Mastery Charter Schools’ hosted a college signing day yesterday at Temple University’s Liacouras Center to celebrate its senior students’ commitment to a college or university for the Fall 2013 semester.

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For nearly a decade NYU professor Robert T. Teranishi has researched the disparity in college achievement and opportunity between racial groups. But, over the last few years, a glaring problem in the data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has begun to emerge for him.

The category is simply too broad, masking serious disparities within the group. Teranishi recently collaborated with two likeminded researchers – Samuel D. Museus and Dina C. Maramba – to create an alternative book of scholarship on the subject, “The AAPI Experience: New Insights on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the Implications for Higher Education.”

“There certainly are some AAPI subgroups in the U.S. that have high educational attainment, but that masks what’s happening to a number of other struggling subgroups, whose needs are being overlooked, because of the perception that all Asians are doing well in college,” says Teranishi.

Featuring over a dozen top AAPI scholars in the U.S., the book features empirical research on many oft-overlooked experiences within the AAPI designation – from Asian evangelical Christians, to Hmong Americans, and a myriad of others.

“A lot of scholars are starting to see how AAPI students are misunderstood and overlooked when it comes to policy debates. How we think of these groups has real effects on how we create campus services and programs,” says Teranishi. “But I think now we’re finally reaching a critical mass of research on the needs of AAPI students.”

By the numbers:

In 2007, 59.6 percent of all Asians in the United States 25 to 29-years-old had a college degree. But only 18 percent of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders of the same age had a degree. The AAPI designation combines all of these groups into the same category.

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The School Reform Commission, the state agency that oversees the School District of Philadelphia, voted yesterday to close Imani Education Circle Charter School and renew five others.

Imani charter, a K-8 located in Germantown, will most likely stay open for another year.

Imani, a K-8 school that opened in 1999, has a total enrollment of about 450 students.

The five charter schools that received a five-year renewal include Antonia Pantoja, Christopher Columbus, Eugenia DeHostos, Maritime Academy, and Universal Institute.

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“They were going to cover up the story when it happened and then it ended up going viral and they reported it all late to the police department,” Green said Tuesday.

Green’s son, whose name was withheld, was attacked by students in the high school’s library on May 7. The incident was reported to police by a student, not the school, Green said.

He was hit with a chair, fists and feet. He was hit and kicked in the head, face and back. The students then dipped into his pockets and stole his cell phone and money and then took his schoolbag, Green said.

Green also said his son had a gun pointed in his face only days earlier.

“When it happened, two days prior, there was a gun pulled in his face on school property,” Green said.

He said the school’s principal said an investigation was underway, but never heard back.

“Tuesday shows up, and next thing you know he gets jumped,” Green said.

Chester Upland School District Receiver Joseph Watkins and Deputy Police Commissioner Otis Blair did not return calls for comment.

He said his son was a victim of “Fight Week,” where Freshmen or newer students are targeted. He suffered a concussion and received about seven stitches in the back of his head.

“They laid him out,” Green said. “It was really ugly.”

The fight was one of many at the school that day.

Five students were arrested and are awaiting trial at Delaware County prison. The preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed back to May 25th, according to Green.

Green, who lives in Chester but works as a chef at a Philadelphia diner, said his son will be home-schooled for the rest of the year.

“The way that school is being run,” Green said, “I can’t even trust it.”

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Before stepping into his current role as editor-at-large at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeffrey Selingo was a reporter for 14 years. His first book – “College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students” – was released last week by Harvest Books. We asked Selingo for his input about the increasingly complex world of higher education.

What has changed in higher ed since you began writing about it?
As prices go up, people have more questions about what they get from higher education. I think more and more students treat it like any other industry they consume. Although, I also argue that students have to be savvier about their
consumer choices in education. Most parents and students still pick colleges in a very emotional way.

What comes out of that emotional response?
We have a very romantic view of higher education: big time universities, quads, small classes, gothic buildings, football weekends. But in reality, students and parents are buying a product. They need to know if they’re going to graduate on time, get a job, what their debt load will be, and whose going to be teaching them.

How has this student-consumer shift changed education?
Students have a lot more expectation [than they did previously.] They are the customer, and the customer is always right. As a result, we’ve seen grade inflation. The classroom has turned into a giant favor exchange. Part time faculty need to please students to get good course evaluations. Students want to get good grades, because they’re paying a lot of money. At the end of the day, there’s not much academic rigor at some colleges.

How will technology change higher ed?
I don’t think online institutions will replace thousands of colleges. Some people really believe that. If you talk to 18-year-olds, they don’t want go to school online, they want the typical residential experience. I think [technology] will be injected into that traditional model. There will be more hybrid courses and more students will watch lectures online. Then they’ll go to class for the high impact class, where you really need human interaction.

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Students in the U.S. now live in the shadow of a collective total of one trillion dollars of debt. For Ken Ilgunas, escaping that debt was a matter of determination — and he was willing to live in a van to prove it. In his new book, “Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom,” Ilgunas enumerates, with considerable grace and humor, his adventures living in a red Econoline van, retrofitted for graduate school at Duke University.

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  PHOTOS: Graduate school in a van

After graduating with just over $30,000 in debt from his undergraduate education at the University of Buffalo, Ilgunas threw every particle of his being and hour of wakefulness toward paying it off. He got used to a lifestyle of roughing it while living in a tent as a back country ranger and hitchhiked to Alaska where he worked a variety of jobs.

Two and a half years later, he had paid off his debt. He vowed that he wouldn’t go into that hole again — but he wasn’t ready to give up on the life of a scholar.

So, Ilgunas sent out applications to graduate schools that fit his academic standards as well as his climactic ones — after all, temperature is a big deal if you’re planning to live in a van on the campus parking lot.

“Most of the sacrifices [of van living] were more social. You can’t bring friends to your van to have a couple drinks and watch a movie,” he says, with a self-effacing laugh. “The thought of telling a girl that I lived in a van in a place like Duke…it was just horrifying.”

