TJ senior excited to becomefamily’s first-generation toattend college -- See page 2F

Trade school can lead to a more 'stable' career -- See page 2F

Unique talents could land odd scholarships -- See page 3F

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

2F Sunday, April 7, 2013 The Daily NonpareilCollege Bound

TJ senior excited to become family’s first-generation to attend college

Ashlee CoffeyACoffey@nonpAreilonline.Com

Jasmin Townsend, a senior at Thomas Jef-ferson High School, is headed to college this fall – and she’s the first one in her family to do so.

“It’s been a lot of hard work because I don’t have someone who knows what I’m going through,” Jasmin said. “It’s just been a step by step process – going through it by myself.”

Jasmin is part of the College Bound Club at Thomas Jefferson High School.

The club – a federal Upward Bound grant and managed by the AIM Institute – is one of two high school programs that serve first-generation, low-income students who are highly motivated to attend college, but “don’t necessarily have the resources to do so on their own,” said Ashley DeVrieze, College Bound Club site coordinator at Thomas Jef-ferson High School. Fifty students at Thomas Jefferson are part of the College Bound Club.

The other program is the College Access Program (CAP) – a grant program funded by the Iowa West Foundation and managed by the AIM Institute. It serves 50 students at Thomas Jefferson and 50 at Abraham Lincoln High School.

Students enter as incoming freshmen and, upon successful completion of the program, earn a $1,000 scholarship for college.

DeVrieze said the programs provide advis-ing and mentoring programs, after school study times and tutoring, and a variety of leadership and career exploring opportunities

on Saturdays and throughout the Summer Academies.

All opportunities are free to the students and focused on helping them stay motivated and achieve their goals, she said.

“The key to our programs is that the stu-dents have one-on-one attention focused on their goals. They are able to build relation-ships with their site coordinators, as well our teacher mentors and a lot of other students who also have high goals but face the same obstacles,” DeVrieze said. “We’re a commu-nity of people pushing them to believe in their success and reach their college dreams.

“We set very high expectations and try to prove to them that they can be leaders in school and in their community.”

According to DeVrieze, the first group of students from the CAP program will graduate this year, and “they are doing a wonderful job of applying for scholarships. All of them have

been accepted to colleges, and now they’re finalizing their plans.”

The College Bound Club at Thomas Jef-ferson will see its the fourth graduating class. Several current seniors from both programs are already fully-funded for college, she said.

Jasmin credits DeVrieze with helping her with the decision to attend college.

“I’ve been in the (College Bound Club) for four years, and it’s just a lot of knowing what the right thing to do is,” Jasmin said. “Mrs. DeVrieze led me throughout my four years and helped me with anything I needed, including scholarships and where I want to go to college.”

Jasmin plans to attend College of Saint Mary in Omaha this fall and study to become a paralegal. After that, she hopes to go on to law school.

“I’m excited to meet new people and learn more about the field I’m studying,” she said. “I’m excited to grow up to be what I want to be.”

Even though she’s nearly ready to gradu-ate and move on to college, the journey to this point hasn’t always been easy.

“The hardest part was probably the finan-cial status. It’s just overwhelming because, as a first-generation student, you have to figure out costs on your own,” Jasmin said. “It’s not just handed to you. That’s why scholarships are so important.”

But throughout the entire process, her

Staff photo/Kyle Bruggeman

Jasmin Townsend, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School, will be the first member of her family to attend college. Jasmin plans to attend College of Saint Mary in Omaha this fall and study to become a paralegal. After that, she hopes to go on to law school.

First in the Family

Todd von KAmpenWorld-herAld neWs serviCe

The college entrance-exam industry seems to add more let-ters to its alphabet soup every year. But two acronyms still mat-ter the most: ACT and SAT.

Thirty years ago, most college-bound young people took either or both tests as high school seniors. Now they’re encouraged to start taking them as juniors or even earlier.

