00:15I'd like to start with a request please
00:20raise your hand if you are either
00:22currently enrolled in college or if you
00:26have a college degree okay my very
00:33scientific scan of the room tells me
00:37that about 95 to 98% of you raised your
00:41hand thank you so much for indulging me
00:45my name is Alex Bernadotte and I am the
00:48founder and CEO of beyond 12 an
00:51organization that is dedicated to
00:54helping students graduate from college
00:56and when I tell people what I do with
01:00increasing frequency I am asked to
01:04debate the following question is college
01:08for everyone now before I answer I
01:13typically ask a question of my own do
01:17you have a college degree and in all of
01:21the rooms in which I have debated this
01:23question the answer is almost always yes
01:28and with our college degrees we sit on
01:32the right side of some very powerful
01:34statistics according to the Census
01:37Bureau if you have some college but no
01:41degree you will earn 18 percent more
01:44than your peers with just a high school
01:46diploma and if you have a four-year
01:49degree you will earn 62% more some
01:54economists estimate that this is more
01:57than a million dollars in lifetime
01:59earnings college graduates are also
02:03reported to experience better health and
02:07life expectancy lower rates of
02:10unemployment increased person
02:13and professional mobility so I've
02:17started to wonder what makes people who
02:21worked really hard to achieve something
02:23and who are clearly benefiting from it
02:26turn around and tell others that the
02:31thing that they worked really hard for
02:33really wasn't worth it
02:38now some famous college dropouts like
02:41Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are often
02:44uses examples to demonstrate that the
02:48path to the c-suite isn't paved with
02:51college success but let's be real an Ivy
02:56League institution is a pretty powerful
02:58place to drop out of the networks you
03:04create or that you had before going the
03:07courses that you take before you make
03:09the decision to leave and the safety net
03:13you have at home are often critical to
03:16your future success and while we are
03:20having this conversation in some small
03:22pockets of Silicon Valley we're hiring
03:25managers or luring engineering students
03:27into the tech field what's really
03:31interesting about this question in this
03:33conversation is that more often than not
03:37we're asking it about students who come
03:41from under-resourced communities
03:44communities like Compton and Detroit
03:48communities like Dorchester and Oakland
03:52regions of the country like the
03:55flatlands of South Carolina and the
03:58northern Mississippi Delta so what we're
04:02really asking isn't is college for
04:06everyone but rather is college for those
04:11students is college for the student I
04:16once was I was born in port-au-prince
04:21Haiti and I grew up in inner-city Boston
04:24I was raised by my parents and my
04:27grandmother mommy Claire who you see
04:29behind me in the center and by the way
04:32mommy Claire is still alive she is going
04:34to be 103 years old in June even though
04:45my parents didn't go to college they
04:47stressed the importance of an education
04:49and a college degree in particular is
04:52key to moving me and our family out of
04:55poverty one day when I was in the
04:57seventh grade my mom overheard a group
05:00of doctors talking about where they were
05:02sending their kids to college and she
05:04came running home she was so excited and
05:06said okay I got it you have to go to
05:09this thing called an Ivy League and you
05:12have to go to this place called
05:13Dartmouth and that's exactly how the
05:19good dream of a specific college was
05:21born it was through that overheard
05:23conversation in the emergency room of
05:26Kearney Hospital in Dorchester
05:28Massachusetts where my mom worked as a
05:31phlebotomist so I worked really hard in
05:34high school and I graduated at the top
05:36of my class when the acceptance letter
05:38from Dartmouth came we treated the
05:41moment almost as if we had won the
05:43lottery and we assumed that the most
05:46difficult part of the journey was behind
05:48us we were so wrong I completely bombed
05:54my freshman year even though I had a
05:57resume that indicated incredible
05:59preparation I struggled with every
06:01aspect of college life from the academic
06:04and the financial to the social and
06:07emotional after the fall of my sophomore
06:11year I was placed on academic probation
06:13and asked to take a leave of absence
06:17with generations of sacrifice and my
06:22entire family's hopes and dreams hanging
06:24in the balance I was in crisis luckily I
06:31was able to turn things around with the
06:33support of my family and with the help
06:35of my mentor I regained my footing I
06:38graduated from Dartmouth in four years
06:41at Stanford for graduate school my
06:45degree didn't just change my trajectory
06:48it changed the trajectory of my entire
06:52family I was the first in our family to
06:55go to college but I wasn't the last I
06:57paved the way from my younger sister my
07:00younger cousins and so many more in our
07:03community and today we are repaying the
07:06sacrifices of our elders by helping to
07:09support them financially and in other
07:12ways my six-year-old is already wearing
07:16Dartmouth and Stanford t-shirts and
07:18guess where he's telling me he's going
07:21after high school I founded an
07:25organization that has added 31 new jobs
07:27to the US economy and 50% of our staff
07:31are first-generation college-goers going
07:35to college changed my worldview I became
07:39a critical thinker a better writer I
07:42found my passion and my voice for social
07:46justice and I became an activist while
07:52my story has a happy ending each year
07:55700,000 students with backgrounds and
