What you need to know about Betsy DeVos

Betsy DeVos has been in forefront advocating for the rights of children. She seeks to empower parents to make choices that won’t include confining their children to unfavorable environment regarding education.Since her times in Calvin College, Betsy DeVos has been active in politics driving change and bringing policies that seek to solve major life challenges.Betsy DeVos is blending her influence both in business and in politics, to drive this positive change and reward students with chances of learning in schools of their choices.In business, Betsy DeVos concentrates in investing in innovative businesses that aim at providing lasting solution to social problems. Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos founded a company that ventures in technology, manufacturing, and production of clean energy.Besides business and politics, Betsy DeVos is a philanthropist. She chairs Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation and other local and national nonprofit organizations such as Kids Hope USA, Mars Hill Bible Church, and also chairs American Federation for Children (AFC) and Alliance for School Choice.Through all her involvement in charities, she has only one motive; to advocate for the educational-choice programme. This program enables parents to take their children to the schools of their choices.Betsy DeVos’ efforts are bearing fruits, and people are starting to take note of its potential. When the program started, Betsy and her husband only aimed at helping few families to take their children to schools of their choices.But now the program has gained popularity nationally, with more states in America embracing the revolution. For instance, Betsy, on interview with Philanthropy, revealed that there are over 250,000 students joining public schools under the educational-choice program.

Birth of educational-choice program

Betsy knowing how hard it is to offer your children’s best education, especially with low-income earners, decided to offer them a reprieve through scholarships.Though the program was successful, Betsy noted that it wasn’t all inclusive, in that it was not serving its intentioned purpose fully. At the time, she was the chair of Michigan Republican Party. She successfully initiated efforts to reform education policies.Later when the program witnessed so much success, they expanded their influence to include national level, which meant many would benefit from it. And that’s how she got involved with AFC and initiated joined efforts to make education beneficial to all.

Program’s successes

Since its launch, the educational-choice program has been received very well all over America with Florida posting most encouraging results, Betsy notes in an interview with Philanthropy over 50,000 students attending schools of their family’s choice.Besides Florida, Betsy also mentioned Indiana and Louisiana where the program is on its way to enrolling nearly one million students per year.Betsy believes that making education bipartisan will go a long way to benefitting more families all over America.

Educational options

Betsy believes that offering more educational options will be of value to students and their families. These include homeschooling, charter schools, and virtual schools among other options.

About Betsy DeVos

Betsy is the serving as the 11th secretary of education in the United States, and she has been advocating for educational reforms for over three decades now. She’s majorly targeting the helpless parents who have no one to go to.She graduated with a degree in arts at Calvin College. She’s married to philanthropist, community activist, and entrepreneur Dick DeVos.

August 11, 2017 Add Comment

Success Academy is Leading the Charge

If the proof is in the pudding, then perhaps the educational system as a whole should have a look at the recipe devised and executed by Success Academy. Leading the charge is Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools. The first school opened in 2006 and has since grown to 32 locations.
The results that Success Academy has achieved are undeniable.In 2014 students in New York scored a 29 percent rating in English proficiency and a 35 percent rating in Math. While Success Academy posted 64 percent in English proficiency and 94 percent in Math. If we look at those numbers through a competitive lens, that’s a blowout victory for all the scholars and staff at Success Academy, over all of the privileged and well-funded suburban schools.
A look at some of Success Academy’s practices should provoke more than a bit of thought. For instance, students are not referred to as “students” but as “scholars.” Not only in a conversation among adults but also in addressing the young scholars. In name alone, being called a scholar rather than a student is empowering and should serve the much-needed self-esteem young minds need, especially those from poor and humble backgrounds. Each morning the hungry young minds are greeted by the principal with a handshake and a “Hello.” Being greeted by a figure of importance with eye contact and a handshake offers further experience children need. Various studies have shown the drastic drop off of social skills in millennials. Mostly attributed to hyper-connectivity via the internet and interactions dominated on social media rather than in person.
At Success Academy, the scholars have a longer school day and a longer school year, allowing teachers to focus on each of the scholar’s needs and goals; Is more education and mental stimulation a bad thing? It appears Success Academy challenges conventional education practices. Considering many of those practices have led the United States to its current atrocious rankings in the international community, bucking those trends and shaking things up to get results can’t be a bad thing. After all, shouldn’t we strive to give parents broad choices and children a solid foundation to build on?