The tests’ parent companies have developed broader arrays of college- and career-counseling services. A variety of test-prep programs, both in-person and online, compete with long-established test-taking books for the business of families eager to ensure their student’s best pos-sible score.

Amid the proliferation of products, however, these things remain true for today’s teens who are considering their educational options after high school:

• Universities, four-year col-leges, two-year community col-leges and trade schools almost always will require students to take either the ACT or the SAT to be admitted.

Many also will require stu-dents to achieve a minimum score, which varies by the institu-tion.

• Institutions also generally will look at entrance-exam scores when awarding academic or ath-letic scholarships, but the scores do not affect need-based financial aid.

• Though institutions typically will accept either of the major tests, the ACT (originally the American College Test) remains the more popular entrance exam with Midlands higher education institutions – in part because it was founded and remains based in Iowa City.

• The SAT (originally the Scholastic Aptitude Test), offered by the New York-based College Board, is the older of the tests (with roots dating to 1900). It’s more popular with institutions on the East and West Coasts.

High school students can encounter the ACT and SAT formats well before their senior year if their school has them take preliminary versions developed by the two respective testing ser-vices.

The most notable are the Col-lege Board’s long-established PSAT and ACT’s newer PLAN and EXPLORE tests.

Colleges may contact stu-dents once they take one or more of these tests, depending on whether students choose to make their scores widely available. PLAN and EXPLORE also sug-gest possible career tracks based on the test results and students’ answers to questions about their interests.

How important are test-prep programs? It depends on the student. But area students have a variety of program and pricing options to choose from if they want help to maximize their initial test score or squeeze out

The ABCs of ACTs, SATS, etc.

Tim rohWerTrohWer@nonpAreilonline.Com

For those wanting to learn a trade at a community college but unsure of a specific field, Michael Hoppe has this suggestion:

“The great thing about the culi-nary field is that everyone has to eat to survive. Wall Street could crash tomorrow, but those individuals

would still need to eat. This makes our food industry a stable one.”

Hoppe is the program chair and assistant professor of Culinary Arts, Restaurant and Hospitality Manage-ment at Iowa Western Community College. As he mentioned, this is a field always in demand.

“If someone can cook and cook well they can find a job pretty easily. In fact, we have many businesses calling our program hoping to find candidates who are qualified to meet their needs.”

It’s also a growing field, even here in Council Bluffs, Hoppe said.

“You have many restaurants opening up in the Metro Crossing and Market Place shopping centers,

not to mention other restaurants along South Expressway and at the casinos. Each restaurant has its own niche, and they seem to be doing well. In our profession, competition is not a bad thing because it makes the restaurateurs strive to do better.”

To help its students find jobs quickly, IWCC offers a culinary and baking internship program during the summer between a student’s freshman and sophomore year, Hoppe said. If the managers of the chosen job site like what they see in the student’s performance, it usu-ally helps the student land a good job after they finish the program, he said.

There is also competition during

the regular school term. In fact, a student culinary team from IWCC prepared the winning entree in the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s 11th annual Student Taste of Ele-gance competition in Des Moines a few weeks ago. Organizers presented each of the winning team members $100 in cash and $1,000 for their school to use for scholarships and educational costs.

Culinary arts isn’t the only career that’s creating an interest for stu-dents going to a community college. Many are considering the high-tech field of robotics.

Trade school can lead to a more ‘stable’ careerTESTS/See Page 5FDemand for high-

tech, hands-on employees growing

FIRST/See Page 4F

“i’m excited to meet new people and learn more about

the field i’m studying. i’m excited to grow up to be

what i want to be.”– Jasmin Townsend, a senior at Thomas

Jefferson High School and the first

member of her family to attend college

TRADE/See Page 4F

Chad NatioNCNatioN@NoNpareiloNliNe.Com

The weather so far this early spring has not been so enjoyable as to spark an uncon-trollable outbreak of spring fever in graduating high school seniors, but it is surely coming.