07:59stories similar to mine embark on their
08:02college journeys believing like I did
08:05that they are prepared for the road
08:08but the statistics tell us otherwise the
08:11vast majority will not graduate from
08:14college is college for those students
08:20now the question I get just as often as
08:23the is college for everyone question is
08:26did you know that welders make six
08:29figures and they don't need a college
08:31degree and that's a very viable
08:35alternative and a wonderful career if in
08:40fact you want to be a welder but even if
08:44you do we know that we are losing
08:48manufacturing jobs really quickly in our
08:54and I get it our colleges and
08:57universities are broken the system is
09:00broken and I agree first even though
09:05we're sending more and more students to
09:08college too few particularly those from
09:11under-resourced communities are
09:13graduating only 9% of students from the
09:16lowest income quartile can expect to
09:19earn a bachelor's degree by their
09:24of their higher income peers
09:27african-american students earn
09:28bachelor's degrees at 1/2 and latino
09:32students at one-third the rate of white
09:34students second the rising cost of
09:39higher education leads us to ask
09:42legitimate questions about the ROI of a
09:45college degree according to the College
09:48Board the average price of a four-year
09:52degree is between 100,000 and 250,000
09:58College has become much more about
10:01whether you can afford to be there and
10:04third we know that our system of higher
10:07education isn't equipping our students
10:10with the skills they need to be
10:12successful in the workforce a recent
10:15survey by pay scale discovered that even
10:19though nine out of ten recent college
10:21graduates believe that they are prepared
10:24for the workforce only 50% of employers
10:28in our country agree colleges and
10:33universities must change they must
10:37become more accessible more inclusive
10:41more affordable and more relevant they
10:46have to create courses of study that
10:48allow all students to thrive in a
10:52competitive global technology driven
10:56economy the fact remains however that a
11:01college degree is still the currency of
11:04validation in our country
11:07since 2010 95% of all new jobs went to
11:13workers with at least some college now
11:18the challenges I described with our
11:19higher education system certainly lead
11:22to valid questions about whether college
11:26is the only path to help us close these
11:29workforce gaps but for decades our only
11:33alternatives have been non college paths
11:36like vocational training and
11:39apprenticeships a recent study by the
11:43New America Foundation found that 83% of
11:48people across party lines support
11:51increased government funding for
11:53apprenticeships but when asked what they
11:58would recommend to a child in their own
12:00lives only 25% said that they would
12:03recommend apprenticeships while 50% said
12:09that they would recommend a four-year
12:11college degree so there is a disconnect
12:13between what Americans think is good for
12:16other people's children and what we
12:19think is good for the children in our
12:22own lives it is dangerous for us to
12:27continue to have this conversation about
12:30the value of a college education with
12:34rooms full of college graduates with the
12:37benefit of hindsight and the privilege
12:41of choice we are debating the value of a
12:46proven path out of poverty without the
12:50voices of those who are living the
12:53alternative rather than excluding some
12:57students from the benefits of a college
12:59education let's focus on fixing a broken
13:04system first let's fix the disconnect
13:10between our k12 system our higher
13:13education system and our work force the
13:17curricular standards required to
13:18graduate from high school
13:20and those expected of students in
13:22college and the skills expected of
13:25workers as we transition into the
13:26workforce are completely misaligned
13:30second let's address those abysmal
13:34college dropout rates by amplifying
13:36student support services that are
13:39proactive let's use a combination of
13:42Technology and human coaching to really
13:46help guide our students to a college
13:49degree third let's address the rising
13:53cost of higher education by reforming
13:57our student aid programs so that they
13:59are more responsive to current students
14:02needs and let's incentivize colleges and
14:05universities for the degrees earned
14:08rather for the students who enter
14:10college lastly let's embrace new models
14:16of higher education that create a
14:19tighter pipeline between higher
14:21education and career but let's make sure
14:24that they are rigorous and that they
14:27provide our students with the academic
14:29and the non-academic skills that we know
14:31they need to be successful in today's
14:35workforce if students decide not to go
14:40to college let it be because they have
14:43made the choice they understand the
14:46array of choices before them and they
14:49have made a well informed and well
14:52educated decision based on their
14:55passions their interests and their
14:58skills rather than because our education
15:02system fails them and we were looking to
15:05bail them out so let's get back to the
15:11let's get back to the question at hand
15:14is college for everyone no but the
15:22opportunity to go to college should be
15:25because if you say no to that question
15:27you are saying no to the student I once
15:31was and to the millions of college
15:34like me on campuses everywhere if we
15:40don't support all students in their
15:43journey through college we will lose
15:46their diverse and amazing for voices in
15:51our classrooms in our boardrooms in our
15:56political offices in our social agenda
16:00in the very fabric of our country and I
16:05would argue that we need their voices
16:09now more than ever thank you