Though Ilgunas lived in fear of being caught by campus police, he got away with studying in the library and showering at the campus gym. For him, it was worth it because of the education he was getting in liberal studies, where he could take courses across a variety of disciplines.

“One course might contain elements of several disciplines — history, biology, neuroscience — all wrapped into one. You can find yourself reading Jane Austen alongside a science document,” he says. “That unconventional approach often leads to breakthroughs.” In Ilgunas’ mind, it gave him the freedom he didn’t always have in his constricted lifestyle.

Ultimately, Ilgunas’ adventure gave him the kind of life he had always relished. “I always felt deep down that I was meant to live a free and adventure-filled life,” he says. The van-dwelling made both of these things possible.

“People kind of think of their student debt as almost another inevitable payment, something like car insurance that you’re expected to pay every month for 25 years. I wanted to take a much more radical approach,” he says.

Ilgunas’ radical approach to life and unique sense of humor is what makes “Walden on Wheels” a great read. But debt-conscious students should be forewarned — the Duke University handbook has now been updated with a clause that bans living in a van.

Ilgunas’ book, “Walden on Wheels” is available starting on May 14.

Q & A: What is your advice to students now?

I would say don’t listen to what some people say about the liberal arts. I think it’s silly to deride them as a waste of time, that’s like saying a walk in the woods or having a child — these things aren’t entirely practical but we don’t deride them.

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According to a study published by Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, teens who spend some time bagging groceries or syphoning fries into happy meals have a larger shot at success throughout their career.

Paul Harrington, a Drexel University labor economist and lead author of the study, says that work experience in a formal job during high school (from ages 16 to 19) correspond to a 20 to 25 percent increase in salary for teens almost a decade later. In this case, a “formal” job means a gig in food service or retail for a larger company, as opposed to work like babysitting or cutting the neighbor’s grass. High school students who work, he says, are also more likely to have a job a decade after high school than their peers. The numbers are even stronger for teen boys, Harrington says.

“I think there’s a dignity in work,” Harrington says. “It’s really important for people to understand how they contribute to making an organization function. The way you understand how that works is by doing it.”

The study did reveal some bad news, however. As the economy has suffered, jobs for teens have become more difficult to come by. In the Metro Philadelphia area, the study revealed that in 2000, about 44 percent of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs. Today, that number has fallen to 25 percent, mostly due to the lack of employment opportunities and to the fact that older workers are holding onto jobs longer than they have in previous decades.

The other piece of data that the study revealed is that attendance in high school is a very strong indicator of good things to come. Harrington says that having high daily attendance in high school means that students have a much higher chance of graduating from college.

“Woody allen said 90% of life is showing up,” Harrington says. “Turns out he was right.”

The post Tie on that apron, kids: Drexel University study says teens who have jobs are more likely to succeed appeared first on Metro.us.

It took a lot of determination for Michael A. Olivas to comb through every Supreme Court decision from the last 50 years. But he feels he discovered an important pattern in the cases related to higher education — one that he thinks the country should be wary of.

In his latest book — “Suing Alma Mater: Higher Education and the Courts” — Olivas reviews every one of these cases, plus a few important game-changers that never reached the national spotlight.

“The nature of these cases has certainly changed. It’s gone from the old-style civil rights organizations, like the ACLU or the NAACP legal defense fund, to cases brought by predominantly conservative or religious organizations. They believe life has become far too secular, or that the majority group — white people — are being discriminated against,” says Olivas.

The longtime University of Houston professor doesn’t shy away from expressing his views on controversial subjects, and he says this shift in the courts represents a miscarriage of justice.

“I think it’s hard to make a case that Christians are an oppressed minority in the United States,” he says. “They tend to run the country, unlike undocumented Mexican college students or Black students that are discriminated against.”

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The pressure caused by and the cramming required for final exams have long taken the blame for a slew of college-campus woes, including cheating scandals and Adderall abuse. Now some schools and professors are also questioning the efficacy of finals on a fundamental level, deeming them — at best — insufficient assessments of knowledge and — at worst — impediments to learning.

Even Harvard, rather famously, began phasing out the dreaded end-term tests after a curriculum change in 2009. Other teachers and campuses are following suit. One such educator at the forefront of the movement, William E. Engel, Ph.D., professor of English at Sewanee: The University of the South, shares his classroom endgame, and four better ways to achieve it

Focus on smaller, cumulative projects: “Learning should be cumulative, rather than coming in little bits and pieces that aren’t put together until the end. My students do exercises that they keep applying, transforming, reapplying and literally reconstructing throughout the semester. Exercises are a means to an end, not the end itself. ”

Remove the pressure: “When they’re cramming, they may get surface details down — but they won’t be able to offer the nuances of a well-constructed and interesting argument. Sometimes I give writing exercises during class, introduced as ‘just an assignment for class time today.’ This environment helps them to be able to grasp greater depths of concepts.”

Introduce a different pressure: “I have them work individually and then come to class and do it in a group. Each is asked to speak about something unique they discovered. When they know their peers will look at the individual work they did, it will be more polished. Working in peer groups ensures they’ve tested their ideas.”

The endgame: Ultimately, Engel hopes to teach his students analytical ways to approach texts that they can then incorporate into other areas of learning and expertise. “My larger goal is to prepare them for lifelong learning,” he explains. “I’m trying to develop the spirit of my student, more than a mastery of the material. If we’re teaching to an exam, that changes how we teach.”

It’s all about the shapes

Engel is fond of mind maps. For example, when teaching Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” he gives the students a 24-sided figure, a side for each tale: “I have them draw lines and squiggles in colorful pens to make connections between and among the tales,” he says.

— To learn more about his pedagogy and exercises, visit www.engelwood.com.

The post The case for killing college finals appeared first on Metro.us.

College decisions were due on May 1, and as it happens every year, students with a pile of acceptance letters had to ponder amidst the flurry of activity that accompanies their senior year. Whether the concerns are financial, about location or the type of college they want to attend, it’s a big moment for any student. We asked some of next year’s Frosh how they made the call.

