Once students enter high school, parents start planning summer vacations to coordinate with college campus visits (often wondering where all the time went). More exposure to college life helps students make informed decisions about applications and eventually enrollment. Listen to our tips that will help make time on campus more productive: Starting tours early also…
Author: Jill Yoshikawa, Ed M, Partner of Creative Marbles Consultancy
Jill Yoshikawa, EdM, Harvard ’99, a seasoned, 25 year educator and consultant, is meticulous in helping clients navigate all aspects of the educational experience, no matter the level of complexity. She combines educational theory with experience to advise families, schools and educators. A UCSD and Harvard graduate, as well as a former high school teacher, Jill works tirelessly to help her clients succeed.
Risk & Reward
Fear of mistakes can become a liability. Henry Kissinger once warned that our search for certainty can leave us simply reacting to the next emergency. Yet, transformed, this same desire for perfection can create an exacting attention to detail and ability to forecast probabilities. Is your view that life is inherently full of risk or…
College = Personal & Intellectual Independence?
Here’s proof that computer science and creative arts are not opposite pursuits. Will the prospective colleges you’re investigating allow you the room to think outside the box? Many students tell us they’re seeking greater independence by going to college. Doesn’t the freedom to innovate AND be nurtured for realizing something previously unimagined qualify, as “independence”?…
The Internship Dilemma
While internships give new professionals valuable experience, Federal laws prohibit interns from doing tasks that a company would otherwise pay an employee. In California, interns are required to earn college credit in place of being paid. Since college students seek internships to be competitive for decreasing numbers of jobs, given the current economic circumstances,…
House & Senate Approve Student Loan Interest Rate Freeze
Today, the House approved the bill to keep student loan interest rates at 3.4% for the 2012-13 school year. The Senate approved the freeze on Tuesday. President Obama has been campaigning for the continued lower rate, over the scheduled 6.8% increase, as we reported earlier this spring. See The Washington Post for more details
The “Muddy” Side of Learning
Do-it-yourself does not just refer to hours at Home Depot, then trucking all that stuff home to saw, sweat, swear and drive back to Home Depot for stuff you forgot, while your family watches from a distance–afraid of the snarls. As an educational tool, DIY refers to the blow-stuff-up, come-home-dirty-enough-so-your-mom-makes-you-change-in-the-garage, direct-your-own-project learning. You know,…
An “If” Halts UC Tuition Increase…Temporarily?
If voters approve a tax increase on November’s ballot, then the UC will freeze tuition at current amounts–$12,192. (The UC Regents discussed the possibility of a 6% tuition increase for 2012-13 at their last meeting and were expected to vote on the increase in July. That vote will not be called.) However, if voters DO…
CA Budget Affects Cal Grants for Private, Non Profit Colleges
Proposed reductions in funding for the Cal Grant program, in the current 2013 Fiscal budget plan, would reduce private, non-profit university student’s grants by 17% by 2014 to $8,056 per year. (Examples of private non-profit colleges are the University of Pacific or University of Southern California.) Current Cal Grants for private, non-profit university students are…
Maybe a Summer-Slide Is Just What the Doctor Ordered?
Annually, this is the time of year parents and teachers share concerns that students forget academic concepts, since they’re not in school several months. It’s often called, “Summer-Slide.” Yet, how much does consistency affect students’ comprehension and academic progress?
“Honey, Fire Up the Chopper!”
When it’s time for kids to move to college, it might be more complex to let go than you think. A lifetime of “taxi-ing” to every soccer practice and tournament in Timbucktoo, emailing teachers daily, tutoring homework, staying up late to put the clothes in the dryer ” ‘ cuz I gotta wear that shirt,…
Reading Does Not Make You a Nerd
It’s summer. Hot (read: reason to stay inside). No school (read: students have LOTS of free time, for which their parents’ intentions and their own intentions may differ). So, its the season for numerous media articles lamenting “summer slide” or students “forgetting” the academic information from the previous school year to features of popular…
Being Special in a Sea of Special
Wow. In a time when it seems every 5 year old knows what “self-esteem” means, David McCullough Jr. reminded us of our basic human equanimity. “…even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. ” Boy, that either fries your hide…
Standardized Testing: The Good, The Bad and A Hmmmm…Moment
Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, an organization committed to a fair use of standardized testing in K-12 schools and college admissions, recently spoke with Creative Marbles about assessments. Our conversation reminded me of questions I’ve been asking since I was a beginning teacher, “How do we know (i.e. grasp clearly in the mind) what another has…
What’s Unemployment Got to Do With Picking Colleges for Application?
Forecasting job prospects based on location of the college is another criteria for prospective applicants and their parents to consider, before deciding to apply. If unemployment in general is high in a particular state, does a student and family want to invest their limited capital and 4-5 years of effort in a college, when they…
Financial Aid 101: Are You Financially Literate?
Paying for college seems out of the ordinary, given the total amount, which creates the “wake-me-up-from-a-dead-sleep-gasping-for-air” feeling. However, with some foresight, families can approach college expenses together and with less nervousness. Art Baird, Creative Marbles CEO and financial aid expert, and Jill Yoshikawa, Partner of the Educational Division at Creative Marbles, recorded a recent conversation…