00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
00:00:01
Speaker 2: I'm Rashawn McDonald, the host of Money-Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't wanna miss an episode, so please take a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money-Making Conversations Masterclass.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: It's free.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: You can follow me on iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: You listen to your podcasts.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: New Money-Making Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you on alert. because my guests provide tips on how you can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's get this podcast started. My next guest has a business degree from the University of Oklahoma.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: She's a SUNY, y'all.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: She's the owner of Scholar Ready, an educational services company. She meets with the clients online, and the company Scholar Ready tutors math, conducts personal essay writing, workshops, and prepares students for PSAT. SAT, and ACT exams. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Jennifer Ledwith.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: How you doing, Jennifer?
00:01:07
Speaker 3: I'm doing well, Rashawn. How are you doing today?
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Scholar ready.
00:01:11
Speaker 2: Tell us about the name of your business and why that means it should resonate to any parent or any young person who's about to go to college in general, not just HBTUs, but as one would call predominantly white institutions too, PWIs is the phrase that's used a lot when you're talking about I graduated from the University of Houston. You graduated from the University of Oklahoma. They're called PWIs.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: So scholar-ready is important because there are so many opportunities available to our students, whether they choose a predominantly white institution or a PWI or a historically black college or university or an HBCU. We just have to be ready for the opportunities. And I named the company Scholar Ready because I was inspired by my first client, who is me. And I graduated from Houston, Texas, and I graduated from North Shore Senior High School. And I was tired of going to school with the same people for 12 years. As an adult, I can appreciate that stability that allowed me to do that. But as a 16 or 17 year old, I did not appreciate that. Therefore, from the time I was a junior in high school to the time I was a junior in college, I applied for over 30 scholarships and I won enough to where I only had to take out a thousand dollars in student loans. And Rashawn, I didn't even need the loans for, I didn't even use the loans for academic purposes. I used the loans to go buy plane tickets because I had a boyfriend in Houston. I didn't, but the key is you have to, and when I was in college and I didn't, my parents couldn't pay for me to go to school because we made, my family made too much to qualify for financial aid, but not enough to write a check times two because I have a twin sister to.
00:03:01
Speaker 1: Go to college.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: And I was able to receive that money because I was ready. I was prepared. My test scores were really good. My essay writing abilities were good. And another thing that made me ready is that I was always seeking a new opportunity because I am incredibly persistent. And that's what Scholar Ready is about. I thought that what I did was normal. And then when I graduated and I realized so many of my family members and my classmates were graduating with all this student loan debt, I wanted to start a company to make sure that we were ready to take care, to take advantage of all of the opportunities.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: Scholar ready. Now, I.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: Was horrible on my SAT. Horrible SAT. I went to the University of Houston, had an opportunity to go to Southern University. At the last minute, opted to go to University of Houston. My degree is in mathematics, minor in sociology. But I graduated the top 10% of my class. which enabled me to attend the University of Houston. How were you academically at your class? Because there are options there. Like you scored very well on your test scores. How were you academically in school, high school?
00:04:11
Speaker 3: Oh, high school. Oh, wow. I wasn't in. I may have been in the top 15 percent. I definitely wasn't in the top 10 percent of my class. But what helped me were my test scores, my test scores and my essay. I'm an incredibly good writer. And those things helped me to do well, to get to be able to, number one, get into college and then number two, be able to get those scholarships. Wow.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: Now, there's a question here. When should your child or any child start preparing for college?
00:04:47
Speaker 3: When you want to start. So there is kind of the so preparing for college as early as possible. And you really want to start with just setting expectations. For example, when I was a little kid, my aunt, you know, no one ever sat down and told me, my brother and my sister that we're going to go to college. There was never like this kitchen table discussion of you're going to go to college and that's the way it's going to be. It was little things like my aunt saying, oh, you know, when you go to college and you have to make sure that you keep a clean room. Because when I went to Prairie View, we used to talk about the girls who were nasty. It was things like that.
00:05:33
Speaker 1: You didn't want to be a nasty girl in college.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: No, no.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: Or a nasty dude. Come on now.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: No, no.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: In our case, they call us a funky, the funky dude. They lay into a dude who had a couple of dudes. I remember right now, you flashing some memories on some funky dude walking there going, dude. What are you eating toes up in there, dude? What's going up in there? But the interesting thing about your interview that I wanted to bring on the show, because I'm an HBCU advocate, Jennifer, and I talk a lot about the opportunities, the HBCU college fairs that I'm aware of, but I've never had an individual that talked about predominantly white institutions and the opportunities, the scholar opportunities, the essay opportunities that are available for their children, because not everybody And they have the right to choose where they want to go. And I try to bring a balance to money-making conversation masterclass by saying, look, you can come to my show and you can hear opportunities if your child wants to go to the University of Texas, University of Nebraska, LSU. Because like you said, you were born and raised in Houston, but you went out of state to University of Oklahoma and you.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Had out-of-state fees you had to pay.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: And like she said, when she graduated, she didn't owe anything but that little loan that she used to go see her boyfriend in Houston, okay?