While it would appear now is the time for seniors to push the cruise control button on their high school careers, Ash-ley DeVrieze, site coordinator for the College Bound Club at Thomas Jefferson High School, said that could not be further from the truth.

While many seniors have already applied and been accepted to schools across the country, now is the time to work on the financing of their education.

“We are in the throes of financial aid,” DeVrieze said.

But there is more than just financial aid available this time of year. DeVrieze said a number of scholarship oppor-tunities are just becoming available for incoming college freshmen.

A lot of local scholarships – known as the southwest Iowa packet – just opened up in March, she said.

And it is not just seniors who should be paying atten-tion to scholarship opportuni-ties. Juniors, sophomores, and even freshmen, should all be aware of the application pro-cess and gaining knowledge about what they need to do to compete for scholarships in their senior year.

DeVrieze said College Bound Club works with stu-dents who are likely to be first generation collegians or from low income homes, or both, to visualize life after high school.

Students in the program are aware of the work it will take to get into college or snag scholarships.

Scholarship programs and smaller, private universities are looking for well-rounded students, DeVrieze said.

“They want to know that you have been a leader in your

school and volunteered in your community,” she said. “I think that as students they don’t always see the importance of community service, but they get more out of it than just something to put on a scholar-ship application.”

And what if you have a truly unique talent? While everyone knows about the aca-demic, merit and sports schol-

arships, what about money for individuals with talents that are a little more unique?

Scholarships.com has done the leg work on a few truly unusual scholarships that are out there:

• Tall? The Tall Clubs Inter-national Convention annually awards student scholarships of up to $1,000 each to tall stu-dents who are under 21 years

of age and attending their first year of college in the following fall.

The recipients must also meet the TCI height require-ment minimums of 5 feet 10 inches for women and 6 feet 2 inches for men.

• Are you a fan of Duck

Dynasty? The Chick & Sophie Major Memorial Scholarship Duck Calling Contest is open to any high school senior in the U.S. who can call ducks. The four annual scholarships – ranging from $2,000 down to $500 – can be used to further your education in any field, but

Sunday, April 7, 2013 3FThe Daily Nonpareil College Bound

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Unique talents could land odd scholarships for collegeFinancial assistance is available for college

Staff photo/Kyle Bruggeman

College Bound Club site coordinator Ashley DeVrieze, left, helps Thomas Jefferson High School senior Brittany Myre edit scholarship applications at the high school in early March. “The last four years (DeVrieze) has coun-seled me through everything,” Myre said.

SCHOLARSHIPS/See Page 5F

4F Sunday, April 7, 2013 The Daily NonpareilCollege Bound

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family has been there for her.“My family is very support-

ive,” she said. “But sometimes it’s hard because my parents don’t understand the process of the scholarships and the FAFSA.”

Both Jasmin’s parents have noted how hard their daughter has worked to get into college.

“She’s been going through College Bound for the last four years and has been doing vol-unteer work for Mercy Hospi-tal. Right now she works at

Hy-Vee,” said Anthony Tay-lor, Jasmin’s dad. “She stud-ies every night at home to get ready for college. She’s been to see a few colleges but has her mind set on going to College of Saint Mary.”

Jasmin’s mom, Samantha Townsend, has visited several

college campuses with her daughter and has enjoyed the journey.

“We’re very happy for her. It’s really exciting,” said Samantha said. “Everything is new to both me and her dad because we haven’t been to college. It’s been quite a

journey with her. We’re proud she’s stuck with it to have a better future. We’re there for her all the way through it. Whatever we can do to help her, we’ll do.”

Jasmin’s advice to kids looking to become first-gener-ation college bound is simple

– continue to advance in every class.

“Take as many classes as you can – even if it isn’t some-thing you need because any class you’re in develops your learning,” she said. “And I’d also tell them to constantly challenge themselves.”

