Talking About Early College for Teen Moms with Cynthia and Rosalinda at STECC
Need something uplifting in your day? Take three minutes and watch these two amazing women talk about the work they do helping teen moms go to college and complete their degrees so they can keep moving forward in their lives.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 4th Annual South Texas Early College Conference (STECC) in South Padre Island, organized by the Region One Education Service Center in Texas.
You might have heard of South Padre Island as a popular spring break destination, but this event was kind of the opposite of that — focused on creating pathways to help make sure that disadvantaged young people can actually go to college (instead of taking a break from it). So needless to say there were no MTV cameras present at this event. But don't worry — I was able to use my own trusty phone to get a couple of great interviews with the people who do this invaluable work, and this is one of them.
The whole point of the STECC conference is to help practitioners from Early College High Schools learn from each other, engage in dialogue, and share best practices. Now, at this point you might be wondering: What on earth is an Early College High School? Wow, you ask the best questions. I'll go ahead and borrow the answer from Wikipedia:
"The Early College High School Initiative in the United States allows students to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree, or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes."
So we're talking about schools that are designed to help move kids from high school into college in a way that's as seamless as possible.
One example is what you'll hear my new friends Cynthia and Rosalinda talking about in the short video above. They work at an alternative campus for teen moms, and they share a little bit about how they provide these young women with the reassurance they need to earn their degrees. They have six young moms about to graduate with associate degrees in their current class — and they mention what a joyful experience it is to be part of making that happen. Watch this and see if it doesn't bring you a little bit of joy, too.
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In addition to appearing as an interactive and funny speaker for educators, Tim Clue is available as a business keynote speaker for corporate events of all kinds as well as a keynote speaker for healthcare events.