms of how it's received at admissions departments at any. You know if we were talking about a school that has competitive admissions where they will look at your applications compare each student with other applicants for that semester and decides to accept some and reject others. Then it would carry less weight to be very honest but in a school where we have open admissions Fortunately we are able to admit a student with a GED on the same par with a student who is a high school graduate. OK so GED easing open admissions programs would have easier access if you were in a GED program. Most students. I have to take some sort of qualifying exam to go to college. The scholastic achievement exam right. Would a D student take the saying if they were applying to a

competitive college that does not have open admissions they would but because we have open admissions the certificate itself is sufficient. A student who is a high school graduate will still have to take S.A.T. as if they were applying to most of the four year colleges and in any of the competitive schools but with our admissions being open they are not required to take a Sadie's. No testing required for admission. So in fact Roxbury Community College might be an excellent opportunity for someone who is not graduating at the very top of their class but in fact what does want to continue their education they can move on from there into a professional career if they wish or they can stay within a two year program. Yes we associate's degree Betty. That's correct. We offer the associate degree either associate in science or associate in arts degree as well as a number of one year certificate programs out mention those later. But it's an excellent opportunity for the student at the top of his or her class

also. We want students to be aware that there is a college in Massachusetts that is primarily Third World people. So if they're interested in that aspect they can find that right here in the state. We want people to be aware that we are because of the low cost and the high quality of the educational programs offered still a very good option students who want to save some money can attend college and commute from home for their first two years and still transfer on and graduate from whatever four year college they wish. But getting back to that student who may not be at the top of their class and who may not at this point be admissable to the four year college of their choice if that student graduates from any of the transfer programs at Roxbury Community College they would then be admissable in any four year college and as an example Ireland is yes. And there is a legal agreement that the drawn up by the state legislature the Commonwealth Commonwealth transfer compact that guarantees our graduates from any transfer programme admission to any four year college in the state

system. So it's a stepping stone to a mutual agreement between the other you know. That's right. Also we can take people who are don't have the kind of high school preparation they need for specific programs and who would not be admissable say at Wentworth or northeastern or UMass. And that same student can get into that school a year or two later by taking those prep courses with us. Well we have about two minutes left and I'd like to ask you in this section of the show and we'll be having you both back on. Towards the end of the show. But I do want to ask you a question what our two year careers. Everyone seems to know that teaches it takes four years doctors it takes forever. What what can you do with two years of school. Well we have even one year career programs. For instance we have in our two year career programs accounting. We have a management program. We have an early childhood education program which can

be either two years giving the minimum courses required for certification to teach daycare or which can be a transfer program. We also have all the secretarial Sciences and a great audiovisual program teaching lab. It's open from 8 to 8 where students can come on their own time and a number of other courses that are available as career programs as well as all the liberal arts and transfer programs. That's that sounds good. I know that Roxbury Community College has been thinking or there are plans for moving it. Are those plans final yet. Well what we're doing is growing and hopefully growing so rapidly that the move will be even sooner. But right now we're anticipating that in two to four years from now we will be moving our enrollment from the current level of about 600 up to 2000 and by that time we hope to have our new campus built the campus will be in Roxbury because we do intend to

continue to serve our Roxbury Community and the the site that has been chosen is at the corner of Roxbury Street and Columbus Avenue right on the southwest border. OK. Thank you both very much. And we will be right back as soon as we have our community calendar. Welcome back. I have two more guests to introduce to you. Very

pleased to have with me this evening Gregory Ricks who is the special assistant to the president of Northeastern University in the office working out of the Office of Community Development. He is also an associate dean of administration and an assistant professor in the College of Education. Dean Ricks previously served as the director of the African-American Institute at Northeastern and will shortly receive his doctoral degree from Harvard. Welcome to you Greg. And my other guest is Carmen Dillon Carmen is the associate dean of student affairs at the College of Public and community service at UMass Boston. Welcome to you Carmen thank you. OK. Carmen may I ask you first off I've always had a curiosity because of the new Harvard campus of UMass and the downtown center. What is the difference between the two

