Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall speaks.
I am Dr. Brian Stewart Kendall, campus president. And today we are blessed to have two distinguished guests with our Gear up grant. First, our gear up director, Dr. Lisa Gonzalez. Welcome.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Hi. Thank you for having us.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: And our grant coordinator, Steven Pereiro.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: So help me say it, Steven Perugero.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: My Texas accent. Sorry, it's raining outside and I can't speak.
Great to have you guys here today. We want to learn a little more about Gear Up. I know it's. It's sort of in the middle of the grant, but let's first start, Dr. Gonzalez, by telling me a little bit about yourself. How did you get to Miami Dade College? I know you've had a lot of interesting things in your career. Tell us a little bit about yourself, if you would.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Sure. It has been quite the adventure for me.
Well, first, I was born and raised in Miami. My parents, my dad's from Columbia. My mother was born and raised in Manhattan. I've lived my whole life here in Florida. Last four years that I lived in Tallahassee. I moved there for college, attended Florida State, and I got a bachelor's degree in criminology, which has nothing to do with education, but that's what I thought, what I wanted to do.
Shortly after graduating, I ended up teaching at a school called St. Francis Xavier in Overtown. It was run by the Archdiocese of Miami.
Had an opportunity to get my master's in education administration there for free. And I said yes to that opportunity.
And shortly after that, I realized that I really liked being in education. I liked being in a classroom. I liked working as a vendor with a school district.
I eventually got to Miami Dade College when I applied to to the learning outcomes coordinator role, which was a district wide role, which was helping the college to understand to what extent our students understand the learning outcomes. And after that, I fell into helping Miami Culinary Institute get on its feet. I was one of their first academic advisors.
Found myself in a STEM grant a couple years after that. And I've been on three US Department of Education grants, all related to supporting STEM students and helping them transfer.
And then that brings me to Europe.
I came onto the GAROP grant a couple of years ago, and this is my third directorship for grant.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Wow. Very interesting career. And how many different campuses have you worked on?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: I've been Kendall, North, Wolfson, and Padron.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: And the best is where you are.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Now, of course, Kendall.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: All right, well, great. Glad to have you here today, Stephen. Tell us a little bit about your background, if you would.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So my journey to NDC sort of came full circle in a way. I was born and raised here in Miami as well. I attended Emmanuel University up in Georgia where I received a scholarship to play volleyball and I got my bachelor's in sports management.
I started working in coaching and athletic training and I quickly realized I needed a little bit more stability in my life. So my mother at the time actually worked for Miami Dade College north campus. She worked there for about 35 years. So she helped me kind of get my foot in the door. So I've, throughout my time here in mdc, I've had various roles. I started part time in the testing department at north, moved over to Kendall with student financial services, then became full time financial aid advisor at Padrone campus and I actually got my master's degree in management leadership at Western Governor's University.
And that led me to becoming a GEAR UP grant coordinator. And I absolutely love this role. I love working with students and MDC culture and community. So I've been here for now almost seven years.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Wow. Both of you have very interesting journeys. But you know, I think that's true about a lot of our people that work at Miami Dade College.
They find their way here through the various pathways. Well, let's talk a little bit about GEAR up. Lisa, do you want to start by telling us what is GEAR UP for our audience so they can understand what it's all about and we can tag team this.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Jump in anytime.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Sure. So first of all, very important, Europe is an acronym. It stands for Gaining early awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. And it is a federally funded U.S. department of Education program.
Its core mission is to increase the number of low income students who prepare to enter and to succeed in post secondary education.
And we also offer long term support for those students. So we start with a middle school cohort. We, we started at four middle schools, the entire sixth and seventh grade. We started that three years ago. Now our students are rising ninth and 10th graders at the high school level. So it's not just about providing support right before they have to make a decision for college. It's about providing support for them to understand career pathways and more importantly to help their parents understand how they can support their child in making the decision for college or a career after they graduate from high school. There's about 150160 G rep grants nationwide. The program has been around for about 25 years and it's pretty competitive. Only one in five organizations that apply will actually get the grant. So we're very lucky to have a great Team of writers dedicated to writing the grant. And we received the grant. We have seven full timers at the Kendall campus, and we are currently going into year four.
