John Jell: NHS Saturday Keynote

November 8, 2008

Sitting at the National Honor Society day two keynote. Here’s a man, John Jell, who came up the ranks from college work through Coca Cola and then to the Nestle Corporation. He said when he graduated from college he was in the bottom 11% of his class. He worked hard to balance formal and informal learning. Formal learning is, in part, reading and learning while informal learning is more about doing and implementing learning. Students need to apply themselves. If they make good choices then they can optimize their opportunities, but if they make better choices then they can maximize their opportunities in life. By the end of 2007, only 34% of students who enter schools are college graduates. If you begin college and drop out, employers consider you a high school graduate, and 45% of students who begin college will drop out. An those who graduate college can’t find jobs and end up moving home with their parents. I know my siblings and I all did this. I moved home to begin graduate college and lived with them so I didn’t have to pay for food room, board and transportation. My brother quit college and moved home. He’s still around there, and I don’t even know what he does. As for my sister, she moved away to college, dropped out, began working full time, and has now moved home to begin a nursing program in our home town. She’s now looking for a house to move out.

Did you know if you take longer than four years to graduate college you lose money? You pay more interest from college loans because you don’t pay them back faster? You pay more tuition. You pay more room/board. You also lose more earnings. This means if you graduate quicker, you can make money faster. For teachers, you need to work to get so many points to retire. If you wait until you’re 30 to begin your career, then you can be working until you’re 70. I would rather be retired when I am 60 when I am old and crotchety than to slack off when I am young. I can’t even begin to tell you what’s going to happen to my brother. He’s 30.

He’s talking about the Armed Forces, and you know what? Even though we don’t all agree on wars and philosophies, etc… of the military, you can’t beat going into the Armed Forces to get some great opportunities. They pay for undergrad and they give you some great training. Also, boot camp helps make you and keep you healthy. Of course, on the other hand, they send you off to what some people call senseless wars (I will not comment on those things on my professional blog… gotta read the personal one for that stuff!). I didn’t go the Armed Forces way, in part, because of sickness, but would it help my brother? I don’t know. But it might help you. Consider it. Keep your options open, and do research. Jell put two websites on the presentation slide (scholarships101.com & nextstudent.com). $300 billion dollars of scholarship money is available each and every year. I don’t know about you, but I was lazy and didn’t search for any scholarships at all. I hope you do though! I am going to be paying for college until my 3 year old graduates from her college! (And you better believe that I already tell her that she is going to get good grades and apply for scholarships!)

John Jell finished up by talking about how average he really was in college, how Coca Cola created jobs for him, and now he’s at Nestle living in LA near Guns N Roses and Britney Spears. A kid from Canada can do anything and so can you!

Posted in conferences, nhs