First-Generation Collegians: Their Families’ Hope
Dec 13th
Of his six brothers and sisters, Mike Rodriguez,* a Fordham University senior, is the only child in his family who will graduate from college.
The words his mother told him before he began his freshman year are seared in his mind: “You are my only hope,” she said as he pushed a half-filled grocery cart back to their apartment in Washington Heights. He stared at her blankly: never before was it so clear that his future or his family’s future rested on him going to college.
“I’m carrying the family’s banner,” he said. “It’s my job to increase our status, so my mother can have the life she dreams of and my kids can have more than I do.”
While his parents came to America from the Dominican Republic for factory work to fulfill the “American Dream,” Rodriguez carries the responsibility to take the dream one step further by using college to establish his family as well educated and financially successful.
Sex Ed 101: What You Didn’t Learn
Dec 13th
College sex educators have found that many students have basic questions about sexuality that should have been answered in sex ed courses in middle school or high school. Here are the most common misconceptions that college students have about sex, and the ways that educators attempt to remedy them.
Dr. Paul Joannides is a walking-talking sex-advice column, minus the diva plus ten years of graduate school. Traveling from college-to-college across the United States, Joannides lectures students on the female orgasm, pornography, contraception and other sex-related topics. His book, “The Guide to Getting It On,” may make parents uncomfortable—what with the Grecian god cartoons with swollen, foot-long penises—but Joannides aims to change unhealthy, common misconceptions that college students have about sex through the frank discussion of topics that most kids weren’t taught in middle school or high school.
Graduate School: Will it be worth it?
Nov 22nd
Come senior year, many college students face a big decision: start to search for a job or to continue their education at graduate school. Join the real world or continue stress over assignments and exams and sleepless night. For the class of 2012, the recession and high unemployment rates further complicate the decision.
Several factors influence the decision to enroll in graduate school, ranging from cost, no guaranteed return, and the current economy’s influence on the work force. The cost of graduate school can’t be ignored and uncertainty as to whether there will be a better and higher paying job at the end isn’t clear.
For some students the competition has upped the ante. Franca Godenzi, a junior studying at Boston College said, “There is a much greater pressure to go to graduate school due to credential inflation in our society. Many years ago a high school education was sufficient and then a Bachelors degree, and now it’s a Masters or a PhD. Considering Read the rest of this entry »