August 22, 2025 • 53 mins
DJ Black Unicorn talks with Allison Bibb-Carson and Colin Jackson from College Now. Founded in 1967, the organization helps students and adults with scholarships, mentoring, test prep, and career guidance. Partnering with Say Yes and local businesses, they bridge education and workforce needs while stressing that it’s never too late to pursue learning. College Now encourages community support through mentorship, donations, and advocacy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to our voices today right here on
WOVU ninety five point nine f M with your A
Love Unicorn of the Land DJ Black Unicorn aka Union,
and how you're doing, how you're living, how you're feeling.
Let's go ahead and check in with ourselves like we
do with the top of a ten o'clock hour, because
life be life. And as the kids saying, sometimes I
tend to agree, I'm all right today, but I want
(00:27):
to keep that going. So I'm gonna keep my breaths going.
I'm gonna continue to remind you as well. Make sure
you are taking your breaths throughout the day. Make sure
you will are taking that twenty minutes to disconnect with
no screens in your face, nothing in your face, just you, God,
you journal, you, whomever your higher power or and you
believe in and reconnect with yourself because look, it's gonna
(00:49):
be a lot of things happening coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
The seasons are upon us, lots of different seasons.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm talking about winner, I'm talking about political, I'm talking
about a lot of things coming up. So we gotta
continue to breathe and stay present. But also censored, so
deep in hell through the nose poles, slow excel through
the mouth, and those excels should be intentional. You should
(01:18):
be releasing all the energy that does not serve you
when you are forcing that breath out of you, cause
you just like I don't need this. I have some
love and guests live in a studio with me here
to talk about education. Higher education, that is, cause we
going to college, y'all. We gonna trade schools, y'all, but
we mainly going to college though. But look, look, we
(01:39):
we're gonna be real throughout this conversation because college is
for everybody. But we have other uh avenues and things
we can discuss as well. So I'm gonna go ahead
and properly allow my guests to introduce themselves before we
get started, and then we're gonna I have so many
questions for y'all. E one of them I insulted me.
We we ain't gonna talk about it on aerdo. It's alright,
(02:00):
miss aid, let you go.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
High uni. I'm Aliston Bibcarson. I'm a chief marketing and
communications officer at college.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Now, oh great, and so if I'm allowed to speak
with beauty my name is Colin Jackson. I'm the director
of Individual Given for College Now Greater Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Thank you both for joining me here on our voices
today and I'm super excited to talk with you all
and to learn it is more about College Now what
it is that you do. I know the mission is
to increase post secondary education attainment through college and career access.
It's a mouthful advising financial aid, counseling, and scholarship retention services,
(02:51):
because look, it gets expensive to get higher education, to
receive your higher education.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And College Now is doing a lot of things to
help them.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But let's talk a little bit about background. And I
want to know about YAW. I want to know how
y'all got to college now. I want to understand what
College Now even is and does. But we'll get into
that right now. We're talking about Shaw. Tell me a
little bit more about yourself, Allison.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
You're born and raised in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I was. I was born and raised, well, not born,
but raised in Shaker Heights, and I've moved away several times.
I've lived I'm like bounced back and forth between between
Cleveland and d C. Three times. That's one of my
favorite cities. But so is Cleveland. That's why we keep
coming back. And let's see. Currently in Shaker Heights, I'm
(03:39):
on the Shaker Heights Board of Education. So education has
always been important to me, and now it's really cool
to be able to work, you know, in working in
higher education, helping students get a degree in higher education.
That just like I'm doing K through twelve and then
I'm doing higher ed. And that's kind of the way
(04:01):
it's going right now.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Awesome, thank you, Thank you, mister Jackson.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You know, we don't have a lot of fun this afternoon. No,
Colin Jackson, Shaker Height was born and raised. I went
to the University of Kentucky. I am a son of
a serial entrepreneur and I guess you call him philanthropis
in the city of Cleveland. I'm the second person in
my family go to college. Uh so it's very personal
(04:27):
to me. All the things that go into college that
aren't just what you get from your high school advisors.
It's the things that help you matriculate. How do you
use your dining points, how do you decidewate sit in class? Right?
You know, you know that that type of stuff that
(04:48):
those were things that weren't actually talked about in my
family because there was only one other person that talked
to me about it, right, and he went to Cleveland
State and I went allway to the University of Kentucky.
So for me, being an expolitical I thought I was
going to save the world working in politics. I was
all about removing barriers from people's lives. But College Now
truly does that, particularly in the education space. So I'm
(05:09):
very proud to be a part of this organization now,
and it's just another part of how I'm able to
give back and fulfill my personal mission.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So how long has the organization been serving students of
northeast Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So College En started in nineteen sixty seven, so we've
been around for almost sixty years. However, we became College
Now around twenty twelve. So in nineteen sixty seven to
twenty twelve, we were the Cleveland Scholarships Program, which a
lot of people might know about, and we worked only
(05:43):
in Cleveland schools, so Cleveland Metropolitan School districts, working with
high schoolers and getting them scholarships to go to college.
But we also realized around twenty eleven twenty twelve that
it wasn't enough just to give kids money to go
to college, you know, because if we were finding that,
(06:03):
many of them would still drop out because they were
facing challenges that they didn't really quite know how to navigate.
Many of our students, our first generation college students, so
first in their families so about college, so they didn't
have that family background to help them navigate what it's
like to get through college. So we became College Now
(06:24):
Greater Cleveland in twenty twelve as a more like comprehensive
college access and completion organization. So it's not just about
the access, but we got to get people over the
hump to end up getting their degree or professional certificate
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So, mister Jackson, how is that being done? Are we
mentionoring going throughout the college career?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah. So one thing that I think is
the misconception about college now is that you're only going
to engage with college now at the eleventh and twelfth
grade year when we are trying to matriculate to you university.
But that is completely untrue. We have so many programs
which Alison will kind of highlight, but literally from middle
schoolers exploring career paths right to doing site visits that
(07:13):
spark the idea that I can pursue some type of
higher education. So we do that with middle schoolers. High
schoolers will help you with your ACT and your SAT scores,
and then actually when you get to campus life, you know,
we have advisors and mentors that are there to walk
through the entire process. Lastly, and again Allison will speak
(07:35):
more about this. What I'm really excited about is our
adult learning program. Adult learning program, it's essentially what you'd
get as a high school senior, and to be involved
in that, you just have to have one year of
gap in your education and be nineteen or older, and
then you're able to do all the things, whether it's
helping with your student debt, figuring out what's available to you,
(07:58):
whether you're pel eligible, thing to that nature, and really
providing that first step to getting back on the path
of higher education and career. So now it's not just
a high schoolers. We're doing everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So let's talk about those main people that we are
serving at college now and those programs, Miss Allison, because
I'm super excited.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I want to talk all about the programs.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Because look, I remember being in middle school myself yeah,
and wanting to be a lawyer, right, so I thought, okay, yeah,
I was like no, after I participated in a program
that exposed me some some things that I realized about
lawyers and I did not like, And I said, no,
(08:44):
but I appreciate this program for exposing me to something
that I know I don't like now that I thought
I would love. I genuinely thought, I like engulfed my
whole life into being a lawyer and serving the public.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And it was like, well, I think.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
You gotta bring up bring your folding chair. And but
I think that's what what it is is that career exploration.
And I think a really important part of that is
finding out what you don't want to do. That just
as important as finding out learning things like oh yeah
I like that or I'm good at that. It's like
some things you're just not. And that's okay because we
(09:25):
all bring our different gifts and that's what makes the
world go round.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Absolutely. So let's talk programs.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Okay, So where should we start.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Let's start?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Okay, fine, okay, fine, So college's really cool because we
start as early as sixth grade to just get students
aware of different careers. So we do like very specific
career exploration programs in school and after school and over
(09:56):
the summer just to get you know, like it's it's
all about planning. This yeats with students and then as
they grow and as they continue to you know, matriculate
through through high school, you know, they learn more about
what their future can look like.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, And that's what I loved.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Like college now made me think of some things that
I experienced as a youth that I'm grateful for that
you all are doing.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Did you grow up in Cleveland?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Yeah, where'd you go to middle school?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Middle school and high school? And then did you work
with you? I think it's an important conversation. Did you
work with where you can work? Did you work with college?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So I didn't know. I did not, And.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I primarily worked with Golden Cipher's Miss Pam shout out
to go to shotowt and Miss Pam and the whole
team over there. She's still going strong, still helping the
kids and these young men and ladies now because when
I was going to it, it was only ladies. Uh,
but that was a long time ago. I'll be thirty,
(11:01):
I know, so old. But so I didn't get into
the programs with the school that I attended. But to
answer your questions, because I'm not going to be that way.
I went to Richmond, I came out O seven, I
did a gap year.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I want to try.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
See, I already knew I wanted to join the military
before I even graduated high school. And my mom was
not on it because at that time the war and
I got a popping the hardest it was popped, and
she didn't want me to go. I said, I'll do
this year at community college that you are asking me
to do because you are my mother. So I'm going
to honor what it is that you're asking.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Me to do.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I did it. I failed. I went to the.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Army, Okay, came out, came out, moved to Orlando for college.
My mom got sick, I moved back to Cleveland. I
didn't mean to give you my entire life story, but.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
No, but it's really important because it kind of identifies,
you know, how one interaction, one crossroad, really can decide
where your life goes. And again bringing it back to college, now,
what I really love about this organization is when those
crossroads happen, there is a College Now program that exists
(12:13):
for that and doesn't have to be during the school year.
