Johnquilyn Hill
Appearances
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Are the high schools that the students are coming from, are they on board with this?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
What are the most popular programs at the school? You know, what do students tend to lean towards?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
What do you hear from students when they talk about what they want out of life after they graduate?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Growing up, these conversations about alternatives never happened. I even went to a college preparatory middle school, which, you know, is a lot for a middle schooler. I mean... But a generation ago, were their programs like the ones you have that were appealing to mainstream kids around the country? Or, you know, is this idea of post-graduation can look a lot of different ways.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
That's Erica. She called us from Dallas, Texas. She's going to UT Austin this fall.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
And she did have a little bit of an idea of what she might do after graduation.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
When we come back, we're going to look at a different idea, a civil service year. That's after this break. We're back. It's Explained to Me. And we've been talking about the changing attitudes around this idea that every single high school senior should go to college when they graduate. Kristen Bennett with the Service Year Alliance represents a different path.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
What are some of the skills that, you know, grads are gathering as they're doing this service year?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
How do you go about making sure that something like this is equitable? You know, there's only like a certain group of young people who don't actually need to work and can kind of hit that pause button. Who's paying people to do this work?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
I relate to Erica's experience. It represents what the last few decades of American high school education policy have looked like. Preparing every single student for college, no matter what. And it can be hard to resist that pull.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Okay, Kristen, we got a call from a listener asking about mandatory public service.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
I'm curious, what got you so passionate about this? Like kind of what sparked it for you?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
That was Kristen Bennett, the Executive Director of Service Year Alliance. Before we let you go, we're working on an episode about the economy and how it's affecting people who are retired or about to retire. Is that you or your parents? Maybe your grandparents? Do you have questions about the future of your 401ks and Social Security? Maybe you're wondering, what's up with Medicare?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
But remember that landscape the first caller was talking about? It's different in 2025. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have seen the toll of student debt and often say they don't want to take that on. They're not certain college will be the right fit for them. Having more options to choose from requires some evolution from the way we've always done things. At least, that's what Chelsea Waite says.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Give us a call at 1-800-618-8545. Or you can send us an email to askvox at vox.com. Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
She studies education policy at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
To understand what to change, Chelsea says we have to understand where this college for all policy came from in the first place.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Yeah. I remember my dad telling me this story of, you know, he was getting ready to go off to college and his school counselor was like, maybe you should just join the military and like phrased it like that, which is. Yeah.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Well, I think that this is a time, though, for you to realize that as a young college graduate, you are among the most fortunate people on earth.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Does this shift come from the students themselves or is it coming from somewhere else?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Parents are saying they want their kids to have a good life. You know, they just want their kids to be happy. And I think every generation of parents to some degree would say that. But are parents really OK if that means their kids aren't going to college?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Do you see any resistance from high schools, whether it's from teachers or guidance counselors, to telling a high school kid, no, you don't have to go to college?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
This is Explain It To Me, the show where you call in... I guess I'm calling because I want to know, how do people choose what they do after college or high school or when they're going to join the workforce? This feels like such a different landscape now. than it was for my parents.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
We're back. It's Explain It To Me. With attitudes about college evolving, high schools are starting to expose their students to more things so they can make a more informed decision about what to do after graduation.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
So for high schools in the Kansas City area, Megan's Career Center is getting pretty popular.
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Yeah. How does the program work exactly? Like, okay, a student is like, I want to try this. I want to do this. When do they come in and what do they do?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
What do you all do to prepare students for that work environment?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
Are they still doing like, I guess, what we think of the typical high school classes? Like, is it like, well, got to go to calculus or got to get to, you know, English? Is that are those classes happening in tandem?
Today, Explained
What if college isn't for everyone?
And we get you answers. The landscape really is different right now. Other people are wondering what to do after graduation too.