Education Forum Discusses High School Preparedness
INTENT PANEL: Participants in the Tulsa Metro Chamber Education Forum on Jan. 22 included Ethan Hopper, freshman, Oral Roberts University; Nick Ryan, junior, Oklahoma State University-Tulsa; Billy Duncan, sophomore, University of Tulsa and Sarah Hedgecock, senior, Edison High School.
The topic for the Tulsa Metro Chamber Education Forum held at the OSU-Tulsa campus on Jan. 22 was “The Student Perspective: How high school can better prepare students for post secondary success.”
The panelists were Ethan Hopper, freshman, Oral Roberts University; Nick Ryan, junior, Oklahoma State University-Tulsa; Billy Duncan, sophomore, University of Tulsa; and Sarah Hedgecock, senior, Edison High School.
Questions from moderator:
1. Briefly discuss your journey toward college. When did you decide college was an important part of your future? Was your decision reinforced through your parents, a school counselor or were you simply motivated by your own aspirations?
2. What was the number one reason you decided college was a necessary part of your future?
3. How did your high school experience prepare you for college? Give specific details regarding resources that helped prepare you to be successful.
4. What are some of the things you are dealing with this year (as a college student) that could have easily been addressed in high school? In other words, what could your high school have done better to prepare you for college?
Responses from student panel:
• “High school did not prepare me for time-management” (HS did not reinforce the importance of time-management.
• Most beneficial HS resource was guidance counselor
• Gear-Up was also a helpful resource, introduced students to college campuses
• Webster’s technical programs were also helpful
• A career assessment
• Curriculum could have been more challenging
What would have made your high school experience more helpful…
• Bring in professionals to speak to students
• Allow students to shadow professionals at the job site
• Show students degree plan sheets and let them know what types if courses they will be required to take
• It starts early on ( elementary school)
• Teachers that have a career background in the class they are teaching
• Counselor would bring college students to HS classrooms and their personal experience was helpful
• Focus on areas that prepare you for time management
• A college introductory course that introduced you to what degrees were available, their application and what those types of jobs mean
• More math and science should be required and not so much emphasis on English 1-4
• It’s not so much requiring more math and science but offering more exploration opportunity for those subjects
Updated 02-23-2009
READER COMMENTS
