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Zero Debt Education for College Students

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Will Government Grants Encourage Moms To Earn A Degree

If someone had to ask you to explain a government grant, could you? Many are uncertain as to what it means exactly. Nevertheless the government under the much admired current administration is working hard to help working mothers in returning to college. It’s interesting to note that such federal programs as ones assisting mothers in attending college are not a new phenomenon’s instead they are existing government benefits that have been improved upon and made more aware of to the public. As a mom the idea of going back to college maybe a dream you never thought could be fulfilled now it can through the Pell grants a huge asset to any potential student.

The Federal Pell grants has existed over many years making it one of the many familiar types of government financial aid for the furtherance of college. The Pell grant plays a huge advantage to any student awarded such aid as it does not require repayment at the end typical of a normal loan. You may wonder who can be awarded the Pell grant? In general such aid is normally given to students who do not already have a professional degree or bachelors but seek an undergraduate degree. The Scholarship for mom’s program with its two distinct advantages has caused a huge stir amongst single, working moms. The current president as well as his administration is encouraging mothers to attend college through the funds which have been made available through the Pell grants although there is no specific program given.

The Pell grant has a further advantage besides it being a monetary gift in that it does not place restrictions when it comes to sourcing other financial aids. If you require further assistance in covering educational costs application can be made through both the federal programs and non-federal private organizations. The Pell grant provides the highest amount of $ 5,350.00 during the award year which begins on the 1st of July 2009 to the 30th June 2010. It’s unlikely that this amount will cover your full college expenses it does not restrict you from applying to other sources. Further the awarded money does not prevent you from using it other then for tuition. Educational costs may also include housing, books, laptops and housing as acceptable expenses.

The Pell grant program and its benefits have been showcased since attention to education has been highlighted through the current administration making the scholarships for moms’ a must. The specifics of this federal program are very conducive for single, wo rking mothers to become students who are earning a degree. College no longer has to be just a dream because of family or financial needs.

More students are now thinking of college as an option with a government grant funded through the federal Pell grant program. This is exactly true for all those working mothers. Single mothers working full-time are specifically being encouraged by the current administration to take advantage and earn a degree. The current administration is heartily cheering for single, full-time working mothers to apply for college and earn a degree. Your future could be much brighter than you realize.

So much could change your future for the better.

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Federal Court Records Available

One can collect lot of information from Federal court records for various purposes. A person who wants to let his house for rent to an unknown person has to be careful with the new tenant. A person cannot be judged on his decent looks alone. Even some educated person indulges in criminal activities and it poses as a big problem if we fail to the trace his background before letting the house.

A federal court record gives you information about an individual’s history. The information includes the name, date and the place of birth, height, weight and the offence committed. It also gives information of the date and place of arrest, by whom the arrest was made, under which sections arrests were made, whether convicted or fine paid and so on. With these details you can judge a person and know the background of a particular person. People of United States use federal court records to know the background of the person whom they hire as a paid servant for their house.

Federal court records can be accessed from the court house. But since it was time consuming people found it difficult and online access to federal court records have been used by most of the individuals and organizations. There are many free and paid websites that has federal court records in the form of data base. Some time you may not get the required information from the free criminal records search websites. In such cases you can avail the service of the paid websites to get clear and correct information. Also the search can be done secretly from your seat through online. Just by feeding the first name, last name and the place of birth, you will get the result through internet in a few minutes.

Some time any of your new neighbors may look suspicious and you would be put under embarrassing situation to find out the background of the particular person. With online federal court records you can easily access the required information to know the history of the person. Many employers use federal court records before appointing the applicant for responsible jobs where they deal with millions of dollars.

The trend of appointing a private investigator by paying huge sum to find out the background of a person has gone. Now for the safety of our house and organization we have easy way of finding the background of an individual with the electronic internet data base information system. In a single mouse click you will be able to get the details of an individual with his past and present criminal activities. Federal court records are open to the public, like the divorce records and birth records. Federal court records make nation wide search of an individual’s background. Hence most of the people prefer the online search for getting the information.