locations. While there are three colleges within the University of Massachusetts and one of them the college Republican community service is located in the downtown center. That just means that the other two are located at the Harvard campus. However all three give the Bachelor of Arts degree hours is different in terms of it being mostly mature adults who come to our college for a different kind of education one which talks about what it is they know and how they learned it. We are what we call a company C based system of education which is different than the traditional one and which gives credits and speaks mostly of courses. In terms of professionals or not even professionals but just working people average people who have any intention to continue their education than the college. Public in community service would be the kind of a school where they could come and share their knowledge. Absolutely. At the same time that

they're learning new skills. Absolutely and that's go it's sort of almost like on the job training and night it is it can be during the daytime as well and what it takes into account is that all learning does not take place in the classroom. That as a mature adult you gain knowledge through experiences on your job. It could be within the community. It can be in different ways so that all learning does not take place in the classroom. So that means that you accumulate learning through different ways. And we take into account how that learning comes about. But we want you to be able to demonstrate that it's in the areas of public and community service. I see an example for me was it was very interesting for me because I had taken a language in school. I could. Do it really well until I got into a setting where I had to demonstrate whether I could do it or not and found out that was not as easy as I had thought. And so it's on that principle. But if you're learning to drive a car the only way that you can demonstrate it is to do it.

And it's the same way with in certain areas of education we feel that if you can do it then you're competent. And if you're competent then you should be able to advance. Is there a difference Carmen between the CPC es program and college three or are they in fact one in the same. They are actually one in the same when the university first began to talk in terms of colleges one two three and four then college one into merged and became the College of Arts and Sciences college three was us and then became the College of Public and community service and college four is the college of professional studies. I see. The hours of the classes at the downtown center are particularly geared towards working people. Absolutely in the sense that the whole philosophy of the college takes into account the areas that the mature adult needs to work into their lives. One is the fact that they cannot all go to school at the same time. Therefore our classes are held in the mornings from 9:00 to 1:00 in the late afternoons and early evenings from 5:30 9:30 Monday

through Thursday is only. And the weekends are left free for one day workshops and seminars of that nature. Built into the fact that adults have special needs we have a daycare center. We have a financial aid office. We have a disabled student center because now we're getting more and more adults who have handicaps and we've now developed our own disabled student center as well. We have career planning and development as well as personal counseling. I was just going to ask you about that because I know many people who have moved from careers to career with relative ease while on the other hand I know others who feel kind of stuck and frustrated in what they're doing. And it would seem to me that CPC is would be an ideal place to sort of get out of a rut. Yes it would. Also we have built it in such as fashion that it reinforces for many people areas of learning which they felt were not creditable. Quote unquote that they that they what they knew didn't mean anything. And what this does is

to reinforce for them that there is what we call lifelong learning and that you can very effectively put that to work for you. Also on the other hand a lot of our students have been what we call what I want to say in terms of having the needs of services. Now they see themselves as becoming providers of services and that turns the tables some makes it in their favor another able to go out to help others in the areas in public and community service. Is there a high degree of student participation at CPAC. There is a very high degree of. Because again we're talking about adults it's very difficult if you walk through the corridors to tell the difference between the faculty and the students because they're all the average age of our students is over 30. And so therefore when we talk to our students we don't talk down to them. We communicate as and because they are one of us and we're one of them. And we help each other and support one another. I want to know another in terms of. An

an an adult coming in and say that's worked three years as a case in the Department of Social Services I may say even longer 10 years and they want to get some additional pick up on some additional skills. Do they get credit for their working experience for the for their. The knowledge that they bring to CPS see PCI-X with them they do after they have been able to demonstrate it is what it is that they do know that fits the curriculum in that area and there are many fits so that they're not losing all that they have learned Plus they're building on the strengths that they already have in terms of what we call new learning. So we take into account prior learning and then how do you build on that in terms of new learning experiences. And that can be in the classroom. It can be outside in one job site. It can be in developing a project. There are different ways in which they can demonstrate what they know. A paper course a classroom experience in other words there are people taking a ferry to bring their jobs into the school and take the