TJ senior excited to become first in her family to attend college

“Robotics is a high-tech, hands-on career field,” said Kimberly Carter, dean of Mathematics, Engineering, and Industrial Technologies at IWCC. “Students are pre-pared for a technician-level career in robotic automation and will have an opportunity to learn on and with the same equipment used by automated manufacturing companies.”

Manufacturing isn’t what it used to be, Carter said. Today, this field requires technicians to have electronic and pro-gramming skills.

“There is much more advanced knowledge required and it lines up nicely with what today’s youth are inter-ested in,” Carter said.

Iowa Western’s Robot-ics/Automation Technology Applied Science Degree Pro-gram is quite new, according to Carter, beginning in August of last year. Currently, just four students are in the pro-gram, she said, but an addi-tional six have already been accepted for the next fall class beginning this August, she added.

“I believe our numbers for a fall start will be 12 to 15 students.”

What is also appealing about this field, according to Carter, is the growing number of manufacturing firms need-ing this technology.

“There are over 6,000 man-ufacturing companies in Iowa

and many are advanced firms and use some form of robotics technology,”

What’s more, the local firm of Ellison Technologies Auto-mation, which has a on-hands

training partnership with IWCC, has customers across the United States looking for robotics technicians for stu-dents interested in working elsewhere, Carter said.

Graduates of this program will be qualified to assemble, install, program, troubleshoot and maintain robotics.

“There is definitely a demand and need for employ-

ees in this field,” said Greg Olenick, vice president and general manager of Ellison Technologies.

The potential salaries for those in this field are appeal-ing, too, according to Carter.

“Starting salaries locally would be $37,000 to $46,000.

A seasoned robotics techni-cian can make $70,000. Yes, graduates will be able to step quickly into a career as a robotics technician.”

A community college like Iowa Western can also offer careers in construction trades that may include instruction on masonry, carpentry, elec-trical and power transmis-sion installation, building/construction finishing, man-agement, inspection and other construction-related applica-tion.

Or, students can learn automotive mechanics like that offered at IWCC, which is designed to place students into the work force upon completion of a 10-month pro-gram, and nearly all of the graduates find work in this field locally. Entry level sala-ries can start as high as $14 an hour.

Trade school education can lead to a more ‘stable’ career

FIRST/From Page 2F

TRADE/From Page 2F

File photos

Above, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds (right center) observe robotics at work during a tour of Ellison Technologies Automation in April 2012. Bottom right, Greg Olenick, vice president and general manager of Ellison Technologies, poses at the robotics firm’s location in Council Bluffs. “There is definitely a demand and need for employees in this field,” Olenick said. Above right, to help better prepare its culinary students, Iowa Western Community College offers internships and competition. IWCC culinary students, from left, Adrianne Kessenich, Magdalena Francisco Gonzalez and Jenna Dunn, created the winning entreé in the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s 11th annual Student Taste of Elegance competition in Des Moines on March 4.

Sunday, April 7, 2013 5FThe Daily Nonpareil College Bound

Do you know your ACTs – and SATs and PSATs?

another few points on a retake.

Some schools also will bring in test-prep experts to offer their courses at reduced rates. Other schools use their own teachers.

Following are brief sketches of the two major entrance exams and their preliminary versions:

ACT (with PLAN and EXPLORE)

The “classic” test pres-ents multiple-choice ques-tions in four subject areas: English (75 questions over 45 minutes), math (60 ques-tions over 60 minutes) and reading comprehension and science (each 40 questions over 35 minutes).

Students receive scores ranging from 1 to 36 in each area, based on the number of correct answers. No points are deducted for incorrect answers.

The four subject-area scores are averaged to arrive at the final ACT “composite score,” also on a 1-to-36 scale. Students who take the optional ACT writ-ing test have 30 minutes to write an essay that takes one of two positions on a given issue. They receive both a writing subscore and a combined English-writing score.

ACT EXPLORE is designed for eighth- and ninth-graders, while ACT PLAN is meant for high school sophomores. Both are shorter versions of the ACT. PLAN results also include an estimated ACT score.