So year four is the first time that we're entirely with both cohorts in the high school.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: And what are our schools? You might tell us the strength.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: So we went from four middle schools, which they are Jorge Mas Canosa, Cutler Bay Middle, Lamar Louis Currie, and Richmond Heights Middle School. And now we are going into Ferguson Johnny Ferguson, Felix Varela, and Miami Southridge. Those are our three schools for the next four years.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Wow. Very good schools. Well, you mentioned that we've been doing this for four years, but talk about how the program has evolved, because I know when you start a grant, it's not necessarily the same as now that we're in year four.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: So starting any grant is always a little complicated and challenging. One of the interesting things about this grant is it was written during the pandemic. So a lot of the services were virtual services and trying to help students while they were trying to learn at home.
We're no longer in pandemic time, so we kind of had to change the. Not necessarily the scope of services, but how we delivered it. And that became challenging because the educational community was still also trying to figure out how to do that. You know, how do we figure out loss of learning? How do we help educators learn new technology, and how do we make that all happen at the same time? So getting into the school is a little bit of a challenge. And then also our schools recognizing that we're truly just a partner, trying to help them with the work that they want to do. So, you know, we needed to learn more about our schools. What were their pain points? What are the learning gaps? And every school is different. So that also took some time.
Stephen.
[00:06:49] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I think when we first started, we kind of entered the middle of the school year, so it was a little bit hard getting. Making those connections with the school and really letting them know what we're all about. And it took them a few years, actually, to get fully comfortable with us and just to let them know that we're there to support them, them, not to give them extra work. We're there as a partner, like Lisa mentioned, and eventually, you know, we had a lot of success with our middle schools.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Tell me what some of the things parents have said over the several years. I know you. You've got new ones, but you've got veterans that have been with you for a while.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah, we've had parents really pleased with the program. And, you know, a lot of our middle school parents are sad if their students are not able to continue at one of our high schools. But they've seen the value in our program. And those that have gotten to just one of our workshops or trainings come back. You know, we have repeat customers if you want to say that they are happy that there's somebody alongside them that is not necessarily the teacher, the principal, or, you know, another person, a knowledgeable person that can help talk to them about college and give them some ideas. It's still amazing to me how large of the population are still first generation. I would venture to say at least more than half the people in this room are first generation. It's really unique to see parents just saying thank you for simple things for having their workshop translated.
We did that in the beginning of our program. We realized a lot of our parents don't know the English language really well.
And when we decided to translate almost every workshop the first couple of years, it was a lot of work and it was expensive, but they were grateful. And I feel like maybe nobody had spoken to them in that kind of way to let them know that college is possible for their child, but also for their family, you know, so the information we share is not just for the progression of their child and to help them with graduating and figuring out what they want to do with their life, but also educating parents about things as simple as how to buy a home, you know, how do credit cards work in this country?
So the feedback has been great.
And so we will try to maintain those relationships with those parents that we won't see because the childs are not moving on, but they've been very grateful.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: And that's such a similar mission to Miami Dade College, what you just said. We see so many students in that role. I've had the pleasure of talking to several of the principals of these schools. What about the teachers, Steve? What do you hear from teachers that, you know, that have worked with us?
[00:09:06] Speaker C: The teachers are super appreciative of us. Whether it's helping students after school with tutoring or providing workshops like how to Pay for college, Just getting that exposure to them early on. They've been very appreciative of that because really, I don't think there's any other program like Gear up out there that's good.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Talk a little bit about our goals for Gear up as we go into the next new school year, because we're fully out of the pandemic now. Hopefully we're past it. What, what are Some of your goals, both of you have.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: So altogether, the grant has 14 objectives. We, we kind of break it down in chunks and address certain ones during certain years. So this year we are focusing on increasing Algebra 1 pass rates, increasing family engagement, and increasing college readiness for our students.