00:06:50
Speaker 1: On Southwest Airlines because I don't know what airlines she was flying. I don't know what airlines she was flying back in that day. She said she went back and forth a lot on the $ 1, 000.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: It wasn't exactly Southwest Airlines.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: I know it was. I know it was.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: But, you know, the whole thing, I remember a good friend of mine, I'm going to call her a good friend of mine, Miriam, like she knew she was going to be a valedictorian. I mean, that girl from the 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, Wasn't nobody going to beat her. She had a 4.0 when she graduated. That was a focus, and that sounds like a focus that you had. I was exactly the opposite. I just wanted to get out of high school, but teachers mentored me. They saw value in me. Now, people like me tend to not prepare well for SATs, PSATs, ACTs. Now, we can say you can start in kindergarten and prepping yourself. We can say you start in 10th grade. But your courses aren't exactly that long, and you can prepare students a lot faster for SATs, ACTs, and PSATs. Tell us how your class, the class length for some of these courses so we can talk. And also I'm going to let everybody know, she's staying in Houston, Texas, but she's available nationwide. She can do everything virtual because I want to bring everybody into this conversation. And don't shut down because Jennifer got her act together. She's preparing students. They're getting scholarships through essay writing. And more importantly, they're scoring strong on their PSATs, SATs, ACTs. Talk about the courses that you make available through your online courses.
00:08:25
Speaker 3: All right. So as you said, Rashawn, courses are online. People can take classes from anywhere. And we have courses where we prepare students for PSAT, SAT, and ACT. And those courses can be around eight weeks. And, you know, we really, what makes us different is that we are really thinking about what's happening with the student in the times of now. And most parents will tell people now, will say, well, my student isn't good at exams. And I've been doing this for 20 years. And that's what I hear over and over again. My student isn't good at taking tests, especially since the pandemic. And I just get that out of the way because I know that's an objection to hold people back from wanting to actually prepare for the exams. And And again, we can all agree that the students have gaps, especially because of the time that they spent during the pandemic outside of an in-person classroom. And what I do is I review the fundamentals that they need to do well on the exam to help them get that confidence to move forward. Another thing that we do is we address that issue of test anxiety, because some people will say, oh, no, we're not going to we're not going to have the student take the test because the student has text anxiety. And consequently, they leave all these opportunities behind. And I mean, look, Rashawn, I would be nervous if you asked me to do something I haven't trained for. So some of my best favorite students are athletes and, you know, let's just take basketball players. If you said, if you were my coach and you said, all right, Jennifer, why don't you go take this basketball and run out on the court and, and, and go and win. And not only are you asking me to win, but, it's a playoff game. And I'm starting and people are depending on me. I can't tell you the last time I touched a basketball. I have never mastered dribbling, passing, or shooting. So if I get on that court and try to play basketball, I am going to be incredibly anxious. I'm going to be incredibly nervous. And while test anxiety is a real thing, I do believe that we can help students because often like that whole basketball analogy, that's what we do to kids all the time. We throw them into situations for which they are not prepared and then expect them to perform. And we really just, in order to combat that test anxiety, we help them to, we teach them strategies and help them to figure out their own. You know, I'm very open-minded with my students. As long as your strategy gives you the correct answer, you are consistent in being able to use that strategy to get the correct answer and you are comfortable with it, we can roll with it. And another thing that we do in our courses is we know that people have had these unfavorable, let's just say unfavorable experiences in online learning. But the thing about us, which is different about us, is that it's me, live and in living color, teaching every bit And I have my students play games. I have students, we've done escape rooms before. There are different ways that you can mix it up online to keep the students engaged. Yes, sir. So that's how our classes work.
00:12:00
Speaker 2: Well, it's important that you outline that because a lot of people, well, the beauty of life now since COVID is that doing studies, doing lessons online is not a foreign thing to parents. And it's much more accepting now. But the thing I liked about the fact is that somebody can be watching this show or listening to this show from Chicago or Los Angeles or Seattle, Washington or New York City or Kansas City, Missouri, and they can use your services. So tell us how that works. How does one listening to this show, Jennifer, get in touch with you and then steps, step by step, how we can get them registered? And once they register, how do you reach back at them?
00:12:43
Speaker 1: All right.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: So they can visit www.scholarready.com and they can they can there's a there will be a special link for the listeners of this show to to visit.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: The Web site.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: They can share their their their email address. And in exchange for sharing their email address, they will receive more information about the class. And what we'll do is what I like to do with people is I like to I like to have them set an appointment so I can have an understanding of what their thoughts are behind taking the class. Because I believe that people need to be very strategic when it comes to preparing for exams, because, yes, the classes are about eight weeks. They are eight weeks and they at the same time, they are very intensive. It requires, you know, coming to class consistently, putting in the work, participating consistently. And we need to know we need to have a plan to make sure that everybody's using their resources properly. So once we have a plan in place, I'll send people an invoice so they can pay. And then once they pay, they'll be registered for the class and then they'll receive two books for two textbooks for the for the subject matter, whether it's SAT, PSAT or ACT. And we have a start date for the class. I send them a link to join the class and we go from there.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
00:14:13
Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now I need for you to do me a favor right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations. It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me a favor. Follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations. Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me, Rashawn McDonald. Now, here's the cool thing about hearing what you're saying is that being prepped and ready, that's the key part of this conversation. And can a young person 18, 17? Do they have to get permission if they're under 18 to go to your website and contact you or do they have to be over the age of 18?
