by Marci Koblenz

President, Center for Companies That Care

Another year. Another college bus trip.  In the space of three days, we need to help students understand what college is about, what it takes to get in, overcome their fears when they reach that point of understanding, and build them into believers that they are able to do it. 

First stop: Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.  For the first time, we were visiting an AIM High student on his college campus.  Remember Marlon Marshall?  He’s the student who won the public speaking contest three years ago.  His powerful speech was about his absent father and the effects of the epidemic of fathers who abandon black youth.  Once again Marlon inspired us with his oratory.  He advised the students,  “When you go to college, you will have many voices in your head; people who have helped you and who you want to please.  Don’t go to college for them.  Don’t make choices at college to to show your appreciation for what they done for you. Go to college for you.  Study what you want.  Join the clubs that interest you.”  The students were mesmerized and Marlon suddenly saw himself as the role model he had become. His request when we left?  “Can I talk to more AIM High students?”  YES!!! 

Our next stop was Central State University.  Our tour guide had just been elected Mr. Central State at the prior weekend’s Homecoming.  He gave us some great advice; advice that AIM High students repeated many times throughout the trip.  At Central State, students are asked not to walk on the grass because “grass is a shortcut and there are no shortcuts in life.” 

The visit to Hiram College in Ohio provided a poignant example of the academic hurdles AIM High students will face in college.  Our tour guide was explaining that Hiram professors use APA Style rather than MLA Style.  Blank faces stared at her.  Realizing the need to explain, she said, “there are two different styles for citations, Hiram uses APA style.”  Still blank.  A brave student asked, “what’s a citation?”  None of the students knew the word "citation."  No wonder college is so hard. 

That night, we learned that Ghaddafi had been killed and mentioned it to the students.  They had never heard of him.  Or Libya.  Or Tunisia.  Or Arab Spring.  “What is an Arab?” one student asked.  No one knew. 

Sometimes the quantity of information the students have not been exposed to is unfathomable.  What does this mean as an indicator of college success, I ask myself.  Are we fighting an un-winnable battle?  On the other hand, does one need this information for college?  What does it really take to graduate from college?  To become a successful professional?  What does AIM High need to focus on to enable our students to become college-educated, employable adults?  We can’t possibly fill their heads with the knowledge their schooling didn’t provide.  Fortunately, that knowledge isn’t the path to a college degree. 

AIM High students, like all successful college students, need to be able to ask for help.  Asking for help is a skill; one that can be taught.  Being able to ask for help is the real challenge.  That requires work of the heart.  In order to ask for help, one must have the courage to show one’s vulnerabilities and the confidence that with help, one can succeed.  It also requires an honest and accurate assessment of self.  That’s where we can help.  One student said “I always thought college was just for people who were smart,” excluding himself.  Why would a high school junior with a 3.1 GPA not think he was smart?  We need to change that, I thought.  Bring on the cheerleaders to tell him the truth.  He is smart and he belongs in college.  Another student with a 1.09 GPA described the college he wants to go to as a Safety school.  In fact, that college, with its requirement of at least a 3.5 GPA, is a Reach school for him.  Maybe he didn’t know better.  Or maybe he’s pretending to be something he isn’t.  We need to help him be honest with himself so he can control his destiny. 

Dedicating the necessary effort is the other half of the college graduation recipe.  “Raise your hand if you put in at least 50% of the effort you could put in for your high school work,” we asked the students. One student raised his hand.  Thinking the students had misunderstood, I asked the question again with an extra emphasis on the words “at least.”  Students giggled, but only the same one hand went up in the air.  Here was an opportunity for honesty.  Earlier, in a confidential note, a student had expressed the fear of failing out of college.  We know that is a common, unspoken fear.  Now we had an opportunity to tie the strands together and build confidence.  “No one who puts in the effort, fails out of college” we told them. “no one. You are all smart enough to get a college degree, but you have to put in the effort.”  And then the kicker.  “But none of you, by your own admission, is currently putting in the effort it will take to graduate from college. If you’re not putting in at least 90% of the required effort, you may fail.  And if you do, it won’t be the fault of the schools you went to; or the circumstances in which you grew up.  It will be because you didn’t work hard enough.  And that’s really good news, because effort is totally within your control.  If you put in the effort, you will graduate from college.”

The expectation of effort needed further clarification.  How much effort is 100% effort?  If one doesn’t don’t know that, then how can you judge whether you’re working hard enough?  If you think the work should take 30 minutes and it takes you an hour, you might think you’re really "stupid."  If you think the work should take two hours and it only takes you one hour, you will think you’re smart.  Same work, same effort, dramatically different impact on self-esteem and confidence.  We asked the students “how many hours of homework will you have for each hour of class in college?”  We got a range of answers from 10 minutes to two hours.  No wonder students feel they’re not up to the work in college.  They’re trying to do passing work in less time than the professor expects them to.  But they didn’t know. 

At the end of every bus trip, we hold a formal debrief with the students’ families, mentors and school administrators, before dispersing.  As I looked around the room I was filled with tremendous appreciation for the gift of having AIM High students in my life.  One student thanked me for “being like a mom.”  I am proud to have earned the “like a mom” label and will continue to persevere “like a mom.”  Still, the comment made me sad.  There are so many deserving kids who need support; many more than I, alone, can serve.  We must find more people who, with their time and/or their funding, will be “like a mom” too!  Those are our marching orders.

Another year. Another college bus trip.  Our AIM High students have many hurdles to climb before college graduation day, but I know them and they will be successful.  We too have hurdles to climb.  Huge hurdles, on behalf of the 97% of urban, minority high school students who aren't college-bound currently.  Those are our children too.