So, not sure if you're aware, but the National Assessment of Educational Permission Progress shows that our students, our eighth graders only, are proficient at 21% for Algebra 1. So it's really, really low. Our baseline was 22, and we plan to move the group to 32% in the pass rate. And we're well on our way.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: What kind of assessment do you use to measure that growth?
[00:10:12] Speaker B: We partner with different tutoring programs, so we tried different modalities to see what works. We've done classroom push ins, classroom pushouts. We've done tutoring in person, after school, school virtual tutoring.
So, you know, every tutoring model has a different type of assessment. We usually work closely with a math department chair and the Algebra 1 teachers. And for the most part, the teachers are the tutors that work with the students. So, you know, there's different assessments that are done throughout the year. You know, the students are tested four times and we try to get them to pass their Algebra 1 class and pass their examination on their first try.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: That's good. That's great. Talk a little bit about other. You sort of mentioned this, but what other things do we offer the Gear up students, both academically social and otherwise? Anything else that you want to highlight?
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Yeah. So Gear up provides students with a wide range of support, tutoring being one of them. But we also offer mentoring and college readiness workshops. For mentoring, we partnered up with Student Success Agency. It's a mentoring platform that students get connected with an agent that's already in college. So whether they have career questions, college questions, that agent is there to support them.
And it's all through an app. Through college and readiness workshops, we've provided, you know, I mentioned the financial literacy component. We've also done test taking strategies, test anxiety, socially, you know, through community events, field trips, summer camps. We host a summer camp every year. We try to do something a little different each year. And leadership activities. Last year we brought a group of students from the middle schools to Kendall campus and we had like a leadership day where they did fun workshops that focused on, you know, communication, team bonding, team building, and so on. So most importantly, there's consistent support from the coordinators checking in and making sure that students feel seen and supported and know that we have their back.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: That's Great. That's awesome. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in implementing this program? I know we talked a little bit about parents, but I'm sure there's all sorts of challenges that you guys have discovered. Yeah.
[00:12:20] Speaker C: So, you know, especially entering the high school years, students have a lot of competing priorities. They're in clubs, they're in sports, so it's hard to get them to commit to our events. So we're just trying to build consistency with that and we're working towards, you know, building better relationships with parents and just a constant communication with them, letting them know that we're there to support.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Middle school is a tough age.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: That's it is.
[00:12:44] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: They, you know, a good example that kind of highlights our challenges is if you take a group picture of the students of whatever we're doing on day one, and then you compare it to the last dates. Apples and oranges.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: And that's. It's a hard thing to get them motivated to want to be with us sometimes. So, you know, we had our Level up lab this summer was a week, and we really packed it in. We had students.
Students went to Univision to see how the morning show was produced. They went to the fire station.
We had people come in and teach them how to dj. What does it mean to put together a fun event?
They did a CSI workshop and training with Dr. Plotkin in North Campus.
Our students then also went to two other college tours. They went to Florida Memorial University and Nova Southeastern.
So, you know, day one, it's like, why are we here? I could be doing something else. I don't know anybody here. Even though we know who they are and they know who we are.
And then they start. As we start exposing them to these different things, they're like, okay, well, I didn't know that. And you just start hearing that more like, I didn't know that, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. You know? And so it's all about exposure. And so even on. By the end of the first day, students just have even more questions about what does college look like? And they have questions for us. How did you get there? What do you do? How do I figure it out? So once we engage with them and we start building that relationship, it's a lot easier. But it's almost like starting again every time we have to do something.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: You got to build that rapport, and that's difficult. And you've got girls who mature at a different speed than boys. And so I can bet there's a lot of challenges with that. Well, let's talk about students specifically. I'd like each of you to share one or two stories of success that you've seen.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll go first.
