Posted Date: July 2, 2008

New Web Portal Aids In College Search

By La Risa Lynch
Special to the NNPA from the Chicago and Gary Crusader

   CHICAGO (NNPA)—College searches may have gotten a little easier thanks to a newly developed web portal that connects students to colleges and vice versa.
    Educateouryouth.com is an online resource hub that puts information on colleges, financial aid, and careers at students’ fingertips via the web while amassing a directory of potential students that colleges can recruit directly.
The web portal is the brainchild of Emmanuel Jackson, CEO and chair of EMBRI International, a Chicago-based enrollment management service. For the past seven years, Jackson has worked to place over 300 students in colleges, but wanted to do it on a broader basis. The Internet was the way to go.
   “That is where the students are,” said Jackson, who also serves as a post-secondary education consultant at Chicago Hope Academy, a private near West Side Christian high school.
    The web portal is a virtual college fair in cyberspace. Both colleges and students register free on the site. Students can upload their transcripts, GPAs, ACT and SAT scores on a searchable database that colleges can peruse.
Additionally, the website has a section where students can upload their performance pieces if they are theatrical arts majors. Athletes can upload their game footage and students can do video bios highlighting their college and career aspirations.
    The portal gives students a venue to present their credentials to several colleges and to interact directly with them through email.
   “The key is to have everything here,” Jackson said. “All of this is important to the preparation, motivation, and matriculation process of students going to college.”
    Although launched April 2008, Jackson is still fine tuning key components. He wants to include a live online tutoring page and a jobs center. The jobs center will allow employers to place their links listing job training and employment opportunities.
    However, the goal is to have students sign up for the portal as early as seventh grade. Jackson believes reaching students early, colleges can offer tutoring for those who show a proclivity for science and engineering. Colleges, he contends, can mold students to become engineers instead of importing them from other countries.

 

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