00:15:03
Speaker 3: Ideally, they would be so there are some students who are hungry enough to seek me out and pay and come to class and participate. Most students need encouragement from their parents. But if a student wants to do it on their own, absolutely.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Now, You were talking about eight weeks and you said, Rashawn, they got to put in the work.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: What is that?
00:15:28
Speaker 2: Is that an hour a day during the week, Monday through Fridays and after school? Talk about that schedule and the time commitment that a student has to have to go experience your eight week course, eight weeks course, and then be able to handle the testing of an ACT, PSAT or SAT.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: OK, so students may be. And that's a really good question. Students may be in class from anywhere from four to six hours a week. And then they need to spend about, so for every hour, you know, we're in college, they would say for every hour in class, you need to study this many hours. So I would say for every hour they're in class, they need to spend, if we're at six, I would say probably if it's four to six hours, they need to plan to spend about two to three hours outside of class preparing for the test. So they have to do, so there's attendance and there's homework.
00:16:23
Speaker 2: Well, the reason I'm bringing this up, because my daughter, I remember she got into University of Houston, the engineering program, and they had SAT cutoffs. If you didn't score this particular, and she had the grades and everything, but if she didn't score, so she had to take her SAT. She did tutoring, took her SAT again, scored a point, and she got into engineering school. Then, like she said, she was interested in going to Georgia Tech. Their SAT score was higher than the University of Houston. SAT, but she wanted to go to the University of Houston because that's where her mom.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: And dad graduated from.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: But I'm just letting everybody know that it's important to understand that SATs matter, especially in the technical fields. They put an emphasis and put a curve point on it, what you got to have to participate. You may have the academia, you might be valedictorian, but if you don't have the SAT score as a graduating valedictorian, you might not get in that school, correct?
00:17:22
Speaker 3: That's correct. That's correct. And that's that. And those are the opportunities. That's why it's scholar ready, because you have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities. And, you know, sometimes it's not obvious, like sometimes it's not obvious to people that they have to have a certain test score to pursue a major in a in a technical field. But it's it's it is there.
00:17:41
Speaker 2: OK, let's talk about something you brought up earlier, because I I'm going to tell you something. When I got out of high school, English was my thing.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:17:50
Speaker 2: In fact, when I enrolled at the University of Houston, I had to take remedial English, which means I had to go to a community college to create qualifying English skills, to develop qualifying English skills. Then I transferred those courses back to the University of Houston. And that's how I was eventually be able to stay at the school. And eventually I became a Hollywood sitcom writer. So that talent and that skill set paid off. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't as talented as you. You hear these essays become a part of the story. Some of them say 250 words, 500 words. What exactly do you train when you talk to people or young people about the perfect essay?
00:18:31
Speaker 3: OK, so I actually started my business to help students write essays because so many people get intimidated by the essay and they don't pursue different. They don't complete applications because they don't apply to things because they're afraid of the essay. What I tell students with essays, I teach my students how, like you said, you're a Hollywood screenwriter. I teach my students to write stories. And I actually use, I don't know if you've ever read this book. I think his name is Robert McKee. He wrote this book called Story. And it's like this big, thick, and that's what I use when I teach. I don't, well, I actually use other books that are more appropriate for their grade level. But the way that I teach them about stories is informed by a book written by a Hollywood screenwriter. And we always start with one of what I like to start with. I want my students to focus on telling a story. And when they tell a story, they have to focus on, they have to start with like an inciting incident. So the inciting incident is the thing that puts the story in motion. And it's, and I mean, and every essay is going to ask for an inciting incident. They're just going to ask for it in the form of write about an opportunity, a challenge, an obstacle that you faced and how did you overcome it? And I have them, I have them write in scenes. So I have them to, and I say, okay, scenes, include action. I need you to include action. I need you to include dialogue. And I do that because, and I tell them, hey, whenever you are writing something for someone, they are reading your work as a courtesy to you. And you want to be memorable. You want to be entertaining for, because people remember stories. That's how, you know, people will remember if you can tell them a good story. And that's what you want to do. So aside from telling them stories, I also have them working on multiple ideas at the same time. Because a few years ago, I noticed that all of my students would hold on to like their first idea. And everybody's first idea is bad. everybody's first idea is bad, is bad. And I would be like, why are they holding on to these bad ideas? Like, you know, obviously it's terrible. Like, why don't they know it's terrible? But then, but then I started thinking about it and I was like, Jennifer, if everybody is doing the thing that you don't like, then what's the common denominator? The common denominator is you. So why don't, what are you doing? Why don't your student, what are you doing? to encourage them to hold on to this bad idea. So what I started to do was I started to have my students working on like three different ideas at the same time. And that way they would, it was easier for them to let go of the bad idea. So that's something that we do. So I have them working on multiple ideas at the same time. I have them to tell stories. I also have them research the organization that is offering the scholarship or the college admissions. So we have to look at, you need to research the organization. Like in my service organization, I'm a scholarship chair of a local scholarship organization. And our scholarship is all about service. It's about community service and leadership. So when you're writing your essay, it needs to be about your community service and your leadership. You have to research the organizations and tailor your message to that organization.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: I'm talking to Jennifer Ledwith of Scholar Ready. Whether students select an HBCU or PWI, it's important for them to have choices, especially with their test scores, PSAT, SAT, ACT.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: Here's a little note.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: They open opportunities for scholarships and academic programs like I spoke of earlier. Often African-Americans are locked out of these opportunities. On average, African-Americans score a 908 out of 1600. on an SAT or a 16 out of 36 on the ACT. Commenting her program, Jennifer has developed.