It is quite easy to obtain Federal Court Records online. I obtained the information I needed to help save my business Here!

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How To Choose A Good Education Consultant To Study Abroad?

Most of students who are keen to go abroad are often worried about choosing the right Overseas Education Consultants for themselves. Overseas education consultant plays a significant role starting from:

Deciding about the Country, University or College

They assist students in making Educational decisions i.e. by discussing the entire pro and corns of available options. This includes helping find the University or college placement that is good fit for students.

All know that every student cannot go to Howard or Cambridge university, So it become very important for a consultant to guide the student about which country to choose based upon the students long term vision for e.g. if student wants to study Medicine he/she could go and study in China, Russia, Ukraine,Bulgaria or Guyana etc.; if student purpose is just to obtain PR and want to study any sought of diploma i.e. Diploma in Hospitality Management, Diploma in Business Management etc. relevant with their earlier experience and study, he/she could go for their Study in New Zealand, Study in UK etc. Similarly if the student wants to attain academic excellence, the best option would be to Study in USA.

Arranging the admission

Once the Education Consultants zero in the Country, University/College and Course for the applicant, the foremost responsibility of the consultant is to help applicant in completing the admission formalities, highlight the areas essential for a well-presentation. Follow up with the chosen university/college to ensure a positive and quick response. Send recommendations, highlighting the student’s strengths and reasons as to why he/she should be granted admission.

Financial requirements for the studies

Education Consultants even enlightens and guides the student for the finances required and also facilitate the student to arrange all the financial documents in time and in the required format depending upon their period of stay to study abroad.

Here it becomes essential to choose an effective Education Consultants and adopt a backward time management methodology. A well-planned methodology must be executed by student to save time and money. An experienced Education Consultants can save both and can send you for your desired course on time.

Guiding the student in obtaining student visa

Thereafter Education Consultants assist the applicant to prepare the Visa application, guide students for financial statements and help to prepare the file to meet the requirements of Embassies and to ensure visa success

Fee transfer

When the Visa of applicant is approved, Education Consultants supports the applicant to transfer his/her fees through an appropriate means from trusted financial institution.

Arranging relevant accommodation as per the students budget

In case if the applicant is in a need for accommodation, Education Consultants arranges an accommodation matching as per the suitability of the applicant needs and budget.

Airport Pick up of the student

Nevertheless Education Consultants ensures that applicant is safely picked up from the airport and is relocated to his/her accommodation premises of the country.

Travel Arrangements

In addition, Education Consultants provides assistance with travel arrangements such as foreign currency, insurance, bank account in foreign country, mobile phone service in foreign country etc.

FOR FINDING OUT AN EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT OVERSEAS EDUCATION CONSULTANTS, STUDENT NEEDS THE SEE THE FOLLOWING:

Here the applicant must look in to the below aspects carefully while they search for a good Education Consultants. The below aspects marks the end-to end services given by the Education Consultants and suggestions to find out an effective and efficient Education Consultants to ensure better future and better life ahead.

Option of countries given by a consultant

To determine if the country option given by your Education Consultants is right for you, check if the qualification offered is internationally recognized, job prospects in that country are bright after completing the course and does the living expense and living style matches your suitability. The clarity could be obtained by comparing two to three suitable country options.

Previous experience and history of success with an education consultant

Check as to since how many years that Education Consultants is been into practice for recruiting students overseas and what is the success ratio of the visa it has attained. You can ask your Education Consultants to show you the some copy of previous visas, offer letters, sample visa file etc. A good Education Consultants always maintains and keeps the records of their earlier applicants.

Has a breadth of contacts in the education industry

Establish as to how many prominent contacts your Education Consultants have, relevant to overseas education i.e. contacts with the International Officers, counselors, Visa Officers etc.

Been recommended by old students

It becomes easy to believe and obvious to select an Education Consultants if it has been recommended by any of the old student, who may or may not be your friend. This source is often reliable and the advice given is truly genuine. Try to get in touch with some of old students enrolled in the same college of the same country, to verify the suitability of the option chosen. Ask your Education Consultants if they can provide you with some of the previous references of the students.