school back to their job slowly because we not only teach in the building but we teach out in the community as well. I see and that's what I want to talk to Gregory about in terms of his position at Northeastern in community development. Can you give me sort of a mini job description. What does that entail special assistant sounds very official important. Well sometimes I think it is and sometimes I think it's not centrally what it what it means and what we do. We're a brokerage house and you can think of it in that sense the university has tremendous resources. That is to say our office doesn't function with much capital. I mean there isn't we don't have a large hundred thousand dollar budgets in these kinds of things it was every community agency that ever contacts was the first thing they'll ask for is money like anybody normally would. But essentially what we do have though is we broker a we we package the university's resources. That is to say that has outstanding faculty better than twenty one hundred faculty

members as a. We have about 54000 student population. We have a tremendous facility. In Boston as well as 13 suburban campuses. We have the warrants in and out of national and we have the Henderson house which is a center for getting medication and Weston we have an Oceanographic Institute in the heart you know and we have a campus and growing TN. So when you begin to look at the tremendous facility that we have and it's not use all the time even though we do have extensive might program but a lot of times it's not used and even during the day we have some classrooms at times and on being used auditorium is not being used. So what we try to do is to make our facility very much like the Community School program is available to the community throughout the entire day to leave things through the day on the weekends. And we've pretty much done that for the last couple years. In fact in this past year. We've provided if you will pay for it or add it up better than $800000 with the services to the community if in fact the communities who come to us for example came to us for the

spring they had a major conference of our community leaders out at. The Warren Center which is a national Massachusetts. And there they stayed overnight for for a night and they they had three or four meals out there and they use conference rooms and the grounds and so forth and for them to rent a facility do something like that it would have cost me three or four thousand dollars because they are a very viable community agency and we are a committee institution because we sit right in the Roxbury Community. We felt that it was important for us to support that so they were able to get the use of that facility at no cost. So you're going to add up those kind of things we do those hundreds of times of year of the year for various organizations those get to be substantial Exactly. Yeah. Tell me Greg. Northeastern University has been is a pioneer in the area of cooperative education for some students who have gone through this experience or have been acquainted with it in some ways. They know about this but could you briefly explain

co-operative education for our viewers. Essentially what cooperative education is it's the combination of theoretical learning which is what we call the classroom learning when to students are in school. And the co-op of the parts. It indicates that they're in school for six months in the classroom learning and then for six months they go out into the field. And many of them if they're business majors they go to major corporations places like IBM Honeywell digital American can those kind of institutions. Some of the social science majors go to the federal government. H u d h e w. The B R A In terms of local government. Some of the they help students go into local hospitals and so forth. It is what it is is a combination of practical hands on learning in terms of in the community national community in the international community. And you combine that with the theoretical learning that goes on in the classroom through the students earning money. Yeah they do. The real I think the real selling point for it other than just

the ability to integrate what they learn in the classroom and also get some real hands on training in the in the community. The big selling point I think is it that they raise money. I mean in fact they some of our co-op students are in bed on $200 a week whether on co-op and that money when they come back to school hopefully it'll pay for the tuition or pay for a lot of it. I was going to ask you Did you see cooperative education as being particularly advantageous to minority students who often need financial assistance. Well I think it definitely is. For example a lot of the with affirmative action a lot of the other programs that we are seeing these days. Minority students are in the demand that is good minority students. I mean the students have poor grades and don't do very well. They have a pretty tough time you know getting good cooperative opportunities but the students that are strong for example students in engineering in those areas are really sought after and those tools do very well and in many cases they're able to earn enough money on their co-op to come back and almost pay