00:22:34
Speaker 1: An eight-week course. It's an eight-week course, but you have to be committed.
00:22:38
Speaker 2: If you're a student who wants to walk in that lane, if you're a parent who wants your student or your child to have an opportunity at an HBCU or a PWI in university, it's important that you may seek training. And Jennifer is on this call with me today to discuss her business model. Her business model is to academically prepare your child to be ready for college, to be ready for programs that are asking for particular SAT scores, ACT scores. That is important to know. You can be tops in your class in high school and you might be rejected for the degree plan you want at the college that you're choosing to attend. And that can be frustrating, but you can knock that out right now because doing her preliminary tests, she will ask you your curriculum, where you want to go, what degree you want to go. And she will tell you, well, if you go to Georgia Tech, I believe engineering is like 1350 for SATs.
00:23:38
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Well, we got to get you there. And that's the purpose of your course that you're delivering for eight weeks.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: Correct, Jennifer? Correct.
00:23:47
Speaker 3: That's the purpose. The purpose is, and that's what happens when people do test prep. They need to have a goal. They need to have a reason for what they're doing. So whether it's a 1350 at Georgia Tech, that's what we're pursuing. That's what we're committed to pursuing.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: Now, as we close out, you've been wonderful, easy to talk to, which is great. You know, you're articulate. I'm watching you on the screen during this podcast interview. You know, She's easy on the eyes that they say guys and ladies and parents, you know, she's not over there looking like a, you know, a hundred year old teacher. She's not looking like she's got a great smile. I'm just letting y'all know, this is a visual course. She's teaching that your child, not going to be afraid of her.
00:24:27
Speaker 1: Okay. That's all I'm saying. They're not going to be scared to death.
00:24:30
Speaker 2: Like they're talking to their grandmama across the screen.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: They're going to be engaged with her.
00:24:36
Speaker 2: She has a brilliant smile and she has a sense of humor, but more importantly, How do we reach out to you and tell us the process as we close out this interview?
00:24:44
Speaker 1: All right.
00:24:44
Speaker 3: So to reach me, visit www.scholarready.com. There's also going to be a special page for people who listen to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. There's also a page that allows you to contact us and we'll gather your information, your first name and your email address there. And we will go from there and helping you to reach your goals. No. As one of my parents told me, you know, she really was unfamiliar with the college going process. Things that, you know, things change and so on. And she was afraid of asking questions. And one of her regrets is that she didn't ask more questions. So call me, email me, ask me questions and we'll get and we'll get started.
00:25:29
Speaker 1: Well, guess what? We got started today.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: Jennifer, she reached out to me, ladies and gentlemen, filled out my Be A Guest form. That's how she got on the show, Money Making Conversations Masterclass. So you can reach out to her because she's reached out to me. So let's make a relationship and get your child focused and ready. I'm very adept at this conversation because my daughter, we experienced this type of training for her, and I know it changed her life. And now she works at our company with us, and she was an honor graduate from the University of Houston. I appreciate you working. being able to offer this opportunity throughout the country. She had to go through a brick and mortar for her training, but you're offering it no matter where your child lives, a student you are in college right now, want to learn about SATs. Like you said, it's not just required. She was doing this from a junior in high school to a junior year in college. I listen to everything she's saying now. I really do.
00:26:22
Speaker 1: I really do. Thank you, Jennifer, for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Thank you, Rashawn. Thank you for this opportunity.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.
00:26:30
Speaker 2: Now I need for you to do me a favor right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: It's free and you can find it on the.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:26:44
Speaker 1: Please do me that favor.
00:26:46
Speaker 2: Follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: Keep winning.
Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
00:00:01
Speaker 2: I'm Rashawn McDonald, the host of Money-Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't wanna miss an episode, so please take a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money-Making Conversations Masterclass.
