I am going to share with you now my very memorable learning experience back in college in San Diego, California. I could never forget because those were part of my life. I come from an Asian family until we have migrated to San Diego in 2000. This is the place where I had also continued my high school days until I pursued my college career. I really recommend you to study abroad if you get the opportunity because the learning experience is great if you are schooled in the most progressive country of the world. Yes, America is great and learning experience in this country is also very amazing. With my previous schooling experience in my home country in Asia I have compared the many difference, the many benefits if you study a degree at a university in the US.

1. Education is great – When you are enrolled at a university in America you can feel the power of many universities as far as school laboratories, great school facilities, technology and a lot more exciting school properties you can never imagine in your country. I could say that the learning process from a developing country to an industrialized country is really a big difference. Imagine yourself as a professional from a community college in your own country and to those professionals from the big universities in the US. I believe the learning is very weak in developing country aside from poor education of teachers the facilities are also lacking.

2. Government support – Once you become a naturalized citizen of the country and already have your citizenship as an American you have many privileges afforded to you by the government. There are lots of student loan privileges and you can surely finish your studies in America. With the federal “No Left Program of 2002” for the natives in far-flung American region, the education is really a top priority.

3. Amazing technology – Since the United States is an industrialized country development sprouts anywhere and this is more than education if you travel to places. You will be amazed at how this country becomes the center of attraction from among the most countries of the world. Millions of visitors visit every year to transact business in America, to invest, travel as tourists and many other top priorities of people going to this country called “The Land Of Milk And Honey.” No doubt the US is the only country where almost all people from different countries live today.

AFTER watching the 80th Annual Academy Awards live on ABC yesterday, it convinced me even more to take up an online degree in filmmaking after high school. There are lots of advantages for students like me who would like to take a shot at fame in Hollywood by directing movies when I’ll take the course online. First, I can act at the same time while studying because I’ll not be restricted to a university campus. Second, the tuition is really great because it is much cheaper because I don’t need laboratories to study filmmaking. It’s not like chemistry or electronics and communications engineering where you need to study the components of sugar or the latest in sonar technology, respectively.

But let’s go beyond the Academy Awards. There are actually other films worth being included in the Academy Award nominations but which were not. One of the most spectacular ones is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Imagine having a Locked-in Syndrome at the most peak of your sexual life. How do you feel that? For the uninitiated, Locked-in Syndrome is a physiological phenomenon where most of the external body is paralyzed except the eyes and the brain. The Locked-in Syndrome phenomenon has already been explored in one episode of House but in House, the guy experiencing Locked-in Syndrome was able to walk again in the end. In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby never recovered until death. His life for two years after the 1995 experience was one psychological agony if not physical. The guy can’t commit suicide for obvious lack of motor skills. If he chooses to stop inhaling air, he will just faint out and regain consciousness later. Translating that into one very good performance is worth an Academy Award but Mathieu Amalric’s portrayal of Jean-Dominique Bauby nudged him to become the next James Bond villain instead where his character is patterned after the very arrogant French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The next movie I’m going to discuss is Juno of course about a teen who accidentally gets knocked up. In sharp contrast to the comedy Knocked Up where the 28-year-old Katherine Heigl is perfectly okay to be knocked up even without a spouse considering her age, Ellen Page’s teenage character Juno can surely be related and empathized with a lot of pregnant teenagers nationwide.

2008 is one exciting year to start with. It kicked off with the deaths of Brad Renfro and Heath Ledger. Then an Australian futurist made a very dire warning by saying that another Ice Age will cause China to be flooded in the next 40 years or so and Greenland will be the future colony of earth. That means that this early, scientists must study on how to bring about a smooth exodus of peoples from China. So if you’re a fresh high school graduate, then you can surely take on a college degree that is geared towards that direction.

Just yesterday, everybody in the financial world from the Middle East to Asia, from Europe to South America, became panicky as Asian markets Hang Seng, Australian, Singapore Straits Times, Nikkei and Philippine Stock Exchange as well as the Thai and South Korean markets tumbled one after another. Of course, people are protecting their stocks so we can’t blame them for auctioning everything off. But if you are a fresh high school graduate and you want to help in putting back the economy to its right track and prevent a recession in the United States, then you can certainly take a degree in economics at Georgetown or at any reputable university.

If you are not that rich to pay for your own tuition, then be good even if you are still in high school so you can become a Georgetown economics graduate like Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or Bill Clinton. They’re both Georgetown economics graduate. As early as high school, shine in economics subjects. Then participate in college fairs when you are already in your senior year in high school. In college fairs, college admissions staff will come to your school and evaluate prospective enrollees in their college right after graduation. It is also at this point that they will be receiving college application essays so if you have an ingenious plan to save the United States economy from recession, then that is really swell for the Georgetown admissions staff to read and they will surely be impressed.

We are mainstream people. But let us not also forget our brethren who are indigenous peoples and who surely must have a say in our society including the field of education. They must be accommodated. In the United States for example, the Native Americans are the target of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The federal government is pouring in millions of dollars to get Native American youngsters educated in English and include them into mainstream society. There are similar efforts across the world in such societies as the Aztecs in Mexico, the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the Mayas in Guatemala, the Maoris of New Zealand, the tribes in Hawaii and so many others. We should remember that these peoples are survivalists and they definitely deserve a place in mainstream education so they can develop their own society at their level.