Networking Through Junior Theme

This week I was thinking about who I was going to interview for my Junior Theme. A requirement for our essay is to incorporate quotes from an interview with a scholar who knows our topic or a certain aspect of our topic very well. Because my Junior Theme is related to financial aid and loans, I decided to email financial aid departments from four different colleges: Northwestern University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, DePaul University, and Loyola University. 

After sending out emails to the colleges requesting for a short interview with people in the financial aid departments, I waited a couple of days for replies. I was rejected by DePaul because they were too busy, and none of the other schools replied. I then decided to ask my own school's college counselor offices for any referrals. I asked a college counselor who immediately called up the head of the financial aid department from Northwestern who he happened to have good relations with. She said yes to the interview without hesitation, and I realized how valuable professional networking is. 

Merriam Webster defines networking as "the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically, the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business." "Exchange" is a key word because the "relationships" that you make are meant to be personal with the benefits of receiving something but also returning the favor. Being able to network is a vital skill that people need not only for work but for life. Having work and personal connections are very beneficial because you have resources to refer to about topics you may not be familiar with or who can refer you to their personal connections. 

As I am continuing to write my Junior Theme, I will continue to use connections, like teachers, peers, etc..., around me to find information or fresh aspects of my topic. How do you guys network in everyday life? How have personal connections helped you?

The Bar on Higher Education Gets Higher

I finally came up with four reasons that I think are especially important as to why student debt is increasing. I believe that four important reasons as to why student debt is increasing is because of the stress on higher education, increase in college tuition, limited financial aid available for students, and inability of students to pay off their debt. On this blog post, I am going to focus on the emphasis of higher education. 

There has recently been a huge push post-secondary education. President Barack Obama is a huge advocate for post secondary education. One of his goals for our country is that "by 2020, America would...have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world" (whitehouse.gov). President Obama is using schools to encourage students to go through at least one year of post-secondary education as well as working towards making higher education more affordable for all families. 

I believe that this is one of President Obama's goals because "the average earnings of college graduates is...twice as high as that of workers with only a high school diploma"and "of the 30 fastest growing occupations, more than half require post-secondary education" (whitehouse.gov). Not only do students that graduated from college make about twice as much as students who only completed high school, but students are almost required to go through post-secondary schools in order to get a higher paying job for the future. 

If you have any responses to my question that I did not address or any other comments on this topic, please write them below!

Introducing My Junior Theme

As I was brainstorming topics for my Junior Theme, I started forming my opinions and identifying my interests on topics in American History. The process has gotten me to look at American History from my own perspective. 

 After we research about current events in America, we hone in on one specific topic and formulate a question about it. Our question is not supposed to have a discrete answer, nor should we think we know the answer. Then, we try to reply to that question with reasons we’ve gathered from our research. We look at how certain aspects of our topic differ in the present and in the past. Because there is not one correct answer, we use our interpretation of facts and data to answer history. In a sense, we are taking a page of history and adding our own notes onto that page.

I've decided to question the current issue of college debt: Why is college student debt increasing? I think this topic grabbed my attention because, as a junior, I'm naturally thinking about college and all the stressful factors that come with it i.e. money, planning, etc... You can check on my blog every week for an update on how my Junior Theme is going. I'll be talking about my progress as well as relating my findings to different themes in American History. If you're interested in familiarizing yourself with present day controversial topics, check out www.procon.org.