for their entire tuition. I see. In terms of the role that the African-American Institute plays with the university as a whole at one point in time it offered a tutorial assisting thing counseling to minority students who needed it does it still function in this way or is it taking new directions. Oh it still does that. The support services are very much a mainstay of the African-American institution and hopefully they will be for a long time. I think it's expanded over the years it's really pleased to say as you've noticed across the nation a lot of African-American institutes of studies departments and so forth have closed down. I'm very proud to say the northeast as it was got stronger it has more money allocated to it now than it ever has. It has outstanding new director and Dr. Virgil Wood who was a longtime community leader in this community. It does other things it does to Tauriel does counseling. They're involved in research right now trying to do a lot of research in terms of cognitive development pedagogical kinds of

research around minority students. He has a community service program it's beginning to get much more outreach into the community to try to find new markets of students. It's beginning to provide a resource for community agencies themselves in terms of a linkage before students as well as the community. So one of the things that's that's been our problem at Northeastern is that many students white students as well as third world students have not seen the community as a potential employer and they're good jobs in the community. You know it isn't always we think of community many students think well if his community is volunteer that's not the case at all they're very rewarding challenging well-paying jobs in the community. Yeah museums do its best to make that linkage for students to the community so they'll realize that that sounds very positive. I want to ask you what kind of student does northeastern look for. I know it has been rated as one of the largest private institutions in the United States. And I know that they must

get a rounded variety but are they looking for a particular kind of student. Well it's interesting that you know no one's ever really asked what we're looking for. Well I guess that the fair way to answer that would be northeastern has a long tradition of hard working students. I mean I think that's the real mark of its alumni that they're very industrious they're very hardworking as well as being very talented and I think northeastern is a good place to come for a wide range of students. I mean there's a place for the highly aggressive intellectual student that is is really into it it probably wants to want to get a Ph.D. and become a teacher when they have the same time. It's a real hotbed for professional students students that want to get into that co-op and get the real world experience as quickly as possible. Ask them if they want to go into engineering student want to nursing it's it's a strength as far as the engineering program is concerned. It's as fine as any engineering program in the country. The African-American studies department which I'm very close to is outstanding. I would suggest is probably one the

strongest in the area at least on the undergraduate level. And those were basically looking for any student who wants to do some hard work and be rewarded for it. You have a couple of new schools over there this. College of Criminal Justice and I know they were also strong in the health areas are those areas continuing to grow. Definitely So we're just a school. I just northeast and I'm I think the university why are the leaders in this field. A lot of students of color in it it seems to be a growing college the faculty is outstanding It's a small college. So one thing I like to say very quickly too northeastern has a reputation of being a very large school because of the co-op. You take that number and you split it in half. You know so that you don't really you know competing with 54000 students I mean basically 25000 those students or roughly that are night students. Then you've got another you know twenty six twenty seven thousand students and then you cut that in half and by 15000 you know around campus. So the numbers do get you know fairly small so it doesn't seem as large as it is.

Is there less financial aid at Northeastern because it does have this co-operative education feature. No there's no less financially than any other private institutions. I think maybe less financial aid is given to each particular student because they are expected to save from the co-op experience so therefore if an average student received $2000 in financial aid at one school maybe ne they might receive sixteen hundred fifteen hundred. The core of experience in many cases a student might live in Boston and do a co-op in Los Angeles and the reality is you have to pay rent he has to you know get his whole thing started again. And so therefore his own as we come back to school as great as they might be. So financial aid is still a very important factor. It is an important factor. I know many people are nervous about applicants applying to school in application procedures and several times I've heard that if you don't have the money to apply and I'd like to know if this is true is there some way that you can be exempted. Definitely northeast and we'll you have to do it right for it. If you're in high school you can use as your

guidance counselor to provide you a form or provide you a letter and suggest that you do need a waiver in your admissions and your application fee and we do that all the time. That's a very common practice. Well I both like to thank you very much for being with me during this segment and we're going to have James and Betty come back out and join us and we're going to talk about some interesting. Aspects of educational service on a higher educational level in general. We're going to get ready and take in education borate and I'm calling it that because I want you to keep the pen and paper handy you'll see some good information. So take it down. Thank you. Welcome back and I'd like to welcome back baby Richard thieving James