May 30, 2017 Add Comment

Ancient Wisdom for the Masses

An ancient discipline, Kabbalah is a spiritual study, not be seen as an alternative to other religions, but as an enhancement to them. Originating in Judaism, Kabbalah is a school of thought that was originally set down to clarify the relationship between the creator and the creation. The Light of the Creator wants all to have complete fulfillment and joy in their lives. When one follows the spiritual rules of our world, they shall reach the life they are meant to have. This means a life that is fully realized and satisfying. The diligent study and practice of body of wisdom, results in the harnessing of one’s full potential and a life free of pain, chaos, and even death.

Once kept secret amongst few scholars, Kabbalah was written down and bound in many volumes by a man named Rav Shimon Bar Yochai. These volumes are known as the Zohar. This was the first time that the wisdom of this discipline were transcribed, but the Zohar was still kept in hiding for hundreds of years. Translated from Aramaic into Hebrew by Rav Yehuda Ashlag in the 1920s, the Zohar was finally accessible to the world. Kabbalah truly spread worldwide starting in 1969 when Philip and Karen Berg translated the Zohar into many different languages and began opening locations for study across the globe.

The Kabbalah Centre, which was founded in 1922, is accepting to a cross-religious, multi-ethnic following. One only needs to be willing to delve into the teachings and strive to transform in order to be welcomed into the study of Kabbalah. The headquarters (opened in 1984) are currently located in Los Angeles, California, but locations can be found in over 40 different cities all around the world.

The Kabbalah Centre is a non-profit organization with a worldly staff and an eclectic student community. They currently offer scholarships to those who may not have the financial support to study. They also have a full offering of online courses to those who may not be located near one of the worldwide locations.

September 10, 2016 Add Comment

Emerging Adults Face a New World

The ever changing job market has made it difficult for recent college graduates to secure a job in their chosen field if they’ve been successful at choosing a field at all. Young adults ages 18 – 24 have, of late, been called ’emerging adults’ as researchers have come to identify their life experience as different from an adolescent or young adult.

Adults in this age group often experience a stage of wandering. Nearly half of adults in this age bracket still live at home and many do not know what career they want. They wander through jobs that have little or nothing to do with their educational experience if they’ve finished their education at all.

‘Early starters’ in this age group are the ones that picked a major and graduated on time. Even this group is having difficulty getting started in their lives. Those that find themselves on the entrepreneurial track tend to be able to reduce their student debt faster than those that take the first paying job that comes their way.

The key seems to be informing and allowing students in the early emerging adult years to navigate a job market where everything isn’t handed to them. They need to learn to build relationships with professors, take internships, and work hard even if the internships are full of mundane tasks they don’t like.

Emerging adults often have the flexibility to try different jobs before they get locked into a career path. With the job market in recovery, if they learn to develop the right tools they can successfully learn the skills necessary to find a job they find fulfilling.

August 16, 2016 Add Comment

How Improved Access to Education Can Stem Early Marriages

Access to education is a basic human right. Unfortunately, there are disparities in education standards globally. Girls are affected most because a huge number of them end up in early marriages once they drop out of school. A recent research carried out in Bangladesh, points out that child marriages can significantly drop if the girl child is empowered.

Due to limited access to education in the third world, two thirds of girls get married before they attain the age of 18. The research found out that this number can drop significantly if the girls are exposed to education. Besides this, decision making and critical thinking lessons can play a role in reducing the disparity. Girls who have job skills marry much later than those who do not posses any skills.

As reported by the Business Insider, the level of education is directly related to the rate of child marriages. This highlights why more funding has to be allocated towards improving access to education in developing countries, more so among girls. Bangladesh is just a pointer to a more serious situation, which needs to be addressed promptly and judicially.

Education is the surest way of countering gender-biased traditions and customs. The girl child in particular, needs technical skills so that she can favorably compete with men. Women who are educated and have job skills tend to be more assertive, forward-looking and independent. Such qualities give them the ability to make their own choices. Educated men are also likely to support choices made by women. This explains why access to education has to be emphasized and enhanced.

August 16, 2016 Add Comment