Steven Gomez
Mr.Garcia
English 100A
3 November 2018
Standing on 4 Pillars: What Science Says Are the Keys to Success
When you hear about students dropping out of college, you tend to think about race? Of course you do. It's not bad to think that, it's just another statistic. The president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, UMBC, Freeman Hrabowski came up with the 4 pillars of college success in science. Hrabowski came up with these 4 pillars to help the students of color succeed in science. They mold students of color to become the best that they can. But don't you think college ready students should come with all these pillars and more? To have these 4 pillars of success for students should offer a support system and challenges students to work harder. Not only for the students enrolled, but for the students looking for a college to enroll in. It’ll push students to be the best that they can be, because challenges for students and one of the 4 pillars, high expectations, will encourage them to accomplish those tasks.
So this lecture from Freeman Hrabowski claims that the 4 pillars of success for colored students are, “high expectations, build a community among others, it takes researchers to make researchers, and to have faculty get involved with students.” Hrabowski point is that facility needs to put effort to get effort. A school can't expect to get all students ready to learn. When there’s students that deal with complications with life at home. To have high expectations, but not focus on test scores are crucial. There was a woman who was a solid C student, but who had never missed a single day of school from kinder to her senior year. UMBC accepted her despite her grades, and Hrabowski proudly states that “she is today with an M.D./Ph.D. from Hopkins. She's on the faculty, tenure track in psychiatry, Ph.D. in neuroscience”(9:48-10:02). Hrabowski is saying that having these 4 pillars of success in your school will help your school remarkably.
Being a college student is hard, but being an unsupported college student is much worse. Any type of students needs support if it's to graduate high school, to earn a college diploma, or even to take a test. An author Francisco Benavides claims, “Students who have enriching school experiences will be more likely to stay in education and successfully transfer to the labour market. Those who struggle at early stages but receive adequate, timely support and guidance have higher probabilities of finishing, despite any difficulties in their family or social background”(p.3). To help students finish their academics studies they should receive the support Benavides claims to have high probabilities of finishing. For one of the pillars that Hrabowski points out, “to have faculty get involved with students.” For faculty to give support to their students should be mandatory in Hrabowskis’ eyes. Giving support falls in the pillar of faculty getting involved with students. It shows why the 4 pillars are much needed in our colleges we attend today. For a example, a student that has no support at school or at home can get bad. They think no one’s there for them, they have no one to ask them for help, and no one to see when they fail so it makes it much easier for them to drop out. Giving support to a student that needs it will help them go further in their education. Students need others to help one another in their homework, classwork, or anytype of studying.
To build a community among others is beneficial for everyone not only to help each other, but for students to experience or listen to others experiences. One of many famous physicist, Albert Einstein, states that “learning is an experience. everything else is just information.” At colleges students are mostly stuckup or not wanting to work with each other, but Hrabowski declares that “at UMBC, students are taught to work in groups in order to build trust and support.” To be in community, that your college sets up, helps you learn about yourself, develop soft skills, and teaches how to work in a team. One of many benefits of working with a community brings you opportunities that you didn't even know existed. For example, there could be a student going to college to be a nurse major. He has that community, for science and engineering, and someone says “have you tried the nursing program down the street.” The student studying to be a nurse major wouldn't have been exposed to that opportunity if it wasn't for that community he was in. To have the community that the colleges or faculty built to help students succeed in their educational purposes are recommended. In some cases there's students that don't need others. They can do it all by themselves. If they need it or not at the end of the day you've made friends. You might not need the community for school work, but you might need them as a friend. To have a friend or someone to talk to, since you built all that trust because you're in the community with them, is something that a lot of college students need but don't have. Thats why its very important to build a community in your colleges for your students that attend there.
One of these pillars are high expectations. In class, high expectations are a lot. To have these low expectations for a student, and that student knowing those expectations, he or she feels unimportant. That student wouldn’t want to come in to class. He or she feels like they should live up to your expectation. Hrabowski claims that “It takes an understanding of the academic preparation of students their grades, the rigor of the course work, their test-taking skills, their attitude, the fire in their belly, the passion for the work, to make it” (7:51-7:58). Doing this makes the student feel more important. Makes the students want to come in to class, want to ask good questions, and want to work hard. To have high expectations is amazing. Overall, the 4 pillars of college success should be in your schools today.
Some might say students should come prepared, organized, or even the “perfect” student when attending college. They shouldn't need a community it’s distracting students from their work by socializing. I've heard professors say all students need is you and your work to pass college. Yea I agree with them, but not entirely. When you have no one to talk to at home. You'll need someone to talk to somewhere. That's what the community will help you with. I understand where they can think that students will just socialize and not do work, but they have to put in considerations of someone that can be emotionally unstable. They'll need someone to talk too.
These 4 pillars are important to have at your school for incoming students or students already attending. For students who need someone to talk to there's the community. For students that need that “high expectation” there's the professors handing it to you. For students who need hands on researchers because “it takes researchers to make researchers.” Last of all for students who need that extra support or support at all there's the “faculty needs to get involved with students.” So yea every college should go by these 4 pillars of college success, or at least make it an effort too.
Works Cited
Benavides, Francisco. “Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools.” OECDPublishing, Jan. 2012, https://www.oecd.org/education/scho ol/50293148.pdf
Hrabowski, Freeman. “4 Pillars of College Success in Science.” Ted Talk, Feb. 2013, https://www.ted.com/talks/freeman_hrabowski_4_pillars_of_college_success_in_science
Leaders, Young. “Albert Einstein.” YouTube, 17 Dec. 2016, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=E76cGOX_eeQ
Monroe, Rachel. “How to Change the Future of Education, According to Freeman Hrabowski.” Baltimore Fishbowl, 9 Apr. 2013, https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/how-to-chan ge-the-future-of-education-according-to-freeman-hrabowski/