Speaker discusses finding success

 
More than 30 companies and 80 colleges and universities nationwide were present for the Southern University Business and Industry Cluster annual Freshman Convocation Thursday in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Union.
Initiated by the National Alliance of Business, the Cluster program is meant to enhance the capabilities of historically minority colleges and universities in preparing graduates who are ready to take that step into the professional world in both public and private industries.
The Cluster provides students with training interviews, scholarships, and even internships to guide students into their chosen careers.
Oliver Cyprian, process chemist at Chevron Corporation said, “These first time freshman need to be at programs like this because if they start off wrong then that’s how they will end up.”
The program’s purpose was to expose students to what they need to do in order to be a success in not only school but in life.
The guest speaker, Alecia Cyprian-Porter, an assistant vice president for Enrollment Management at Dillard University, delivered this message.
“I didn’t choose my career, my career chose me,” said Porter.
She presented a presentation with the theme “Ownership of the Journey,” which stressed key points on how students can attain good study habits while managing school and balancing their personal life.
According to American College Testing (ACT), one in every four students leaves college before completing their sophomore year.
Nearly half of all freshmen will either drop out before getting their degree or complete their college education elsewhere.
Studies done by Syracuse University in New York have shown that students devote so much time to the admissions process, they forget to focus on what lies ahead: challenging academics, living away from home, maintaining their finances, learning time management skills, and taking responsibility for their own lives.
Porter being the eleventh child to a mother and a father who didn’t finish their education said, “I was motivated by my parents to focus and finish my education even though they didn’t finish theirs.”
Students who come into college and are not motivated by anyone or anything have the tendency to give up easier when obstacles get in their path.
Porter’s older bother, Oliver Cyprian said, “I pushed Alecia because I saw that she had the potential to be great.”
According to the findings of the Gates’ Foundation, Public Agenda, a nonpartisan research group, released a 2009 report showing that “most dropouts leave college because they have trouble going to school while working to support themselves.”
Porter said, “With the forty hours in the work week, minus the twelve hours of full time courses, leaves students twenty-eight hours to study.”
The whole purpose of the college journey of a student is to receive a quality education that will grant them a degree in the end that will propel them into their careers.
Porter reinforced this by finishing her presentation citing, “Start with the end in mind.”