Why are you interested in working for the KSLP Team?
I want to work for the KSLP team first because I want to gain management experience. One of my career aspirations is to enter the logistics field and to manage a variety of systems, both with computers and people, and I feel that this would be an excellent opportunity to build the experience necessary to thrive in that industry. Based on the job description, this internship is geared for that line of work, since interns will be organizing multiple conferences and making sure every day to day operation is covered, down to the smallest detail. With my work at the Greenfield Intercultural Center and 3 other groups, I know how to handle myself with daily tasks to ensure the success of a
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I’m taking a sociology class this semester, and one of the things that angers me to my core is the fact that economic status can determine life trajectories, especially with regard to education (Lareau, 2003); the inherent truth is that people are nearly predestined to build and/or lack dispositions to thrive in institutions like Penn and other of the nation’s top universities. They matter for me, and they matter for my friends in the KIPP program, and they especially matter to the students in grade school who must struggle and fight for their opportunities. My primary interests are in systems engineering and mathematics, but while I do not have a direct interest in education, I realize its importance, and I want to use some of my time to help students realize their dreams.
What skills/abilities/attributes do you feel make you a unique candidate for this role?
As my resume notes, I have 1-2 years of logistical experience, working at centers like Greenfield Intercultural Center and in organizations like Technology Entrepreneurship Club, Hult Prize@ Penn, Penn Play, and Penn ProjectOne. I am both familiar and comfortable with making deliveries and facilitating events. The intangible skills I’ve learned from these experiences are described below.
The first two skills I bring to this role are strong organization and endurance. I know how to handle a large range of responsibilities in a short period of time, assigning different
Throughout high school, students are prepped for college. Almost the entire curriculum revolves around getting into or being prepared for college. Many of these students are independent and intelligent individuals. College may be the perfect place for them. Linda Lee contemplates the fact that even though statistics show that college graduates make the most money, the statistics also point out that these students were “the brightest and hardest-working” students. There are also students that fall between the cracks of these statistics. Some students may be skilled in certain areas, but do not make the test scores to apply for a university. Others may be on the
With being appointed as a split-department manager I think my conceptual skills would be what I concentrated on the most. Being able to visualize the big picture, understanding how everyone contributes and coordinates their efforts is so important, having the whole picture will aid with the logistics of the department.
Recently there has been a lot of debate about the importance of college education. Students are asking if it’s worth the debt to attend a four year university or community college. Some are thinking what are the benefits of a degree is in the workforce. With college tuition increasing and state fundings lowering, low income students are struggling to attain a higher education. College institutions should have a role to provide students higher education and equal opportunity to students to increase social mobility yet intergenerational reproduction of privilege has produced inequality in education.
Education is a necessity across the globe, from America to Africa to China. Some education systems, however, are more successful than others and hold differing views and approaches to education. Culture greatly impacts education, which in turn impacts further opportunity. As unfair as it may be, a child’s cultural background largely determines their level of success. The American education system is lacking when compared to various other world cultures, and this is causing the socioeconomic gap to grow. Because of this inadequate education, more and more families are dipping beneath the poverty line. This could be due to poor discipline as well as the diversity of students. The diversity of the students results in a wide array of needs that are not being met by the public education system. This issue could be minimized by working to create a more inclusive academic environment to ensure equality and success.
Wes Moore grew up in poor conditions, where he and his small family barely made ends meet. Wes tried his best to stay strong despite all the misfortune things in his life, and struggled through days looking for the light at the end of tunnel. Years later, Wes Moore heads to a private school where he learns at a steady pace and passes classes. Later on, when his life at home becomes unbearable and he is unable to keep up with school, Wes Moore drops out of private school (Moore, 2011). However, he remains focused and determined not to continue living in poverty. Hence, he makes up his mind that he must get educated one way or another.