All about the Benjamins
For Shain Goldman of Albany, the bottom line was what mattered most in his decision.
“I was kind of torn between two schools, I did a summer program at Syracuse and that was my top choice. Once I was accepted there and also at SUNY Buffalo, those were my main two schools. It was stressful, but my brother and sister went to SUNY Buffalo so I got the first-hand experience. The tuition is such a big difference, I would have to take out a huge amount of loans, so it seemed more practical to go with SUNY Buffalo. It was heartbreaking … but it just made economic sense to not have that much debt when starting my career.”

Size matters, and so does place
For Magdalena Espinoza of Manlius, NY, location was the final decision, though the size of the school is still intimidating.”The college I decided to go to is SUNY Binghamton. … I applied to many small schools but Binghamton is a big school, so I didn’t know which I would prefer more. I made the decision to go to Binghamton because I thought it was in the perfect location. I did not want to be in the same city I grew up in, but I also wanted to be close so that I could come back home anytime.”

Down to the wire
For Manhattan senior Jack Brodsky, taking a day to mull over the decision to go to Parsons School of Design made him feel more sure — mostly. Brodsky is a senior at Léman Manhattan Prep school and wanted to make sure he stuck around his favorite city for college. ”I really waited until the very end to make the call. I needed that day [off from school] talking with my parents and thinking it over. I think I’m in the regret stage now, but that will pass. That shock of ‘Wow, now I made my college decision’ seems crazy to me. Today I feel pretty excited, but of course I’m still a little nervous because it’s a change.”

Wondering about the wardrobe
For Zander Cowen, a senior at Wayland High School in Mass., attending a small school was important, but he had some reservations.”At a small college, it would be easier to form close, personal relationships with my professors than it would be at a large school. … I’m concerned that I will not be able to fit in at Hampshire because I am so different than kids who attend the school. Hampshire college also doesn’t have many club sports teams, and the students that attend, from my understanding, don’t play many sports.”

The post How I made my college decision: High school seniors weigh in appeared first on Metro.us.

According to a study published by Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, teens who spend some time bagging groceries or cyphoning fries into happy meals have a larger shot at success throughout their career.

Paul Harrington, a Drexel University labor economist and lead author of the study says that work experience in a formal job during high school (from ages 16 to 19) correspond to a 20 to 25 percent increase in salary for teens almost a decade later. In this case, a “formal” job means a gig in food service or retail for a larger company, as opposed to work like babysitting or cutting the neighbor’s grass. High school students who work, he says, are also more likely to have a job a decade after high school than their peers. The numbers are even stronger for teen boys, Harrington says.

“I think there’s a dignity in work,” Harrington says. “It’s really important for people to understand how they contribute to making an organization function. The way you understand how that works is by doing it.”

The study did reveal some bad news, however. As the economy has suffered, jobs for teens have become more difficult to come by. In the Metro Philadelphia area, the study revealed that in 2000, about 44 percent of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs. Today, that number has fallen to 25 percent, mostly due to the lack of employment opportunities, and also to the fact that older workers are holding onto jobs longer than they have in previous decades.

The other piece of data that the study revealed is that attendance in high school is a very strong indicator of good things to come. Harrington says that having high daily attendance in high school means that students have a much higher chance of graduating from college.

“Woody allen said 90% of life is showing up,” Harrington says. “Turns out he was right.”

The post Study shows teens should get jobs while in high school appeared first on Metro.us.

Credit: Thinkstock

College-bound. Deciding where to go to college is often the first major decision a person makes in their life. We asked students about their experiences with the big choice.

College decisions were due at the beginning of this month, and students with a pile of acceptance letters to mull over are met with myriad decisions to ponder amidst the flurry of activity that accompanies their senior year. Whether the concerns are financial, about location or the type of college they want to attend, it’s a big moment for any student. We asked some members of the prospective class of 2017 about how they made the call.

All about the benjamins
For Shain Goldman of Albany, the bottom line was what mattered most in his decision.

“I was kind of torn between two schools, I did a summer program at Syracuse and that was my top choice. Once I was accepted there and also at SUNY Buffalo, those were my main two schools. It was stressful, but my brother and sister went to SUNY Buffalo so I got the first-hand experience. The tuition is such a big difference, I would have to take out a huge amount of loans, so it seemed more practical to go with SUNY Buffalo. It was heartbreaking to begin with, but it just made economic sense to not have that much debt when starting my career. Plus, my brother and sister loved SUNY Buffalo.”

Still a nail-biter
For Magdalena Espinoza of Manlius, NY, location was the final decision, though the size of the school is still intimidating.

“The college I decided to go to is SUNY Binghamton. It was hard making the decision because I didn’t know my preferences. I applied to many small schools but Binghamton is a big school, so I didn’t know which I would prefer more. I made the decision to go to Binghamton because I thought it was in the perfect location. I did not want to be in the same city I grew up in, but I also wanted to be close so that I could come back home anytime. Binghamton is only about an hour and 15 minutes away and it’s also in a suburb which is great for me because I am not a city person. I am nervous about not liking the overall atmosphere because that determines how I’ll feel there all the time. I want it to be comfortable and welcoming so that it can easily be a place to stay for four years.”

Down to the wire
For Manhattan senior Jack Brodsky, taking a day to mull over the decision to go to Parsons School of Design made him feel more sure — mostly.

“I really waited until the very end to make the call. I needed that day [off from school] talking with my parents and thinking it over. I think I’m in the regret stage now, but that will pass. That shock of ‘wow, now I made my college decision’ seems crazy to me. Today I feel pretty excited, but of course I’m still a little nervous because it’s a change.”

Worried about the wardrobe
For Zander Cowen, a senior at Wayland High School in Mass., a small school was important, but he has some reservations.

“At a small college, it would be easier to form close, personal relationships with my professors than it would be at a large school. Having the ability to engage with the material, and discuss that material with other students who are as engaged as I am is important for me as a learner. [After visiting the school twice,] I found people there who wore very odd, unorthodox clothing. People there were very different than me, in the way they dressed, their interests and the way they acted. I’m concerned that I will not be able to fit in at Hampshire because I am so different than kids who attend the school. Hampshire college also doesn’t have many club sports teams, and the students that attend, from my understanding, don’t play many sports.”

