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The Champion, Thursday, January 7-13, 2016 EDUCATION
Student overcomes obstacles
to attend Columbia College
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalbchamp.com
Applying to college can be excit
ing and stressful. With so many col
leges to consider and deadlines to
meet, daunting might be an under
statement for the work ahead.
Joseph Ford, 18, is a cellist who
writes and performs his own compo
sitions. In 2014, he was accepted into
his top choice, Columbia College of
Chicago as an incoming freshman in
the music department. Ford had to
defer a year due to lack of money for
tuition, books, rooming and board.
Ford has spent his year of defer
ment attending Georgia Perimeter
College taking core classes to reduce
his overall tuition costs at Columbia.
He also has been applying for schol
arships. “This isn’t just my dream” he
said. “I feel like I was born to do this.”
Ford said he has studied music
and played the cello since first grade.
While in the seventh grade fam
ily members bought him a cello from
Ken Stanton Music for about $1200.
As a student a DeKalb School
of the Arts for two years, Ford per
formed in two orchestras.
“It was nice just to get to play in
high school and not just being so fo
cused on school work,” Ford said.
He added, “It’s a big balancing act
because you have to choose between
practicing and doing well in classes.”
Due to a chronic illness Ford had
to withdraw from Dekalb School of
the Arts but continued playing the
cello while being home schooled.
At age 17, Ford told his mom that
he wanted to start applying to col
leges.
Ford said he found Columbia
College and visited the school.
He said the process of getting
accepted into Columbia College of
Chicago took months.
“It’s changed everything. Before
I got in I wasn’t exactly sure where I
would go to school or when. At the
time I was just going to go to Georgia
State University, but instead I ended
up going to Georgia Perimeter to
take general courses.”
He added, “At the moment, I
would love to go to Columbia but
the end result is just basically me
producing music. Whether it be for
movie soundtracks or just as a career.
Whatever I do in school is just net
working to help me have an easier
start at doing that career.”
He said his mom has inspired
him to follow that dream.
Ford said when he was younger
his mom told him how she had to
pay for school on her own and how
she earned a master’s degree in art.
“I thought it was the coolest
thing. I was like wow you did that all
by yourself,” Ford said.
He added, “As I got older I real
ized that it’s actually a pretty difficult
thing to do.”
Ford said his advice to his peers
is “Stick with what you think is go
ing to work for you first, but have a
backup plan. Get work experience,
find a job; because you’re going to
need one, but regardless of what you
end up doing workwise, you need to
just stick with what you think is right
for you.”
Ford is now slated to attend Co
lumbia in August of 2016 but needs
an additional $30,000.
One of his approaches to paying
for his education is by setting up a
GoFundMe account.
Students show their appreciation for Chevron and DonorsChoose.org with a group
photo and handmade banner.
Students pose with supplies they were given through the Fuel Your School program.
Approximately 49,000 students through
out Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties
were impacted by the Fuel Your School
program.
Almost 450 local public school classroom
projects were benefitted through the
program.
Chevron program funds
classroom supplies
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalbchamp.com
This year Chevron generated
$400,000 to help fund 445 class
room projects in Clayton, DeKalb
and Fulton counties through its
Fuel Your School program.
Through a collaboration with
DonorsChoose.org, Chevron col
lected money to assist teachers with
classroom supplies and materials,
including 162 projects focused on
science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM).
Chevron officials launched the
2015 Fuel Your School Program in
September.
In October, Fuel Your School
donated $1, up to a total of
$400,000, when consumers pur
chased eight or more gallons of
fuel at participating Chevron and
Texaco stations.
Since it’s inception in 2010,
Chevron Fuel Your School program
has helped fund 33,685 classroom
projects at 5,155 schools in the
United States. The program’s im
pact has grown each year to sup
port students in many communities
where Chevron has business opera
tions.
Chevron spokesman Brent
Tippen said, “We’ve been commit
ted to increase access to and the
quality of education around the
world. We think an educated and
skilled workforce leads to economic
growth both for our business, our
partners and communities where
we operate. We also support STEM
fairly heavily and that’s from early
education through employment
and we support that both through
kindergarten through 12th grades
to college and career technical.
There are major skill gaps across
the country in the STEM curricu
lum and we want to be able to close
some of those gaps.”
Tippen said the program also
supports literacy, language and the
arts.
This year, Chevron’s Fuel Your
School program generated more
than $8.8 million for local class
rooms in 21 U.S. communities and
benefitted more than 1 million stu
dents.