It could be during the summer where you're visiting a
college campus or you're visiting a location. You know, we
have great partners that help make those programs happen, so
you can actually see what you want to do and
you can make that determination. So you telling us your
story had so many cross roads. So I'll say for
(12:35):
you in high school deciding even once you got to try. See,
we have a great program at tri See. Shout out
to Deonta and what he's doing over there. They have
a campus community of people who are returning to college
and they are not only doing the academic stuff, but
they're doing the peer mentoring too, right, because I think
(12:55):
a big part of why we make it through college
is the community we have around us. And sometimes that
doesn't need to be advisor. Sometimes it just needs to
be someone who's going through the same thing you going through. Right,
How do you sit in class? How do you study?
That sometime is better done with a peer, so you know, again,
even the decision between college and the military. I was
(13:15):
at our Impact program two weeks ago and a young
man named Lashan. He goes to John Hey track Star
and he's decided between all three of those things. So
I go to military, do I get a trade, do
I go to college? And there's an impact advisor there
to help him navigate that. Right. So again, there are
a lot of crossroads in our life, and College Now
(13:37):
is here to be kind of a guid I don't
want to go full bone thugs out here, but we
here to meet you at the crossroads and help you navigate.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well and meet you even before you get to the crossroads,
because there are always there are crossroads that you know,
all of us have to have to face and have
to cross and have to navigate through. So that's really important.
One of the really cool things about College Now. So
we have a College Now advisor who is embedded in
(14:06):
every cms D high school, So every high school in
the Cleveland Method program. Yes I I you know, I'm
also I'm also a mind reader. Yes yeah, So, so
in every CMSD high school we have a college advisor.
And then we also have advisors that are embedded in
(14:31):
many of the First Ring and Second Ring suburban schools,
and we are in in the parochial schools we can't
forget about them. But then we span about six different
counties as well, so, you know, so we're working and
it all depends on the school district. In CMSD we
have full time college now advisors, and then in some
(14:53):
of the other schools, suburban and parochial schools, we you know,
we contract with the school or the school district to determine,
you know, the number of hours so that a college
advisor will be in the school. The really great thing
is you don't have to have an advisor in your school.
So if you're in high school, if you're in middle school,
you don't have to have a college advisor in order
(15:15):
to take advantage of our services. So we have we're
downtown outside of Terminal Tower in the old post office,
but we have what we call a resource center and
students and high school students and families and then adults
who are interested in going back to college, they can
(15:37):
call us, come to our resource center. We can schedule
a virtual meeting. It is all totally free, just to
kind of get back on, you know, on figuring out
the education they need for whatever career they want.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So if I if I walk in, I'm like, look,
I don't even have my ged, but I know I
want to do this specific career path.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
How is college all going to help me accomplish that?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
We have a program for that.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
That's the line of the day, you want to know.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So there are adult learner program and services. We offer
ged support as well. So it's not just you know,
coming to college now and you already have your high
school diploma and you know you're already you know, the
highest of high achievers. It's all about meeting students and
(16:29):
meeting individuals where they are and then figuring out the
path that they can take to get to their own
definition of personal success.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And what does that look like for the students that
you all are helping at college? Now, what do you
want to see as a successful picture when they are
done and graduated and onto their masters or doctors or
onto their career path whatever is in store for them.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We go ahead, we want them to be employed.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So there you go, there you go.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
We want them to be employed. We want them to
be the best versions of themselves. So it's not that
we're saying every student needs to go to Harvard, or
every student needs a four year degree, or every student
needs a two year degree. Some people were like, Hey,
I want to be I want to do hair, I
want to do nails, but you still have to have
an education for that. So well, we work with students,
(17:24):
We work with individuals to get them to where toever
career they want, where they can be the most successful,
whatever their version of success is, that's not for us
to determine what success means. So we work with them
to say, Okay, you want to be a nail tech,
Let's let's get you into like the cosmetology school that
(17:45):
that you need to get, you know, that certificate so
that or that credential so then you can start you know,
doing nails, owning a business, whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Thank you for that in the in the MSS Allison,
because what I'm trying to convey to the audience is
that this is not just for individuals trying to strictly
just go back to college.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
This is for.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Individuals looking to better themselves in whatever type of way,
shape or form that looks like in the education form.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, And for me, I'll be a little bit less
technical about it. You know, I, in my role an
individual giving, I am very attached to storytelling and sometimes
I think sometimes we get caught up in the titles
and the numbers of the work and not what that
(18:38):
looks like on an everyday person. So when I think
about the person you're talking about, thinking about a mom,
thinking about a mom with two or three kids, maybe
had educational aspirations that got derailed from one reason or another,
and because those things got derailed, the life that she's
(18:58):
able to provide for her family looks a bit different.
Success for me is that mom being able to not
only show her children the power at education, but provide
them more opportunities than she had. And that's why I
love our adult learning program because you know, when you
(19:19):
send a seventeen year old kid off the college, they're
gonna have a great time, They're going to learn a lot,
and then they're eventually going to go get a job right,
and then they're gonna be able to take care of themselves.
But when you do that for an adult learner, you're
doing that for a house for a household, you're doing
that so a young girl can see her mother wear
(19:39):
capping down of some type. I don't care what it is,
but she can see that and now she can aspire
to that. So I think success for me when it
comes to the adult learners looks like transformative change for
a generation and something that you know, younger people can
aspire to.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I want to talk a little bit more about your
partnerships because since you're mission transforming, let's talk a little
bit about the Cleveland Plan for transforming schools and what
that partnership looks like for you all. And the Say
Yes Cleveland partnership is yll.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, we will, we will Yes. We could talk about
say Yes. Okay, So, as many people know, say Yes
is kind of it's what is called the last dollar scholarship.
And the really cool thing about says Cleveland that scholarship
is at any eligible CMSD graduate can take advantage of
(20:39):
says and really go to to the college or university
of their choice. I think there are about two hundred
colleges and universities in who are kind of in our
say Yes network. So College, now, not to get too
technical again, college manages the say Yes Scholarship, so you know,
(21:00):
we work with the students to you know, ensure their
eligibility and then we also work with their college or
university to ensure that you know, that institution gets those funds.
An important thing about Say Yes scholars so Say Yes
scholarship recipients, they all receive a College Now volunteer mentor.
(21:24):
So we match our mentors one on one, one to
one with students, and our mentors include just anybody folks
in the community. All you have to do is have
some sort of college degrees, so that can be a
two year or four year college degree. So you had
to have, you know, knowledge, you had to go through
through college of some sort, and then you have to
(21:46):
be able to pass a background check. It's very it's
a very light touch mentoring program. It's mostly virtual. It's
like two emails a month and you know, their phone
calls and we weight our mentors with different prompts so
that they can you know, make sure that they're asking
the right questions of their mentee. So every College Now
(22:09):
scholarship recipient and then every say Yes scholarship recipient is
paired with this mentor, their mentor who then is with
them for up to five years throughout their college journey
and just kind of helps them navigate and you know,
can answer questions like what's the bursar's office or you know,
something like that, and just helps them, you know, get
(22:31):
through challenges because, like I said before, the goal is
to get to graduation.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I love it. Ye, mister Jackson.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Again, I love our Adult Learners program, So shout out
to the big guy over there, Phil. He talked about
the partnership that has with SEES of Literacy, so you specifically, Yeah,
he'son Literacy is a program that I volunteered at before
I was at college. Now, I always to see them
as a partner. But you talked about that GED program, right,
(23:03):
like that's almost what Sees the Literacy is really there
to do it to get you like, that's their stopping
point and that's kind of where we would pick up
as a partner. You know, education is in a We're
not the silver bullet, and we don't believe that, but
we do believe that through a network of community members,
(23:24):
community partners, that we can be a solution to even
if it's just to one individuals. Now, we've done it
for hundreds of thousands at this point, right, but you know,
we truly believe that if we can impact one individual
and they are able to rise personally, that our region
and particularly our economic region, because we all want them
(23:44):
to be employed, will do better as well.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Well.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and you mentioned, you know, yes, the fact that
being employed that is good for people personally, but then
think about how that is for region, for region like Cleveland,
for any region, you need employed people because they will
then they pay taxes. They they will then pour their
resources into the broader community, which is you know, which
(24:12):
is the catalyst for regional economic success.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
While we're here, can we top on the trends that
you are.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Seeing within the different areas that you all serve when
it comes to education, when it comes to what they
are asking for from you all with services they are seeking.
What are you seeing a trend in Cuyahoga County versus
Lorraine gotcha.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I think the trend? Well, why don't we talk about
like career trends? So we mentioned, yes, we want students
to get an education so then they can you know,
have a career. And there's nothing wrong with being a
history major or philosophy major or something like that, but
(24:59):
you also have the about what are you going to
do with with that? Like you know, with that degree,
sometimes it involves more education, and that's fine, but we
want people to be able to be gainfully employed as
soon as they get out and get their bachelor's degree
or associate's degree. Yes, yes, it's all about like, Okay, like,
(25:23):
you invest all this money, so like now you need
to be able to get.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Invested in themselves.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And if you all at college now have helped nurture
that investment, you have invested in them as well, and
you want to see them successful.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So that's why so we do we don't necessarily encourage
students to go into particular fields because we want to
be able to match their interests whatever, or their their
interests or their goals or whatever or God given talent is.
(26:01):
We want to be able to match that to a career. However,
I think we do kind of push hard on careers
like like an engineering, other STEM careers, healthcare one am
I missing colin? Uh? You know, so Cleveland is a
big healthcare city, so we know there are healthcare jobs.
