Year Up Boston Continuing Education Presentation by Natascha F. Saunders, The Youth Career Coach Inc.

1. Pursuing Higher Education
IS IT WORTH THE TIME?

2. About your facilitator:
 CEO/Founder, The Youth Career Coach Inc.
 Certified Professional Career Coach (PARW/CC)
 Employer Relations and Career Program Manager, at MIT
 Faculty: Northeastern University, University of Rhode
Island
CONTACT
 Board of Directors: Dimock Community Health Center
 Greek Life: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Pi, Sigma Office: 401-400-0(JOB)562
Epsilon Rho Email: info@theyouthcareercoach.com
 Education includes: BA, MBA, MS, Exec. CERT, CPCC, Facebook: www.facebook.com/
currently pursuing Doctorate in Education (Leadership & YouthCareerCoach
Communication )
LinkedIn:
 Former: MIT Sloan (MBA Admissions), BU, JWU, A.G. www.linkedin.com/in/
nataschasaunders
Edwards & Sons Inc., Wells Fargo, State Street, Neiman
Marcus, Macy’s, Beth Israel Hospital, Roxbury Public
Defenders

3. What we’ll discuss….
1. What is continuing education
2. Why continue your education
3. When is a good time to start preparing
4. How do you prepare
5. Benefits
6. BFDS Presents…
7. OPEN DISCUSSION

4. What is Continuing Your Education
 is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum
of post-secondary learning activities and programs.
The term is used mainly in the United States and
Canada. Recognized forms of post-secondary
learning activities within the domain include: degree
credit courses by non-traditional students, non-
degree career training, workforce training, formal
personal enrichment courses (both on-campus and
online) self-directed learning (such as through
Internet interest groups, clubs or personal research
activities) and experiential learning as applied to
problem solving.

5. Why Pursue Higher Education
 What are your thoughts on why?
 To keep your skills and knowledge base current
 Reducing employment limitations
 Self Achievement | Personal Satisfaction
 Enhanced traits such as: Discipline
 It takes great discipline to study properly, avoiding
procrastination and preparing adequate notes and study
aids each week. It also takes great discipline to distill
months of knowledge.
 Money | Prestige

6. UNEMPLOYMENT

7. INCOME
According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The report titled "The Big Payoff: Educational
Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life
Earnings" (.pdf) reveals that over an adult's working life,
high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn
$1.2 million; those with a bachelor's degree, $2.1 million;
and people with a master's degree, $2.5 million.
Persons with doctoral degrees earn an average of $3.4
million during their working life, while those with
professional degrees are around $4.4 million.

8. When is a good time to prepare
 Your thoughts?
 Now! I don’t believe there will ever be a good time.
 Example:
 Fire in our home
 My brother in my MBA Program
 When you’ve notice the jobs you have an interest in
require a degree
 When you notice the people you want to do business
with have degrees (People like to do business with people they know or have something in
common.)

9. How do you prepare?
1. What are some tools that you’ve used to prepare?
2. Self Analysis
3. Leadership and Peer Analysis (Biographies)
4. Talk to your career coach
5. Family Inventory | Time Management | Resources
6. Work flexibility | Corporation Culture
7. Attend an open house and orientation
8. Research
 About the Schools
 Regarding Academic Programs
 Picking a Major Is it important? Does it matter which major?
(Transferable skill sets)
 Online or OnCampus or Both

10. How do you prepare
cont.
8. Meet with admissions, registrar, career services,
meet the dean
9. Financial Aid Meeting | FAFSA
10. Books where to purchase them (used, library
reserve, friend takes course different terms)
11. Meet with past schools attended

11. GUEST HUMAN RESOURCE
PRESENTER FROM YOUR
COMPANY
HR POLICIES ON TUITION
REIMBURSEMENT……
Q & A

12. Benefits
1. Consider the social and cultural benefits, for instance:
making friends, learning social rules and norms and
understanding civic roles.
2. Some of the most sought-after benefits from education
are economic. For example, specialized knowledge and
technical skills, for example, lead to higher incomes,
greater productivity and generation of valuable ideas.
3. Educated people make more money in traditional
careers “except for the exceptions – idea
generators”
4. People respect people with education more than those
who don't

13. Benefits cont.
6. Having an education allows you to work in a field
that you enjoy
7. Have more stimulating conversations
8. Skill set such as writing | communication | team
work
9. Learn From Masters of your Field
Sure, many things learned in college can be learned at the library. What
you miss out on, however, is someone to put those texts in context.
Professors are hired because they're at the top of their area of expertise.
Of course they won't all be goldmines, but when you find one, latch on.
You'll learn more than you'll find in any book.

14. My success & survival tips
 Stayed at work vs. Stayed at home to study (Where?)
 I used my current job as part of my research and papers –
opened doors to networking and expanded my knowledge
base
 I read many organizational charts of employees in my
company & my competitors that went to the school I was
attending
 I did a semester long internship from the school but used my
current job as the site it knocked out 1 whole term and I was
able to pitch and craft a special project for my job
 My study groups were specifically selected by me – kids whose
parents sent them to school before they take over their family
business

15. SOCRATES once said that “the
more he learned, the more he
became convinced of his own
ignorance”.

16. Questions | Discussion Time

17. Resources
 Employee Online Courses
 Audit a course at the school you have an interest
 Alumni Associations | Company Groups
 MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
 http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
 Such as: Classics, Languages, Chemistry, History, Economics,
International Relations, Political Science, Artificial Intelligence, etc.
 Hosted by: Emory, MIT, Oxford, UC Berkeley, Harvard etc.

18. THANK YOU!
 CONTACT
 Office: 401-400-0JOB (562)
 Website: www.theyouthcareercoach.com
 Facebook: www.facebook.com/YouthCareerCoach
 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nataschasaunders