Technical Education

Here’s a list of action steps that will help students stay focused and on track.

1. Start researching colleges by visiting, attending information sessions, reviewing websites, attending college fairs and getting on college mailing lists. While attending local college fairs, find some that appeal to you. Start considering criteria such as academic programs, location, cost, and size of school, retention rate, campus life and housing. Check and see if your colleges of interested are on Social Media websites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest). Much current information can be accessed in this way.

2. Next fall, keep your grade point average up. Take courses that are challenging and part of a strenuous curriculum. See what your high school offers and take harder classes that are part of a college prep curriculum. If you have exceeded what your high school offers, see what enrichment programs are approved by your high school. There may be advanced courses at a local community college or online that would work. Y

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UPDATED, May 3, 5:05 p.m., to reflect U.Va. Speaks as one of two student-led projects receiving 2013 Jefferson Trust grants, and to correct the link to the UVA Today story on the 2013 Jefferson Trust grants.

The University is nothing if not a center for sharing ideas, information and knowledge.

Most often, this happens in classrooms. But there are other common forums for such exchanges: speeches and panel discussions, staples of academic life. (If you lump together enough speeches and panels, you can call it a “conference” or a “symposium.”) Even casual followers of UVA Today or the University calendar know that these things happen on Grounds pretty much on a daily basis. Even a person of independent means, with unlimited time, would have to clone him- or herself to be able to get to everything.

Typically, a professor or someone prominent in a field will come to town, share some wisdom for an hour or so, stimulate a lot of thought and discussion, and then  … everyone leaves. Maybe some

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To Suspend or Not To Suspend

At the Schools with Audrey Linden

Superintendent John Deasy is proud that the number of within LAUSD is significantly down. This is a good thing. Or, is it? Have the guidelines been made more stringent as to suspensions and is this the reason the numbers are lower at most schools? Are the children behaving better, or are they not being suspended for doing the same behaviors a couple of years ago? We have data that the suspension numbers are down, and that is quantative. Suspensions have dropped from 2006-2007 school year to 2011-2012 by two-thirds. I am referring to facts quoted in an editorial in the L.A. Times , April 16th.

But, we have no corroborative facts as to why the numbers are down. Perhaps we need to send a questionnaire to the school sites and to ask teachers if the behaviors that would have called for suspension a couple of years ago have changed.

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If you’re reading this article and you hated college, then you should probably turn away because you probably can’t relate.

I’m reaching out to my fellow 20-somethings that were completely blindsided by job-market struggles, monetary woes, and a general confusion as to ‘what’s next?’.

I don’t think we need the whole “It gets better,” monologue either. I think we kind of know that, or are at least hoping for that, so this is generally just a forum for transitioning from “this sucks” to “it’s not so bad.”

In the “this sucks” stage of life, I found that the first step – and tumble – that I took post-graduation was finding a job. And before you all label me as ‘lazy’, I will be the first to say that I am lazy, but I wasn’t in the job-hunting arena.

No, I definitely was not. I was a regular interview-slaying, job-applying, fiend. Even now, when I log into my university’s job posting site, I see that my record shows ’88 applications’ submitted.

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Five U.Va. students shared a stage Saturday with former President Bill Clinton and received a $10,000 check for winning a nationwide competition to engage and educate college students about the federal government’s long-term debt.

The students, (left to right) Amara Warren, Alan Safferson, Ryan Singel, Josh Lansford and Lena Shi, were flanked by Clinton on the left and Peter G. Peterson, a philanthropist and founder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which co-sponsored the six-week Up to Us competition, which challenged 10 university teams to bring the debt discussion to their peers through independently designed campaigns.

This U.Va. Today article tells all about the competition and how the U.Va. team won.