Last summer, we held a five week summer biz camp with one of our partners, Nifty, which is Network for teaching entrepreneurship. And basically the camp was to create their own business. They learned the principles of business, how to market. And so at the end of the camp, they have to compete and present their business to a panel of judges. And there was one student in particular who came in kind of reserved to herself, kind of shy. And just to see her confidence grow and her passion for her business throughout was pretty remarkable. She actually ended up competing in the national tournament in New York City.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:15:07] Speaker C: And we were, we were able to bring out her. Her mom. So it was emotional for her, but a proud moment for the family.
And the crazy part is that she still runs that business today, so. So it shows the lasting impact that that camp made for her.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great story.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah. The parent who went on that trip, she was just so grateful because she said, you know, and her daughter is accomplished, she's a smart girl, but she said, we've never even gotten this type of opportunity. I've never been able or invited to cheer my daughter on at something all expenses paid, you know, so it's, it's a driving force for that family to, to see everything that's possible for their daughter through this experience. Yeah, for me, we had a. An 8th grader that was held back at one of our schools. Just not promoted, just not taking school seriously.
She ended up going on one of the college tours. I think it was to fiu. And she saw herself at college. She, she.
This is pretty cool. There's these other people here doing fun things, living an independent life, you know, sharing life. And it appealed to her and she wrapped up what she needed to do, and she was promoted halfway to her high school.
So, you know, experiences like that help students be encouraged. That, you know, and our students have to see it. It's not enough for me to tell you that you should be in college and you should take this class. And this is important. If you want to be a meaningful person in our society, you have to experience it. And so, you know, even when we do college tours in the summer, not that much fun because not a whole lot of students on campus. So we try to reserve that for the fall and spring, but they need to see it in order to believe it.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah, they need to see themselves in those shoes that they can do that. A tough question here.
You know, our audience out there has learned a little bit about GEAR up. Now, what would you tell them are things you need? If you had a crystal ball and could ask for anything, what are some of the support that you would like to say, hey, this is something we're going to do for GEAR UP going forward. Or maybe someone in our audience says, hey, I want to help support this program. Is there anything that comes to mind that would help our students?
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Oh, I'm glad you asked. So one of the wonderful things about GearUp and makes it so different from other federal grants is that there's a huge matching component. So the matching component is to give partners the opportunity to provide in kind services or in kind contributions and just expand on the dollar amount that we're using federal funds for.
So that encourages communities and other organizations to look to see how much more can they give. You know, so if I have somebody coming out to speak to students for two hours, can you give us a third hour? And we count that as an in kind dollar for dollar match.
So we would turn nobody away with any. So there's lots of ways, there's lots of ways, you know, organizations can, can donate things that incentivize our students that we can't necessarily pay for, like gift cards. We had one of our partners give away concert tickets to one of the students who won a competition to a Latin artist in the community.
So this is even great for other nonprofits to build their relationship building with other community partners. So the goal for GEARUP is once GEARUP goes away, because this is a grant and it will be over in another four years. But I'm hoping to leave a legacy. You know, there are other partners, including Miami Dade College, that will help support your students even when the grant is over and the funds have been used.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Very well said, Stephen. Anything that comes to mind that you would say could be a resource that would help you in the. When you're in the trenches?
[00:18:26] Speaker C: No, I mean, I think just being a part of Miami Dade College, there's a lot of different departments here that can be useful to our grant, and they have been. You know, the departments that we have worked with so far have been great. But, but just. I think this is great to get the word out there so that other departments that haven't been a part of GEAR up to get involved and know that we're, you know, it's not only Miami Dade College that we're trying to get these Students in. But we're here for the students.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Talk a minute about tracking. I know, I know. You mentioned that we're in the fourth year and you see students wanting to return, and this may not be an easy question to answer, but how are you going to track students as they get to be seniors in high school? And then hopefully, can you track them even beyond.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Okay. The exciting world of data.
I hope to not put anybody asleep in this part of the podcast.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: We'll be short.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
So we do have software that we use for data collection. We use Performance Insights, PI.
