President elect Barack Obama spoke at Penn State University today to over 20,000 supporters. He spoke to the crowd of students, professors, and residents about his stance on many things concerning our nation. He also announced his plans for the future of this country. As we all know there are a lot of promises made during presidential campaign speeches that are not always fulfilled. For whatever reason this may be I would like to believe the things that Obama says and hope for a better America if Obama were elected president.

One of his plans for the future that stuck out in my head is that he plans on helping all college students pay for their education. He is going to do this by giving all students $4,000 with the stipulation that they must perform a few hours of community service in their area. This will not only help to clean up communities across our country but will also help millions of students pay continually rising costs of tuition, books, and housing. It would be a great relief next year especially with the student loan crisis worsening every day.

To read more about Senator Obama’s visit to Penn State University please visit Penn State’s Daily Collegian website at:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/03/31/obamaville_senator_speaks_to_2.aspx

To see parts of his speech at Penn State visit YouTube at the following address:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cZcU1WzvM6o

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Guide Cover not yet finalized

In an attempt to help more students make the transition from high school to college I’ve decided compose a college planning guide to be distributed in high schools around the country. This guide will not only contain the information of the SMB College Life website, it will also contain questionnaires completed by current college students, forms for students to fill out for college, and much more. I’m still currently working on the material, images, and formatting but the college planning guide should be completed for release in late May or early June, just in time for graduation.

One of the things that will be provided throughout the guide will be useful links to partnering websites who can aid in the college planning process or provide other useful information. There will also be a section in the appendices where partner links will be categorized and offered in text or small images. We are currently working on pricing of both the college planning guide and the partner ad spots in the guide. For price ranging we are currently looking at the following comparison:

• Google Adwords charges between $1.00-$5.00 per click for current college planning keywords. Reaching 1000 people through Google Adwords would cost a website between $1000.00-$5000.00.
• Yahoo! currently charges between $0.50-$$3.00 per click for the same college planning keywords. Reaching 1000 people through Yahoo! search would cost between $500.00-$3000.00.

With our college planning guide the very minimum projected amount of people we will reach is 1000. This is a very low minimum as we are currently building a sales team in different states across the country. If you are interested in obtaining a spot in the SMB College Life Planning Guide send an email to advertising@smbcollegelife.com with the following information:

• your name
• organization (if this applies)
• why you would like to be featured in a college planning publication
• what a position in our publication would be worth to you (USD amount)
• a link to the site you would like to be printed in the SMB College Life Planning Guide

Your position in the SMB College Life Planning Guide will help us to expand our sales team and potentially reach thousands of more students. We believe this is a great opportunity for you to get your name out and reach thousands if not tens of thousands of students for a reasonable price (TBD). For more information and to get an early spot on the list for your site send an email to the address above.

Tonight I found myself thinking back to my high school days, when I could spend an entire day riding bikes, building speaker boxes for car stereos, or tearing an engine apart and putting it back together. I miss the days when I could have REAL fun. Yeah it’s fun to hang out with friends, take a weekend road trip, or go out for a night on the town, but it doesn’t compare to the sincere happiness I would get from something like riding bikes, snowboarding, or surfing. Over the break I was reminded of just how much I loved to just hang out and enjoy myself as I surfed the swells at Pacific Beach. To me, that was the most satisfying fun that I’ve had in a long time.

My point is that through college I’ve forgotten how to have real fun. I’ve neglected the things that really make me happy, or define me, because of homework, exams, projects and research papers. I’m sure there are more college students out there who feel the same way. It’s good that we are maturing and working towards our careers, but I don’t think that we should forget to have fun. If we neglect the things that we truly enjoy, the things that really make us happy, then we’ll probably just turn out like our parents…….no pun intended. Go out and have some fun!

I couldn’t help but use this picture to aid my discussion tonight. We all know that Bush loves oil and continues to get richer everyday from soaring gas prices. He continues to give away billions of dollars to third world countries who don’t even want our help so that he can potentially add another zero to his bank account. Meanwhile our own country, the country Bush is supposed to be looking out for first, is in the midst of the biggest economic decline in years. The decline is so bad that many financial institutions are backing out of the student loan sector.

What this means for all of us struggling college students is that we may not be able to finance our continuing education, all because of one man’s greed. That $90 billion that was spent in Iraq this year could have gone to helping the next generation become strong enough through education to be able to take on the weight of America. College students are the future of this country and yet we might find ourselves flipping burgers or serving drinks next semester because we could not get the funding to pay tuition.

College students need answers now! I can’t sit back watch our country’s economy continue to decline while I try to decide whether I should schedule next semester’s classes. I need to know that I’ll have the funding I need to finish my final year in college. The media states that federal funding will still be available to students who qualify, but what if you don’t qualify? Just because my parents aren’t living in a cardboard box doesn’t mean they have the money to fund my education.

Education is the real future of this country! Not some pointless war in a country who would rather have America mind our own business. If we stayed out of other people’s business we might be able to fix the damage to our country now before it gets too late. Hopefully the next president will be able to fix the ruins that Bush intends to leave behind.

SMB College Life Blog

The week back from spring break can be one of the hardest weeks in college life. Harder than the week before and even harder than finals week. The week after spring break we have to leave the place we’ve grown to love, the place we’ve had fun in the sun all week, the place were unforgettable memories were made and friendships made stronger, only to come back to our college town and continue on with the grueling semester. I found that this week is so hard for me because I cannot get back into the swing of doing work. Not only have I suffered from jet lag, but I’ve also been reluctant to begin new assignments or even make it to early morning classes.

These actions and feelings will soon pass as we are faced with more due dates, projects, and tests. For some, spring break can be a reminder of a few important things. It can remind us of exactly where we want to be in life and is a great indicator of why we are working so hard now. If we work hard now to achieve the things we want then we can play hard in the near future. Most people cannot see past the present, but for those who can, let spring break be a reminder of the things you want or the lifestyle you are working so hard to achieve.

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SMB College Life Blog