Previous history of a university or the college being recommended by the consultant

To know about the previous history of a university or the college being recommended by your Education Consultants, study the website of that University or college thoroughly. Studying previous history of the college and the University helps in knowing the years of its existence and background. The more the years of its existence and the clear its background, the relevant is your choice of university.

Additional incentives like scholarship, part time job placement, sports options or hostel facilities offered by the universities recommended by the consultant.

A good Education Consultants not just seeks good University, College or course for the student but in addition offers eminent incentives such as availing scholarships if academics of the applicant are good, seeking assistance from college to provide part time job placement to the student and encourage student to participate in the sports activities of his/her excellence by availing Sport scholarship, if available in that particular college or university. Some Education Consultants even provides free Laptops, SIM cards etc. to the students, seeking it as advantage from college/University.

Author is an export on overseas education. Here he explain about Study in new zealand. If you know more about study overseas then,visit:www.wclincorporation.com/

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http://zerodebteducation.com/teen-courts-and-law-related-education/

Teen Courts And Law-Related Education

Teen courts, a term used here to include youth courts, peer juries, peer courts, student courts, and other courts using juveniles in determining the sentences of juvenile offenders, have rapidly gained popularity in the 1990s. In 1991 there were over 50 teen courts in 14 states; by 1999, the number of teen courts had grown to more than 500 in 45 states and Washington, DC. The growing popularity of teen courts is compelling evidence that they are fulfilling a recognized need. TYPES AND FUNCTIONS OF TEEN COURTS. Teen courts involve juveniles in the sentencing of other juveniles, in either a school or a community setting. Young people usually serve as jurors and may also fill the roles of prosecuting attorney, defense attorney, judge, bailiff, or other officers of the court. Young offenders usually are referred to a teen court for sentencing, not for a judgment of guilt or innocence. And many teen courts accept only first-time offenders who have committed relatively minor offenses, such as theft, alcohol/drug offenses, vandalism, and disorderly conduct (Godwin 1996). There are, however, many different models of teen courts (see below), including some that determine guilt or innocence. Young offenders voluntarily choose teen court, with parental approval, as an alternative to an existent sentencing agency or disciplinary office. Offenders who prefer legal representation and/or the regular court or disciplinary system can decline referral to teen courts. Teen court sentences commonly include community service (1-200 hours), jury duty (up to 12 times), restitution, and apologies. Additional sentencing options include counseling, educational workshops on substance abuse or safe driving, essay writing, victim-awareness classes, curfews, drug testing, school attendance, and peer discussion groups. Most teen courts are based in the juvenile justice system or in a community setting. The agencies most commonly operating or administering teen court programs are juvenile courts and private nonprofit organizations. Next are law enforcement agencies and juvenile probation departments. Schools operate about ten percent of teen courts, while a variety of other agencies (e.g., city government, the administrative office of the court) operate the remainder of teen courts (Godwin 1996). The 1994 survey of teen courts by the American Probation and Parole Association (Godwin 1996) identified four distinct models: a peer jury model and three trial models. The Peer Jury Model employs a panel of teen jurors who question the offender directly. No defense or prosecuting attorney is employed. The judge is usually an adult volunteer. The most common of the teen court models is the Adult Judge Model, which employs an adult judge to rule on courtroom procedure and clarify legal terminology, and youth volunteers as defense and prosecuting attorneys and jurors. Young people may also serve as bailiff and clerk. The Youth Judge Model is similar to the Adult Judge Model, except that a juvenile serves as judge, usually after service as a teen court attorney. Finally, the Tribunal Model has no peer jury. Instead, the prosecuting and defense attorneys present cases to a juvenile judge(s), who determines the sentence. RELATIONSHIP TO LAW-RELATED EDUCATION (LRE) AND COMMUNITY SERVICE. Teen courts and law-related education share many goals. The Law-Related Education Act of 1978 defined LRE as “Education to equip nonlawyers with knowledge and skills pertaining to the law, the legal process, and the legal system, and the fundamental principles and values on which these are based.” Teen courts do the same. Each teen court case teaches both the student volunteers from local secondary schools and the offenders about the rules or laws that were broken, the consequences of the offenses, and how due process is observed by court procedure. In addition, the volunteers and offenders learn about key LRE concepts of justice, power, equality, property, and liberty. Teen courts also help to foster important values, attitudes, and beliefs similar to those of LRE generally. Participants voluntarily commit their time to teen courts in the pursuit of justice. Student volunteers demonstrate a belief in active and responsible participation in civic life, a respect for the rights of the offender and victim, and an appreciation for a legitimate response to societal conflicts through assigning appropriate responses to the offenses in question. Teen courts also offer a uniquely experiential approach to LRE. Participants are real offenders in real situations, and volunteers must therefore learn the discipline of confidentiality. Teen court participants must weigh conflicting points of view and decide a just and appropriate sentence. They see first-hand the consequences of delinquent behavior. Teen court offenders learn through their own sentences the importance of community service. STUDENT COURTS IN SCHOOLS. Teen courts that handle only school referrals are receiving increasing attention from educators who are looking for ways to improve students’ citizenship skills and decrease problematic behavior. Some teen courts meet in schools, but accept referrals from organizations in the community such as the county probation department, juvenile court, police department or sheriff’s office. More often, student courts accept referrals only from within the school. Of course, student courts pose special challenges because of the complexity of creating new programs in schools. Student courts are sometimes established to handle very limited types of offenses. One student court handles only traffic offenses on the school grounds, such as parking lot violations. Other student courts handle only truancy and smoking violations. Still others address a wide variety of offenses including insubordination, minor theft of student property, minor vandalism, fighting, cheating, and loitering. Student courts’ memberships vary greatly from school to school. For instance, members of the jury in a trial model may be drawn from applicants throughout the student population by random selection among students in study hall, or from among trained student court members. Likewise, student courts employing students as judges or peer jurors may draw from applicants as diverse as the student body, or may use only the students specially trained as court officers, either as an extracurricular activity or as members of a law class meeting throughout the semester.