(26:22):
So we want to be at college now. We want
to be able to be the organization that provides that
that talent to UH, to places like UHE and the
Cleveland Clinic and Metro Health and others. We want to
be able to provide that that talent to them. And
that's why we we kind of focus in on those STEM.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Careers and just to piggyback off of that. I mean,
you know the old world that I came from. In politics,
you talked to elected officials, uh and different individuals about
the need for employees, employees that are able to show up,
employees that are skilled, and what they say about our
(27:05):
region is, well, we have all these open jobs, we
don't have anybody to fill them.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Has changed, right, right?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
People mindset towards the workforce and education it self has changed.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
We're gonna get into.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That well later. Well, but I say to those same people,
what are you doing to bridge that gap and create
that workforce. It's one thing to say, hey, I got
ten thousand jobs and I got a government grant or
a tax evatement to do this project, but oh I
can't find anybody to fill them from here, which was
(27:37):
part of you getting that money. I offer two business
owners and to entities that if you're not making that investment,
are you really making this promise and good faith? And
that's why I think investing in organizations like or particularly
college now is a solution to that problem. Right And
(28:00):
just like Allison said, so, the trends we are seeing
is that employers are asking for these type of skilled employees.
And what we are doing in our Explorer programs is
trying to prepare individuals for those positions. Right, So it's
it's two sides of the coin. And college now is
(28:21):
the bridge between the workforce and our education system here
in Kiaha County or it's just say across northeast side.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So how are we making sure people know about college now?
How are we getting the word there's no job un
that's while we're here.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
That's while we're here, we outside, and we outside.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
One of the things. Well, before we get to that,
I want also wanted to mention we have really great
partnerships with Key Bank and Third Federal and Sherwin Williams.
They actually help us run a program that you mentioned
called Explore, which is an out of school time kind
of which is another word for after school. It's an
after school and also summer program where that offers really
(29:02):
deep it's like six weeks or eight weeks or something
like that, but it offers really deep career exploration. So,
for example, over the summer, we had middle school and
high school students working with Sherwyn Williams and they learned
all about like paint, like the chemistry of paint. So
there's the science and all of that so it's not
(29:29):
just you don't have to be an artist, you know,
someone who holds a paint brush, but it's about like
there's science to Sherwyn Williams, there's business, there's you know, finance,
which is kind of where our partnership with Key Bank
and with a third Federal come in learning about those
different careers. So we're really thankful to those organizations who
(29:53):
work with us.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
And I think, you know, I keep and I love
that you ask what does success look like? Because we're
over here on seventy seve we're in the heart of
the community, right here on Campsman at the WOVU station,
So what does success look like? From a college And
our perspective is that there's a kid that's two and
a half miles away from here, goes to a cms
D school, has an experience with a college advisor, and
(30:17):
maybe does one of these Sherwan Williams programs and decides
that he wants to be a paint chemist, and then
we are able to pair him with a mentor that
is in that same industry to walk him through those
next four years preparing for that that same mentor is
able to connect him with a network again the thing
(30:37):
that we lack in our community so much, so much
is a network of support that's able to help him
matriculate into that career field and hopefully, you know, fifteen
years from today he's working at Shearwan Williams and is
able to do the same thing and hopefully come back
and be a mentor at college now for the next kid.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
And not even just that.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
So he's working with Sherwyn Williams.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
But I think the main thing is he's got a career.
It's not just a like a job, like it's a career.
It's also a reason. Is first off, it can be
a reason to wake up in the morning. It can
be you know, obviously a reason to like. It's the
kind of the higher your education or the more education
you have. I mean, it's been proven that like over
(31:20):
the course of your lifetime generally you can make more money.
You have money that's consistent, you have so a salary,
you have benefits, you have to think about all these
things health insurance, paid time off, retirement, all of those
kind of things that are intangible, but like they definitely
(31:42):
lead to a better quality of life, and that's that's
what we want. Oh and then being able to. Then
you know, there's home ownership and with the whole ownership
comes generational wealth. And we've got to own homes, like
we have to own homes in order to as a
people and as a community in order to be able.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
To Yeah, and last thing, I'll just say, she's just
so right about all those externalities that come out of education.
You know, you go to your four years and you
get the piece of paper and really to an employer
that just says you can show up, you can get
through something. You can go through the gauntlet. But a
lot of our community is already going through the gauntlet
just walking out of their house every day. But I
(32:25):
have an uncle that used to be an elected official
that I love so much, and he said a phrase
that I'll never forget. And this is kind of the
raw answer to all the very technical and very well
articulated things. Alison said. He believes that the best way
to stop a bullet is to have a job, because
if you have a job, you too busy.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
If you have a career, let's talk about career.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, it's a career. You not trying to be involved
in too much. So you know, we see the things
that are going on in our community. And you have
to ask yourself, how many of these individuals, if we
properly channeled all their talent and all their energy to
be gainfully employed, what would our communities look like? And
I don't mean moving out to Richmond Heights or Shaker
(33:14):
and saying oh this is what no, I mean right
here in the Hough areas. I mean right there in
War five where my brother counselor and Richard Starr is
doing so much good work out there, you know, like
I want that, And I see again there's no silver
bullet here, but it's definitely a gateway to a better future,
(33:36):
not only for yourself before your community. Education is not
just about the individual, it's about the people that are
surrounding them.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I imagine if we quote unquote all the Yians, we
got them together and started a security company.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Man, listen, come on, man, I've been mistaken for a
WII on a day or two, so I know. I
just took my rag off and I walked in here.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
You all you've all that college?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Now also do some policy advocacy as well. Can we
talk about.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Any advocacy you may have been doing recently with all
of these upcoming changes and revisions and and just collapse
of systems and rebuilding of systems and this big, ugly,
beautiful being.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
So we don't get political. However, we do advocate for
what we think is right for students. So you know,
whether it's you know, advocating for for the in in
state politics, advocating for you know, more money being given
to Hell grant recipients for example, or more money given
(34:45):
to anybody who graduates from high school in Ohio and
then you know, stays in Ohio for for their college education,
like we advocate for that college. Now, we don't lobby
at all. We're not allowed to lobby as uh, you know,
as a five hours C three organization, nonprofit organization. But
we can advocate and work with work with folks and
(35:10):
hopefully change systems in order to you know, better, be
in order to to to make our community stronger and
wholder and better.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Is there anything that has come down that has affected
you all that college know and how you serve the
community and the students.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
No, I mean we're serving. We we serve everybody. I
think that's that's the most important thing to remember. I mean,
we do have some we do have some federal grants,
and we run federal programs such as gear Up and
Talent Search and upward Bound. They're all part of a
(35:50):
suite of like Federal Department of Education TRIO programs, so
we had we we run those programs in schools as well.
And it's really like college Now advising and then some
So we're really fortunate to you know, to be the
recipient of some federal dollars and and hope to continue
(36:12):
to be able to do so.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I want to double make sure that we double top
on something before we leave, which is the Resource Center
and understanding, making sure that people understand, like yes, you
can go online to college nowgc dot org, or you
can pull up to the Resource Center if you're like,
you know, one of those older folks that are like
I need to talk to his own body.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Or call yes.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Our number is two one six, two four one five
five eight seven, or you can stop by. Like I said,
we're in the old post office. It's called post Office Plaza.
It's connected to Ower City, so obviously folks can take
public transportation to get there. And during business hours, we
are happy to work with with people and and that
(37:02):
can be on anything. It's like like I think I
said earlier, like you could be like, oh I want
to I'm I just want a fresh start, Like I'm
tired of this kind of like day to day grind.
I need a career. I want to fresh start. What
do I do?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
And it's never too late for a fresh it's oh
my gosh, you could be eighty years old.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
It is never too late. So to just improve yourself
or better yourself or better your situation. So we welcome everyone.
And like you said, it's free.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, yeah, that resource center is going to give you
college and career advising faster than financial aid support. You
can act as scholarship and Manory School, student loan, debt counseling,
after school programs, test and career exploration. Literally a one
stop shop. And and it's again we're not going to
(37:56):
tell you to go be a doctor. College now is
a compass. Whether it's your first stop on your trail
or you're a little bit longer in the tooth, there,
it's an opportunity there. So I just really encourage everybody
to visit college NOOWGC dot org. There's a tab that
says get help, and then you can pick something there.
Whether you're a high school student or a returning learner.
(38:18):
And again, as Allison said, we're at fifteen hundred West
third Street, Sweep one two five. That's our center and
our number is two one six two four one five
five eight seven. Once again that's two one six two
four one five five eight seven. And again not just
for the student. If you're a grandparent, if your aunt,
(38:39):
if you're a friend, get this information to your kids
and to the people that need it because we know
things get lost in book bags sometimes when the kids,
so you know, part of coming on this station was
really to talk to those caregivers and people who care
about their children and get this information out because it's available,
and we got to take advantage of these resources while
(39:01):
they hear.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yes, can we talk a little bit about the workshops
that are taking place at the resource center as well.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
So they're not necessarily taking place at the resource center,
they're taking place out in the community, which is even better.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Are there you go outside are.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
So I mentioned the Explorer program, which is like career exploration.
We have another program called Impact where that's also career exploration,
but we help students. We help high school students like
prepare for college entrance, exams, So that's like psat the
(39:40):
SAT and the ACT and students will know that. You know,
sometimes colleges right now are saying like, oh, they're test optional.
Take the test because if you do well on the test,
that opens yourself up for even more funding. So that's
really important. We also do SAT and ac c T boot camps.
