YoungBlackStudents

Dr Boyce Education: 5 More Things College Students do to Ruin their Lives

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

Yesterday, I posted a list of 5 things college students do to ruin their lives. Now, I am going to give you 5 more things. This is an excerpt from my book, "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About College." Education is one of the most important things for our people, and we need to make sure our kids are prepared.

6)Choosing a major you hate or one that doesn’t make as much money as you would like

You should not choose a major just because it makes money. You also should not necessarily choose a major just because it is exactly what you want to do. The best way to choose a major is to figure out what combination of things are going to make you happy in the long-run. I LOVE playing basketball, but I would not enjoy playing basketball for a living, since I am not good enough to make money at it. So, I play basketball in my spare time and I work as a finance professor, which I enjoy, but also pays the bills. You should choose a major based upon the ability of the major to take care of your long-term financial needs, as well as provide you with a job you can enjoy. So, don’t pick something just because you love it, and don’t pick it just because you have money or prestige. Find out what is going to be important to you in the long run and let that be the basis for your choice. You should also factor in what kind of life you want to have when you are older, say, 30, and how this job fits into that plan. Do you want to have a family? Well, they are going to need time and financial support. Does your future job give you that? Also, you should never let anyone choose a major for you. That is usually the world’s quickest way to unhappiness. Instead, you should listen to the advice of others and then use that information to make a decision that works best for you. It is silly to not listen to your elders, but it is also silly to let them control your life.

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Tags: african american students, black college students

Black News: Syracuse Professor Boyce Watkins speaks to students

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

As a college professor for the past 16 years, I’ve noticed two things about college: It can be a place to make your dreams come true, and it can also be a breeding ground for your worst nightmares. So, I thought I would compile a list of things that I’ve seen college students do to ruin their lives over the years. Hopefully, you and your child can learn from what I am about to share.

1) Sex, drugs, alcohol and gambling
College is a great place to pick up a lot of really bad habits. The worst part is that people tell you that these things are ok. It’s not that all of these are bad things to do, but at the very least, they should be done in moderation. It doesn’t matter if you are in college: If you have sex with too many people, you are going to catch a disease or get pregnant. If you use drugs, you are going to become a drug addict. If you drink too much, you will become an alcoholic. Gambling can also ruin your life as much as drugs or alcohol. I have several dozen friends with really messed up lives to this day, all of whom started their downward spiral on a college campus. You should not think that because you are in college, you are immune to these problems. If something doesn’t feel right, then you shouldn’t do it. Be mature enough to make smart decisions.

2) Falling for the credit card scams and ruining your credit
There are no serious credit card scams in college, only the little people who stand out in front of the bookstore trying to get you to take their "free money". Credit cards are very tempting when you are in school, especially since you are broke. If you decide to take one, make sure that you are very careful with how much you buy with the card, and that you have a careful plan to pay it all back. Putting yourself in over your head can easily destroy your credit. That is not a good cycle to get into. Not taking care of your student loan obligations can ruin your credit as well. You should manage your debt as best you can, because if you don’t, it can take decades to fix the problems that are created.

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Black News: Dr. Wilmer Leon Speaks with Dr. Robert Brown on Managing Stress

Dr Wilmer Leon and Dr. Robert Brown discuss how to cope with the stress of a changing environment.  Click here to listen!

Black News: Obama’s Lawyers Go Nuts over This Ad

The posters went up last week, 14 in Union Station. On each of the large displays, a thought bubble rises up from a picture of a beautiful 8-year-old: "President Obama’s daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don’t I?"

A Washington nonprofit that advocates nutrition-policy reform paid $20,000 to get its message across and carefully maneuvered Metro’s tangle of regulations to display its posters. Metro gave it a go — but the White House did not, according to the group. Within 24 hours of the signs’ appearance, the White House asked thePhysicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to take down the ads, which feature Jasmine Messiah, a vegetarian who attends a Miami-Dade County public school that, she says, offers no vegetarian or vegan lunch options.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: Why We All Need to Go to College

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

The following is an exerpt from the book, "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about College."

Before I tell you all the great things about college, and all the things that are going to happen before, during and after, we should start with a very basic question: why do you want to go to college anyway? I mean, you could be doing a lot of things: playing in the NBA, bustin rhymes with your boys on stage, acting in Hollywood, or just plain old "kickin it". More realistically, you could also just jump right out and get a job after high school. There was a time when that wasn’t such a bad thing. My grandmother always tells me stories about the days when a high school diploma went a long way, when a house cost 8 cents, when dogs didn’t bite and you could leave your front door open at night. But a lot of things have definitely changed since then, and a person must adjust to the times.