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Financial Incentives Can Hurt Performance

Now do I have your attention? I’ve written on the subject of motivation and incentives in the past, but recently have come across some additional information and research that continues to challenge conventional business wisdom as it relates to use of monetary incentives to encourage higher performance. In my almost 40 years of business experience, I have noticed that those who challenge conventional wisdom and go against the herd mentality often create competitive advantage.

Much of what I am going to cover in this article comes from two sources. One source is Dan Pink, who is author of Drive. I have heard several talks that he has made. The other source is a Harvard Business Review article written by Alfie Kohn, who wrote Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes. Both sources come to the same basic conclusion—there is a disconnect between what science knows and what business does regarding the motivation of people. There is 40 years worth of research into human motivation that tends to get ignored in the design of most financial reward systems in place in the business world today.

In 2005, a paper was published documenting several experiments conducted by professors at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Chicago Business School. The study was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank. The purpose of the experiments was to see whether high monetary rewards had a negative impact on performance. The experiments involved participants performing several tasks ranging from strictly physical to those requiring creativity, judgment, and conceptual thinking. The participants were told ahead of time what the reward would be for a given level of performance. The awards ranged from low to very high.

The results were the same in all three instances. The only situation where there was a correlation between the size of the reward and performance was for physical tasks where the amount of effort directly correlated with performance. However, when the task involved just the slightest amount of cognitive ability, performance was worse with the higher rewards. The large reward caused people to narrow their focus to the reward rather than the task. The bottom line of this and numerous other similar studies is that you cannot buy creativity and innovation with financial incentives.

Extrinsic motivation, or the “carrot and stick” approach only works for a short time and only on tasks that are repetitive and physical. Once the incentive or punishment is removed, motivation goes with it. Incentives and punishment do not alter the attitudes that underlie behaviors. Commitment comes from intrinsic motivation which is the internal desire to perform. Rewards do not impact intrinsic motivation.