The post High hopes for the big college decision appeared first on Metro.us.

After four years at the White House, serving as a special assistant to President Barack Obama on climate change and energy policy, Jason Bordoff has decided to dodge the burnout of the political machine and lead Columbia University in rethinking energy policy. The Center on Global Energy Policy launched this month, so we asked Bordoff about his plans.

What is the larger goal of the center?

When I was in my job in Washington, there were policy issues that would hit your desk that you had to figure out by the end of the day. You didn’t have time to really do deep analysis. You’d see some study funded by one industry, one study by another industry. We hope to be an objective, trusted source of analysis to help people understand.

You say the center is going to take a multi-disciplinary approach. What do you mean by that?

What makes energy so interesting to me is that you have to combine economics and environment, national security and science. Part of what’s great about Columbia is being able to reach out to economics, science and global centers around the world that will bring people into the center. We plan to commission work from experts around the world on various topics. It’s a local issue and a global security issue.

What will students gain from the center?

The center will help educate and engage students by allowing them to produce research, work with some of the fellows we bring in and develop papers. I think it’s a good way for students to work on real, tangible issues.

Hydraulic fracturing is a huge part of energy policy now. How will you address it?

It’s not going to be about whether fracking is good or bad — it’s about helping people understand how the world is changing and what that means. There are significant, important geopolitical implications to energy policy. We will try to be very balanced and explain what is happening, advise on policy and see how the world of energy policy can match the rapid changes in the global energy landscape.

How will this research be used? 

Sometimes academic papers sit on the shelf and they’re rigorous and analytic but not as useful. Policy workers need useful research so they can read things quickly and really tackle how you fix energy problems.

The post Energy policy takes the podium at Columbia appeared first on Metro.us.

With so many bars turning their attention to the craft of the quality cocktail, it can be easy to assume that the concept has saturated the bar market. That’s not true, sadly, and — depending on where you live — it can be hard to track down a well-made cocktail in your neighborhood. There’s no reason why you have to actually leave the house to drink in style, however. A new online teaching program called Drink Skool, created by some of the most respected names in the beverage industry, cuts out the middle-man and gives you the basics on how to turn your own bar into a craft cocktail haven. And unlike most DIY home-improvement projects, the worst that can happen here if you screw up is you get to make another cocktail. Sounds like a win-win.

Drink Skool is “definitely for consumers who have some enthusiasm and have some base knowledge about spirits and cocktails, or bartenders that are getting started, but not anything above that,” one of the partners, Doug Frost (also of the industry standard advanced training program Beverage Alcohol Resource — and one of the more renowned wine experts in the world) explains. “What we’ve tried to do, is distill it — sorry for the pun — into bite-sized chunks so people can go, ‘Ok I got that.’” As Frost points out, mixing a perfect cocktail isn’t exactly rocket science; it’s all about following a recipe and locking down a few standard techniques, all of which the — totally free — course walks users through online with a sense of fun and a sense of humor. “I would hope the outcome of what we’re doing is someone will go, ‘This isn’t that hard,’  buy a few a things and start making their own cocktails,” says Frost. “There’s no reason they can’t.”

Among the program’s lessons are the basics of mixing a cocktail, learning how to taste and appreciate the differences between types of spirits, and important bar techniques like muddling.

It’s an attempt to demystify the concept of mixology, Frost says. “I’m hoping that people will take some time to try a couple of techniques, at least for their favorite cocktails, and end up recognizing that there’s no great mystery in this,” he explains. “Instead it’s about measuring, buying better quality products, and using fresh ingredients. You don’t cook with canned stuff and expect it to taste wonderful.”

Get Skooled:

Right off the bat, there are two crucial things home cocktail enthusiasts need to learn, Frost says. First is the difference between shaking and stirring. Get a stirrer, he says, anything will do, but a nice long-handled spoon is best. “Learn to stir so you don’t break the ice up, and all you do is chill down the drink.” Shaking is for when you want a cocktail to be light and airy because it has bubbles in it; learning to know which recipe works best with either technique is a fundamental place to start. Also of primary importance, he says, is freshness — what he calls “the foundation of what has changed mixology in the U.S.” There’s no substitute for fresh juice, he asserts. “If somebody’s squeezing fresh juice, it’s mind-blowing what happens to flavor of that cocktail as opposed to a mix.”

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As a freshman at Philadelphia’s Peirce College in Fall 2012, Carlos Johnson Junior expected to be surrounded by a variety of new and interesting classmates. One fellow student in particular took the healthcare information technology student by surprise – his mother, Marketa Johnson. She was inspired by her 19-year-old son’s success at Peirce to earn her B.A. in business administration.

“At first, I thought it was awkward and it caught me off guard,” Carlos Jr. admits. “But after a while, it’s not just about me succeeding, it’s about her succeeding. We work as a team to get things done.”

While the two have yet to be in a class together, they have shared insights on instructors and helped each other with homework. At home, Carlos Jr. has pitched in with housework to lighten Marketa’s load of night courses and nine-hour workdays as a business administrator at UPenn.

“It’s still a little stressful,” Marketa says, “but it eases my mind to know we’re making progress as a team, and we’ll reach our goals.” Marketa selected a concentration in management to compliment her career. Carlos Jr. works as a clerk in a doctor’s office and intends to use his degree from Peirce to work as a chemist in a laboratory.

After more than a decade away from traditional classrooms, Marketa is surrounded by younger students, whom she jokes keep her young. There are also many students older than Marketa, who is “45 and proud.”

Besides professional development, Marketa hopes her experience as a non-traditional student will help others to follow suit. “I want people to know that if someone like me can go back and do it, then anyone can do it.” Marketa decided to finally pursue her college dreams now that Carlos Jr. and her daughter are teenagers: “Now, it’s Mommy time,” she says.

Carlos Johston Jr. catches up on some schoolwork.