SAT and PSATThe SAT covers three

subject areas: reading and math (70 minutes each) and writing (60 minutes). The test begins by giving stu-dents 25 minutes to write an essay supporting a point of view on a given issue.

They then must answer 48 questions testing their

reading comprehension, complete 19 sentences, answer 54 math questions (44 multiple-choice and 10 in which students must sup-ply the answers), rewrite 25 sentences and six para-graphs and correct errors in 18 sentences.

Students are graded on a scale from 200 to 800 points in each of the three sub-ject areas, with the scores added to produce the total SAT score. The test awards one point for each correct answer and deducts one-fourth of a point for each incorrect answer. Questions left blank are not counted.

The PSAT, a shorter ver-sion of the SAT, long has served as the qualifying test for the annual National Merit Scholarship Competi-tion.

It covers the same three subject areas but does not include an essay. Although juniors typically take the PSAT, schools might choose to give the test to younger students for practice.

Staff photo/Kyle Bruggeman

College Bound Club site coordinator Ashley DeVrieze, left, helps Thomas Jefferson High School senior Chris-tina Greger work on scholarship applications at the school in early March. Greger plans to attend the Uni-versity of Oregon in the fall.

you only have 90 seconds to show your proficiency in four calls: the hail, feed, comeback and mating. While there is no entry fee for this contest, contestants must register through the Stuttgart Cham-ber of Commerce in Stutt-gart, Ark.

• Willing to try a gim-mick? Use the Duck Tape palette of 150 designs and colors to come up with one-of-a-kind outfits for you and your date to prom and you could win a $5,000 grand prize scholarship.

While a lot of the col-lege talk is geared towards seniors, this isn’t a time for high school juniors to be

slacking off, either; this year is a “shopping” year. DeVrieze said a number of juniors start to visit schools and see the difference between private schools, the state institutions and community colleges.

Juniors also must begin to focus on the ACT test and signing up for practice tests.

There is also job shadow-ing, career counseling and resume building.

“It used to be that you walked into the high school counseling center and the applications were there,” DeVrieze said. “Now so much of it is online; you have to go to the Internet to find it.

“We are trying to pull all that information together and help students find it eas-ily so it’s not so intimidating.”

Unique talents could land odd scholarships

SCHOLARSHIPS/From Page 3F

TESTS/From Page 2F

JUSTIN POPEASSOcIATEd PrESS

ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) – They’re the places you think of when you think of “college” – leafy campuses, small classes, small towns.

Liberal arts colleges are where students ponder life’s big questions, and learn to think en route to successful careers and richer lives, if not always to the best-paying first jobs.

But today’s increasingly career-focused students mostly aren’t buying the idea that a liberal arts education is good value, and many small liberal arts colleges are struggling. The survivors are shedding their liberal arts identity, if not the label.

A study published earlier this year found that of 212 such institutions identified in 1990, only 130 still meet the criteria of a “true liberal arts college.” Most that fell off the list remained in business, but had shifted toward a pre-pro-fessional curriculum.

These distinctively Ameri-can institutions – educating at most 2 percent of college stu-dents but punching far above their weight in accomplished graduates – can’t turn back the clock.

But schools like Adrian Col-lege, 75 miles southwest of Detroit and back from a recent near-death experience, offer something of a playbook.

First, get students in the door by offering what they do want, namely sports and extracurricular opportunities that might elude them at big-ger schools. Offer vocational subjects like business, crimi-nal justice and exercise sci-ence that students and parents think – rightly or wrongly – will lead to better jobs.

Then, once they’re enrolled, look for other ways to sprinkle the liberal arts magic these colleges still believe in, even if it requires a growing stretch to call yourself a liberal arts college.

“We’re liberal arts-aholics,” says Adrian President Jeffrey Docking, who has added seven sports and two pre-professional degree programs since arriving in 2005 – and nearly doubled enrollment to about 1,750.