If you want to increase your chances to getting a good job one day, then getting a solid education under your belt is a great place to start. Once, I asked a friend if she was going to college. I think that she was the kind of person that wanted to make the quick money, rather than spend 4 years investing in her education. In her mind, it was all about making money right away, and college would be a waste of 4 years for her. When I asked her if she was going to go to college, she said "I like money too much to go to college". I said to her "I like money too much not to go to college!" So the fact is this: you need degrees to get to the cheese! To lay it down in concrete terms, a census bureau survey showed that college graduates earn nearly one million dollars more during their lifetime than people with high school diplomas. What would you do with your extra million?

Sure there are exceptions. I went to college with guys who never graduated and left early for the NBA to make more money than most of us will ever make. However, this is clearly the exception. For every Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson, there are literally millions of other students who are not quite good enough to make the big money. For every Vivica Fox or Jenifer Aniston, there are a lot of women out there in Hollywood with roaches crawling across the bathroom floor. I am not saying this to stamp out the dreams you may have, it’s a reminder that you should pursue higher education no matter what you decide you want to do. This guarantees that you will have something to fall back on in case your plans don’t turn out quite the way you thought they would.

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Black Scholars Speak: President Obama Must Change His Drug Policy

by Dr. Byron Price, Texas Southern University

On his website, President Obama offers us a “seat at the table,” which is the equivalent of citizens offering policy prescriptions to his administration. This unprecedented effort to increase citizen participation in the policy making process has the added benefit of simultaneously empowering citizens in a way that our government has not done and has to be what the campaign meant by “change we can believe in.” The criticism of whom he has appointed misses the mark concerning what I believe his change mantra signifies. Since the president appears to be open to unsolicited advice, I offer the following criminal justice recommendations and justification for these suggestions.
President Obama and the 111th Congress should consider ending drug prohibition.
“Consider the consequences of drug prohibition today: 500,000 people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails for nonviolent drug-law violations; 1.8 million drug arrests last year; tens of billions of taxpayer dollars expended annually to fund a drug war that 76% of Americans say has failed; millions now marked for life as former drug felons; many thousands dying each year from drug overdoses that have more to do with prohibitionist policies than the drugs themselves, and tens of thousands more needlessly infected with AIDS and Hepatitis C because those same policies undermine and block responsible public-health policies.”

As the preceding paragraph illustrates, “The War on Drugs” has been a dismal failure and has gifted nonviolent African Americans offenders, especially males a permanent handicap—a lifetime of limited opportunities. The collateral consequences of a drug conviction which limit African Americans opportunities are:
The denial of financial aid and work study .
Felony Disenfranchisement.
Lifetime ban on cash benefits and food stamps.
Lifetime ban on public housing.
Termination of parental rights and ban from becoming adoptive or foster parents.
Remove the felony conviction question on applications of employment.

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Dr. Wilmer Leon Speaks with Annette John-Hall

Want to talk about race?  Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Dr. Wilmer Leon speak on issues of race.  Click here to listen

News: Obama’s Kids Get Attacked in Ads

On posters appearing around Washington D.C.’s Union Station, a smiling 8-year-old vegetarian from a Florida public school asks the question: "President Obama’s daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don’t I?"
It’s part of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s campaign to extend school lunch legislation that would allow for more fruits and vegetables in school lunches. I’d say the ad is successful in that it’s garnered some publicity.
But I’m guessing that the ad’s creators are misguided if they think their legislation will win any special attention from the president now that they’ve singled out the first daughters as a gimmick. After all, I’m sure that every federal legislator’s kid has the opportunity to have a healthy lunch, particularly those in private schools. …

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Black Scholar News - On with Leon: What to Make of this “Teachable Moment”?

On this episode of “On with Leon,” Dr Wilmer Leon talks with listeners who have strong opinions on Henry Louis Gates, Barack Obama and the “Teachable Moment.”  Click here to listen

News: Black Educators Plan to Challenge Obama

Leaders from the nation’s 105 historically black colleges have complained privately that President Barack Obama has allowed deep cuts in funding to black universities at a time when many of these institutions are struggling to survive.

At a meeting in Atlanta this summer, where presidents and senior administrators from more than 30 black colleges gathered, sources told BlackAmericaWeb.com that many participants grumbled about an $85 million reduction from the 2010 budget, funds that were specifically earmarked for historically black colleges.

The money is needed in large part to help keep some black colleges from possible foreclosures and others from considering staff layoffs, so representatives from black colleges say they will turn up the heat on Obama starting this month.

"They plan to lobby the White House in a more concerted effort," said one black educator who attended last month’s meeting of black college presidents.

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