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There’s a lot more to summer camp than bunk beds and campfires. Mason Griffin, head of YMCA camps in New York, has the encouraging spirit and enthusiasm that seems to embody everything that camp represents. He answered some of the most common questions that parents have about summer camp.

How can parents choose the right camp for their children?

It’s important for parents to go to the camp and meet the camp director — they should meet the people that will be caring for their child. That’s a great way to make the decision as to whether or not the kid should go to sleepaway camp, actually. Many times, the child will have a reaction that they’re going to have fun and are ready to take the plunge with sleepaway camp after visiting.

What do children take away from camp?

One of the biggest things we do for kids is have them demonstrate that they can learn. They learn that they can develop archery skills, that they can make more baskets in basketball than when they first arrived, that they can climb up a really scary-looking tower and go through their fear. The child may not be doing well in school, but in camps they are taught that you can learn, you can do things that are hard for you. There is very little bullying at a good camp. It’s a really corrective emotional experience.

How can parents decide if day camp or sleepaway camp is the right option?

Often, the child knows what he or she is ready for, so listening to the child is a good idea. Often a precursor is that the child feels secure staying with friends. Does the child have experience sleeping away from home, away from mom and dad? If the child is not comfortable doing that, then they wouldn’t be comfortable at a sleep-away camp just yet.

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As the air conditioners hum and drip, the summer months in New York can be hot enough to send anyone running indoors. Jamie Bilella, president of the North American Association of Summer Sessions — and dean at Montclair State University — says that while beating the heat, students of all types can benefit from summer classes that will round out their schedule and help them achieve their educational goals.

Take on a challenge. It can seem counter-intuitive, but Bilella says summer is an ideal time to tackle that tough course students may have been avoiding. “There may be one course that students are intimidated by, and the summer is an ideal time to take it,” Bilella says. Because students often take fewer courses at a time in the summer months, he says “they can focus all of their energy on that challenge.”

Explore. For students who want to think outside their major, summer can be a great time to do it. Bilella suggests that students who didn’t get into the class they were coveting, or who want to try a new elective outside of their focus of study should think about the summer. Also, if students have a course required for their major that they didn’t get to take during the year, summer sessions can fill that gap so that they can start the fall semester with their degree requirements on track

Get on it. Bilella says the No. 1 mistake people make regarding summer sessions is to miss out on them until later in their academic career. “Unfortunately, freshmen don’t pay attention to the summer offerings until they’re juniors,” he says. “They should recognize the opportunities of summer and winter early on.”

Stay on track. Graduating on time is good for the bottom line — and taking a summer course can help make that happen. “Maybe you’re looking to catch up because you didn’t take a heavy course load for a few semesters, or you want to get ahead to take advantage of a study abroad opportunity or focus on an internship,” he says. “Summer makes it possible to stay on track to graduation.”

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Summer camp doesn’t have to be all about yarn crafts and popsicle sticks. Your kids don’t have to travel to a sprawling forest or be devoured by mosquitoes to have a memorable summer camp experience. These unique day camps cater to a variety of interests and take place right here in NYC.

Walk the catwalk at Fashion Camp NYC

This week-long intensive day camp is designed for teen fashionistas. Campers learn the ins and outs of the retail industry from experts working in design, merchandising and more. The week includes seminars, group projects and field trips.
Starts July 15. Fashioncampnyc.com

Rawk out at Girls Rock! Camp
This all-girls music camp features performances by working musical artists and workshops on topics ranging from songwriting to DJing. The philosophy encourages experimentation and collaboration with other campers.
Starts July 29. http://williemaerockcamp.org

Build a robot butler (maybe) at Brooklyn Robot Foundry
Week-long courses teach young scientists how to build and use robots. Activities vary based on interest and age, but robots are a sure bet. Starts June 12. http://brooklynrobotfoundry.com

Shape up at Exerblast
This high-tech adventure day camp combines fitness with gadgets. Kids design their own obstacle courses, solve puzzles, and rack up points to cash in for prizes.
Starts June 6. www.exerblast.org

Nerd out hardcore at Backpacks and Binoculars
A camp for lively urban explorers ages 5 – 10. Campers travel through all five NYC boroughs, visit major cultural institutions and parks, and embark on walking tours in a variety of neighborhoods. Activities throughout the week focus on STEM education.
Starts June 13. www.backpacksandbinoculars.com

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Even for those ultra-curious kids who love soaking up knowledge, sitting in the classroom can be a chore. This summer, enroll your kids in camp programs designed to take education away from the blackboard — and make it fun.

“Camps can provide the opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge, or to help maintain and strengthen the skills and knowledge [children] already have,” says Rhonda Geyer, director of non-credit programs at Temple University. Many educational camps, like Temple’s Summer Education Camp programs at the Ambler campus, are organized into a series of one-week sessions so campers can sample a variety of topics — both those they’ve already had some exposure to, and others that will let them explore something new.

“You want to find topics that will be fun, interesting and educational,” Geyer says. Camp is not summer school, though, so “the program should also provide recreation and other downtime, so kids can have some fun,” she adds. “It is summertime, after all.”

At Temple, programs range from creative courses in drawing, cartooning and writing to computer-based technical challenges. Some combine both, like website design and robotics. Kids who prefer being outdoors can learn geocaching or study wildlife.

Students who need a boost maintaining or strengthening basic skills in math or reading and writing also have access to camps that emphasize fun. Temple offers the Jumpstart! series, which helps kids through individual and group games and activities. It’s structured with the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) in mind.

“Practicing learning skills in a camp-like environment can be fun and also help students return to school without the ‘mental cobwebs’ that sometimes collect over the summer,” Geyer says. “Hopefully they will have a new positive perspective concerning their own skill strengths, abilities and interests.”

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The right camp can turn summer into an exciting time filled with discovery and adventure. Kids should be learning about themselves as they delve deeper into the things that interest them. Thankfully, Philadelphia has a day camp for nearly every interest, hobby and talent. So while the grownups continue their regular work schedule, youngsters can embrace summer vacation.