But he’s also a realist.“I say this with regret,” said

Docking, an ethicist by train-ing. But “you really take your life into your own hands think-ing that a pure liberal arts degree is going to be attractive enough to enough 18-year-olds that you fill your freshman classes.”

In ancient Greece, liberal arts were the subjects that men free from work were at leisure to pursue. Today, the squishy definition still includes subjects that don’t prepare for a particular job (but can be useful for many). English, his-tory, philosophy, and other arts and sciences are the tradi-tional mainstays.

But these days, some pre-fer a more, well, liberal defini-tion that’s more about teaching style than subject matter.

“I refer to it as learning on a human scale,” said Wil-liam Spellman, a University of North Carolina-Asheville his-torian who directs a group of 27 public liberal arts colleges. “It’s about small classes, access to faculty, the old tutorial model of being connected with somebody who’s not interested only in their disciplinary area but culture broadly defined.”

Does it work? It’s true that research tying college majors to salaries can make the generic liberal arts degrees look unap-pealing.

But technical training can become obsolete, and students are likely to change careers several times. These schools argue you’re better off, both in life and work, simply learning to think.

Research does point to broader benefits of studying liberal arts in small settings, in

areas like leadership, lifelong learning and civic engagement.

Liberal arts colleges are proven launching pads to the top of business, government and academia (graduating 12 U.S. presidents, six chief jus-tices and 12 of 53 Nobel laure-ates over a recent decade who attended American colleges, by one researcher’s count). Foreign delegations often visit to observe, and big U.S. uni-versities are trying to recre-ate mini-liberal arts colleges within their campuses.

But outside a secure tier of elites with 10-figure endow-ments – the Swarthmores, Amhersts, Wellesleys of the world – many schools are in trouble.

The liberal arts still account for about one-third of bach-elor’s degrees, but the experi-ence of getting one in these small settings is increasingly atypical. Definitions vary, but liberal arts colleges today probably account for between 100,000 and 300,000 of the country’s roughly 17 million undergraduates.

There are more students at the University of Phoenix, alone.

These schools “are all get-ting to around $40,000 a year, in some cases $50,000, and students and their families are just saying ‘we can’t do it,’” Docking said. Small classes make these schools among them most expensive places in higher education, though they often offer discounts to fill seats (Adrian’s list price is $38,602, including room and board, but the average student pays $19,000).

Other pressures are geo-graphic and generational. Many liberal arts colleges are clustered in the Northeast and Midwest, in towns like Adrian, founded by optimistic 18th- and 19th-century settlers who started colleges practically as soon as they arrived. But where the country is growing now is the South and West, where the private college tradi-tion isn’t as deep.

Meanwhile, students these days expect the climbing walls and high-end dorms that smaller, poorer schools can’t afford. And a growing propor-tion of college students are the first generation in their family to attend. They’ve proved a tougher sell on the idea they can afford to spend four years of college “exploring.”

In UCLA’s massive national survey of college freshman, “getting a better job” recently surpassed “learning about things that interest me” as the top reason for going to col-lege. The percentage calling job preparation a very important reason rose to 86 percent, up from 70 percent in 2006, before the economy tanked.

Politicians have reinforced the message. Florida Repub-lican Gov. Rick Scott recently proposed public colleges charge more for degrees in subjects like anthropology that he said were less economically valu-able to the state than science and engineering (though in

fact, those subjects usually cost much more to teach).

So, with varying reluctance, colleges have adjusted. In his 2011 book “Liberal Arts at the Brink,” former Beloit College president Victor Ferrall cal-culated that in 1986-87, just 30 of 225 liberal arts colleges awarded 30 percent or more of their degrees in vocational sub-jects. By 2007-2008, 118 did so.

Even at a consortium called the Annapolis Group, com-prised of the supposedly purest liberal arts colleges, the per-centage of vocational degrees jumped from 6 percent to 17 percent.