And so all of our entire team has learned how to complete data entry. Doesn't matter if you're running a budget. You're a coordinator, you're the director. So we've all learned how that process goes. And our students are all tied to an ID number.
You know, their personal information is scrubbed. And through consent forms from our parents, we are able to collect gpa, test scores, attendance, to see how our students that are actually participating in activities compared to those that are not, not within the cohort, and then also across the different grades. So it's a big undertaking. So much so that we have one entire team member as a data analyst to make sure that what's collected is accurate and that it makes sense. Not just as far as the numbers go, because there's not a finite number of students that we need to have in our cohort. It's more about hours of services that we provide to students.
So the platform helps us to collect all of that. It helps us with our reporting.
It is convoluted, though, because our biggest problem, and I know if Brian was here, he's our data person, he would say that a lot of Hispanic people have hyphenated names, and sometimes children are not sure what their real name is. And so our problem ends up trying to figure out hyphenated names, matching them to the and matching them correctly to how students were enrolled. That is our biggest problem. But I'm proud to say that we know our numbers today because we input data regularly. And so that's helped our team. Also, also, I made a point on this grant to help my entire team understand how to analyze and synthesize data. Sometimes that falls just on administration or director, and the whole team doesn't see the picture. It makes it really hard to do the work. And so I think I've been able to do that with this team. And it helps us with continuously learning more about grants and what a successful grant can be. And we made some mistakes along the way, but we've learned a lot, too.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Might be a future podcast just to bring in some of the data and talk about that. That might be good. Steven, talk about maybe what your most rewarding part has been with Gear up and then, Lisa, I'll go to you next.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Yeah, so the most rewarding part for me has to be seeing the growth of the students. You know, when we first started the grant, the students were young sixth and seventh graders. And although it's only been a few years to see their growth, you know, personally and academically into young, confident 9th and 10th grader has been pretty remarkable. And I'm just looking forward to continuing the journey and support them throughout their high school career.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Very nice. Lisa, what about you? What's the most rewarding part for you?
[00:22:00] Speaker B: For me, the most rewarding part would have to be thinking about the implications of this grant in the next four years. So in the next four years, we should have our first Gear up graduating class, and hopefully they'll be matriculating as freshmen into Miami Dade College or wherever they want to go. And to be part of that journey from the beginning to the end really is. There's, I think, very few people that can. Can experience something like that, where, you know that you were really a really big part of just exposing the student to the college, to the career pathway, then helping them explain it to their parent, explaining it to the teachers, you know, getting the support of the school district to explain how this all aligns, really to get a student to be successful and to do what they want to do. Because I do believe that a lot of our students come to college because they want to figure out what makes them happy, what they're good at, and how they can really monetize their skill set.
Most of our students still don't know what that is, and they're in their third or fourth year at Miami Dade. So if we can figure that out even by sophomore or junior year of high school, that's a win.
Our cohort right now is about 4,200 students.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: So I envision, you know, more than half of those students are students that we see on an MDC campus. And I think they'll make that connection on their own because they would have seen all of the valuable support that they have, not just from our grant program, but from people that we brought from the college into their schools and vice versa.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: I was going to make a suggestion until I heard you say 4200. I was thinking, as our students graduated from high school, maybe we could Give them a cord or something.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Yes, I know that.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: So they walk across the stage. I'd love it to say mdc, but so everybody else knows, hey, how do they get that? Maybe that's something.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Well, we can pay for it. So I can say whatever.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Okay, there you go. Well, I do think that would. And that would also help them think about being a college going culture for them too. So I think that's great.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: That's a great idea.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Let's talk a little bit more about feedback. We've talked about students, we've talked about parents and administrators. Any other feedback that comes to mind that either of you have received in the last year or so.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: So when, when I explained our grant project to almost anyone, almost immediately I get a smile on that person's face and they're like, I wish I had something like that when I was trying to figure it out. And I think that's why I like this work so much.