In another study done in the mid-1980’s, Richard Guzzo, professor at the University of Maryland, correlated financial incentive programs to workforce productivity. The study involved data from 98 different studies on the subject. His findings were that there no correlation between financial incentives and productivity, absenteeism, or worker turnover. What he did find was that training and goal-setting programs had a greater impact on productivity that pay-for-performance plans.

This does not mean that money is not a motivator. People need to feel that they are paid fairly in order to be motivated. If you cut people’s pay in half, there certainly would be a negative impact on performance. However, if you doubled people’s pay, you won’t necessarily see better work. I have always found pay is a relative. No one ever has all the money that he or she wants. People need to feel that they are fairly compensated in relation to others doing the same work. One of the biggest issues affecting morale and motivation today is the perception that pay received by top level people in companies is out of line with the rank and file workers.

I think it is also important to distinguish between reward and recognition. Reward is an “if-then” proposition. If you do this, then you will receive that. It is established ahead of time. On the other hand, recognition is given after the fact. In 1977, my boss gave me a check for $ 20,000 authorized by the company president for a major cost savings project that I developed. At the time, this was close to a year’s salary. It was a total surprise. My motivation for this project was strictly intrinsic because I had no expectation of any type of financial reward.

As the research confirms, the “if-then” rewards only have an impact if you want people to produce more or work faster, and they have total control over the output. A farm worker picking vegetables would be an example where incentives would increase performance. However, most jobs in today’s work place are not this simple. They require people to think, reason, and be creative. In many cases, the worker does not have control over all of the factors which impact performance. It can be demotivating to have a reward which is influenced by factors outside the control of the person.

Ultimately, high performance comes from creating an environment where people are intrinsically motivated. According to research by Dan Pink, three factors contribute to intrinsic motivation. They are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy is having the freedom to control and direct one’s own work. Mastery is the is the urge to get better. Purpose is being able to make a contribution. The more that jobs can be designed to incorporate these three factors, the less the need to use extrinsic motivation.

The point of all of this discussion is not to have everyone go out tomorrow and scrap all of their pay-for-performance systems. That would be impractical and probably create more problems that it solves. However, understanding the science behind motivation and rewards can help executives make better decisions in the future.

Ryan Scholz works with leaders whose success is dependent on getting commitment and high performance from others. He is author of Turning Potential into Action: Eight Principles for Creating a Highly Engaged Work Place. For more information, visit his web site at http://www.lead-strat-assoc.com.

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http://zerodebteducation.com/spanish-educational-software/

Spanish Educational Software

There are several Spanish educational softwares available on the internet today. Some of the software are designed for audio learners and some are designed to focus on other methods of learning. Depending on the level of interactivity you want will play a big role in the price you pay. So it’s best that you take the time to look really closely at each software to determine if the software is exactly what you need in order to learn effectively.

A Spanish Educational Software for Audio Learners: The best audio learning software available to you is Rocket Spanish. This program was developed by Rocket Languages and is one of the best Spanish educational software available to you that can be obtained at an incredible price compared to it’s competitors. The audio course contains three audio sessions of 31, 20, and 30 minutes which are lead into by an English speaker and followed up by a native Spanish speaker. Each session encourages you to speak a loud and work on your pronunciation. Eventually allowing you to build your Spanish vocabulary. Rocket Spanish also has a series of games to aid you in your learning. These games are mega verbs, mega vocab and mega audio.

Each of these games have been designed to focus on a specific area. When you master these areas you will have a sound understanding of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish. But no matter what software program you choose to learn with you will be very unlikely to become fluent in Spanish until you take the time to communicate with other Spanish speakers on a daily basis. Spanish educational programs are designed to teach you the fundamentals of how to communicate in Spanish. It’s up to you to build on those fundamentals and become fluent.

