Scholarship Junkies

The problem "This extraordinary gap between those who have, and those who have not is one of the most prominent features of the moment we live in, but it doesn’t have to be its defining attribute." —Joshua Bennett, PhD We can choose to build a better world. The elephant suffocating the room Debt. This story starts with a lot lot of debt. Debt that robs us of our tomorrow, bankrupts the present, and is promised first to the most vulnerable populations. Debt for the dreamers, the doers, and the kids. This is college loan debt in the United States. This is the 1.5 trillion dollar disease plaguing more than 44 million across our nation. With ~20 million students in college at any given time, there are too many lives at stake to not take action. Any other malady afflicting so many in our society would be called an epidemic. Debt is a key contributor to compounding challenges with building families, community support, and long term investments in people and spaces. Those who haven’t witnessed this are part of a lucky few. For the rest, the burden of our education system disrupts life and maintains a cycle of hardship. But what about…? Now, there are plenty of people with concerns about free college. Let’s tackle some of the biggest reasons against free college right here, right now. There’s not enough money... Pause. In 2016 a free-tuition proposal outlined providing free university/college tuition for any children coming from a family with an annual income of $125,000 a year or less. That’s 83% of the national population. Now the important bit: Cost? $75 billion. That’s a lot of money, but it’s not a dramatic shift from the $80+ billion we already spend to help students. There’s more than enough to help those with the least, while simultaneously lifting our middle class. More degrees will make them worthless... We consider this both in terms of supply and demand and in terms of innovation. Skills lose value in two ways: saturation and obsolescence. Universities succeed on their ability to teach their students a refined perspective, a distinct set of skills, and, most importantly, how to learn. When you pair that with the diverse backgrounds, interests, and dreams of our newly educated fleet of students, you get a powerful weapon: creativity. Knowledge, when paired with experience, will continue to birth new industries, and, as in times past, they will require deeply skilled problem solvers. From the Model T, to the space race, and now to the digital age, one thing has remained constant: when you combine diversity of perspective, depth of knowledge, and the capacity to share ideas, the results are revolutionary. History has shown that a more educated public gives our society the ultimate springboard from which to leap, that with more minds, more thinkers, and more enabled doers we can create the future we used to dream of. So, how do we help? We’re happy you asked! Maximize student aid Help universities adopt plans to ensure success Leverage momentum of student success around grand challenges Create support around a moral, political, and economic imperative for free college Step 5: free college. As we travel the path to making college free our approach may change, but the positive impact and essence will remain the same. Investing in our future is always the best bet. The first step is to solve the biggest piece of the problem with the skills we currently have. We’ve won millions of dollars in scholarships and have helped others win millions more. We know how to write, how to transfer that skill, and how to pay for college. What we can do to provide the most immediate and grandest impact is get those in need the money to go to college. We’re already at $25+ million in scholarships won. Next $200 million. Then $1 billion. We’re going to help students win as much of the $3+ billion in aid left on the table every year as possible. The second is to work with universities to secure the best outcome for students. As universities continue to see some of their greatest talent slipping through the financial cracks, it becomes bad for business to ignore the fissures. We make the promise that by accomplishing our first step, universities can spend less money on bringing in students and more on building a modern and competitive education. Simply put, universities can attract amazing students at lower cost and invest more into preparing our students for contribution. The more they help us, the more they help themselves. The third is to double down on the value generation of college grads. As our students traverse university they enter a vastly different world of skill development, value creating, networking, and opportunities. We can use universities as the springboard they were designed to be, pushing a new wave of individuals to solve the greatest challenges. Instead of one doctor saving lives we can have hundreds, instead of one great teacher inspiring the next generation we can have thousands, instead of one insightful engineer tackling sustainable energy we can have millions. Finally, the fourth is to recognize that we as a country are willingly holding ourselves back. Limiting access to skill building and social mobility growth simply prolongs stagnation among every area of innovation. Healthcare, Climate Change, Policy, Science, and Technology are all held back when we mortgage our dreams for high interest rates. The more thinkers, leaders, contributors we can produce, the larger value they can bring to the table. We know that graduates earn more, live longer, and strengthen the economy. Leaving our lower and middle classes to be saddled with debt sentences them to greater barriers in simply living. This isn’t a question of if, but rather, how long will we limit our own progress? The reality We never want to ask ourselves whether there are Einsteins trapped in our slums. Are there hundreds of Madam CJ Walkers who struggle to afford their next meal? Are the Gates, Bezos, and Winfreys of our era juggling minimum wage jobs to keep their kids from going hungry? The upcoming generations have shown that they can take on the big problems: to fix healthcare, dirty water, pervasive poverty, divisive politics, systematic racism, and climate change. Creating a sustainable pathway to higher education is more than just the right thing to do. It is the best assurance we have to secure our future. You can be a part of the single greatest thing we can do for our future. Will you join, or will you wait for someone else to do it? So, at the end of this, what’s the master plan? Help any student win $$$. Get Universities/Colleges to realize this is better for them. Activate these students to solve grand challenges. Use the power of exponential value creation to make common sense Higher Ed policy/funding. Free College. David Coven, President & CEO --- Want to get involved? Got questions? Get in touch!