Camp can be pricey, but many programs have scholarships available to help with the cost. Others offer a week-by-week option rather than full-term enrollment. Some even have a bulk purchase discount. Be sure to check a camp’s website for alternate payment options. Here are a few of the nearby camps that we recommend.

Young Performers Theater Camp
If you have budding thespians at home, the Young Performers Theater Camp is their calling. “Last year we had about 480 kids at the camp — each year it gets bigger,” says Tom Dignam, performing arts coordinator for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. The program, which is open to ages nine to 18, is divided into dance and musical theater. Each group auditions for and rehearses a specific performance, which is put on at the end of the season.
Camp runs July 1–Aug. 12
$320 – $470 for a six-week course
Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut St.
www.performingartspdpr.org

Discovery Camp
The Franklin Institute offers kids in pre-K through eighth grade the opportunity to learn about space, experiment with science and explore the messy world of slime. Each week features a new track, all centered around education through fun.
Camp runs June 17–Aug. 30
$300 – $375 per week
The Franklin Institute
222 N. 20th St.
www.fi.edu

Young Journalists Summer Camp
Junior reporters can give the Metro news staff some competition with the help of WHYY, Philadelphia’s public radio station. High school students will be assigned a neighborhood beat to report about. The campers will be taught how to pitch their stories, research topics, conduct interviews, and present the information through text, audio and video.
Camp runs June 24–July 5 and Aug. 5-16
$1,200 – $1,350 per course
Hamilton Public Media Common at WHYY
150 N. Sixth St.
www.whyy.org

Summer Camp at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
PAFA provides a creative outlet for little Van Goghs ages 5 to 15. “There is a huge range of options,” says Cari Freno, manager of family programs at PAFA. “For the younger students the camps have themes like superheroes and imaginary places. For the oldest group the classes are more skill-based, like urban and graphic design. And the two age groups in between have a mix of the two.”
Camp runs July 1–Aug. 16
$235 – $300 per week
PAFA Cast Hall
128 N. Broad S.
www.pafa.org

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Over the last decade, colleges have increasingly created fellowship and scholarship centers to assist undergrads in applying for competitive opportunities. This month is when those centers start encouraging hopeful collegiates to consider a Fulbright: It can take upward of three months to create a compelling application.

Rona Buchalter, director of the Drexel University Fellowships Office, advises that it’s not easy to get a strong application together: “The core of the application is a one-page personal statement and a two-page proposal. You might think, ‘Oh, well that’s easy. I could do that this weekend,’ but really it takes several months and six to 10 drafts to get it right,” says Buchalder. The earlier the drafts are done, the better.

The application, she says, is about much more than word count. “There’s a lot of detail that needs to fit in there,” Buchalter says. “On top of that, it needs to be a good read and tell a compelling story, she says adding encouragement: “That’s not easy to do on short notice.”

Facts and Figures
Founded in 1946, the Student Fulbright is intended to provide recent college graduates an opportunity to study in foreign country, and to “increase understanding” between U.S. citizens and people from other nations. According to the state department website, congress allocates about $250 million to the Fulbright each year. The Student Fulbright is just one aspect of the program, providing scholarships to roughly 1,500 candidates.

Application requirements for the student Fulbright:
1. College transcripts, detailing a completed undergraduate degree

2. A one-page statement of purpose: Why do you want to study in the nation you have selected?

3. A two-page proposal for the project, research or position you intend to pursue

4. Three letters of recommendation

5. A letter of affiliation from the host institution of the foreign country

6. A language evaluation (for those intending to pursue study in a country that does not speak English predominantly)

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After more than three years of discussions — and plenty of cross-disciplinary bonding — the group developed strategies for fostering better relationships, which led to a new guidebook for campuses that want to give it a try: “Transformative Conversations: A Guide to Mentoring Communities in Higher Education.”

The process, “formation mentoring,” is a detailed system that encourages professors to meet in small groups and support each other in becoming better teachers and learners.

“We want to take an interest in the whole person — not just our intellectual life, but our moral life, our emotional life, our spiritual life. All of this is part of who we are, and wouldn’t it be nice if there was a setting where we could bring that to the table?” says Aaron Kheriaty, one of four authors of the guidebook and a professor at University of California, Irvine.

“We’re trying to create a space to talk about our hopes, doubts and mistakes — all the things you usually don’t put out there in a faculty meeting where everyone’s got their peacock feathers flying.”

“Our primary focus is to give people a way to help   make their professional lives better. We hope that by creating these groups, we will have an effect on the institution,” says Kheriaty.

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Three Philadelphia University students are continuing to explore new opportunities for food system business models in Philadelphia and India following a six-day trip to Delhi and Mumbai.

Students Myeshia Townsend, Andrienne Remener and Julianne Allman, accompanied by associate professor Natalie Nixon, collaborated with six students at ERA Business School in Delhi and four students at Welingkar College in Mumbai to research, interview experts and observe the Indian manufacturing and street food systems. The trip was part of a course called Opportunity Finding in Emerging Markets.

The students are now in the discovery phase of the project, collaborating with students in India via Skype and Google Hangouts. On their trip, their research led them to discover “pain points,” or problems, with the food systems, which will inform projects for proposed business opportunities.

While in Delhi, the students visited Haldiram’s, a major Indian snack-food company, talked to employees and interviewed the director of quality control. They learned how the company evolved from a small business to a large-scale sweets and snacks manufacturer.

The students also conducted ethnographic observations at two open-air markets to learn about how people access their food. “India is known for having one of the most ancient forms of commerce — the bazaar — and so they saw the diversity of products that were out there,” says Nixon.

Allman was surprised to see how familiar some things were on their trip. “I didn’t realize it was more of a food court-style system, like we would see here in the United States at malls,” she says.

In Mumbai, the students focused on the dabbawallah system, where bicycle riders transport homemade lunches from their spouses to workers at their jobs, then deliver the lunchboxes back to the customers’ homes. Students interviewed the head of the dabbawallah association and visited three customers. Bicycle riders apply to become part of the dabbawallah association and own a stake in the company.