(40:00):
We do webinars, So wherever you are, if you're in
person an in person person, or you're a webinar person
on Zoom, or you just want to talk on the phone,
contact us. Go to our website. Everything in all of
our events are on our website as well.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So much time we go here because I want to
play a game with you all.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
I'm down quick trying to make.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Sure we had enough time. What is in the future
for college?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Now we're going and we're about to walk into twenty
twenty six, we're hitting into the last quarter of twenty craz.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Just more, more and more and more, but more?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
How not only can how can community members get involved
and mentors that are interested in mentory get involved? Will
should they just email so they just call to just
show up to the center. What does that look like
for these people that are interested also donations are accepted.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Donations, donations, donations.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
That is okay, this is.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Why Colin retired, so you know, oh man donations, donations, donations.
So this is let me put it like this, five
hundred dollars a lot of money, understandable. But with a
five hundred dollars donation, we can, over four years provide
over one hundred thousand dollars a wrap around service for
(41:19):
an individual student. Mean that means that your five hundred
dollars is then't just going to go to a direct
check for a student, but it's going to go into
supporting an advisor, a mentor someone that can help them
navigates FAFSA and really get them bought into the wrap
around community and services that are available to someone who
(41:44):
may be in a different situation. Right, if you have
three generations of lawyers in your family, you have these
wrap around services, there are people to help you navigate. Right,
But your five hundred dollars to college now allows us
to provide that to somebody who may not have that
same thing. And it's critically important. But even if you
(42:06):
don't have five hundred dollars, you know, if you have
fifty bucks, if you got one hundred bucks. You know,
you can go to our website donate, we can do
monthly donations, we can do the roundup thing.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Talk about Harness.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
So Harness is a great platform. Harness allows you to
make your everyday purchases and it rounds up to the
nearest dollar. You can set a cap on the month.
So let's say I want to give college now twenty
dollars a month, and which will end up being two
hundred and forty dollars a year, right, but I want
to do it very passively. So you attach your bank
(42:41):
account to Harness and you can cap it at twenty dollars.
So when you go get your Starbucks, when you go
to well, I'm gonna date myself here, when you go
to your Hot Sauce williams now it's Zanza bar, and
you fill out your little receipt there or whatever's left
will go into the Harness account. You do that enough times,
you get to twenty bucks, and that's how you can
make your donation. So you know, it's a small thing,
(43:03):
something that you don't have to think about. But I
believe that you know when you get your thank you
at the end of the year and your handwritten note
from a student about what your dollars did from them,
you'll really understand it was worth it. So it's really important.
And then on the business side, look, if you're a
business and you need employees, not right now, but you
(43:24):
know in maybe two to three years, you should be
invested in college now and we are able to partner.
We have events that you can sponsor for us, things
of that nature, and I welcome everyone to reach out
to the donate page to me where will eventually end
up and we can work something out where you can
literally be investing in your employee of the future. So
(43:45):
there's just so many ways to get involved, but the
free one. I talk about it all the time. Time, talent,
and treasure. Your time is the most valuable thing you
have and to a student who may not have that
in their life, that can be the most important thing,
right because they can have all the scholarship money in
(44:06):
the world, but they don't have anybody to talk to.
They're not gonna make it. So I advise everyone to
again go to our website. We have actually become a
mentor page. If I'm correct, we have to become a
mentor page where you can actually sign up and start
your process, and there's no better time than now to start.
But if you want to start next month, you know,
(44:27):
you're welcome to do that as well. So you know,
those are ways that individual from the community can support
College Now. And the last one is just telling somebody
else about this program. Man, it's not a secret, and
I feel like College Now may be the best kept
seekert in the city of Cleveland, and it shouldn't be
no secret no more.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
You know, you can also, you know, people can also
establish a scholarship that we will manage as well. So
that's kind of a big part of some of the
work that we do is we will you want to
have a scholarship, we will manage it, we will choose
the students for you, we'll kind of do all of
(45:08):
the back office work. But you know, just any way
that kids can or that that students can be supported and.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
You can be involved in that as possible, and I
want to. I know we're running out of time, but
I would so I'll be remiss if I didn't mention
our superstar Jimmy Malone. Jimmy Malone started a scholarship almost
thirty years ago with three students. I think he started
it with fifteen hundred dollars. He's grown that scholarship into
a golf outing and now I think he has seventy
(45:38):
eight students in his program. And he is someone who
likes to be involved, so he individually mentors these students.
But he is an individual who said, hey, I want
to do something, I don't know how to do it.
And then Cleveland Scholarship program which is now college and
now I was there to support him, And I think
that's really critical to know that you know College Now
(46:01):
as a partner. People think we just give out our
own scholarships. We don't. We manage other people's scholarship. People
think that either I get a College Now scholarship or
they can't help me. That's not true. We can help
you find other scholarships as well. Again, we do not
believe that we are the single savior of education, but
(46:22):
we do believe we are the critical partner and a
convener of so many resources and we just want to
provide those to as many people as possible. So shou
out to Jimmy for being our superstar in that way,
and we're excited to bring your scholarship or your family
foundation also into our suite of services.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Even if you don't know, like if you don't know
where to start, you know you want to help, just
come and just call us too, and well, we'll figure
out a way for you to help.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
We will give you.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
A mission and a job.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I love it. I love it. So we're gonna play
a little game.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah, okay, I am going to say some words. You
are going to tell me why those words are BS. Okay,
well bs excuses okay.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
Okay, we'll say yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
I like it, well the first time.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Alright.
Speaker 4 (47:19):
I just got this job. I ain't trying to get fired.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
College is too expensive.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
College is expensive, but it's an investment in yourself.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I don't want student loan debt.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
We'll work with us. We will.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
We will help you not have debt because.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Y'all help people find scholarships.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
We help people find scholarships. Scholarships is free money.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yes, you were supposed to say that, Jackson, Dad, I'm
doing your job. Y'all need to hire me. I need
to work full time. I don't have the time.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
There are ways to get everything done at once.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Are you talking about organization and time management?
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (48:05):
You know who can help you with that a mentor
or an advisor, a love cooge. Now we have though,
look how that work, don't you have?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Plenty of scholarships are too hard to get.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Scholarships are hard to find. They are not hard to get.
They're a scholarship that only require a three hundred word.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
Essay, but some don't require an essay at all, and
some you have to have like a two point zero
or two point five GPA. So it is doable, and
we will work with you and you can get a
say yes scholarship if you are a CMSC high school
student who is eligible.
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Not hard to get, hard to find.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Not hard to find. Can we work for college now?
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Exact?
Speaker 3 (48:48):
I go back?
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Never too late.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I am too time talent treasure.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
I don't have time to work with my family or
friends and do school.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
You got to decide what's most important, keep those priorities.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
It takes too long. It takes too long to finish.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
Like, I gotta work. I need money now right? Two
year four year certificate certificate programs can be one. I
don't know, a few months depends on what it is. Yeah,
investment in yourself.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Certificate programs meaning it's a condensed program of a four
year degree that you will receive a certification as maybe
fourteen weeks.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
That just a little detail about that. I'm not smart enough.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Everybody brings their own set of gifts.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
And if you don't think you're smart enough, it's probably
because you have not found the best way you learn
and you need somebody to help you do that.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
And who can do that? Who can help you do that?
Speaker 4 (49:54):
College?
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Now?
Speaker 5 (49:56):
What?
Speaker 4 (49:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Speaking of I don't test well?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Ooh.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Testing is all about preparation. Piss. Poor preparation makes piss
poor performance. So we need to help you learn to
prepare because a test is just a test of it
if you can get through it.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
I want to finish, but I don't even know what
I want to study.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
Oh, you need to work with a college now advisor,
then will We will help you explore all the careers
and we will send you on your way with a mentor.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
I can make money without college.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Yes you can, you can, you can, but what is
the cost of that going to be? And our offer
that you may be able to make a little bit
more money and have a little bit better quality of
life if you have this piece of paper behind you.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
College doesn't guarantee you a good job.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
No, no, I got this. I got this.
Speaker 4 (50:56):
College alone will not guarantee a good job, no guarantee
for anything. But if you have a network, if you
have a support system and a college degree, which college
now can help you get, you have a better chance
of getting and procuring gainful employment.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Trade school or on the job training I think is
just a better fit for me.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
That's fine, We'll work with you. We trade school certificates,
two year degree, four year degree, relationships, yes, whatever, whatever, puts.
Whatever we can do to help you be on the
best path to be your best self.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
And it's not binary. It is not binary. You do
not have to be a four year person or a
trades person. You can be both.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
Ooh, no one in my family went to college.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
That's okay. You gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Somebody and we believe at college now in you, so
it doesn't matter if no one else did it. You
should be the first.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
I don't know where to start or who can help.
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Then you need to go to w w W dot
college now GC dot org and move through the website
and go to that get help, tap and get started.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Amazing, amazing, Thank you both for participating.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
I didn't know if y'all.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
That job you did, y'all take it all back and
we get some marked I I want to keep playing.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
I mean, let's see you.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
No, no, no, this is great. I want to bring
more people from college now here to really talk to you,
to you all on a normal, on a regular basis,
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Anyone find yes, sure, anyone is interested in radio or media?
Speaker 3 (52:54):
Would you like to sign up to be an I
said that would I would. We will get you the information.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Look at that. WOVU are now a partner in college.
