All posts by Abby Thompson

Editorials/Student Voice

Is it worth the debt?

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College is a huge step most of you will choose to take. It’s no secret that everything that is implied with the word ‘college’ can send a rush of stress down your spine. The cost of this basically mandatory

education has increased 1,120% over the past thirty years, according to Bloomberg Business, a business that delivers market news, data and financial analysis. Tuition costs has increased by 15% since 2008, and these increasing numbers seem to equal a goal only the top 1% may end up achieving; the American Dream.

Many Americans are beginning to question if adding to the $1 trillion of nation wide student debt is worth the nine to five desk job. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the Associated Press in June that lowering college costs needs to be priority for the whole country. “As a nation, we need more college graduates in order to stay competitive in the global economy,” Duncan said, but that may not be achievable due to the steadily increase of national debt and student loans.

So all of these numbers beg the question, is being thousands of dollars in debt worth the chance at getting an average paying job?

Speaking from a high school student’s perspective, I don’t believe four to five years of digging a hole in my family pocket for a piece of paper that has failed thousands of Americans in the search for a substantial job, is worth the ever-growing debt, and many high schoolers would agree. “I feel like it’ll be hard to pay it off, but once you get a job you can start paying it off…but you’ll spend most of your life paying it off.” says Highland High school student, Cristina Ebner.

I asked another Highland student, Amarah Otto, if the debt that would follow your acceptance of your college diploma would be worth the lack of crucial funds. “It depends on the profession you’re going for. Like if you’re going to be a doctor you can pay it off, but if you’re a teacher you might have have a harder time paying it off.”

Otto also added that “you don’t need to go to an expensive school to get a good education or to get a good job” which is what might’ve been the thought process of a recent Highland graduate. He opted out of attending a four year university in exchange for a debt free education at a community college. He tweeted that he had just paid for his college and the lack of debt feels great.

So ask yourself, is over-paying for a chance at a successful future worth it?

News, World

14-Year old is accused of practicing terroristic acts

Earlier this month, Ahmed Mohamed, a freshmen in Irving, Texas was arrested for building a bomb and bringing it to school. The incident instantly went viral when the teenager was pictured confused, handcuffed, and sporting a NASA t-shirt.

The day began with Ahmed showing his engineer teacher his new project, a homemade clock. His teacher was impressed but advised him not to show any other teachers, so Ahmed stuck it in his pencil box until it began to beep later that day in his english class. Ahmed took it out to try and shut the beeping off which is when things turned awry. Ahmeds english teacher mistook the home-made clock for a bomb and called the front office. From then the school neglected to evacuate the school, call the bomb squad, or isolate the “bomb”. Instead they called the police and held Ahmed and his clock in the office. From there the police proceeded to handcuff Ahmed and bring him to the juvenile detention center. What did they do with this ticking time “bomb”? They put it in the back of a police car and took pictures of the young man’s creation.

America rallied for  Ahmed Mohamed posting #istandwithahmed over 40,000 times the day following the incident. Ahmed received invitations and praise from Google, Facebook, Space Camp, MIT (his dream college), and the White House. Bobak Ferdowsi, American systems engineer at NASA even offered Ahmed the chance at a job working with Nasa; “Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always  use smart, curious & creative people.”

Not everybody stood with Ahmed, however. Some of whom included former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. “If that’s a clock, I’m the Queen of England” said Sarah Palin after reviewing the event. “Yep, believing that’s a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history.” She also proceeded to call President Obama “childish” for supporting the young entrepreneur.

Ms. van Duyne, Mayor of Irving, Texas, stated “I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat. They have procedures to run when a possible threat or criminal act is discovered. They follow these procedures in the sole interest of protecting our children and school personnel. To the best of my knowledge, they followed protocol for investigating whether this was an attempt to bring a hoax bomb to a school campus. Following this

investigation, Irving PD has stated no charges will be filed against the student. I hope this incident does not serve as a deterrent against our police and school personnel from maintaining the safety and security of our schools.”

Ahmed does not believe he will be returning to Irving High school but he does intend to continue to create new technologies and continue in his engineering path.

School Life

Wanderlust

Hundreds of organizations deport thousands of students to virtually any country of thier choosing for weeks at a time to engulf them in the foreign traditions and cultures they would otherwise be partially ignorant to. Organizations such as AFS, Youth For Understanding, CIEE, and countless others send off high school students to their country of interest. Countries from Japan to the United Kingdom, and Australia to Ireland. Although we learn about foreign cultures in our human geography class or our language class, it’s not the same as being where the text book is depicting.

Studying abroad has caught the eye of thousands of students, specifically three times as many students since 1995. In the 2012-13 school year, as many as 289,408 students packed their bags to surround themselves in what they’ve only read in text books.

How did these almost 300,000 students get connected with programs abroad? With countless organizations and amazing reviews it couldn’t have been hard. One could simply type “exchange student organizations” and 37,400,000 results will appear in 0.32 seconds. And in just a few minutes you could exchange your social norms for a few weeks (or a school year) for an experience of a lifetime.