Patterson and we still have Carmen and Greg Ricks with US economy in Dylan and Gregory Ricks. Gregory brought up a good point during the break in terms of application deadlines and I'd like to just go around to each of you and make sure that I get that information out to our viewers in terms of application deadlines is it too late to apply to Northeastern for September or can you tell us what areas you can still apply. In it we have a September admission and a January admission. And basically northeast now what they call rolling admissions is basically when you apply in the next entering class you know you can be considered for because of the demand and engineering and nursing physical therapy and some of those programs they've pretty much been closed off for September. But there are so few openings for the January class for a liberal arts education criminal justice some of the other colleges that feel free to still apply. The only liability to applying this late in the year for September is your chance for financial aid are going to be probably limited because

most of the funds go out is basically first come first serve. So as far as that's concerned it might be tough in terms of financial aid but generally speaking it's not too late. Well that's good advice also for people who are stay high school seniors now and some folks that just might be finding out about programs to take that into consideration. But they should check it out anyway Carmen. How about at CPC s. No it is not too late. Is best known that adults usually plan. Rather late in terms of what their what their future educational goals are. So I would encourage anyone to apply what is thinking about September admit as far as I know it is not too late. And we also have what we call rolling admissions policy so that in some areas if they're thinking about January they can apply and they can apply now and defer until January or they can apply now and I'm just I'm pretty sure that there are some available space for them. Also I do want to say that because we are a state institution our tuition is rather low and it affords many adults to apply and they are still

eligible for financial aid because there is no deadline in terms of the B EOG. And may I ask you one other question too about CPC Yes. It's four primarily for adults who are out in the working world. At this point or are you perhaps considering re-entering the working world. Do you have to have any kind of degree at all to to go there or do they gladly welcome is in. Is is there a graduate program in other words as well as an undergraduate program there. The broad reform program at the moment is in the formative stages. This is an undergraduate the undergraduate program is right and you receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts law passing on to James Patterson in terms of Wentworth because mass is naturally on an on a lower level. Wentworth is it too late to apply.

I have a number that they can reach the admissions office which is 4 4 2 9 0 1 0 that they could find or afford to do 9 0 0 1 0 is the admissions office number at Wentworth. But let me say one thing that I think they should not just wait to their senior year students need to begin the process of applying to schools in the junior year and especially the second half of the junior year because they have to identify some of the schools such as Northeastern in Boston you. And you have mass they have some of programs that they can possibly participate in that can give them some enrichment skills prior to them entering their freshman year. The application process and financial aid it's very tedious and you can't wait until the end of your senior year because you will miss a lot of lives once I saw students really need to begin at their junior year. I didn't find the acquirement so that they'll have the senior year to pick up a course for instance that they did not take that they should have taken. So it's really the junior year and should begin to think about applying to schools receiving applications having their parents fill out the parents confidential statement because

that is the bases that they'll get any types of financial aid and financial systems. And also they should seek assistance from community agencies and how to apply to these programs how to set up these programs. What type of fellowship information is available and this should take place in their junior year. Not necessarily wait to be seen if I was going to come back to you on that point as well. I do want to ask you Betty about the admissions deadlines at Roxbury Community College. Well I'm glad you asked me last. Yes we're still open for admissions we will be admitting students as long as there is space available right up until and through registration which will be the week of September 11. The earlier people apply of course the better. And it would be ideal if we had our students applying now for next year and the year after and we in fact have admitted some people for the year in 1980 and 81. But we will be accepting applications for this fall until the end of registration.