Now you heard it first.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Hey, and that's right, Cleveland's urban alternative. Make sure you
stick and stay, don't go away. Thank you both for
joining me here on our voices today at ninety five
point nine.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
This is WOVU Studios
This is WOVU Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to our voices today right here on
WOVU ninety five point nine f M with your A
Love Unicorn of the Land DJ Black Unicorn aka Union,
and how you're doing, how you're living, how you're feeling.
Let's go ahead and check in with ourselves like we
do with the top of a ten o'clock hour, because
life be life. And as the kids saying, sometimes I
tend to agree, I'm all right today, but I want
(00:27):
to keep that going. So I'm gonna keep my breaths going.
I'm gonna continue to remind you as well. Make sure
you are taking your breaths throughout the day. Make sure
you will are taking that twenty minutes to disconnect with
no screens in your face, nothing in your face, just you, God,
you journal, you, whomever your higher power or and you
believe in and reconnect with yourself because look, it's gonna
(00:49):
be a lot of things happening coming up.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
The seasons are upon us, lots of different seasons.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm talking about winner, I'm talking about political, I'm talking
about a lot of things coming up. So we gotta
continue to breathe and stay present. But also censored, so
deep in hell through the nose poles, slow excel through
the mouth, and those excels should be intentional. You should
(01:18):
be releasing all the energy that does not serve you
when you are forcing that breath out of you, cause
you just like I don't need this. I have some
love and guests live in a studio with me here
to talk about education. Higher education, that is, cause we
going to college, y'all. We gonna trade schools, y'all, but
we mainly going to college though. But look, look, we
(01:39):
we're gonna be real throughout this conversation because college is
for everybody. But we have other uh avenues and things
we can discuss as well. So I'm gonna go ahead
and properly allow my guests to introduce themselves before we
get started, and then we're gonna I have so many
questions for y'all. E one of them I insulted me.
We we ain't gonna talk about it on aerdo. It's alright,
(02:00):
miss aid, let you go.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
High uni. I'm Aliston Bibcarson. I'm a chief marketing and
communications officer at college.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Now, oh great, and so if I'm allowed to speak
with beauty my name is Colin Jackson. I'm the director
of Individual Given for College Now Greater Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Thank you both for joining me here on our voices
today and I'm super excited to talk with you all
and to learn it is more about College Now what
it is that you do. I know the mission is
to increase post secondary education attainment through college and career access.
It's a mouthful advising financial aid, counseling, and scholarship retention services,
(02:51):
because look, it gets expensive to get higher education, to
receive your higher education.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And College Now is doing a lot of things to
help them.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
But let's talk a little bit about background. And I
want to know about YAW. I want to know how
y'all got to college now. I want to understand what
College Now even is and does. But we'll get into
that right now. We're talking about Shaw. Tell me a
little bit more about yourself, Allison.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
You're born and raised in Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I was. I was born and raised, well, not born,
but raised in Shaker Heights, and I've moved away several times.
I've lived I'm like bounced back and forth between between
Cleveland and d C. Three times. That's one of my
favorite cities. But so is Cleveland. That's why we keep
coming back. And let's see. Currently in Shaker Heights, I'm
(03:39):
on the Shaker Heights Board of Education. So education has
always been important to me, and now it's really cool
to be able to work, you know, in working in
higher education, helping students get a degree in higher education.
That just like I'm doing K through twelve and then
I'm doing higher ed. And that's kind of the way
(04:01):
it's going right now.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Awesome, thank you, Thank you, mister Jackson.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
You know, we don't have a lot of fun this afternoon. No,
Colin Jackson, Shaker Height was born and raised. I went
to the University of Kentucky. I am a son of
a serial entrepreneur and I guess you call him philanthropis
in the city of Cleveland. I'm the second person in
my family go to college. Uh so it's very personal
(04:27):
to me. All the things that go into college that
aren't just what you get from your high school advisors.
It's the things that help you matriculate. How do you
use your dining points, how do you decidewate sit in class? Right?
You know, you know that that type of stuff that
(04:48):
those were things that weren't actually talked about in my
family because there was only one other person that talked
to me about it, right, and he went to Cleveland
State and I went allway to the University of Kentucky.
So for me, being an expolitical I thought I was
going to save the world working in politics. I was
all about removing barriers from people's lives. But College Now
truly does that, particularly in the education space. So I'm
(05:09):
very proud to be a part of this organization now,
and it's just another part of how I'm able to
give back and fulfill my personal mission.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So how long has the organization been serving students of
northeast Ohio.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
So College En started in nineteen sixty seven, so we've
been around for almost sixty years. However, we became College
Now around twenty twelve. So in nineteen sixty seven to
twenty twelve, we were the Cleveland Scholarships Program, which a
lot of people might know about, and we worked only
(05:43):
in Cleveland schools, so Cleveland Metropolitan School districts, working with
high schoolers and getting them scholarships to go to college.
But we also realized around twenty eleven twenty twelve that
it wasn't enough just to give kids money to go
to college, you know, because if we were finding that,
(06:03):
many of them would still drop out because they were
facing challenges that they didn't really quite know how to navigate.
Many of our students, our first generation college students, so
first in their families so about college, so they didn't
have that family background to help them navigate what it's
like to get through college. So we became College Now
(06:24):
Greater Cleveland in twenty twelve as a more like comprehensive
college access and completion organization. So it's not just about
the access, but we got to get people over the
hump to end up getting their degree or professional certificate
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So, mister Jackson, how is that being done? Are we
mentionoring going throughout the college career?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah. So one thing that I think is
the misconception about college now is that you're only going
to engage with college now at the eleventh and twelfth
grade year when we are trying to matriculate to you university.
But that is completely untrue. We have so many programs
which Alison will kind of highlight, but literally from middle
schoolers exploring career paths right to doing site visits that
(07:13):
spark the idea that I can pursue some type of
higher education. So we do that with middle schoolers. High
schoolers will help you with your ACT and your SAT scores,
and then actually when you get to campus life, you know,
we have advisors and mentors that are there to walk
through the entire process. Lastly, and again Allison will speak
(07:35):
more about this. What I'm really excited about is our
adult learning program. Adult learning program, it's essentially what you'd
get as a high school senior, and to be involved
in that, you just have to have one year of
gap in your education and be nineteen or older, and
then you're able to do all the things, whether it's
helping with your student debt, figuring out what's available to you,
(07:58):
whether you're pel eligible, thing to that nature, and really
providing that first step to getting back on the path
of higher education and career. So now it's not just
a high schoolers. We're doing everybody.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So let's talk about those main people that we are
serving at college now and those programs, Miss Allison, because
I'm super excited.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I want to talk all about the programs.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Because look, I remember being in middle school myself yeah,
and wanting to be a lawyer, right, so I thought, okay, yeah,
I was like no, after I participated in a program
that exposed me some some things that I realized about
lawyers and I did not like, And I said, no,
(08:44):
but I appreciate this program for exposing me to something
that I know I don't like now that I thought
I would love. I genuinely thought, I like engulfed my
whole life into being a lawyer and serving the public.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And it was like, well, I think.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
You gotta bring up bring your folding chair. And but
I think that's what what it is is that career exploration.
And I think a really important part of that is
finding out what you don't want to do. That just
as important as finding out learning things like oh yeah
I like that or I'm good at that. It's like
some things you're just not. And that's okay because we
(09:25):
all bring our different gifts and that's what makes the
world go round.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Absolutely. So let's talk programs.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Okay, So where should we start.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Let's start?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Okay, fine, okay, fine, So college's really cool because we
start as early as sixth grade to just get students
aware of different careers. So we do like very specific
career exploration programs in school and after school and over
(09:56):
the summer just to get you know, like it's it's
all about planning. This yeats with students and then as
they grow and as they continue to you know, matriculate
through through high school, you know, they learn more about
what their future can look like.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, And that's what I loved.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Like college now made me think of some things that
I experienced as a youth that I'm grateful for that
you all are doing.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Did you grow up in Cleveland?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Yeah, where'd you go to middle school?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Middle school and high school? And then did you work
with you? I think it's an important conversation. Did you
work with where you can work? Did you work with college?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So I didn't know. I did not, And.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I primarily worked with Golden Cipher's Miss Pam shout out
to go to shotowt and Miss Pam and the whole
team over there. She's still going strong, still helping the
kids and these young men and ladies now because when
I was going to it, it was only ladies. Uh,
but that was a long time ago. I'll be thirty,
(11:01):
I know, so old. But so I didn't get into
the programs with the school that I attended. But to
answer your questions, because I'm not going to be that way.
I went to Richmond, I came out O seven, I
did a gap year.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I want to try.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
See, I already knew I wanted to join the military
before I even graduated high school. And my mom was
not on it because at that time the war and
I got a popping the hardest it was popped, and
she didn't want me to go. I said, I'll do
this year at community college that you are asking me
to do because you are my mother. So I'm going
to honor what it is that you're asking.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Me to do.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I did it. I failed. I went to the.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Army, Okay, came out, came out, moved to Orlando for college.
My mom got sick, I moved back to Cleveland. I
didn't mean to give you my entire life story, but.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
No, but it's really important because it kind of identifies,
you know, how one interaction, one crossroad, really can decide
where your life goes. And again bringing it back to college, now,
what I really love about this organization is when those
crossroads happen, there is a College Now program that exists
(12:13):
for that and doesn't have to be during the school year.
