August 30, 2008
Tuition Exchange Program
The Mayor?s College Fair
The Mayor?s College Fair brings together a variety of programs available for the Washington D.C. schools and their students preparing for college tuition costs. This event takes place on September 15, 2006 and provides information about a variety of college tuition assistantship programs. Students in the Washington D.C. schools are encouraged to attend the Mayor?s College Fair in order to learn more about the special programs open to them as Washington D.C. students.
The Mayor?s College Fair is being held for the first time this year as part of the Washington D.C. schools? effort to coordinate the various assistantships available to graduating seniors as well as provide a public forum for discussing and disseminating this information. Hopefully, this will become an annual event at the beginning of each school year as a new class of seniors looks forward to the joys and burdens of financing a college education. This meeting will hopefully provide a structure for students in Washington D.C. schools seeking guidance about financial aid programs and packages available for Washington D.C. students.
The D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program
One program that has promised great potential in aiding Washington D.C. school graduates pay for college is the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAGP). This program has been going on since 2000 and provided over $100 million towards the education costs of DC residents attending college. This program covers the difference between instate and out of state tuition, up to $10,000 per year for qualified applicants. The grant can be extended over six years at any public college or university nationwide. In addition, there are limited funds available for students attending private colleges in the Washington D.C. area as well as two year community colleges nationwide.
The D.C. Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program
The D.C. Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program (DCLEAP) provides $1500 annually to those Washington D.C. school residents who show financial need. This award can be used at any accredited university nationwide. These funds are intended to be used to fill the gaps in a student?s financial aid package and cover many of the costs other than tuition that many students face when paying for books, housing, etc. This program is designed to help Washington D.C. school residents to find the extra help that they need to make ends meet while in college.
The D.C. Adoption Scholarship Program
The DC Adoption Scholarship (DCAS) provides up to $10,000 a year for post-high school education and training of District of Columbia children who were adopted through DC?s Child and Family Services Agency, and/or children who lost one or both parents in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. These funds are meant to help lower the financial burden to those who lost their parents due to the terrorist attacks and now must take the burden of paying for college on themselves. The grants are targeted toward those members of the community most affected by the attacks as well as keeping community awareness high about the continued impact that the attacks have had on the United States.
About the Author:
Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. For more information on Washington DC schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Washington-DC/Washington-DC/index.html
Intuition was a wonderful gift. It was also an awful curse. By instantly recognizing patterns, intuition was nature’s vital tool for survival. Life ceaselessly faced a train of unlimited choices and, often, baffling problems. These demanded instant decisions. An animal could not remain undecided, whether to drink water, or to eat grass. Should it be aggressive and fight, run away, or relax and accept the situation? It was intuition, which interpreted events to trigger emotions. Anger made them aggressive. Fear made them retreat. And familiarity supported relaxation. Each emotion eliminated groups of thoughts. If fighting was the option, amicable thoughts did not fit. If the decision was to cut and run, it was useless to marshal one’s militant strengths. The intuitive process eliminated mental activity, which did not fit the chosen course of action. Sadly, this elimination process was also the biggest weakness of the system.
Each emotion set off a focused drive seeking solutions. Anger, fear, or friendliness triggered competing drives. Intuition focused each drive by eliminating views that did not fit its compulsive focus. Anger eliminated amicable memories. Fear lost sight of fighting strengths. As any situation evolved, the emotional strengths of these partisan drives varied. Opposing emotions competed for control. Intuition acted in the emotional center, the limbic system, to select the most powerful emotion, which then ruled. If it was anger, it pulled the trigger. When the choice was made, the process inhibited competing drives, with contrary feelings. Opposing views were largely lost to consciousness.
Across species, fear dictated an escape drive, which sought safety. A deer bounded away. A bird took flight. A fish swam off. While the activities of running, flying and swimming differed, it was the drive, which achieved the objective of escaping. Each drive evaluated experience and the environment. Escape was hardly possible by heading into the predator. Getting away demanded evaluation of many escape routes, including slipping into a safe sanctuary, inaccessible to the predator. Like the underside of a rock. Drives involved a search of multiple contexts to uncover the right answer. While intuitive drives usually delivered the answer instantly, some drives failed to uncover solutions.
