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.

THE title itself may be too daunting and on a global level but I think I got you there. I’m actually just taking into consideration certain personal challenges on how you can improve your life as a student. It is still on a global level though as education must be a continuing process through life even surpassing the age of 60 and it is not just limited for people in Salamanca or Toronto. It is for everyone even in such countries as Ghana and Uganda.

A new year brings new challenges and one of them is how to maximize one’s learning in his or her chosen field or endeavor. At Harvard Business School for example, they challenge students not to be employees of Fortune 500 companies but to become entrepreneurs themselves. The United States (where Harvard is located) has a very booming economy because this idea is practiced by students immediately after graduation. And it is not just in Harvard that they encourage students to become entrepreneurs. Even in highly technical universities such as MIT, graduates often end up being entrepreneurs themselves. Just look at the several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs nowadays. Most of them are technical graduates. Even when the dotcom phenomenon eventually fizzled out during the earlier part of this decade, many of these entrepreneurs have kept moving on. Founders of such phenomenal sites such as Google and Facebook are still in their 20s and they rake in billions of dollars every year.

It is not just in the United States that college students are taught how to become entrepreneurs. That wave is slowly catching up elsewhere. After World War II, universities in Japan have been aggressively pushing their college students to dream beyond becoming a slave to the Western corporate world and rise beyond the ashes of humiliating defeat. Thus, we now have Sony, one of the most prolific media conglomerates in the world. Still headquartered in Tokyo, Sony dominates Hollywood with a number of businesses such as Sony Pictures, AXN and a whole lot more. Robotics is slowly catching up in Britain and has not yet fully penetrated the United States market yet in Japan, it is a staple as far as technology is concerned. We can fullly grasp how industrialized Japan is just by looking across our next door high-rise neighbor whenever we are in a world-class city in the United States. Let’s have a random example – Orlando, Florida. Count how many Japanese companies there are in that city and you will be amazed. This amazing phenomenon is portrayed accurately in Michael Crichton’s novel The Rising Sun.

But as I’ve said, maximizing learning starts on a very personal level. Thus, when you are fresh out of high school, you must strive hard to pass the SAT or secondary aptitude test because this will become your entry level through college. And know your full potential and what your interests and skills are. That way, you can breeze your way in the game called life.