It could be during the summer where you're visiting a
college campus or you're visiting a location. You know, we
have great partners that help make those programs happen, so
you can actually see what you want to do and
you can make that determination. So you telling us your
story had so many cross roads. So I'll say for
(12:35):
you in high school deciding even once you got to try. See,
we have a great program at tri See. Shout out
to Deonta and what he's doing over there. They have
a campus community of people who are returning to college
and they are not only doing the academic stuff, but
they're doing the peer mentoring too, right, because I think
(12:55):
a big part of why we make it through college
is the community we have around us. And sometimes that
doesn't need to be advisor. Sometimes it just needs to
be someone who's going through the same thing you going through. Right,
How do you sit in class? How do you study?
That sometime is better done with a peer, so you know, again,
even the decision between college and the military. I was
(13:15):
at our Impact program two weeks ago and a young
man named Lashan. He goes to John Hey track Star
and he's decided between all three of those things. So
I go to military, do I get a trade, do
I go to college? And there's an impact advisor there
to help him navigate that. Right. So again, there are
a lot of crossroads in our life, and College Now
(13:37):
is here to be kind of a guid I don't
want to go full bone thugs out here, but we
here to meet you at the crossroads and help you navigate.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well and meet you even before you get to the crossroads,
because there are always there are crossroads that you know,
all of us have to have to face and have
to cross and have to navigate through. So that's really important.
One of the really cool things about College Now. So
we have a College Now advisor who is embedded in
(14:06):
every cms D high school, So every high school in
the Cleveland Method program. Yes I I you know, I'm
also I'm also a mind reader. Yes yeah, So, so
in every CMSD high school we have a college advisor.
And then we also have advisors that are embedded in
(14:31):
many of the First Ring and Second Ring suburban schools,
and we are in in the parochial schools we can't
forget about them. But then we span about six different
counties as well, so, you know, so we're working and
it all depends on the school district. In CMSD we
have full time college now advisors, and then in some
(14:53):
of the other schools, suburban and parochial schools, we you know,
we contract with the school or the school district to determine,
you know, the number of hours so that a college
advisor will be in the school. The really great thing
is you don't have to have an advisor in your school.
So if you're in high school, if you're in middle school,
you don't have to have a college advisor in order
(15:15):
to take advantage of our services. So we have we're
downtown outside of Terminal Tower in the old post office,
but we have what we call a resource center and
students and high school students and families and then adults
who are interested in going back to college, they can
(15:37):
call us, come to our resource center. We can schedule
a virtual meeting. It is all totally free, just to
kind of get back on, you know, on figuring out
the education they need for whatever career they want.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So if I if I walk in, I'm like, look,
I don't even have my ged, but I know I
want to do this specific career path.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
How is college all going to help me accomplish that?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
We have a program for that.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
That's the line of the day, you want to know.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So there are adult learner program and services. We offer
ged support as well. So it's not just you know,
coming to college now and you already have your high
school diploma and you know you're already you know, the
highest of high achievers. It's all about meeting students and
(16:29):
meeting individuals where they are and then figuring out the
path that they can take to get to their own
definition of personal success.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And what does that look like for the students that
you all are helping at college? Now, what do you
want to see as a successful picture when they are
done and graduated and onto their masters or doctors or
onto their career path whatever is in store for them.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We go ahead, we want them to be employed.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
So there you go, there you go.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
We want them to be employed. We want them to
be the best versions of themselves. So it's not that
we're saying every student needs to go to Harvard, or
every student needs a four year degree, or every student
needs a two year degree. Some people were like, Hey,
I want to be I want to do hair, I
want to do nails, but you still have to have
an education for that. So well, we work with students,
(17:24):
We work with individuals to get them to where toever
career they want, where they can be the most successful,
whatever their version of success is, that's not for us
to determine what success means. So we work with them
to say, Okay, you want to be a nail tech,
Let's let's get you into like the cosmetology school that
(17:45):
that you need to get, you know, that certificate so
that or that credential so then you can start you know,
doing nails, owning a business, whatever you want.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Thank you for that in the in the MSS Allison,
because what I'm trying to convey to the audience is
that this is not just for individuals trying to strictly
just go back to college.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
This is for.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Individuals looking to better themselves in whatever type of way,
shape or form that looks like in the education form.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, And for me, I'll be a little bit less
technical about it. You know, I, in my role an
individual giving, I am very attached to storytelling and sometimes
I think sometimes we get caught up in the titles
and the numbers of the work and not what that
(18:38):
looks like on an everyday person. So when I think
about the person you're talking about, thinking about a mom,
thinking about a mom with two or three kids, maybe
had educational aspirations that got derailed from one reason or another,
and because those things got derailed, the life that she's
(18:58):
able to provide for her family looks a bit different.
Success for me is that mom being able to not
only show her children the power at education, but provide
them more opportunities than she had. And that's why I
love our adult learning program because you know, when you
(19:19):
send a seventeen year old kid off the college, they're
gonna have a great time, They're going to learn a lot,
and then they're eventually going to go get a job right,
and then they're gonna be able to take care of themselves.
But when you do that for an adult learner, you're
doing that for a house for a household, you're doing
that so a young girl can see her mother wear
(19:39):
capping down of some type. I don't care what it is,
but she can see that and now she can aspire
to that. So I think success for me when it
comes to the adult learners looks like transformative change for
a generation and something that you know, younger people can
aspire to.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I want to talk a little bit more about your
partnerships because since you're mission transforming, let's talk a little
bit about the Cleveland Plan for transforming schools and what
that partnership looks like for you all. And the Say
Yes Cleveland partnership is yll.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, we will, we will Yes. We could talk about
say Yes. Okay, So, as many people know, say Yes
is kind of it's what is called the last dollar scholarship.
And the really cool thing about says Cleveland that scholarship
is at any eligible CMSD graduate can take advantage of
(20:39):
says and really go to to the college or university
of their choice. I think there are about two hundred
colleges and universities in who are kind of in our
say Yes network. So College, now, not to get too
technical again, college manages the say Yes Scholarship, so you know,
(21:00):
we work with the students to you know, ensure their
eligibility and then we also work with their college or
university to ensure that you know, that institution gets those funds.
An important thing about Say Yes scholars so Say Yes
scholarship recipients, they all receive a College Now volunteer mentor.
(21:24):
So we match our mentors one on one, one to
one with students, and our mentors include just anybody folks
in the community. All you have to do is have
some sort of college degrees, so that can be a
two year or four year college degree. So you had
to have, you know, knowledge, you had to go through
through college of some sort, and then you have to
(21:46):
be able to pass a background check. It's very it's
a very light touch mentoring program. It's mostly virtual. It's
like two emails a month and you know, their phone
calls and we weight our mentors with different prompts so
that they can you know, make sure that they're asking
the right questions of their mentee. So every College Now
(22:09):
scholarship recipient and then every say Yes scholarship recipient is
paired with this mentor, their mentor who then is with
them for up to five years throughout their college journey
and just kind of helps them navigate and you know,
can answer questions like what's the bursar's office or you know,
something like that, and just helps them, you know, get
(22:31):
through challenges because, like I said before, the goal is
to get to graduation.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I love it. Ye, mister Jackson.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Again, I love our Adult Learners program, So shout out
to the big guy over there, Phil. He talked about
the partnership that has with SEES of Literacy, so you specifically, Yeah,
he'son Literacy is a program that I volunteered at before
I was at college. Now, I always to see them
as a partner. But you talked about that GED program, right,
(23:03):
like that's almost what Sees the Literacy is really there
to do it to get you like, that's their stopping
point and that's kind of where we would pick up
as a partner. You know, education is in a We're
not the silver bullet, and we don't believe that, but
we do believe that through a network of community members,
(23:24):
community partners, that we can be a solution to even
if it's just to one individuals. Now, we've done it
for hundreds of thousands at this point, right, but you know,
we truly believe that if we can impact one individual
and they are able to rise personally, that our region
and particularly our economic region, because we all want them
(23:44):
to be employed, will do better as well.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Well.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and you mentioned, you know, yes, the fact that
being employed that is good for people personally, but then
think about how that is for region, for region like Cleveland,
for any region, you need employed people because they will
then they pay taxes. They they will then pour their
resources into the broader community, which is you know, which
(24:12):
is the catalyst for regional economic success.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
While we're here, can we top on the trends that
you are.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Seeing within the different areas that you all serve when
it comes to education, when it comes to what they
are asking for from you all with services they are seeking.
What are you seeing a trend in Cuyahoga County versus
Lorraine gotcha.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
I think the trend? Well, why don't we talk about
like career trends? So we mentioned, yes, we want students
to get an education so then they can you know,
have a career. And there's nothing wrong with being a
history major or philosophy major or something like that, but
(24:59):
you also have the about what are you going to
do with with that? Like you know, with that degree,
sometimes it involves more education, and that's fine, but we
want people to be able to be gainfully employed as
soon as they get out and get their bachelor's degree
or associate's degree. Yes, yes, it's all about like, Okay, like,
(25:23):
you invest all this money, so like now you need
to be able to get.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Invested in themselves.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And if you all at college now have helped nurture
that investment, you have invested in them as well, and
you want to see them successful.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So that's why so we do we don't necessarily encourage
students to go into particular fields because we want to
be able to match their interests whatever, or their their
interests or their goals or whatever or God given talent is.
(26:01):
We want to be able to match that to a career. However,
I think we do kind of push hard on careers
like like an engineering, other STEM careers, healthcare one am
I missing colin? Uh? You know, so Cleveland is a
big healthcare city, so we know there are healthcare jobs.