00:00:16
Speaker 1: It's free.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: You can follow me on iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: You listen to your podcasts.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: New Money-Making Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you on alert. because my guests provide tips on how you can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's get this podcast started. My next guest has a business degree from the University of Oklahoma.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: She's a SUNY, y'all.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: She's the owner of Scholar Ready, an educational services company. She meets with the clients online, and the company Scholar Ready tutors math, conducts personal essay writing, workshops, and prepares students for PSAT. SAT, and ACT exams. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Jennifer Ledwith.
00:01:06
Speaker 1: How you doing, Jennifer?
00:01:07
Speaker 3: I'm doing well, Rashawn. How are you doing today?
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Scholar ready.
00:01:11
Speaker 2: Tell us about the name of your business and why that means it should resonate to any parent or any young person who's about to go to college in general, not just HBTUs, but as one would call predominantly white institutions too, PWIs is the phrase that's used a lot when you're talking about I graduated from the University of Houston. You graduated from the University of Oklahoma. They're called PWIs.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: So scholar-ready is important because there are so many opportunities available to our students, whether they choose a predominantly white institution or a PWI or a historically black college or university or an HBCU. We just have to be ready for the opportunities. And I named the company Scholar Ready because I was inspired by my first client, who is me. And I graduated from Houston, Texas, and I graduated from North Shore Senior High School. And I was tired of going to school with the same people for 12 years. As an adult, I can appreciate that stability that allowed me to do that. But as a 16 or 17 year old, I did not appreciate that. Therefore, from the time I was a junior in high school to the time I was a junior in college, I applied for over 30 scholarships and I won enough to where I only had to take out a thousand dollars in student loans. And Rashawn, I didn't even need the loans for, I didn't even use the loans for academic purposes. I used the loans to go buy plane tickets because I had a boyfriend in Houston. I didn't, but the key is you have to, and when I was in college and I didn't, my parents couldn't pay for me to go to school because we made, my family made too much to qualify for financial aid, but not enough to write a check times two because I have a twin sister to.
00:03:01
Speaker 1: Go to college.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: And I was able to receive that money because I was ready. I was prepared. My test scores were really good. My essay writing abilities were good. And another thing that made me ready is that I was always seeking a new opportunity because I am incredibly persistent. And that's what Scholar Ready is about. I thought that what I did was normal. And then when I graduated and I realized so many of my family members and my classmates were graduating with all this student loan debt, I wanted to start a company to make sure that we were ready to take care, to take advantage of all of the opportunities.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: Scholar ready. Now, I.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: Was horrible on my SAT. Horrible SAT. I went to the University of Houston, had an opportunity to go to Southern University. At the last minute, opted to go to University of Houston. My degree is in mathematics, minor in sociology. But I graduated the top 10% of my class. which enabled me to attend the University of Houston. How were you academically at your class? Because there are options there. Like you scored very well on your test scores. How were you academically in school, high school?
00:04:11
Speaker 3: Oh, high school. Oh, wow. I wasn't in. I may have been in the top 15 percent. I definitely wasn't in the top 10 percent of my class. But what helped me were my test scores, my test scores and my essay. I'm an incredibly good writer. And those things helped me to do well, to get to be able to, number one, get into college and then number two, be able to get those scholarships. Wow.
00:04:40
Speaker 2: Now, there's a question here. When should your child or any child start preparing for college?
00:04:47
Speaker 3: When you want to start. So there is kind of the so preparing for college as early as possible. And you really want to start with just setting expectations. For example, when I was a little kid, my aunt, you know, no one ever sat down and told me, my brother and my sister that we're going to go to college. There was never like this kitchen table discussion of you're going to go to college and that's the way it's going to be. It was little things like my aunt saying, oh, you know, when you go to college and you have to make sure that you keep a clean room. Because when I went to Prairie View, we used to talk about the girls who were nasty. It was things like that.
00:05:33
Speaker 1: You didn't want to be a nasty girl in college.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: No, no.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: Or a nasty dude. Come on now.
00:05:38
Speaker 3: No, no.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: In our case, they call us a funky, the funky dude. They lay into a dude who had a couple of dudes. I remember right now, you flashing some memories on some funky dude walking there going, dude. What are you eating toes up in there, dude? What's going up in there? But the interesting thing about your interview that I wanted to bring on the show, because I'm an HBCU advocate, Jennifer, and I talk a lot about the opportunities, the HBCU college fairs that I'm aware of, but I've never had an individual that talked about predominantly white institutions and the opportunities, the scholar opportunities, the essay opportunities that are available for their children, because not everybody And they have the right to choose where they want to go. And I try to bring a balance to money-making conversation masterclass by saying, look, you can come to my show and you can hear opportunities if your child wants to go to the University of Texas, University of Nebraska, LSU. Because like you said, you were born and raised in Houston, but you went out of state to University of Oklahoma and you.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Had out-of-state fees you had to pay.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: And like she said, when she graduated, she didn't owe anything but that little loan that she used to go see her boyfriend in Houston, okay?
