The Power of College | Augusta Imperatore | TEDxOakKnollSchool
who here recognizes these dead okay yes so we all recognize them is Bill Gates Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg and I'm sure the reason we recognize them is because they're some of the most successful people in our society today right yep they all have one surprising thing in common none of the graduating from college okay yes granted they all got into schools first two of them be partnered but that's the side point the point is that these men who ended up doing so well for themselves did so about the college education that our day and age puts so much emphasis on in fact according to the National Center for Educational statistics in 2007 there were 18 point 2 million students enrolled in college in all-time high per our country so what does that mean for people like me high school students who have yet to enter the treacherous waters that is the application process the United States higher education system is encontrado we'll fill in any country now we haven't created an opportunity to choose from so many different amazing colleges and universities to pursue essentially whatever I want and because of this going to colleges the confidence is expected almost every teenager it wasn't always this way they back to it your parents or your grandparents were in high school not everyone went to college like the way they do today in fact majority of the people who did attend college were either male or had parents which attended college before them undergraduate enrollment increased 47% between the fall of 1970 in the fall of 1983 when I hit ten point eight million and then from there increased 21% between 1994 and 2004 in between 2004 and 2014 increased another 17% so in a little under 40 years college enrollment has doubled and its continued dress I was visiting USC just a few months ago and in the information section they for me that they get fifty four thousand applications here as photos an already stressed out not thinking about me create test scores and even better GPA I don't need they have take me with the fact that 54,000 students were applying to this amazing college but 50,000 of them wouldn't get it all of these students are just hoping a acceptance prestigious colleges of their dreams but at what cost hi I'm Agustin hair torn I'm going to talk to you today about the power college what I've learned that the theme for tech on says here is going to be the power of I immediately thought college being in the midst of junior year which is commonly referred to as and excuse my profanity teachers hell year colleges the forefront thing on my mind at basically and the second of the school day so I wasn't surprised when the first thing I could think of I heard word power was college powers a pretty complex word though is to find us the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or a course of events and I really can do this in two ways how are we being controlling and domineering or can be driving and motivating and I'm going to talk about the power college in terms of both of these first I'm going to focus on the board controlling connotation of the work just about every aspect of a student's high school career it's influenced by the constant anticipation of a college application booming in the future we spend for long long years busting our butts staying up into the late hours today writing papers and working on projects for the one day what a table full of college admissions officers is going to sit down and judge our character and our intelligence as it comes across on a piece of paper people who have never met us or experienced our personalities are going to go on whether or not we get to go give out our dream that's really scary so naturally every student is going to do all of their ability to portray themselves as best they can for what that day comes but that's just thick everyone is doing all that they can in high school to prepare for college so it seems like at this rate only way to get into colleges to date every owners class offered in three four a piece I'll talk about well yeah that sounds like a great plan but it's easier said than done and as if chem extraneous wasn't already a tall enough order there's a question I heard seems to just love to ask guys must do whatever extracurriculars and his personally my least favorite conversation AB as it normally seems more like a generation what are you gonna move in school what are you getting how high school what service you do I often find myself asking if I thought bilingual Olympic gold medalist who created their own app do I have any chance of getting in there and this constant pressure start to put a real strain of mental health professional students adolescents are supposed to get 9 and 1/2 hours sleep each net which Squidoo if you provide two or three of us I can't speak for other schools but I know that and they said open all during a particularly stressful time like the week before break oh ho you will hear anybody talking about is how stressed there because they have five tests and doing this they need to study for it two papers they have to write on top of that okay and I'm going bit me definitely work ourselves up and probably stress a little more than we need to but we're all just so focused on the end game of getting into college and it's hard to just take a step back and relax we're also caught up with memorizing information because we must get an a on every test in order to get into college that often times we forget to just calm down actually enjoy my learning I was recently watching certain references said talk do schools kill creativity in the basis of it was the issue that knowledge is valuable for creativity he feels that the whole system of public education around the world he stays around college acceptance in consequence of this is that many highly talented brilliant people only that they're not and in simplest terms his argument was this what if you're amazing at work but at your school art is not that because it's more about creativity as opposed to intelligence so you never realize your potential because hey you were never going to be an artist and he quickly had me convinced I mean how often in our society are people encouraged to pursue stuff they've created a young age what if you're amazing at me and who knows you could be the next Picasso but you know what study not instead because one of the time comes that's what's going to get you into college who cares if you actually like it and this really got me thinking why do we do what we do to go to college to get a job to make money is this the path we have to date do we go to college because it's what is expected of us I heard a quote by William Butler Gates that really changed my tune about my high school career education is amol physicist education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting fire clearly the power college holds over some high school has its negative effects but I would consider myself a pretty positive person I feel like this talk would it be complete without also shedding light on all the positive things that our colleges which made it the word power can mean energy that's produced and this is just what the power of college is done for me it is ignited within me a fire that's pushing my limits and help me realize my full potential as students there are some things we may start as resume builders but that's not necessarily a bad line because it can lead to a passion we may not have tried otherwise I know that I've encountered driving force of college my life there long as women missed out on their high school Ted being one of them we all need a little motivation once in my home I definitely needed a push to charge it but if you couldn't tell by me being up in pasta years this becomes something I am passionate about and if you can look forward to every April when I get to share my ears work with you guys the power apologists empowering it motivates me and keeps me excited too pushing these high school days in the pressure that comes with them because even in the power of pressure there are things to be gained in the midst of this seemingly endless junior year I have learned and grown so much more than I ever thought possible whenever it seems like I can't hop to any more I am constantly push to give my all because the spark college excited within me as I am going to talk today about college and expectations I want to make everybody especially my fellow high school students with this quote by Howard Thurman don't ask what the world needs ask what makes you come alive go do it because what the world needs is more people flow from life thank you