“What’s new in the past few years,” said Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, “is peo-ple are beginning to wonder in the places that have remained liberal arts colleges whether that’s enough.” Schools like Adrian that had already shifted to a more vocational approach “are asking whether the balance is right, whether they need to tip more to the professional side.”

Adrian was weed-strewn, demoralized and down to its last 840 students when Dock-ing arrived in 2005.

“We borrowed 30 million bucks and said, ‘if this doesn’t work out, we’re done,’” he recalled.

First, Docking built up facil-ities and added teams, nota-bly in sports like hockey and lacrosse that tilt toward more affluent students. No niche market was too small: Adrian started one of the country’s only synchronized skating teams.

At the nearby University of Michigan, almost nobody walks onto the football team or even the marching band, but you can at Adrian. And every-body recruits. Docking’s band director has to bring in 20 kids a year, the symphony director 10. He has fired coaches who don’t meet their quotas.

(This year, about 700 of Adrian’s 1,756 students play varsity sports, more than 40 percent. At the University of Michigan, there are 881 stu-dent-athletes – or 3 percent of the 27,500 undergraduates.)

Docking worried Adrian would become a “jock factory,” and the number of students wearing team gear on campus is striking.

But, he said: “They come in as hockey players, and they leave as chemists and jour-nalists and business leaders.” Michael Allen, a longtime the-ater professor, says the ath-letics culture has turned out better than he feared, saying most athletes who persist are (or get) serious academically.

Pre-professional programs weren’t new to Adrian, but it’s recently added athletic train-ing and sports management. The two most popular majors are business and exercise sci-ence.

So is Adrian still a “liberal arts college?” Some would scoff, but Docking say yes. He notes the top minors include chem-istry, English and religion/

philosophy. He talks up “insti-tutes” on campus – devoted to ethics, study abroad and other areas – that try to inject lib-eral arts-style learning around even the pre-professional cur-riculum.

That curriculum still includes liberal arts distribu-tion requirements majors, and he insists liberal arts skills can be taught in other types of classes, and even through extra-curriculars.

Vicki Baker, a professor at nearby Albion College, who co-authored the recent study tracking the 39 percent decline in liberal arts colleges since 1990, also thinks these colleges can retain their value even as they evolve. Her Albion busi-ness classes include debates, presentations and other teach-ing techniques that were impossible when she taught 400 at Penn State.

Liberal arts colleges “appeal to a certain kind of student who really flourishes in that environment,” and who might not otherwise succeed in col-lege, Baker said. “It would be a loss to see that vanish.”

Senior Kyle Cordova chose Adrian half for the chance to play baseball, half for its small size. He was leaning toward a liberal arts major but ended up in criminal justice to prepare for a law enforcement career. He’s had the same half-dozen or so professors year after year. “They know me, they know how I work, what I’m weak in, what I’m strong in, how to help me better,” he said. “That’s better than going to Michigan State.”

Communications major Garrett Beitelschies said his professors meet with him on every paper and “you’re actu-ally talking in front of the room, having to defend your stance.” He’s also partaken of an extra-curricular feast unimaginable at the bigger schools he con-sidered: president of his frater-nity and the senior class, radio, theater, homecoming king and even dressing up as Bruiser the Bulldog mascot at foot-ball games. With financial aid Adrian ended up costing him less than some state schools.

Both students said they’d learned broader skills – Cor-dova cited the complex skills involved in learning to inter-view witnesses.

But neither said they’d taken a class where the syl-labus entailed reading, say, a set of novels.

Liberal arts colleges talk constantly – and perhaps with more urgency lately – about better pitching their case to the public. But until they do, they’ll have to respond to what that public wants.

Docking says the survival recipe will vary (hockey helps here but won’t in for Florida colleges). But the basic formula is the same.

“You need to be able to offer more than simply strong aca-demics or you’re going to have difficulty attracting students,” he said. “There’s a lot of compe-tition. You’d better have some-thing to distinguish yourself.”