00:06:50
Speaker 1: On Southwest Airlines because I don't know what airlines she was flying. I don't know what airlines she was flying back in that day. She said she went back and forth a lot on the $ 1, 000.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: It wasn't exactly Southwest Airlines.
00:07:02
Speaker 1: I know it was. I know it was.
00:07:06
Speaker 2: But, you know, the whole thing, I remember a good friend of mine, I'm going to call her a good friend of mine, Miriam, like she knew she was going to be a valedictorian. I mean, that girl from the 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, Wasn't nobody going to beat her. She had a 4.0 when she graduated. That was a focus, and that sounds like a focus that you had. I was exactly the opposite. I just wanted to get out of high school, but teachers mentored me. They saw value in me. Now, people like me tend to not prepare well for SATs, PSATs, ACTs. Now, we can say you can start in kindergarten and prepping yourself. We can say you start in 10th grade. But your courses aren't exactly that long, and you can prepare students a lot faster for SATs, ACTs, and PSATs. Tell us how your class, the class length for some of these courses so we can talk. And also I'm going to let everybody know, she's staying in Houston, Texas, but she's available nationwide. She can do everything virtual because I want to bring everybody into this conversation. And don't shut down because Jennifer got her act together. She's preparing students. They're getting scholarships through essay writing. And more importantly, they're scoring strong on their PSATs, SATs, ACTs. Talk about the courses that you make available through your online courses.
00:08:25
Speaker 3: All right. So as you said, Rashawn, courses are online. People can take classes from anywhere. And we have courses where we prepare students for PSAT, SAT, and ACT. And those courses can be around eight weeks. And, you know, we really, what makes us different is that we are really thinking about what's happening with the student in the times of now. And most parents will tell people now, will say, well, my student isn't good at exams. And I've been doing this for 20 years. And that's what I hear over and over again. My student isn't good at taking tests, especially since the pandemic. And I just get that out of the way because I know that's an objection to hold people back from wanting to actually prepare for the exams. And And again, we can all agree that the students have gaps, especially because of the time that they spent during the pandemic outside of an in-person classroom. And what I do is I review the fundamentals that they need to do well on the exam to help them get that confidence to move forward. Another thing that we do is we address that issue of test anxiety, because some people will say, oh, no, we're not going to we're not going to have the student take the test because the student has text anxiety. And consequently, they leave all these opportunities behind. And I mean, look, Rashawn, I would be nervous if you asked me to do something I haven't trained for. So some of my best favorite students are athletes and, you know, let's just take basketball players. If you said, if you were my coach and you said, all right, Jennifer, why don't you go take this basketball and run out on the court and, and, and go and win. And not only are you asking me to win, but, it's a playoff game. And I'm starting and people are depending on me. I can't tell you the last time I touched a basketball. I have never mastered dribbling, passing, or shooting. So if I get on that court and try to play basketball, I am going to be incredibly anxious. I'm going to be incredibly nervous. And while test anxiety is a real thing, I do believe that we can help students because often like that whole basketball analogy, that's what we do to kids all the time. We throw them into situations for which they are not prepared and then expect them to perform. And we really just, in order to combat that test anxiety, we help them to, we teach them strategies and help them to figure out their own. You know, I'm very open-minded with my students. As long as your strategy gives you the correct answer, you are consistent in being able to use that strategy to get the correct answer and you are comfortable with it, we can roll with it. And another thing that we do in our courses is we know that people have had these unfavorable, let's just say unfavorable experiences in online learning. But the thing about us, which is different about us, is that it's me, live and in living color, teaching every bit And I have my students play games. I have students, we've done escape rooms before. There are different ways that you can mix it up online to keep the students engaged. Yes, sir. So that's how our classes work.
00:12:00
Speaker 2: Well, it's important that you outline that because a lot of people, well, the beauty of life now since COVID is that doing studies, doing lessons online is not a foreign thing to parents. And it's much more accepting now. But the thing I liked about the fact is that somebody can be watching this show or listening to this show from Chicago or Los Angeles or Seattle, Washington or New York City or Kansas City, Missouri, and they can use your services. So tell us how that works. How does one listening to this show, Jennifer, get in touch with you and then steps, step by step, how we can get them registered? And once they register, how do you reach back at them?
00:12:43
Speaker 1: All right.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: So they can visit www.scholarready.com and they can they can there's a there will be a special link for the listeners of this show to to visit.
00:12:56
Speaker 1: The Web site.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: They can share their their their email address. And in exchange for sharing their email address, they will receive more information about the class. And what we'll do is what I like to do with people is I like to I like to have them set an appointment so I can have an understanding of what their thoughts are behind taking the class. Because I believe that people need to be very strategic when it comes to preparing for exams, because, yes, the classes are about eight weeks. They are eight weeks and they at the same time, they are very intensive. It requires, you know, coming to class consistently, putting in the work, participating consistently. And we need to know we need to have a plan to make sure that everybody's using their resources properly. So once we have a plan in place, I'll send people an invoice so they can pay. And then once they pay, they'll be registered for the class and then they'll receive two books for two textbooks for the for the subject matter, whether it's SAT, PSAT or ACT. And we have a start date for the class. I send them a link to join the class and we go from there.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
00:14:13
Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now I need for you to do me a favor right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations. It's free and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me a favor. Follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations. Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me, Rashawn McDonald. Now, here's the cool thing about hearing what you're saying is that being prepped and ready, that's the key part of this conversation. And can a young person 18, 17? Do they have to get permission if they're under 18 to go to your website and contact you or do they have to be over the age of 18?