Modern life offered few speedy answers. Senior positions had added problems. The higher the position, more the solutions needed for the myriad problems faced by a venture. Intuition, driven by emotions, was the creative force, which delivered answers. Hidden from view, drives constantly sought solutions. While one problem was consciously evaluated, subconscious drives continued search processes to solve other issues. Since, anger, fear or jealousy powered such searches, they often sought to achieve conflicting objectives. These hidden emotions troubled the mind, creating distressing internal conflicts. Sadly, this was the negative face of intuition, standing in the way of achieving peace of mind.
Conflicting viewpoints surged in the subconscious. How could they be integrated? In a harsh and unforgiving world, how could a multitude of clashing drives be graciously focused? How could the mind be stilled? Across the ages, many solutions were offered to focus the mind and still conflicts. Meditation, chanting and breathing routines were found to be beneficial. But, those practices treated the symptom, not the problem. The long term solution was to quiet the internal battles of these competing drives. All knowledge and experience lived within. These same drives were powerful search processes, which could delve deep, to deliver answers. Unique new insights and solutions waited to be discovered.
Drives provided windows into the mind. It was a drive, which assisted in the preparation of a simple shopping list. It searched memory and current context to deliver, line by line, a list of all the items you needed to buy. By contextually searching the mind, drives could be made to play a valuable, creative role. When particularly burdened by a problem, drives could draw out a list of one’s deepest concerns. With its sort facility, a spreadsheet could be used to list and comprehend the turmoils of the mind. The routine could begin by listing, line by line, different aspects of a problem, as it came to mind. Each, a short entry in a single cell of the spread sheet. It may have just begun with, say, “Feel awful” and gone on down. That was the first thought. Many conflicting emotions surged in the background. Each line would sum up a single feeling and its concern. It could be “Negative departmental report” Or, it could be just a hunch. “David will support me.” The worst fears were noted down. “Mortgage payments.” And the common sense thoughts. “This too will pass.”
Writing a list was a calming process. The questioning drive helped still the mind. Differing viewpoints were noted down. These views would arrive in conspicuous sequence. Each entry brought one viewpoint into consciousness - into the general view of isolated and competing drives. Sensible viewpoints would normally have been eliminated from view by angry emotions. Typically, about 60 odd entries would empty the mind of every related thought. Entering opposing viewpoints usually brought balance. The inquiry process stilled background turmoil. The most critical part of this process came next.
A label was entered for each line in an adjacent cell on the spreadsheet. “Fear,” “Opportunity”, or even “Unlikely” could be the labels. With every aspect already considered, it was easier to label an entry. Each label fitted a few more entries. The picture slowly cleared. Underground fears surfaced. Solutions emerged. The closing of one door usually opened another. Those 60 entries would fit a dozen or so categories. A “sort” of the labels column would arrange similar ones together, in alphabetic order. Listing similarly labeled ideas together would bring clarity. They became groups of consistent, allied thoughts. The sorted spreadsheet list integrated the mind.
Isolated drives were forced into the open and a balanced view emerged. Viewed together, “Unlikely” put a label on needless worries. The less likely outcomes could be ignored. The inevitable ones had to be accepted. That left you with the actions you could take. “Opportunities” formed the basis for a future plan. The rest of the list just climbed off your chest. Another threatening issue would have been acknowledged, accepted and foreseen. The spreadsheet evaluation balanced the mind and stilled hidden anxieties and conflicts. Lifted burdens. Anger and fear, love and altruism cooperated to search for solutions which met all the concerns of the mind. With the power of intuition, an integrated mind became the most creative force in the world.
About the Author
Abraham Thomas is the author of The Intuitive Algorithm, a book, which suggests that intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. The ebook version is available at www.intuition.co.in. The book may be purchased only in India. The website, provides a free movie and a walk through to explain the ideas.
Tags: Tuition Research