Right maybe I could ask you this question to start off. Is there a community agency that's out there that's helping parents fill out financial aid forms in college helping parents work with their their children on and on and on filling out application forms. Do you know of anything like that or do you have to go to James you seem to know of one in particular and there are many. They are many they are all the major churches in Boston and also in Cambridge all have education committees. I mean we're in contact with them all the time and they funnel scholarship applications and and the potential funding sources other than just the state programs or federal programs and in many times they have like career days college nights those kind of things and many representatives from the different universities will come to the churches and talk with parents and students as well as the boys club the Y leader park in Dorchester Roxbury action program. Roger multiservice center I know

does that A B C D through their local apex. I mean there's plenty of information around and that the parents the students interested you can find out. So I guess if we just generally say that if they go to their local community service organization they could be directed to the right place. I know one of the Freedom House also has a education component and he has a person might assist in filling out the financial aid application which is very very important to going to school especially like students in the ACP is another place the Urban League is the Massachusetts also have people paid staff that will just take students on a volunteer basis and give them correct guidance and counseling on how to apply to every parent's parents including how to apply makeup occasions into. The higher education institutions in Massachusetts USA at Roxbury Community College we're also doing a summer recruitment program. We're visiting actually all the agencies and programs that you've mentioned. And we're also hitting shopping centers in areas like

that were large numbers of people might be able to catch our recruiters when they're out in the community. And we are publicizing it ahead of time so that people will know where we will be and when I don't know when this is being aired and where we'll be in the coming weeks. OK. I can't I can't say at this point off the top of my head where will be but will be all over the Boston area raid so folks can just look around. We are assisting a few applications and financial aid counseling and making forms and information available. I was going to ask because Greg had brought up a point during the break that if a student is receiving inadequate counseling or. Maybe not giving enough information inadequate is probably the best way. If in school a student in school a high school student what are their alternatives besides these community agencies. Can a student just sort of strike out on his own would you encourage that.

I definitely would suggest that a place like Boston. You know you've got so many schools here it isn't like you know you have to go 200 miles to the closest college and try to find out what's going on. Many of the kids live closer colleges than they do the high schools and so it seems to me that you know go get it from the horse's mouth. I mean if I want to go to university I'm asked whether to go to some guidance counselor that that may know or may not know just soon go over you know talk to somebody like Carmen somebody right there and say listen tell me what I need to know to come here myself as a classic example. Guidance counselor basically told me I really don't think the college necessarily is your thing. Maybe you should check out this check out this check out that it wasn't for a very determined person very black mother. It wasn't here any of that long here along my minister. You know I ended up in a black college but it's but essentially if I had depend on the guidance counselors you know. I'm well known for being. Yeah I hear you. Yes I think it's especially important where we have a school system that isn't really sensitive to a lot of our minority students and not really supporting them and encouraging them to go on not really pushing parents or giving them information openly to

have people aware that they can call us directly because they can get better information by talking to Gregg's office or Carmen or James or me than they can get usually from the guidance counselor with few exceptions. I think the most important thing is for a parent or student who is lacking in information to know that he's welcomed aright that his call is welcomed at the different institutions that he might you know she might be interested in. That makes all the difference in institutions in general are our little forbidding and especially if you are not equipped with you know the direct numbers and or know someone in particular. So it's good to hear that. Coming I was going to say that in terms of CPC s where you're dealing with an older population we have established what we call our admissions seminars and they're held every Tuesday morning at 9:00 and every Tuesday evening at 5:30.

This is at the College of publicly gaming community service 101 reasons seminars every single Tuesday every Tuesday every When it's time to what Time 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning and from 6:00 to 7:00 in the evening at 100 into history. I want to ask you as a dean of student affairs What are some of the typical problems that students come to you with. Well they come with a myriad of problems especially if they are adults in terms of trying to balance their personal life their professional life their job their responsibilities as a parent. So that's why we have a childcare center so they can drop the child off and go to classes and feel secure that they're being professionally watched and that's learned open for night class. That is also open for evening as well. There are many people who are. I'm not sure in terms of what careers they really are interested in this vast area of public and community service. So we work with them on a one to one and small group sessions. In terms of developing and seeking out what they feel is best suited for them in terms of their