00:15:03
Speaker 3: Ideally, they would be so there are some students who are hungry enough to seek me out and pay and come to class and participate. Most students need encouragement from their parents. But if a student wants to do it on their own, absolutely.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Now, You were talking about eight weeks and you said, Rashawn, they got to put in the work.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: What is that?
00:15:28
Speaker 2: Is that an hour a day during the week, Monday through Fridays and after school? Talk about that schedule and the time commitment that a student has to have to go experience your eight week course, eight weeks course, and then be able to handle the testing of an ACT, PSAT or SAT.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: OK, so students may be. And that's a really good question. Students may be in class from anywhere from four to six hours a week. And then they need to spend about, so for every hour, you know, we're in college, they would say for every hour in class, you need to study this many hours. So I would say for every hour they're in class, they need to spend, if we're at six, I would say probably if it's four to six hours, they need to plan to spend about two to three hours outside of class preparing for the test. So they have to do, so there's attendance and there's homework.
00:16:23
Speaker 2: Well, the reason I'm bringing this up, because my daughter, I remember she got into University of Houston, the engineering program, and they had SAT cutoffs. If you didn't score this particular, and she had the grades and everything, but if she didn't score, so she had to take her SAT. She did tutoring, took her SAT again, scored a point, and she got into engineering school. Then, like she said, she was interested in going to Georgia Tech. Their SAT score was higher than the University of Houston. SAT, but she wanted to go to the University of Houston because that's where her mom.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: And dad graduated from.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: But I'm just letting everybody know that it's important to understand that SATs matter, especially in the technical fields. They put an emphasis and put a curve point on it, what you got to have to participate. You may have the academia, you might be valedictorian, but if you don't have the SAT score as a graduating valedictorian, you might not get in that school, correct?
00:17:22
Speaker 3: That's correct. That's correct. And that's that. And those are the opportunities. That's why it's scholar ready, because you have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities. And, you know, sometimes it's not obvious, like sometimes it's not obvious to people that they have to have a certain test score to pursue a major in a in a technical field. But it's it's it is there.
00:17:41
Speaker 2: OK, let's talk about something you brought up earlier, because I I'm going to tell you something. When I got out of high school, English was my thing.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: Okay.
00:17:50
Speaker 2: In fact, when I enrolled at the University of Houston, I had to take remedial English, which means I had to go to a community college to create qualifying English skills, to develop qualifying English skills. Then I transferred those courses back to the University of Houston. And that's how I was eventually be able to stay at the school. And eventually I became a Hollywood sitcom writer. So that talent and that skill set paid off. But I'm pretty sure I wasn't as talented as you. You hear these essays become a part of the story. Some of them say 250 words, 500 words. What exactly do you train when you talk to people or young people about the perfect essay?
00:18:31
Speaker 3: OK, so I actually started my business to help students write essays because so many people get intimidated by the essay and they don't pursue different. They don't complete applications because they don't apply to things because they're afraid of the essay. What I tell students with essays, I teach my students how, like you said, you're a Hollywood screenwriter. I teach my students to write stories. And I actually use, I don't know if you've ever read this book. I think his name is Robert McKee. He wrote this book called Story. And it's like this big, thick, and that's what I use when I teach. I don't, well, I actually use other books that are more appropriate for their grade level. But the way that I teach them about stories is informed by a book written by a Hollywood screenwriter. And we always start with one of what I like to start with. I want my students to focus on telling a story. And when they tell a story, they have to focus on, they have to start with like an inciting incident. So the inciting incident is the thing that puts the story in motion. And it's, and I mean, and every essay is going to ask for an inciting incident. They're just going to ask for it in the form of write about an opportunity, a challenge, an obstacle that you faced and how did you overcome it? And I have them, I have them write in scenes. So I have them to, and I say, okay, scenes, include action. I need you to include action. I need you to include dialogue. And I do that because, and I tell them, hey, whenever you are writing something for someone, they are reading your work as a courtesy to you. And you want to be memorable. You want to be entertaining for, because people remember stories. That's how, you know, people will remember if you can tell them a good story. And that's what you want to do. So aside from telling them stories, I also have them working on multiple ideas at the same time. Because a few years ago, I noticed that all of my students would hold on to like their first idea. And everybody's first idea is bad. everybody's first idea is bad, is bad. And I would be like, why are they holding on to these bad ideas? Like, you know, obviously it's terrible. Like, why don't they know it's terrible? But then, but then I started thinking about it and I was like, Jennifer, if everybody is doing the thing that you don't like, then what's the common denominator? The common denominator is you. So why don't, what are you doing? Why don't your student, what are you doing? to encourage them to hold on to this bad idea. So what I started to do was I started to have my students working on like three different ideas at the same time. And that way they would, it was easier for them to let go of the bad idea. So that's something that we do. So I have them working on multiple ideas at the same time. I have them to tell stories. I also have them research the organization that is offering the scholarship or the college admissions. So we have to look at, you need to research the organization. Like in my service organization, I'm a scholarship chair of a local scholarship organization. And our scholarship is all about service. It's about community service and leadership. So when you're writing your essay, it needs to be about your community service and your leadership. You have to research the organizations and tailor your message to that organization.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: I'm talking to Jennifer Ledwith of Scholar Ready. Whether students select an HBCU or PWI, it's important for them to have choices, especially with their test scores, PSAT, SAT, ACT.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: Here's a little note.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: They open opportunities for scholarships and academic programs like I spoke of earlier. Often African-Americans are locked out of these opportunities. On average, African-Americans score a 908 out of 1600. on an SAT or a 16 out of 36 on the ACT. Commenting her program, Jennifer has developed.
