Importance of College Education

    During the high school career, students may begin to question the importance of a college education. They might find themselves asking, “Why is it important to go to college?” The answer is that, more than ever, college graduates enjoy much greater opportunities available to them than those who have not received a college education.

    For many high school students, being able to immediately generate an income after graduation is an appealing thought. They may also be affected by the rising cost of tuition, and while it is true that a higher education may be one of the largest expenses you will ever face, the importance of a college education has become quite evident in terms of earning potential within today's economy.

    Why should you go to college? One important answer to this question is more opportunity. As opposed to generations of the past, high school graduates today are unable to obtain high-paying jobs that were once available. The U.S. has been transformed from a manufacturing-based economy to an economy based on knowledge, and the importance of a college education today can be compared to that of a high school education forty years ago. It serves as the gateway to better options and more opportunity.

    There are additional reasons as to why it is important to go to college. When students experience a post secondary education, they have the opportunity to read books and listen to the lectures of top experts in their fields. This encourages students to think, ask questions, and explore new ideas, which allows for additional growth and development and provides college graduates with more opportunities in the job market over those who have not experienced a higher education.

    The importance of a college education is also stressed because of the opportunity to gain valuable resources during the study. The more connections which are collected during your college career, the more options you will have when you begin your job search. Once you have ended your job search and have started your career, however, the importance of a college education has not been exhausted. Having a college degree often provides for greater promotion opportunity.

    So, why should you go to college? The reasoning does not begin and end with the job aspect. A good education is beneficial from many different viewpoints, and though the importance of a college education is quite evident for many high school students, what is often not as clear is how they will pay for that education.

    Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living. School education is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything from school. A teacher, no matter how much he knows, cannot teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher's job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.

    It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula （公式）. It is usually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a maths problem. Great scientists, such as Einstein, Newton and Galileo didn't get everything from school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind.

Above all, they knew how to use their brains.

    Want to explore new cultures, meet new people and do something worthwhile at the same time? You can do all the three with Global Development Association(GDA). Whatever stage of life you're at, wherever you go and whatever project you do in GDA, you'll create positive changes in a poor and remote community(社区).

    We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Most of our volunteers are aged 17-24. Now we need volunteer managers aged 25-75. They are extremely important in the safe and effective running of our programmes. We have such roles as project managers, mountain leaders, and communication officers.

    Depending on which role you choose, you could help to increase a community's access to safe drinking water, or help to protect valuable local cultures. You might also design an adventure challenge to train young volunteers.

    Not only will you help our young volunteers to develop personally, you'll also learn new skills and increase your cultural awareness. You may have chances to meet new people who'll become your lifelong friends.

    This summer we have both 4-week and 7-week programmes:

    GDA ensures that volunteers work with community members and local project partners where our help is needed. All our projects aim to promote the development of poor and remote communities.

    There is no other chance like a GDA programme. Join us as a volunteer manager to develop your own skills while bringing benefits to the communities.

    Find out more about joining a GDA programme:

    Website:www.glodeve.org

    Email:humanresources@glodeve.org

    Imagine a school where self-awareness is celebrated, students are encouraged to solve maths problems by writing on the walls and applying learned lessons to real life is more important than homework. These are a few of the concepts that makes Space of Mind School unique.

    Located in a home built in 1896 in Florida, US, the program serves students in grades 2 through 12 and will accept kindergarten students next year. It also offers an after-school program for students who attend traditional schools, as well as evening programs for adults and educators and weekend events for families.

    There is a different atmosphere from that of a traditional school building. Tables and brightly colored walls are white boards. In the science room, students are studying climate changes at a weather station, while in the music room, a student is solving an equation (等式) with his academic coach while he connects music theory and maths.

    The daily schedule at the school also stands out. "We don't assign boring or exhausting homework." said Space of Mind founder and CEO Ali Kaufman. "Instead of homework, we ask that they go home and take a video of themselves applying a lesson they learned or cooking a meal for their family that they learned how to make at school."

    For lunch, instead of traditional cafeteria dishes such as pizza, the school offers organic meals made out of products from local gardens and farms. "Our students also run a business at the Delray Beach Green Market on Saturdays so they can understand sustainable living practices and how to run a business," Kafman said.

    " We are also the first school program in Florida to start and end each day with 15 minutes of meditation (冥想)," Kaufman said. "The positive results we have been seeing in the students from meditation are amazing. We are really about infusing social, emotional and creative skills with academic and life skills."

    Many seniors feel pressured to go straight from high school to college, but Camden Olson, who graduated from the Latin School of Chicago in the US last year, didn't give in. She decided to spend a gap year-taking a year off before college-raising a guide dog for Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Maine. The non - profit provides trained guide dogs to blind and visually - impaired (视力障碍的) people. "This is something I've always wanted to do." Olson said.

    It is becoming more and more popular among American teenagers to have a gap year. Some students use the year off to figure out what they want to do: travel the world or save money for college.

    Olson is using her time to follow a passion she's had since 7th grade. For years, she kept an eye on guide dog services until she came across the opportunity at Guiding Eyes. With support from her friends, family and teachers, Olson went for it. Olson's volunteer work centers around Derby, a one-year-old black dog.

    "My job is to raise him to be well-mannered and socialized," she said. "Guide dogs can't be distracted. They go everywhere with their visually-impaired owner. They give a blind person a lot of support, too."

    Of course, there's an end in sight for Derby and Olson's close bond. When Derby celebrates his own graduation, Olson will have to say goodbye to him.

    "No doubt there will be tears, but, if he passes, I will be so happy for him to become a working dog," she said.

    While some do not agree that gap years are a good choice, Olson said she's seen major success. In fact, she'll be attending Princeton University soon and is thinking about majoring in biology.

    "I think I'm already so much more mature than I was," she said. "So many kids come back from gap years a lot more focused and prepared."

Yosemite is a national park in California. It is very beautiful and big. The park includes more than 760,000 acres in the California Mountains. Most of the park is wilderness.

The part of Yosemite that everyone likes is Yosemite Valley. It is a tiny valley that is 7 miles long and less than 1 mile wide. It has tall rock walls and streams that splash down in waterfalls. More than two million visitors come to the valley each year.

One ranger (守护人) says the number of visitors is more than the land can handle. The valley has 4,500 camping spots. It has a hotel that can hold 4, 000 families. This is still not enough to handle all of the visitors. The valley has grown so big that it has a lot of traffic and crime.

A worker says the park is trying to keep the beauty of the park and let everyone visit. Some areas have been fenced off from people and planted with seeds to try to keep them beautiful.

A former worker thinks Yosemite should get more money to take better care of the park. He would also like to teach people what the park service is trying to do.

Some people are trying to save Yosemite Valley. A plan has been made to get rid of some buildings. There will be fewer cars allowed inside the park. More buses will help get people around.