The cost of getting a higher education has become a topic of discussion in the media. How do we allow our students to get a higher education without incurring crippling debt? This is a question that many of the current high school graduates are asking today.
Many of today’s recent graduates question if they want to go to college, or if they go, what do they want to study, and how are they going to pay for it? Many go to college, run up debt and have to stop their college careers due to lack of funds or lack of focus. Some of this is due to immaturity or lack of direction and lack of guidance.
This is a waste of our intellectual talent.
How can we help our young people with this issue? It is my contention that every high school graduate should serve 2 years in a service organization that would benefit the country and the individual. Such organizations could be AmeriCorps, The Peace Corps, or the US military.
AmeriCorps is a civil society program supported by the U.S. federal government, foundations, corporations, and other donors engaging adults in public service work with a goal of “helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.”
The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. The stated mission of the Peace Corps includes providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand American culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries.
The U.S. military needs no definition.
AmeriCorps would give our young men and women a chance to see other parts of the country and be exposed to helping others and gaining experience working with diverse social and economic situations domestically.
The Peace Corps would expose the young men and women to international exposure to other cultures and become ambassadors of good to other countries.
A term of 2 years will enable the youth of our country to become more mature and help them decide what they want to do and how they can make an impact on this increasingly shrinking world that we live in. A 2 year investment would entitle them to having the first 2 years of their college career paid for. By the time they have successfully completed these two years, and the experience they would have gained by the two years in the service corps would make them viable recipients of other grants and opportunities.
We would see more dedicated students who would have been exposed to the world without an education and understand the importance of continuing their studies.