With the growing importance of higher education, more people than ever are attending college. According to a middle-class parent, “[Higher education] seen as a means of developing a career and getting secure employment.” (30, Higher Education, social class and social mobility) Moreover, “parents believe that their children need a university education to get on in life… over the past decades (parents) fearful that without a degree their children will be in danger of downward social mobility. (32, Higher
Students from low-income and first generation backgrounds often struggle in different academic subjects. Subsequently, students have lower expectations for themselves when it comes to academic achievement. The majority of first generation students come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Seeing that, families work countless hours in factories and other places where they are underpaid because of the lack of educational opportunity they experienced themselves. According to Blackwell and Pinder (2014) in the United States higher education is becoming the outlet to different avenues of opportunity whether it is through social mobility or economic progress. While screening out possible topics of interest for a research proposal, one of the challenges I encountered in my field experience was the lack of college access education and funding for the families in the urban high schools. The first generation student family typically is unaware of the college process because the student’s parents have not attended an institution of higher education. Therefore, the students cannot count on their knowledge of the process. Eventually, when students reach the financial aid process it becomes difficult because parents usually cannot afford full tuition expenses and at the same time do not understand the process. In these situations, schools with a college going culture can prepare staff to provide extra support to students by developing professional training in college access, mentorship
From a young age, accomplishment is associated first with monetary gain and then with going to a good college. While my peers and I are currently fixated on the latter, Outliers has shown us there is no need to be. With Nobel prize winners coming from anywhere from MIT to Holy Cross and Stanford to Rollins (Gladwell, 81-82), success is not determined by the higher learning institution one chooses to go to, although it certainly does not hurt to attend a prestigious one. As I look to the application process I am deterred by many things that should send me towards success. Being a Caucasian, upper-middle class citizen, I am perhaps the most replaceable student in the world with thousands just like me, hoping for the same chance I look forward too. However, I feel it is what I have done in the summers that will set me apart. Karl Alexander realized that privileged students tend to ‘outlearn’ underprivileged children over the summer, something I am beginning to see more clearly. This past summer, I was fortunate enough to be part of the 6-percent accepted to the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes for Business and Entrepreneurship. It took only a few days to realize that I was the only true ‘white kid’. With the majority coming from Asian descent, the only other kid at the camp who may have been Caucasian came from a Panamanian family. As I noticed this, I realized
A conversation ingrained in my memory involved two adolescent boys from San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). When asked about their future ambitions, one student casually responded that he would “go to prison like his father.” The other expressed a desire to rise above his inner city milieu, but had little sense his abilities or of his options. In stark contrast, students from Alamo Heights, an affluent neighboring district, held ambitions to become doctors, lawyers, and politicians, and demonstrated an understanding of the prerequisites for their desired career path. The graduation rate of Alamo Heights stood at 98% while SAISD’s graduation rate lingered around 60%. The contrast between these two districts grows more disturbing when considered through the lens of racial equality. While SAISD’s population is 98% minority, the Anglo population in Alamo Heights totals slightly over 55%. Yet, 74% of Alamo Heights graduates achieve a four-year college diploma, while only 4% percent of SAISD alumni attain a bachelor’s degree. An opportunity gap results from this discrepancy, ultimately proving detrimental to social mobility.
For low-income students and minorities, their upbringing and their current socioeconomic status can and will factor into their perseverance and motivation due to the structural barriers they possess. Students’ of low-income families often come from working class homes who help their child to understand what their unavailability to balance work and go to school might be. Often times for minority and low-income students’ they reach an age (often times being the age of 18) in which they have to decide which path they will decide to take, take on work and go to school often times to support the family, or work full-time with the possibility of “growing within their work” with the basic knowledge they acquire once they graduate high school (assuming they do). The Los Angeles Youth is subdivided between the rich and the
I am the first to go to graduate college in my family. As such, I faced many struggles in my undergraduate career in that I did not have family or peers to turn to for support and resources that would help me in college. Yet, that adversity taught me about perseverance—moving forward when all seemed lost—and my schooling at CSU East Bay taught me that my struggles form part of a larger history of struggle by the poor, disenfranchised, and marginalized, many of who are today, unfortunately, African Americans. These experiences, in turn, play a significant role in my decision to pursue a graduate education and they now form a critical component in my ability to find ways to overcome barriers to higher education.
The skills that I will contribute to my team is my real life experience in managing and marketing a restaurant. I have managed and been head of a marketing team for
Individuals who come a working class or lower income background are taught to be interdependent and to follow the rules as well as being able to adjust to their circumstances while their counterparts, middle class and upper-class individuals are taught to be independent, that they can be whatever they want to be at that “the sky’s the limit’ essentially that they can do whatever they set their mind to as long as they focus on themselves and nurture their talent. The problem arises because though professors and employers may feel that once a person of the lower or working class has gotten to a certain point that they have “made it” however, because many of these institutions, such as Cornell or Dartmouth college, focuses on people focusing on themselves and to be independent which is the exact opposite of how lower class and working-class individuals were raised, which leads to them not feeling that they belong or out-of-place. This feeling of not belonging can have a negative effect on lower class and working classes individuals work and grades however it has been shown that if teachers and employers implement more incentives and give more focus to rewarding teamwork and adaptability with others that those from lower to working class backgrounds can achieve just as much
Success comes easier to a student’s if they are in their comfort zone. students who feel at ease with their environment, have a higher tendency to achieve success in college, for example studies have shown that African American students that attend predominantly white universities are more likely to either have lower grade point averages or drop out at higher rates than their white counterparts and African Americans at historically black colleges. (Allen, Epps & Hanuf, 1991; Braddock & Dawkins 1981) This is a common example of how change could affect a student’s ambition unconsciously. Studies have shown that students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities are more likely to have higher self worth, positive self images, strong racial pride, and higher aspirations, opposite of black students on white campuses. This is true for almost all commonalities: race, gender, age, and even backgrounds. Students that feel more “at home” will more than likely receive higher grade point averages.
Thoughts and ideas about the future are presented everyday to college kids looking to pursue a good job after school. Children attend college primarily to get a degree in hopes of finding a decent job. The value of education has decreased and the persistent drive for a degree has increased among college students nationwide. It seems as if many kids work hard in school not to learn, but to get a degree. This makes education, to many kids, a waste of time. With a degree, freshly new college graduates are in hopes of finding a decent paying job. In contemporary society, it seems as if the rich are building more connections among each other while the poor are left with little opportunities. This is due to the inherent trend of families passing down connections and relationships with each other. In today’s society, it is more important for college students to network themselves rather than to receive above average grades because it provides more opportunities after college.