Another great Spanish Educational Software: Tell Me More Spanish is best overall Spanish educational software program available and the easiest way to learn Spanish. The program provides much more than audio lessons. Tell Me More Spanish has audio, video, grammar, and culture lessons. In addition, you will have access to some really great features to aid you in your learning: progress tracking, personalized learning paths, games, and iPod/MP3 player compatibility. The complete program is composed of 10 levels as well as a separate online program. The 10 levels can be purchased in smaller packages at a time: 2 level or in 5 level increments. But you should know that the price in much higher for the combined smaller packages than for the complete package. Tell Me More Spanish has been designed to teach both beginners and intermediate/advanced Spanish learners and it’s only available on windows operating systems greater than Windows 7. For more information regarding this program or the Rocket Spanish program mentioned above then read over the in-depth reviews at one of the following links below.

Learning Spanish can be time consuming and very tricky to master, but did you know you can actually spend far less time learning Spanish by using a Spanish teaching Software? Ryan Thomas, a respected Spanish Software review expert is unveiling the nuts and bolts that will differentiate one Spanish Educational Software from another. Discover the Crucial learning strengths of various Spanish software that will help you advance your career to the next level. If you’re looking to learn a new language and get that next big promotion, take the next step and read over the Spanish Software reviews at TopOnlineReviews4u.com

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What is Leeway?

Since most of the time as you are sailing, you’re not aiming directly down wind it results in your course not being the same as your heading. It’s particularly more prevalent when you are sailing on a close haul or close reach and can be as much as 20 degrees depending on the wind conditions, water conditions, your sailboat design, your apparent angle with the wind and how your sails are set.

When you are out on the water, the only thing out of that list that you have control over is the set of the sail.

As you begin to learn to sail, leeway is not of great concern because you’re spending more time grasping the concepts of sailing. But as you start to venture out and actually go somewhere, you need to be cognizant of leeway.

Regarding leeway your biggest friend is the keel. Remove the keel on your sailboat and it will probably tip over with the first 2 knot breath. So the biggest reason for the keel is to place weight far below the surface to create a counter weight for the wind pressure aloft. However the keel also has a second function and that is to minimize the sailboat slipping sideways through the water. It’s just like trying to push a piece of plywood side ways through water. It’s hard to do. Thus the keel is acting like that piece of plywood. It reduces the effect of the wind wanting to push the boat sideways through the water.

It’s incredibly noticeable to me when I go out windsurfing. The fin on the board acts as a keel. Because of the speed of the board, it’s quite easy to get the board going so fast with so much sideways pressure on the fin that the water actually detaches from the fin and it cavitates. Under this condition the fin provides no back pressure against side slip and it’s as though it wasn’t even there and the board starts sliding uncontrollably downwind. In fact the first time it happened to me I though that I’d snapped off the fin. As the board slowed down the water reattached and I was able to sail a course. A very weird feeling.

Similarly, the keel on a sailboat provides the sideslip back pressure to allow the boat to sail better towards its desired heading. Yet there is still some sideways movement that we just can’t do anything about except for understand it and account for it. I.E. the heading and course will be different.

Airplanes have the same issue. When flying in a cross wind, the plane moves downwind. The course becomes different from the heading. Before the electronic age, the course correction needed to be calculated. It was relatively simple. You just added the wind vector and your airplane vector to get your required heading vector. And you could even do it on a rotating slide rule which made it even simpler.

The electronic age has deprived us of the need for that old skill. Now a days autopilots are cross connected to the gps and the destination is input. The autopilot takes care of the side slip and puts you automatically at your destination. Regardless of automation, I believe it’s still important to understand the concept.

In day to day cruising type sailing, much of our navigation is done by line of sight with out plotting a course. However, we should still be aware of and account for leeway. Especially during the Friday night beer can race, a little bit of leeway knowledge will help you gain an edge for the rum prize at the finish line.

Here’s a couple of general rules to follow. Leeway is caused by sideway pressure on your sails right? So reduce the sideways pressure by making sure that your sails are never over sheeted (in to far). Make sure your telltales are always flying backwards. As a new sailor begins to learn to sail they almost always tend to have their sails in too tight which adds to leeway.

Learn how to sail with the basics sailing courses series written by Mike Jones, sailing expert author.

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