00:22:34
Speaker 1: An eight-week course. It's an eight-week course, but you have to be committed.
00:22:38
Speaker 2: If you're a student who wants to walk in that lane, if you're a parent who wants your student or your child to have an opportunity at an HBCU or a PWI in university, it's important that you may seek training. And Jennifer is on this call with me today to discuss her business model. Her business model is to academically prepare your child to be ready for college, to be ready for programs that are asking for particular SAT scores, ACT scores. That is important to know. You can be tops in your class in high school and you might be rejected for the degree plan you want at the college that you're choosing to attend. And that can be frustrating, but you can knock that out right now because doing her preliminary tests, she will ask you your curriculum, where you want to go, what degree you want to go. And she will tell you, well, if you go to Georgia Tech, I believe engineering is like 1350 for SATs.
00:23:38
Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Well, we got to get you there. And that's the purpose of your course that you're delivering for eight weeks.
00:23:45
Speaker 1: Correct, Jennifer? Correct.
00:23:47
Speaker 3: That's the purpose. The purpose is, and that's what happens when people do test prep. They need to have a goal. They need to have a reason for what they're doing. So whether it's a 1350 at Georgia Tech, that's what we're pursuing. That's what we're committed to pursuing.
00:24:00
Speaker 2: Now, as we close out, you've been wonderful, easy to talk to, which is great. You know, you're articulate. I'm watching you on the screen during this podcast interview. You know, She's easy on the eyes that they say guys and ladies and parents, you know, she's not over there looking like a, you know, a hundred year old teacher. She's not looking like she's got a great smile. I'm just letting y'all know, this is a visual course. She's teaching that your child, not going to be afraid of her.
00:24:27
Speaker 1: Okay. That's all I'm saying. They're not going to be scared to death.
00:24:30
Speaker 2: Like they're talking to their grandmama across the screen.
00:24:34
Speaker 1: They're going to be engaged with her.
00:24:36
Speaker 2: She has a brilliant smile and she has a sense of humor, but more importantly, How do we reach out to you and tell us the process as we close out this interview?
00:24:44
Speaker 1: All right.
00:24:44
Speaker 3: So to reach me, visit www.scholarready.com. There's also going to be a special page for people who listen to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. There's also a page that allows you to contact us and we'll gather your information, your first name and your email address there. And we will go from there and helping you to reach your goals. No. As one of my parents told me, you know, she really was unfamiliar with the college going process. Things that, you know, things change and so on. And she was afraid of asking questions. And one of her regrets is that she didn't ask more questions. So call me, email me, ask me questions and we'll get and we'll get started.
00:25:29
Speaker 1: Well, guess what? We got started today.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: Jennifer, she reached out to me, ladies and gentlemen, filled out my Be A Guest form. That's how she got on the show, Money Making Conversations Masterclass. So you can reach out to her because she's reached out to me. So let's make a relationship and get your child focused and ready. I'm very adept at this conversation because my daughter, we experienced this type of training for her, and I know it changed her life. And now she works at our company with us, and she was an honor graduate from the University of Houston. I appreciate you working. being able to offer this opportunity throughout the country. She had to go through a brick and mortar for her training, but you're offering it no matter where your child lives, a student you are in college right now, want to learn about SATs. Like you said, it's not just required. She was doing this from a junior in high school to a junior year in college. I listen to everything she's saying now. I really do.
00:26:22
Speaker 1: I really do. Thank you, Jennifer, for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Thank you, Rashawn. Thank you for this opportunity.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode.
00:26:30
Speaker 2: Now I need for you to do me a favor right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations.
00:26:36
Speaker 1: It's free and you can find it on the.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:26:44
Speaker 1: Please do me that favor.
00:26:46
Speaker 2: Follow or subscribe Money Making Conversations.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: Keep winning.
