WOSU News and Public Affairs Director Mike Thompson facilitates the discussion. The forum integrates video profiles of Project Mentor, the AT&T Success Centers, and Academic Acceleration Academy.

The panel consisted of:

• Bill Wise, South-Western City Schools Superintendent
• Nancy Nestor-Baker, United Way of Central Ohio Administrator
• Haley Ford, Westerville North High School Senior

A panel of community stakeholders analyzed the implications of dropping out and highlights local initiatives to help students finish school at a forum, “American Graduate.”

The panel consisted of:

• James Moore III, Professor of Counseling Education at the Ohio State University and the Co-director of the AT&T Success Centers, which help high risk 9th graders at Linden McKinley and South High School in Columbus
•  Steve Votaw, the Executive Director of Learn4Life Columbus, which addresses nonacademic barriers to student success
• Attorney Frederick Ransier III, who heads the advisory committee of the Near East Side Redevelopment Partnership that is working to revitalize the neighborhood surrounding University Hospital East
• Barbara Siemer, the founder of the Siemer Institute for Family Stability, which helps families at risk of homelessness stay in their homes and keep kids in their current schools
• Keith Bell, the Chief Academic Officer of Columbus City Schools.

American Graduate is part of a national initiative launched by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to improve high school graduation rates and help stop the damaging school trend of school dropouts—estimated to be more than a million students a year.

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan (born October 3, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions, she is the first American woman to walk in space. Sullivan is a 1969 graduate of Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. She was awarded a bachelor in science degree in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1973, as well as a Ph.D. in geology from Dalhousie University in 1978.

Sullivan served as an oceanography officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain. She has served as chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She flew on three space shuttle missions and logged 532 hours in space.

After leaving NASA, Sullivan served as President and CEO of the COSI Columbus, an interactive science center in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Sullivan currently serves as Director for Ohio State University’s Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy and as a volunteer science advisor to COSI. She was appointed to the National Science Board by President Bush in 2004.

Don’t give up hope. Explore what other colleges might still be accepting applications, or apply to a community college and check into their transfer programs.

Summer employment can be helpful toward a career track, but so can an internship, volunteer service, or even community service.

Students who plan their high school careers early, even as soon as their freshman year, will better be able to take classes they need or want as they near graduation.

Students can begin one at the age of 16, and can earn up to $50/hour by the end.

People applying for college has gone up over the years (online applications are a big reason), which means that colleges have to be more selective when it comes to accepting applicants.

Throughout history the photograph has been manipulated for various purposes. It is important for students to understand those purposes and to learn how to question images they find in media and on the Internet.

- Exploration thru role play. Students explore the material while they are in character
- Students choose character, and then explore motivations and circumstances
- Students explore imaginary world through the character’s eyes
- In its simplest form, inquiry might mean a student explains a new insight. More complexly, there could a lengthy discussion/debate by many students, such as: which patient might get a needed organ transplant?
- Introduce essential questions, core themes of a topic or text
- Essential questions are usually discussed as a group beforehand; core themes are restated by the teacher