So, you know, I attended private school my whole life. When I was ready to go to Florida State, I had a pretty good head on my shoulders. I knew how to study, I was gonna make my parents proud. I took my academic work seriously. But I never really follow through on the part on searching the career. I just kind of knew what I saw on TV and what I thought I wanted to do, and that looked kind of cool. So I did that. And I liked my program. I never thought that I would graduate my senior year at FSU and not know what I was going to do the very next day.
So the more that I got into my role at the college, especially to this project, it took time to get to this project. But I think I like this work because I would have wanted somebody like me, you know, to talk to me about a pathway and what's reasonable. And it's. It's kind of ironic because at Florida State, actually got there on a, on a service scholarship for community service. And I was doing all sorts of things like I'm doing now, but I was not getting paid for it, you know, and so I was just like, wow, I should have been more intuitive. I really like working in higher education and providing an experience for students that impact, you know, for the rest of their lives.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: I think what you said is important because I think back to my college and I didn't know what I wanted to do either. And I think these programs, had they happened when I was in that school, would have helped me know otherwise. I just got to high school and said, okay, I'm going to go to college. And we'll see what the major is. So I think that's a great point, Stephen. Anything that comes to you.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: Yeah, no, same here. I had my parents to lean on, but when you're a young student, you know, you don't really want to listen to mom and dad. You're kind of just doing your own thing.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Easy to listen to others, isn't it?
[00:25:44] Speaker C: Right. So if I had this program back in, in high school, I think it would have been definitely beneficial because I wanted to do everything. I wanted to be a police officer, architect, but then I wasn't good at math. So, you know, like, this program definitely helps students figure out what they want to do at an earlier age. So, yeah, I think, you know, you mentioned feedback. I wanted to mention, you know, for almost everything that we do, whether it's a workshop, summer camp, we do provide surveys. So we get immediate feedback from the students and the parents, which is super beneficial. You know, we take constructive criticism as well. Although most of the feedback is, you know, positive.
We try to listen, learn, and adapt to the students needs.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: That's great.
One last question. Are there any upcoming initiatives or partnerships that either of you are excited about?
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Well, just going into the high school space is exciting on its own. And so we are taking a lot of time this summer to work with our administrators at the schools and some teachers to outline what those plans will be.
One thing that I have impressed on my heart to do with hopefully one of our partners is to start podcasting. Okay, so start a podcast. So we have one of our speakers who's actually come to the college to speak. Jefferson Noel is also a professor at fiu. Can I help us get started?
So we know that our students have a lot to say. There's a lot of things going on in the world and they have a voice. So it's really, really important to listen to what our future mayors, engineers, teachers have to say about the future. I don't know that anybody can hear them over the noise, but there's a lot that we need to learn from them. So that is the hope to get podcasting started at the three schools.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Well, our producer isn't on the mic here, but Alex Bello, I would give him high recommendations to help support that.
We have some great labs here at the college and I think we could. We'd be glad to help support that.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Any, anything on your agenda coming up?
[00:27:39] Speaker C: Yeah, well, so for me, I'm starting at a new high school. I was at Ferguson last year. Now I'm transitioning to Miami, Southridge. So I'm getting to know them pretty well now over the summer as we begin planning. So and just having that one school, you know, last year we were in that transition period, so I had multiple schools and just focusing on them and trying to help their school, you know, and students.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Well, I will say our three high schools are very competitive in all they do. So this should be a very exciting time for them because they're all part of a great program and we'll see what initiatives they take up at each of their schools and what their gear of legacy will be.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: And I met a couple of those principals of those schools and they're, they're amazing gentlemen. So I'm sure you have. Good one. Well, we like to turn our podcast around and turn the microphone and let you ask me a question so you don't have to. But in our very first podcast, we had Students Government association here and they brought it up and so we've kept it ever since. So I'll turn it over to either one of you to ask me a hard question now.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Okay.