Liberal arts colleges evolve with market

“You need to be able to offer more than simply strong academics or you’re going to have difficulty attracting students. There’s a lot of competition.

You’d better have something to distinguish yourself.”– Jeffrey Docking, president at Adrian College

What’s thinking worth these days?

AP

In this 2012 photo provided by Adrian College, members of the school’s Bulldog football team warm up before homecoming in Adrian, Mich. Adrian’s president, Jeffrey Docking, has added seven sports and two pre-professional degree programs to the liberal arts col-lege since arriving in 2005 – and nearly doubled enrollment to about 1,750.

A variety of test-prep programs, both in-person and online, compete with long-established test-tak-ing books for the busi-ness of families eager to ensure their student’s best possible score.

6F Sunday, April 7, 2013 The Daily NonpareilCollege Bound

What will you become?

The world is waiting for you!

As a high school senior, you know the biggest steps of your life are the ones you will take after graduation. That’s why Iowa Western created WhatWillYouBecome.com, a really helpful new career-planning tool. The site matches your personal interests to all the great programs Iowa Western has to offer.

If you need help deciding on a career, check out WhatWillYouBecome.com. 712.325.3277 | admissions@iwcc.edu | iwcc.edu

It’s the season for celebrat-ing. Thousands of gradu-ates will be marching down

school auditorium aisles soon to receive their diplomas. Tassels will be flipped, and caps will be tossed in the air in celebration.

After the ceremony, par-ties all across the country will ensue.

If yours is a family who will be commemorating the accom-plishments of a graduation by inviting friends and family to celebrate, you may want to begin party preparation early on and follow some tips for enter-taining success.

Start planning nowSpecial events that take

place at specific times of the year can make finding a venue or hiring party vendors quite competitive. Graduations occur during a very limited window of time and waiting until the last minute to secure a party site or make catering reserva-tions could leave you with few options.

Begin making reservations the moment you learn the grad-uation date. If you plan to cel-ebrate on a day other than the graduation day, then there may be more room for negotiation.

Planning early also helps you to get a better price. Dur-ing crunch time at the end of the school year, businesses may realize their products and ser-vices are in high demand and ask a steeper price. Those who book and buy early will have the benefit of shopping around for the best price.

Some of the planning that should take place early on includes:

• Party venue reservation• Setting up catering• Determining a guest list• Establishing a budget

Money-saving tipsCost is a big factor when it

comes to social occasions. Sav-ing money with respect to grad-uation parties can be as simple as joining resources.

Chances are you know sev-eral families who are having graduation parties at the same time as yours. Considering hav-ing a joint party with a few fam-ilies so graduates can celebrate together. A joint party can also save you money.

Each can be responsible for a certain aspect of the party expe-rience, and cutting the costs two or three ways helps everyone

meet their budgets.Another way to keep costs

down is to have the party on a weeknight or a day other than the graduation.

Weekends will be the most expensive, especially weekend evenings. Altering the time or day of the party can save you money.

In addition, limit the menu to finger foods or snacks to keep the price in check.

Consider an open-house policy

Hosting a graduation party open house means that people can drop by between a specific time frame and mingle. It takes the pressure off of having a party start and end at a firm time. Graduates often find this is a good option so that they can hop from party to party and celebrate with friends who are

having their own events.Keep it safe

Serving alcohol at a high school graduation party is unadvisable, as many of the guests may be underage. In many instances, the party host is responsible for the well-being of party guests. Should guests leave intoxicated and get injured or cause an accident, you may be liable.

At college graduation parties,

alcohol may be served, but as a party host it is your responsibil-ity to ensure guests are able to make it home safely and to take charge if a guest is intoxicated.

Having a plan established and securing the supplies, food and venue for your party in advance will make the party much easier to pull off. That means you will be able to enjoy the festivities in full the actual day of the celebration.

‘Tis the season for graduation parties – here’s how to make yours a success

Metro Creative Connection

Planning a graduation party early can save you money.

Celebrate good times