Remener was interested in the importance of home-cooking in India. “Here in the U.S., people focus a lot less on home-cooking. So if that existed in the U.S., it would probably be like a restaurant-delivery system, which we already have,” she says.

Do the research

Nixon explains that students used ethnography and design thinking for their projects. “This style of understanding business opportunity by using ethnography [and] design thinking is something that is becoming more relevant. We saw that there are majors in India at some of the schools that utilize a more integrated approach — qualitative and quantitative research,” she says.

Students from PhilaU and two Indian Universities interview the VP of quality control at Haldiram’s.

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Living in the city’s concrete sprawl, it’s easy to forget that craggy rocks and whispering forests are just beyond the city’s boundaries. For Kirk Reynolds, his love of the outdoors inspired him to found Discover Outdoors, a company that gets city-dwellers into the wild. This month the company launched a non-profit wing that lets low-income students at NYC schools get their hands dirty while doing lessons on geology, biology and earth sciences — free of charge.

Tell us how your non-profit works.
At the most basic level, we work with the Hudson River Park Trust, a public organization funded by the city. We teach them how to fish right in the Hudson River. With that trip, we take up to 50 students, but some programs we can take hundreds of students. During the lesson, we keep one of the fish that we catch and then we dissect it. The teachers and the guides do a biology lesson right on the spot.

How do you fit in the real learning?
Before we take the kids out we have a number of meetings with administrators and teachers. The teachers are the ones who do the lessons, so we ask them what their objectives are to help facilitate that class in an outdoor setting. The kids range from ages 12 to 18, so there is a lot of leeway on the lesson plans.

What is the goal of the organization?
The response has been overwhelming. The ultimate goal is increasing graduation rates and offering more classes through experiences in the outdoors. We hope the inspiration for students will ultimately affect graduation rates, which are too low at 60 percent. The follow-through is that we’ve created a scholarship program that we’re hoping will help students through graduation.

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In a high-tech global economy, few people dispute the need for Americans to excel in fields that will help them compete in the world market. In “STEM the Tide: Reforming Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education in America,” Claremont graduate professor of education Dr. David E. Drew tells us why the U.S. underperforms in these critical areas and suggests ways to get back on track.

Why does America perform poorly in STEM education?
The main reason is that we don’t support or respect our teachers as much as other countries do. In countries that out-perform ours, being a teacher is a higher-status job. They have much more professional development, and they’re paid more. Fifty years ago, our underperformance didn’t matter that much. Now, we have a high-tech information economy, so you need different kinds of skills. You’re competing not only against the person from the next town, but with people around the world.

What are our strengths?
Ironically, even though we have a weak K-12 system, we have one of the strongest higher education systems in the world. In the U.S., we believe in giving people second and third chances. Many countries have rigid structures where you take a test before you’re 18 and they tell you what you’ll be doing when you’re 45. Our system is more consistent with human nature.

How can we change the way we think about STEM achievement?
Other countries teach these subjects to everybody, and they succeed. Let me give you a metaphor: Every parent looks forward to the day their newborn will one day learn language. It is a complex cognitive task, but every person in our society does it. That’s how we should be looking at STEM education.

How will liberal arts education fit into the new economy?
I think it’s vital. We must have a cultural context, a historical context and a philosophical context in which we apply technology.  There have been too many instances of masterful technological achievements that have wrought havoc on society. We’ve got to be able to merge values with technologies.

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University of St. Thomas professor Stephen D. Brookfield is perhaps the most prolific writer on adult higher education in the U.S. His books use personal experience to flesh out his teaching philosophy. Brookfied’s latest, “Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults,” takes a look at power dynamics.

“Power is everywhere in the classroom. You can’t avoid it,” he says, from his office in Saint Paul, Minn. “So I thought, instead of writing a book that’s full of these approaches — which is probably what people are expecting — let’s examine how these power dynamics skew the way teaching techniques are experienced by students.”

“Powerful Techniques” touches on a number of concepts Brookfield has written about before: developing critical thinking, facilitating discussion, utilizing the creative arts. But this time the author emphasizes the adjustments he has made to his teaching style due to notions of power and trust.

Though Brookfield is still a believer in student-controlled, self-directed learning, he now introduces the concept with more than a touch of caution.

“If I’m asking people to make decisions about the curriculum, or I’m involving them in setting up the grading system, one of the responses I often get is: ‘You’re playing a game with us and we don’t know what your agenda is,” he explains. “So now I begin by saying, ‘Here are the non-negotiable things  about the class; here are the things I want you to decide; and here are places where we can negotiate.’ By being less naive about us all having the same power, I’m able to gain a student’s trust and build something from there.”

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From behind the lectern at Wharton Business School, to the candy-colored halls of Google, to an upcoming trip to a military base in Afghanistan, Stuart Diamond wants people to know how to negotiate. His book, “Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life” takes a realistic perspective — coaxing a cranky toddler to bed, asking for a raise, getting a job after switching careers — to teach people how they can achieve more. Diamond says the key to negotiation is just to have a good conversation. Here’s what we learned from our good conversation with Diamond:

Focus on your skills
Experience is not why people give you a job. It’s all about skills. I encourage people to figure out not what experience they have, but what skills. It’s the skill the employer wants. I once counseled a medical doctor about moving into a financial consulting career. He had leadership abilities, he was organized and he had a vision. He said: “You can teach me the financial stuff I need to know,” and he was right. People assume experience means skills but it doesn’t.

Negotiating a job or a raise is about them — not you.
A good negotiation is just a conversation. The less stressful it is,the better. When somebody is sitting across the table looking at you, they’re thinking, “can I stand this person every day?” That’s the pictures in their head. People think it’s a game, it’s not a game or a dance – it’s just a talk.

Know the pictures in their head
My first question to an employer is: “why are you looking for somebody?” I want to find out who they are, I want to find out what’s in their head. Finding out the pictures in their head is the most important way to get more. I once applied at Morgan Stanley. I said: what criteria do you use to hire people? The interviewer replied “what criteria should I use?” I listed all the things I was good at and she hired me! The more you know about the other party, the more you know what to do.

