"To inspire, inform, educate, engage and entertain through the power of public media." www.wgcu.org/home/
WGCU Public Media is Southwest Florida's source for PBS and NPR. WGCU provides quality programming 24-hours a day and is a trusted story teller, teacher, theater, library and traveling companion. As a member-supported service of Florida Gulf Coast University, WGCU’s mission is to provide educational programming that inspires, informs and engages our community.
Serving seven counties, one-fifth of the state of Florida, with five distinct digital TV channels, two FM radio channels and three HD radio channels, one subcarrier and a monthly magazine, WGCU delivers national and international programming and develops, produces and delivers relevant, informative and educational local programs to the Southwest Florida community.
My job couldn't care less where you went to school and it can actually have you looking like a stuffy overachiever with no social skills. There are so many unemployed "scholars"
This history triggers me that conscious awareness of the loggers was less than p ant. 500-600 yr+ Cyprus should have and could have been sustainably preserved. SMH forever even to this present day....
What has always been amazing to me was how many hermit hunts are out there. Some times I could come across them when I was young back in the late 80's. Sometimes.. there were still someone living in them. I haven't found anyone lately living in one. Late time was about five years ago. The old fella must of past away. I looked for him. Didn't find anything. So I pray someone found him or he made it into civilization and passed. I always would check in when I was down there on the ones I had met. Left a marker by were there places were at. But the hurricanes would make it hard to find some of them years later. Some would just disappear back to nature.
Nailahs story reminds me of myself. Both of us are from poorly funded cities and from families that didn’t have the means or the emotional bandwidth to help us thrive. Even when we try our hardest to overcome our circumstances, if the support isn’t there from the people around you, your outcomes of doing well decrease significantly. I’m currently in the same boat as her….college dropout who’s kind of confused what to do with my life. The college apparatus is really good at keeping non traditional students in this perpetual cycle of not letting us get a degree due to financial circumstances. I really hope Nailah is able to find some impetus to get back to school and succeed in some way. She seems really bright and has a lot of unlocked potential.
My Dad was on vacation in the Everglades in maybe 1996 or 1998. He couldn’t sleep, so he ventured out just at daylight. He’d gone about two miles on a road, then a path of sorts. He knew to look out for alligators, but he didn’t think of other wildlife. Upon seeing a really huge alligator in the path ahead, he turned around and headed back. When he reached the gravel road into the campsite, a cougar slunk across about 10 yards ahead of him. Not knowing what to do, he finally started yelling, screaming and throwing pine cones into the woods where he’d seen the cat. Mom chewed him out when he returned for his folly. He didn’t take any more early morning strolls away from civilization.
Nailah falling through the cracks is very sad. Her story shows how many obstacles blk kids are facing. It also highlights how blk parents and predominantly blk high schools do not have the same resources to prepare their kids to compete with the intense competition from other applicants all over the country. Blk kids can work so hard but so many other factors are stacked against them, affecting their financial options, grades, test scores, psychological health, and support systems. That's what Affirmative Action was for... to help balance that out because the starting line for some kids is so much further behind everyone else.
I agree with you, but I also wonder if affirmative action is a bad decision for students of color. I personally benefitted from affirmative action (low test scores, poor education where I grew up, being Mexican), but I was admitted to a school where I truly could not perform as well as my classmates. I feel like affirmative action is a bandaid solution to address socioeconomic disparity but doesn’t actually address the kinds of circumstances that lead POC to not seek degrees. In other words, I don’t believe affirmative action is going to provide students with better financial situations or is going to improve the quality of education in a city that is underfunded. The majority of students who drop out of college without earning a degree are POC. So even if POC can get into college, affirmative action doesn’t necessarily support these students in any other way except giving them a chance at college. Affirmative action doesn’t address the economic situation, or the academic situation. It only addresses the issue of who gets into the school and who doesn’t. So, I’m not so sure that affirmative action was a good idea after all. It kind of opened the flood gates to students who maybe are not ready for college. We should be addressing the issue of disparity in colleges by starting at the underfunding of public schools in the US. Maybe if I didn’t go to a poorly funded school, I might have had a degree right now instead of owing money for a degree I never was able to finish due to economic barriers. Idk. That’s just my thoughts on that.
Looking to buy a home in SWFL. I would love to live in Punta Gorda, or Naples or Marco Island, but the risk of storms and cost of home insurance would be prohibitive. I will look for a home inland, in the sticks.
This was a very good Documentary. Am 59 years old, attending college again and right now struggling with only two modules out of 20. But I had to take a step back and realized 25 years ago I actually got this Degree through a highly recognized University so why I am stressing. People like me needed to see this especially at this time. Take the stress and worry and cast it aside. Whether you make it or not life will put you exactly where you should be. We need a few more Documentaries that is similar to this so that it would help college bound and College Students. Thanks a million.
Bless my luck, i was a committed average student and was very much ok with that. Also, more luck as i have a normal mother who isn't living through me.
Damn Abby, even Cs still get degrees lol. That guy in the suit is right. I definitely did not push myself that hard in high school. I was in one club and one sport for only half the time, only took one AP class and otherwise just had fun taking art classes lol. Still got into a good college and for better or worse studied art, but went on to qualify for a technical masters program at a relatively prestigious private university, and now make six figures. I never had a 4.0 in high school or undergrad. If these kids just enjoy college and just learn to be good at something the market wants, they will be fine without stressing so much or going to the perfect school lol.
I love how emotionally intelligent these kids are. I was like Nailah, interviewed by Georgetown (I froze/got shy) and was rejected by most of my schools in 2005. I still made it far, as long as you roll with the punches, adapt to obstacles and be kind to yourself, you will make it.❤❤
Just beautiful! Captures so much, from different sides, but the best is to hear the journey of these students, in their own words - so inspiring - so much wisdom and hope.