(26:22):
So we want to be at college now. We want
to be able to be the organization that provides that
that talent to UH, to places like UHE and the
Cleveland Clinic and Metro Health and others. We want to
be able to provide that that talent to them. And
that's why we we kind of focus in on those STEM.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Careers and just to piggyback off of that. I mean,
you know the old world that I came from. In politics,
you talked to elected officials, uh and different individuals about
the need for employees, employees that are able to show up,
employees that are skilled, and what they say about our
(27:05):
region is, well, we have all these open jobs, we
don't have anybody to fill them.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Has changed, right, right?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
People mindset towards the workforce and education it self has changed.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
We're gonna get into.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
That well later. Well, but I say to those same people,
what are you doing to bridge that gap and create
that workforce. It's one thing to say, hey, I got
ten thousand jobs and I got a government grant or
a tax evatement to do this project, but oh I
can't find anybody to fill them from here, which was
(27:37):
part of you getting that money. I offer two business
owners and to entities that if you're not making that investment,
are you really making this promise and good faith? And
that's why I think investing in organizations like or particularly
college now is a solution to that problem. Right And
(28:00):
just like Allison said, so, the trends we are seeing
is that employers are asking for these type of skilled employees.
And what we are doing in our Explorer programs is
trying to prepare individuals for those positions. Right, So it's
it's two sides of the coin. And college now is
(28:21):
the bridge between the workforce and our education system here
in Kiaha County or it's just say across northeast side.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So how are we making sure people know about college now?
How are we getting the word there's no job un
that's while we're here.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
That's while we're here, we outside, and we outside.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
One of the things. Well, before we get to that,
I want also wanted to mention we have really great
partnerships with Key Bank and Third Federal and Sherwin Williams.
They actually help us run a program that you mentioned
called Explore, which is an out of school time kind
of which is another word for after school. It's an
after school and also summer program where that offers really
(29:02):
deep it's like six weeks or eight weeks or something
like that, but it offers really deep career exploration. So,
for example, over the summer, we had middle school and
high school students working with Sherwyn Williams and they learned
all about like paint, like the chemistry of paint. So
there's the science and all of that so it's not
(29:29):
just you don't have to be an artist, you know,
someone who holds a paint brush, but it's about like
there's science to Sherwyn Williams, there's business, there's you know, finance,
which is kind of where our partnership with Key Bank
and with a third Federal come in learning about those
different careers. So we're really thankful to those organizations who
(29:53):
work with us.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
And I think, you know, I keep and I love
that you ask what does success look like? Because we're
over here on seventy seve we're in the heart of
the community, right here on Campsman at the WOVU station,
So what does success look like? From a college And
our perspective is that there's a kid that's two and
a half miles away from here, goes to a cms
D school, has an experience with a college advisor, and
(30:17):
maybe does one of these Sherwan Williams programs and decides
that he wants to be a paint chemist, and then
we are able to pair him with a mentor that
is in that same industry to walk him through those
next four years preparing for that that same mentor is
able to connect him with a network again the thing
(30:37):
that we lack in our community so much, so much
is a network of support that's able to help him
matriculate into that career field and hopefully, you know, fifteen
years from today he's working at Shearwan Williams and is
able to do the same thing and hopefully come back
and be a mentor at college now for the next kid.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
And not even just that.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
So he's working with Sherwyn Williams.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
But I think the main thing is he's got a career.
It's not just a like a job, like it's a career.
It's also a reason. Is first off, it can be
a reason to wake up in the morning. It can
be you know, obviously a reason to like. It's the
kind of the higher your education or the more education
you have. I mean, it's been proven that like over
(31:20):
the course of your lifetime generally you can make more money.
You have money that's consistent, you have so a salary,
you have benefits, you have to think about all these
things health insurance, paid time off, retirement, all of those
kind of things that are intangible, but like they definitely
(31:42):
lead to a better quality of life, and that's that's
what we want. Oh and then being able to. Then
you know, there's home ownership and with the whole ownership
comes generational wealth. And we've got to own homes, like
we have to own homes in order to as a
people and as a community in order to be able.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
To Yeah, and last thing, I'll just say, she's just
so right about all those externalities that come out of education.
You know, you go to your four years and you
get the piece of paper and really to an employer
that just says you can show up, you can get
through something. You can go through the gauntlet. But a
lot of our community is already going through the gauntlet
just walking out of their house every day. But I
(32:25):
have an uncle that used to be an elected official
that I love so much, and he said a phrase
that I'll never forget. And this is kind of the
raw answer to all the very technical and very well
articulated things. Alison said. He believes that the best way
to stop a bullet is to have a job, because
if you have a job, you too busy.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
If you have a career, let's talk about career.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, it's a career. You not trying to be involved
in too much. So you know, we see the things
that are going on in our community. And you have
to ask yourself, how many of these individuals, if we
properly channeled all their talent and all their energy to
be gainfully employed, what would our communities look like? And
I don't mean moving out to Richmond Heights or Shaker
(33:14):
and saying oh this is what no, I mean right
here in the Hough areas. I mean right there in
War five where my brother counselor and Richard Starr is
doing so much good work out there, you know, like
I want that, And I see again there's no silver
bullet here, but it's definitely a gateway to a better future,
(33:36):
not only for yourself before your community. Education is not
just about the individual, it's about the people that are
surrounding them.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I imagine if we quote unquote all the Yians, we
got them together and started a security company.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Man, listen, come on, man, I've been mistaken for a
WII on a day or two, so I know. I
just took my rag off and I walked in here.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
You all you've all that college?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Now also do some policy advocacy as well. Can we
talk about.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Any advocacy you may have been doing recently with all
of these upcoming changes and revisions and and just collapse
of systems and rebuilding of systems and this big, ugly,
beautiful being.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
So we don't get political. However, we do advocate for
what we think is right for students. So you know,
whether it's you know, advocating for for the in in
state politics, advocating for you know, more money being given
to Hell grant recipients for example, or more money given
(34:45):
to anybody who graduates from high school in Ohio and
then you know, stays in Ohio for for their college education,
like we advocate for that college. Now, we don't lobby
at all. We're not allowed to lobby as uh, you know,
as a five hours C three organization, nonprofit organization. But
we can advocate and work with work with folks and
(35:10):
hopefully change systems in order to you know, better, be
in order to to to make our community stronger and
wholder and better.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Is there anything that has come down that has affected
you all that college know and how you serve the
community and the students.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
No, I mean we're serving. We we serve everybody. I
think that's that's the most important thing to remember. I mean,
we do have some we do have some federal grants,
and we run federal programs such as gear Up and
Talent Search and upward Bound. They're all part of a
(35:50):
suite of like Federal Department of Education TRIO programs, so
we had we we run those programs in schools as well.
And it's really like college Now advising and then some
So we're really fortunate to you know, to be the
recipient of some federal dollars and and hope to continue
(36:12):
to be able to do so.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I want to double make sure that we double top
on something before we leave, which is the Resource Center
and understanding, making sure that people understand, like yes, you
can go online to college nowgc dot org, or you
can pull up to the Resource Center if you're like,
you know, one of those older folks that are like
I need to talk to his own body.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Or call yes.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Our number is two one six, two four one five
five eight seven, or you can stop by. Like I said,
we're in the old post office. It's called post Office Plaza.
It's connected to Ower City, so obviously folks can take
public transportation to get there. And during business hours, we
are happy to work with with people and and that
(37:02):
can be on anything. It's like like I think I
said earlier, like you could be like, oh I want
to I'm I just want a fresh start, Like I'm
tired of this kind of like day to day grind.
I need a career. I want to fresh start. What
do I do?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
And it's never too late for a fresh it's oh
my gosh, you could be eighty years old.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
It is never too late. So to just improve yourself
or better yourself or better your situation. So we welcome everyone.
And like you said, it's free.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Yeah, yeah, that resource center is going to give you
college and career advising faster than financial aid support. You
can act as scholarship and Manory School, student loan, debt counseling,
after school programs, test and career exploration. Literally a one
stop shop. And and it's again we're not going to
(37:56):
tell you to go be a doctor. College now is
a compass. Whether it's your first stop on your trail
or you're a little bit longer in the tooth, there,
it's an opportunity there. So I just really encourage everybody
to visit college NOOWGC dot org. There's a tab that
says get help, and then you can pick something there.
Whether you're a high school student or a returning learner.
(38:18):
And again, as Allison said, we're at fifteen hundred West
third Street, Sweep one two five. That's our center and
our number is two one six two four one five
five eight seven. Once again that's two one six two
four one five five eight seven. And again not just
for the student. If you're a grandparent, if your aunt,
(38:39):
if you're a friend, get this information to your kids
and to the people that need it because we know
things get lost in book bags sometimes when the kids,
so you know, part of coming on this station was
really to talk to those caregivers and people who care
about their children and get this information out because it's available,
and we got to take advantage of these resources while
(39:01):
they hear.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yes, can we talk a little bit about the workshops
that are taking place at the resource center as well.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
So they're not necessarily taking place at the resource center,
they're taking place out in the community, which is even better.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Are there you go outside are.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
So I mentioned the Explorer program, which is like career exploration.
We have another program called Impact where that's also career exploration,
but we help students. We help high school students like
prepare for college entrance, exams, So that's like psat the
(39:40):
SAT and the ACT and students will know that. You know,
sometimes colleges right now are saying like, oh, they're test optional.
Take the test because if you do well on the test,
that opens yourself up for even more funding. So that's
really important. We also do SAT and ac c T boot camps.
(40:00):
We do webinars, So wherever you are, if you're in
person an in person person, or you're a webinar person
on Zoom, or you just want to talk on the phone,
contact us. Go to our website. Everything in all of
our events are on our website as well.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So much time we go here because I want to
play a game with you all.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
I'm down quick trying to make.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Sure we had enough time. What is in the future
for college?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Now we're going and we're about to walk into twenty
twenty six, we're hitting into the last quarter of twenty craz.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Just more, more and more and more, but more?
