HOUSTON – In the board game “Life”, one travels into adulthood: getting a job, having a family and handling money.
For hundreds of Houston students, it was a different game. Big companies set up camp at the George R. Brown Convention Center to hand out some real-life lessons.
Just like real life, it starts with a job. So the students applied, but not all received offers.
Kierra Hatchet, 16, was surprised to find her demeanor affected her job offers.
“I thought by being qualified, by being good for certain jobs, you would get the job, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Hatchet said.
So, she plans to make changes.
“Sell myself more for the job I really want. Act more interested, engage more in the person and more contact, more eye contact.”
Tarik Isaac is just 14 years old.
“They asked me what my weakness is and that caught me really off guard,” Isaac said.
Fortunately the confident teen was ready with answers. It
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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is making a big impact on the future of education in Cameron County.
The Microsoft founder and his wife awarded $1.3 million dollars to the United Way of Southern Cameron County.
Local officials told Action 4 News that the money is a big investment for the Rio Grande Valley.
The donation will help pave the way for a better education to students, which in turn will create help build the community.
The big announcement was made this morning at the United Way of Southern Cameron County.
The organization will receive $1.3 million in cash and $200,000 in-kind donations for technical assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The money will come over the course of the next 21 months.
Valley educators hope the money will help bring awareness about the importance of technical schools, college, create effective curriculums in the schools and help graduates with job placement.
United Way of Southern Cameron County Traci Wickett spoke with Action 4 News about the donation.
“We are also going to make changes in the way we do business, the way businesses interact with school districts, making sure the employer has a voice in education because unless the curriculum aligns with what an employer needs at the end it’s not going to be possible for students to get those jobs,” Wickett said.
Wickett said pushing for a post-secondary education does not only mean encouraging students to attend a four year college.
She said they will also encourage them to pursue vocational and technical careers.
To qualify for the grant, the United Way had to commit $240,000 dollars towards education.
Wickett says community members and businesses made it possible.
Just days after CSU leaders increased tuition, University of California regents approved a second tuition increase for the approaching fall semester.
“I definitely understand the difficult challenge (the board members) face and the financial seriousness of this financial crisis, but the solution can’t be to hoist the cost on the back of our students,” argued Bahar Navab, president of UC Berkeley’s Graduate Assembly. “It’s just not a sustainable model.”
Regent Bonnie Reiss shared similar concerns, but admitted that the regents had been backed into a corner.
Not all students will be affected by the increase, however. According to UC Newsroom, one-third of the tuition increase will go towards financial aid. Students whose families have an annual income of $80,000 or less pay no tuition.
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CASTLE ROCK Five parents who serve on Douglas County’s district accountability committee asked lots of questions Tuesday about the voucher charter school slated to open this fall.
The charter school will serve as the administrative home of the 500 students awarded vouchers – worth $4,575 in state and local tax dollars to private schools in Colorado’s first district-driven voucher pilot.
But the students won’t actually attend classes in a charter school – instead, they’ll be enrolling in the 19 or more “private school partners” approved by the district to accept vouchers in 2011-12.
“As far as we know, nothing like this has been done anywhere, Robert Ross, the district’s legal counsel, said Tuesday in response to questions. “There is not a pat
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry is in San Antonio touting a recently passed bill aimed at helping veterans.
He’ll be ceremonially signing the new law, which is intended to help vets get college credit for military training.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, the San Antonio Democrat who authored the legislation, will join Perry to tout the College Credit for Heroes program. The bill signing is only ceremonial. Perry signed the legislation into law last month.
Perry’s speech Thursday will be his first public appearance since undergoing back surgery July 1.
Kids, Ive recently argued, should let their they can get their hands on because at least theyre reading. Whats more, theyre loving what theyre reading.
Then I came across a Wall Street Journal article on the trend of disturbingly dark teen lit, with a pulchritude of envelope-pushing, profanity-laced tales about kidnapping, pederasty, beatings, rape, incest, suicide, drug addiction.
Suddenly, I find myself in that uncomfortable parental territory when I question a stance that I held so confidenetly just a few days earlier, when I so easily proselytized free-reading love.
Yet on the rare occasion that I see my 13-year-old son become obsessed with a book – or more often the case – fall in love with a series like post-apocalyptic, teenager-torturing The Hunger Games, I think, “Thats my boy!” As far as I see it, if hes reading, then hes not slaughtering zombies. But
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Despite an optimistic report from ADP, the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report showed that the job market hit a roadblock in June.
“At first, when I heard it, I thought maybe they had announced the wrong numbers, they were so bad,” said Robert Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics to CNN Money.
“There isn’t a single silver bullet–there are a number of factors coming together,” said John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo. “The tsunami, floods, higher gas prices, and the stalemate in Washington all create a lot of uncertainty.”
After previous disappointing hiring numbers, most economists highlight the bright spots. Ethan Harris, economist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, however, pointed out that this month’s report had little hope to cling to.
“Every major component of the report was weak,” said Harris to The Wall Street Journal. “That doesn’t happen very often–usually there’s some little ray of hope.
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