Attitude is really important
If I have a can-do attitude and I’m willing to work any time and anywhere, if I find solutions not problems, that’s what will get me the job. If some one has a lot of experience and bad attitude, I wouldn’t take them over a person with no experience and a great attitude.

The first salary negotiation isn’t as vital as you’d think.
A lot of people think that it’s really important to get the best salary you can going in. I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s important to get a commitment for them to pay you more if you add value going forward. The salary they’re paying you for is budgeted for, but if you say if I add a lot of value to you, people are much more willing to pay out of additional future revinues. What will they pay you next year? People hardly ever do that and it’s a lot better of a way to approach the negotiation.

Ask for intangibles
If they can’t pay you the salary you want but suggest intangibles that don’t cost much, you can sweeten the deal. Moving expenses, tax advice, mortgage cosigning, education and training – there are all kinds of things that HR has at their disposal that don’t cost very much and that people hardly ever ask for. Companies are often only too happy to give you these things.

Talk to your elders
There is always somebody old that’s been put out to pasture at any company, some old guy or woman who’s been there for 40 years who’s about to retire and nobody talks to them. They have the whole company at their hands. They will tell you everything you need to know about succeeding in that company.

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In 2011, Hendrix College student Dale J. Stephens started receiving a lot of unexpected press. His website, UnCollege.org, delivered a hypercritical cost-benefit analysis of college at a time when many parents and students were questioning their faith in higher education for the first time.

In one of the many interviews Stephens gave that year, he casually mentioned that he was working on a book. He now admits that he probably should have said “thinking about,” rather than “working on” his book, but the quote was published anyway and Stephens was soon approached by curious book agents.

Stephens got around to writing the book, and the result was released last week: “Hacking Your Education: Ditch the Lectures, Save Tens of Thousands, and Learn More Than Your Peers Ever Will.”
To be sure, Stephens approaches the issue from a unique perspective. With his family’s begrudging support, he left his California public school at 12 and developed his own curriculum right up until he took the ACT and applied to colleges.

“I spent a lot of my time in college wondering, ‘If I was able to get into college without going to high school, why is there any reason that I need to go to college to get into life?’” he says. “And why am I paying $40,000 a year for this, when I can figure out how to learn for free?”

This month, the 21-year-old Stephens is crisscrossing the country on a media blitz — From the “Today” show, to Katie Couric, to South by Southwest — preaching a vision of a free, unfiltered, self-generated education.

“It’s about taking ownership and realizing that no one is going to give you an education,” he says. “If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to go out and find it for yourself: live abroad, do internships, research, build your portfolio, feed your networking community. We think that a college is going to give us those things in one nice package, but the reality is that you’re going to have to do it on your own whether you’re in school or not.”

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We asked chefs for their take on the chicken vs. egg question at the annual benefit for the Careers through Culinary Arts Program, which funds scholarships for students who aspire to be in the kitchen.

SCHOOL FIRST

“If you have experience before you go to school, I think it gives you an edge on learning so you can absorb things that you may be familiar with but not quite confident in. Start with school, get the tools you need and remember that the on-the-job training is really how you learn what the industry is all about.” Michael Lomonaco, Porter House New York

“It’s important to go to school. Actually, if you can combine both, like working during a school break, it’s even better. School is supposed to teach you the basics. The chef [will] teach you to connect what you learn. Nowadays I think it’s important to study first, then go.” Matteo Bergamini, SD26

“I recommend culinary school first. It gets you prepared in the sense of seeing the reality of what you’re going into. It also helps you understand a lot of culinary terms that we use.” Yuhi Fujinaga, The Sea Grill

RESTAURANT FIRST

“I think it’s great to go into a restaurant to make sure it’s actually something you want to do. Culinary school’s a pretty big investment in time and money.” Marc Murphy, Landmarc

“Work in a restaurant. It’s about whether you like it or not. If you don’t love it, you’ll never make it. You have to live it, eat it and breathe it. And when you go to school, you learn things, and you learn a lot, but you need to see whether you’re suited for it. And you can’t tell until you get out there and work in the field.” Sarabeth Levine, Sarabeth’s

“Working at a restaurant gives you all the tools to learn before you get [out] there. I worked in a restaurant first, and the moment I got to culinary school I felt like I had the biggest head-start in the world.” Kelvin Fernandez, The Strand, American Bistro

Q&A: Do you even need to go to culinary school? 
“I went to culinary school and I dropped out. … I’d say like 80 percent of my cooks are dropouts or they didn’t go to school at all. Thomas Keller did not go school.” Kyung Up Lim, Michael’s
“You don’t need to go, but I do think for some people it is worth it. It depends on the person. I personally didn’t go to culinary school.” Sam Yoo, Torrisi Italian Specialties

“I would say no. It’s all about if you can do 80 hours a week and do 12 hours a day and get burned every day — that’s when you know you want it. It’s not necessarily you go to school, you learn it and you come out and be a chef — and that’s what a lot of the schools make it out to be. There’s a lot of really hard work before that happens.” Joseph Fortunato, Extra
Virgin

“No, by no means. I’ve wasted a lot of money just going to school and then [realizing] it’s not what it’s like on the Food Network.” Chris Wyman, Scarpetta

‘It depends on the person’

“Culinary school gives you the knowledge — even how to hold a knife, which is very good. But also, [at a] restaurant, if you have a very good chef, like a teacher, [it’s almost like how] the culinary school teaches you.” Maria Loi, Loi
“I think it depends on the person. I did not go to culinary school, but I know some very good cooks that did and I really think it depends on how you learn. I just went to a restaurant and asked if I could work for free, and that’s how I learned.” Sam Henderson, wd-50

“I think culinary school gives you a great basis to learn the things that you really need to know to get started, but there’s nothing really like restaurant experience. Working in a restaurant is definitely going to enhance your skill level. But culinary school is a great basis and I would never not recommend going to culinary school if you have the opportunity.” Sean Quinn, Chadwick’s

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