Speaker 2 (40:37):
How not only can how can community members get involved
and mentors that are interested in mentory get involved? Will
should they just email so they just call to just
show up to the center. What does that look like
for these people that are interested also donations are accepted.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Donations, donations, donations.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
That is okay, this is.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Why Colin retired, so you know, oh man donations, donations, donations.
So this is let me put it like this, five
hundred dollars a lot of money, understandable. But with a
five hundred dollars donation, we can, over four years provide
over one hundred thousand dollars a wrap around service for
(41:19):
an individual student. Mean that means that your five hundred
dollars is then't just going to go to a direct
check for a student, but it's going to go into
supporting an advisor, a mentor someone that can help them
navigates FAFSA and really get them bought into the wrap
around community and services that are available to someone who
(41:44):
may be in a different situation. Right, if you have
three generations of lawyers in your family, you have these
wrap around services, there are people to help you navigate. Right,
But your five hundred dollars to college now allows us
to provide that to somebody who may not have that
same thing. And it's critically important. But even if you
(42:06):
don't have five hundred dollars, you know, if you have
fifty bucks, if you got one hundred bucks. You know,
you can go to our website donate, we can do
monthly donations, we can do the roundup thing.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Talk about Harness.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
So Harness is a great platform. Harness allows you to
make your everyday purchases and it rounds up to the
nearest dollar. You can set a cap on the month.
So let's say I want to give college now twenty
dollars a month, and which will end up being two
hundred and forty dollars a year, right, but I want
to do it very passively. So you attach your bank
(42:41):
account to Harness and you can cap it at twenty dollars.
So when you go get your Starbucks, when you go
to well, I'm gonna date myself here, when you go
to your Hot Sauce williams now it's Zanza bar, and
you fill out your little receipt there or whatever's left
will go into the Harness account. You do that enough times,
you get to twenty bucks, and that's how you can
make your donation. So you know, it's a small thing,
(43:03):
something that you don't have to think about. But I
believe that you know when you get your thank you
at the end of the year and your handwritten note
from a student about what your dollars did from them,
you'll really understand it was worth it. So it's really important.
And then on the business side, look, if you're a
business and you need employees, not right now, but you
(43:24):
know in maybe two to three years, you should be
invested in college now and we are able to partner.
We have events that you can sponsor for us, things
of that nature, and I welcome everyone to reach out
to the donate page to me where will eventually end
up and we can work something out where you can
literally be investing in your employee of the future. So
(43:45):
there's just so many ways to get involved, but the
free one. I talk about it all the time. Time, talent,
and treasure. Your time is the most valuable thing you
have and to a student who may not have that
in their life, that can be the most important thing,
right because they can have all the scholarship money in
(44:06):
the world, but they don't have anybody to talk to.
They're not gonna make it. So I advise everyone to
again go to our website. We have actually become a
mentor page. If I'm correct, we have to become a
mentor page where you can actually sign up and start
your process, and there's no better time than now to start.
But if you want to start next month, you know,
(44:27):
you're welcome to do that as well. So you know,
those are ways that individual from the community can support
College Now. And the last one is just telling somebody
else about this program. Man, it's not a secret, and
I feel like College Now may be the best kept
seekert in the city of Cleveland, and it shouldn't be
no secret no more.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
You know, you can also, you know, people can also
establish a scholarship that we will manage as well. So
that's kind of a big part of some of the
work that we do is we will you want to
have a scholarship, we will manage it, we will choose
the students for you, we'll kind of do all of
(45:08):
the back office work. But you know, just any way
that kids can or that that students can be supported and.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
You can be involved in that as possible, and I
want to. I know we're running out of time, but
I would so I'll be remiss if I didn't mention
our superstar Jimmy Malone. Jimmy Malone started a scholarship almost
thirty years ago with three students. I think he started
it with fifteen hundred dollars. He's grown that scholarship into
a golf outing and now I think he has seventy
(45:38):
eight students in his program. And he is someone who
likes to be involved, so he individually mentors these students.
But he is an individual who said, hey, I want
to do something, I don't know how to do it.
And then Cleveland Scholarship program which is now college and
now I was there to support him, And I think
that's really critical to know that you know College Now
(46:01):
as a partner. People think we just give out our
own scholarships. We don't. We manage other people's scholarship. People
think that either I get a College Now scholarship or
they can't help me. That's not true. We can help
you find other scholarships as well. Again, we do not
believe that we are the single savior of education, but
(46:22):
we do believe we are the critical partner and a
convener of so many resources and we just want to
provide those to as many people as possible. So shou
out to Jimmy for being our superstar in that way,
and we're excited to bring your scholarship or your family
foundation also into our suite of services.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Even if you don't know, like if you don't know
where to start, you know you want to help, just
come and just call us too, and well, we'll figure
out a way for you to help.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
We will give you.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
A mission and a job.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
I love it. I love it. So we're gonna play
a little game.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah, okay, I am going to say some words. You
are going to tell me why those words are BS. Okay,
well bs excuses okay.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
Okay, we'll say yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
I like it, well the first time.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Alright.
Speaker 4 (47:19):
I just got this job. I ain't trying to get fired.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
College is too expensive.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
College is expensive, but it's an investment in yourself.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
I don't want student loan debt.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
We'll work with us. We will.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
We will help you not have debt because.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Y'all help people find scholarships.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
We help people find scholarships. Scholarships is free money.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yes, you were supposed to say that, Jackson, Dad, I'm
doing your job. Y'all need to hire me. I need
to work full time. I don't have the time.
Speaker 4 (47:56):
There are ways to get everything done at once.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Are you talking about organization and time management?
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Ah?
Speaker 4 (48:05):
You know who can help you with that a mentor
or an advisor, a love cooge. Now we have though,
look how that work, don't you have?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Plenty of scholarships are too hard to get.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Scholarships are hard to find. They are not hard to get.
They're a scholarship that only require a three hundred word.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
Essay, but some don't require an essay at all, and
some you have to have like a two point zero
or two point five GPA. So it is doable, and
we will work with you and you can get a
say yes scholarship if you are a CMSC high school
student who is eligible.
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Not hard to get, hard to find.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Not hard to find. Can we work for college now?
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Exact?
Speaker 3 (48:48):
I go back?
Speaker 4 (48:50):
Never too late.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I am too time talent treasure.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
I don't have time to work with my family or
friends and do school.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
You got to decide what's most important, keep those priorities.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
It takes too long. It takes too long to finish.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
Like, I gotta work. I need money now right? Two
year four year certificate certificate programs can be one. I
don't know, a few months depends on what it is. Yeah,
investment in yourself.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Certificate programs meaning it's a condensed program of a four
year degree that you will receive a certification as maybe
fourteen weeks.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
That just a little detail about that. I'm not smart enough.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
Everybody brings their own set of gifts.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
And if you don't think you're smart enough, it's probably
because you have not found the best way you learn
and you need somebody to help you do that.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
And who can do that? Who can help you do that?
Speaker 4 (49:54):
College?
Speaker 1 (49:55):
Now?
Speaker 5 (49:56):
What?
Speaker 4 (49:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Speaking of I don't test well?
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Ooh.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Testing is all about preparation. Piss. Poor preparation makes piss
poor performance. So we need to help you learn to
prepare because a test is just a test of it
if you can get through it.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
I want to finish, but I don't even know what
I want to study.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
Oh, you need to work with a college now advisor,
then will We will help you explore all the careers
and we will send you on your way with a mentor.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
I can make money without college.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Yes you can, you can, you can, but what is
the cost of that going to be? And our offer
that you may be able to make a little bit
more money and have a little bit better quality of
life if you have this piece of paper behind you.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
College doesn't guarantee you a good job.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
No, no, I got this. I got this.
Speaker 4 (50:56):
College alone will not guarantee a good job, no guarantee
for anything. But if you have a network, if you
have a support system and a college degree, which college
now can help you get, you have a better chance
of getting and procuring gainful employment.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Trade school or on the job training I think is
just a better fit for me.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
That's fine, We'll work with you. We trade school certificates,
two year degree, four year degree, relationships, yes, whatever, whatever, puts.
Whatever we can do to help you be on the
best path to be your best self.
Speaker 4 (51:37):
And it's not binary. It is not binary. You do
not have to be a four year person or a
trades person. You can be both.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
Ooh, no one in my family went to college.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
That's okay. You gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
Somebody and we believe at college now in you, so
it doesn't matter if no one else did it. You
should be the first.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
I don't know where to start or who can help.
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Then you need to go to w w W dot
college now GC dot org and move through the website
and go to that get help, tap and get started.
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Amazing, amazing, Thank you both for participating.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
I didn't know if y'all.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
That job you did, y'all take it all back and
we get some marked I I want to keep playing.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
I mean, let's see you.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
No, no, no, this is great. I want to bring
more people from college now here to really talk to you,
to you all on a normal, on a regular basis,
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Anyone find yes, sure, anyone is interested in radio or media?
Speaker 3 (52:54):
Would you like to sign up to be an I
said that would I would. We will get you the information.
Speaker 4 (53:00):
Look at that. WOVU are now a partner in college.
Now you heard it first.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Hey, and that's right, Cleveland's urban alternative. Make sure you
stick and stay, don't go away. Thank you both for
joining me here on our voices today at ninety five
point nine.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
This is WOVU Studios
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!