long term career goals I think I should have waited to go to college you know me again in terms of the scientific theory is the technological Arry is mass pit being one of the programs that starting on a very early level seventh eighth and ninth graders seventh and eighth graders trying to encourage more minorities to go into technical fields. Do you see any increase in encouraging women to come into technical areas. Yes I do. When we say minorities we don't exclude you know black women are still part of the minorities and Native Americans and so forth and so on. So yes there is a increase to halve the number of women who goes into the area of them engineering science and technology. Does the when you were telling me earlier that learning some of the pre math skills in the pre technical skills that it required a hands on approach does that work the same for for for women is

well is for girls students as well but I would say women need to have role models themselves. If we are going to an Al seminar we have a lot of female engineers so that young girls could actually see a female engineer because is very. We have to also show them role models as well. They have to see black female or neighbor going to whatever architects are female and not necessarily have total male role model so we do provide female role models for women manufactor a female resume with a degree in engineering would have about 25 job offers before she even got out of the senior year. More so even more so than the middle class. Bedi May I ask you just this past week I heard some very alarmingly low reading statistics being quoted by the Boston school department. In terms of the approach that Roxbury Community College takes to servicing its community

its student population what remedial programs do you have that can help a student who is coming out with low reading scores. Bright kid but maybe low reading scores and what does Roxbury Community College tell that person yes we certainly do I think that thats probably one of our specialties because we cant have open admissions saying that we are guaranteeing admission to a student regardless of their previous record. And on the other hand promise to be able to promote that student on to transfer into a four year college without providing something very special in between. So we have a very elaborate comprehensive set of remedial programs. People who are specialised in dealing with reading problems of adults. Students of any age level really. And we also have a special center the Center for Individual progress which we call KIPP the KIPP Center is there to provide all kinds of tutoring services everything from helping a student learn how to use the

library to helping the student write a resume when they're going out for a job interview or working with the co-op program or whatever. And we have a very good placement program that KIPP puts all new students through so that students don't have to worry about being placed in courses that are over their head or being brought into Chloes those there where they'll be covering material they already know placement will determine every new student is given placement exams in reading and writing in ESL English as a second language if English is not their first language. We do have about 10 to 15 percent foreign students in the college as well so they need special kinds of placement testing and just providing generally extremely supportive environment for students so that they're not there just to pass through and fail out of the school we're providing to support success. That's right. It's about exactly giving students what they need in order to succeed not just giving an opportunity and letting them fall out of it but giving the support they need in order to succeed in it.

I'd like to ask my guest as a whole and what can parents do to better prepare their children for college. My tip would be to parents would and I would be to be aggressive on and get the children to be aggressive but I can also say I maybe there's a lot of the listening audience laugh problem saying what I'm not convinced that that black people have taken we as a people have taken total advantage of the opportunities that have been created. I know that every year I read where large amounts of financial aid money go begging dreams of students into things on time and deadlines or things like that I think that the powers that be could grant a lot more and need to grant a lot more but I'm not convinced that what's being provided right now is not being isn't being utilized as much as we could so I would just urge all parents to be aggressive if you possibly can and don't excite you when they're oh you mean go out and fight for you don't want any don't want any teachers or guidance counselors or principals tell you know I

always tell my sons northeastern at no means negotiate. So any time you have no just me what I'm going to go see that point. Yes I would say also as a parent myself I would say that it is difficult to get your children to listen to your advice even if you are a professional working in an area where you would have that kind of information. And I know that it is difficult for parents to get the children to listen but that doesn't mean that we could afford to give up we really have to push our children we have to push ourselves to keep pushing. It's important to the community it's important to our families and to ourselves as individuals and we can't let the world at large continue with the excuse that well we couldn't find any qualified minorities. It happens all the time and it's just not fair to ourselves to let that go by and continue. Well fortunately we are just about out of time I want to just take time enough to thank you all very very much. Gregory Ricks Carmen Dillon Patterson Betty Richardson you've been

fabulous and I hope our viewers have been able to get the information that they needed to begin to make some educational decisions for themselves or for someone else that they might know that needs that kind of assistance. I'd like to ask everyone to tune in to say brother next week for a musical experience older visions. And thank you very much and good evening. Right.