Sitting In The Hood Like Community College

According to American Association of Community Colleges, community college students represent 41% of undergraduate students in America. Although there is a significant number of students that enroll, the graduation rate and the transfer rate of community college students is in need of improvement.

Although community colleges are spread throughout the United States, there are many that are located in urban cities. Research suggest community college are build along beltways of major cities because they drew most of their entering freshman from with the a short radius. As a result, scholars point out that community colleges are considered as neighborhood institutions. Given these points, Kanye Wes was right when he identified that higher education opportunities are "sitting in the hood like community college".

Nevertheless, there are to many people that do not take advantage of the opportunity a community college provides. Statistically, students that enroll have an extremely low graduation rate. In fact, out of 7.2 million student that enroll in community colleges you only get about 1.3 million students that graduate annually.

Being that community colleges have a low number of graduates it is easy to devalue them. To often, they are viewed as less academic and worthless. In particular, they are perceived as the 13th grade because of a misinterpretation of their history. Unfortunately, most people do not know that many community colleges began in high school because prominent 19th and early 20th century educators wanted to abandon freshman and sophomore classes from receiving general education at their institutions. However, they were designed to attract this who were not being served by traditional higher education. Typically, students that enroll at a community college are unable to afford tuition, attend college full-time, had inadequate preparation in the lower schools; their educational progress had been interrupted by some temporary condition; are in need of training to work at a job; were confined in prisons, physically disabled, unable to attend class on campus, or need to make their leisure time meaningful. Simply put, community colleges were created to ensure that no member of the community miss the chance to attain an education.

Given these points, community colleges should not be viewed as lower-class institutions. Instead, they should be viewed as precious jewels that allow individuals to shine if they apply themselves. In other words, community college are just a place where information is stored for those who are wanting and willing to thrive. The owners is on students to take time and use it to their advantage. Once they use this resources to their advantage, they will not only have the ability to uplift themselves but also enrich the lives of their families.

Therefore, I challenge those who have not attend college or have not earned a college degree to think about higher education (especially community colleges) as a place that will provide you with the knowledge and opportunity to achieve your goals when you are ready. Again, it is not required that you attend but it is a great resource for you to use to achieve success.