Outside of being an amazing campus president, if you could pick any other profession that you could do like at snap of your fingers, what would it be?
[00:28:49] Speaker A: Well, when I was in college, I thought I was going to play in the NBA, so I don't know if I could snap my fingers to do that because I'm only 6 4, but I was present of the medical campus and then now here at Kendall, as I've gotten to learn the college, if I could go back and be 21 again, I think I'd love to be a paramedic firefighter because I am a nationally certified emt. I passed the program. Not everybody knows that, but I feel safer.
Trust me, I've just passed my ceu, so I can help you out. But I look back at the experience, excitement of that job and I've done about 8 or 10, 24 hour shifts in fire stations and I love that work. I love the playing college basketball. The teamwork of what a paramedic does really fires me up. So that would be something I would consider doing again. My dad probably wouldn't have liked that. He would have, you know, he wanted me to pursue education, so. But, you know, if I could snap my fingers today, I'd love to be 21 and do that job because I think just, you know, the pandemic kind of changed our minds of how healthcare is and, you know, I think that'd be something that I'd enjoy doing today.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: I would love to see that.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: Well, you want to go spend it out on that station? I can make it happen.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: So I have a question.
What is the best way for a parent to support their college student?
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Wow, that is a great question.
I think it depends on the type of students. We had our Kindle Learning Academy graduation last week and for those of you that don't know about that program, there are students that have a learning disability, they're autistic, they're neurodiverse. And one of the moms spoke and we were all in tears because she was a very hands on mom.
And right when her son was coming to our KLA program, she had a major brain surgery. And so she had to turn her child over to Miami Dade College in the Kendall campus and, and was scared to death. But the kid has thrived. One of the top students in that program.
And I think I tell you that story because I think parents need to let their students not necessarily fail, but kind of experience what college is all about.
Miami is a very unique town. We still, and you mentioned it, Lisa, so many of our students here still are first time in their family to go to school.
And I think that creates a lot of challenge.
I think it's important that a parent supports their students, but also gives them space to explore, to experiment.
You know, as we were talking about when we grew up, that really wasn't the case. We didn't, you know, my parents were very hands on. So I think it's a tough role being a parent. Steven, that's a great question. And it's, I think as a parent you've got to adapt your philosophy to your child and you know, you've spent years watching them grow and as they get older, the hardest thing in the world is them to go away from home.
But I have to say I have two kids in their late 20s, 30 and 27 and they come back even better and stronger. And all those things you did as a parent, hopefully they become part of what your child becomes. So it's a really difficult question. I think you got to support your teachers, you got to support your kids, you got to give them the tools that they can have to be successful.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: One of the things we'll be able to do on the grant starting this upcoming year is having our parents go on college tours with us. So we did try it out at the middle school level and it was really successful. We said a parent must come, a parent, a grandparent, a big brother, big sister, somebody. And it just starts a conversation. What can be a really Awkward conversation. You know, now you're on a campus, and let's just talk about what this campus is like, what it is to live away from home. It also helps east parents mind. You know, they're not sending their children to, you know, really, really far away.
They're going into safe spaces. And so a lot of parents won't have the opportunity to do that, to pay to take time off of work, to get there, to pay for a hotel. It's expensive. I mean, I got to Florida State, and I never stepped a foot on that campus till the first day. And that was very exciting, and that was very traumatizing. Yeah, it worked out, but I don't think students and families should have to go through that.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: I would also say that once we've gone through this, we may need to write an article on that. We may need to tell people what we discovered about how a parent can support a kid.
Well, this has been an amazing conversation. You two have been great to be with us today, and thank you so much for sharing gear up with us.
We look forward to following the 2025 school year, and maybe at the end of the year, we can have some more of your team back on and talk about how the year's gone.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: We'd love that. Thank you.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Well, I want to thank everyone for being here today. I want to give special thanks to Christina Saenz, our head writer, Paul Kleiner, executive producer, and Alex Bello over here to my left, producing today. Thank you all for being here, and goodbye for now.
