Interview with Jim Knight from www.digitallearningtree.com 2020

Hi, I would like to introduce all the parents— this is Jim Knight with Digital Learning Tree— to Shellee Howard with College Ready, and she has such an incredible story about not only her college, but what she's done in creating her company. So, Shellee, I'm just going to turn it over to you. Go ahead for the parents.

Wonderful. Thank you, Jim. As he said, this is Shellee Howard, and I am the CFO and founder of College Ready. We've been in business almost 10 years, and our goal is to help students not only get into college, but to graduate debt-free. And a lot of people just don't know that it is possible. But I challenge everyone to think of it like this. How many of you would go and purchase a home and pay what's on the little sales slip and not negotiate? How many of you would walk on a car lot and pay the sticker price? But so many people think they pull up the internet and they see a price tag on a college and they feel that's what they have to pay. So I will tell you that is not what you have to pay. And I've helped hundreds of students all over the world. We are a global company, not only get into college, but to graduate. Free. And really, my story all started about 10 years ago. My son came home from 8th grade and he said, "Mom, I want to be a brain surgeon." I am like, "Really? OK." And I was the first generation to go to college and I thought that was a rather large leap. But as every good parent would do, we figure it out. So, I went back to school and got my master's And I toured 25 colleges a semester. And when my son graduated high school, he had 7 full-ride offers, ended up going to Harvard for free, pre-med, and he is now a 3rd-year medical student at UC San Diego. And if he heard me brag about him, he would absolutely not be happy. I understand. That is OK. He is a very humble young man. And then I have his sister who's 4 years younger and she got into University of Alabama for free. And she's in her senior year at CBU getting her nursing degree. And she has gone to college completely debt-free.

Congratulations again.

Thank you. And so every student that we bring into our program has their own unique one-to-one custom strategy. But everything leads to not just getting into college, but what is the return on investment. And people often scratch their head thinking, what do you mean? And I will have to say, when I worked for Procter Gamble years and years ago, straight out of college, everything was about return on investment. But for some reason, we've gotten away from that in the college world, and I'm trying to bring it back. So my mission is to reach 1 million students in 9 more years. It was 10 years and help them understand they don't have to go into debt. It is not necessary to put themself in that situation.

Shellee, if I can just jump in for a second.

Absolutely.

I wanted to say, I would like to help you reach those 1 million students. I really would, and I hope I can. And you also graduated from Harvard free, correct?

No, my son did. I did not.

Oh, okay, understand. I, I put my son through Princeton and Yale, and it was a tad bit expensive, so I can really relate, even though he was on a rowing Scholarship.

So congratulations.

Thank you. Awesome.

So do you want me to keep going?

Yes, please. Okay.

All right. So after, actually, I was at my son's high school graduation and a young man sitting next to me, my son got up and gave the ASB presidential speech and then he gave the salutatorian speech and the young man looks at me and he says, dude, I didn't I didn't even know that kid was smart. And he didn't know it was my son. And it was just so surreal because he didn't have a perfect GPA and he didn't have a perfect test score, but he had an amazing strategy. And his resume is what got him noticed. And his essay is what got him into all those Ivy League schools. Based on everything I believe. So having your own story, your own strategy, your own plan that should incorporate an academic plan, a social plan, and a financial plan. And those are the things we focus on with our students. Because if you don't have an academic plan, it's not a good fit school. If you don't have a social plan, your student's going to come home after a year, maybe two, and then that's going to cost you an extra $100,000 and then a financial plan. So when my son graduated from Harvard, his very first job, he was making over $100,000 consulting. I don't know on what, but it was pretty impressive. So he was set. And the fact that he decided to go back to medical school only happened because he had zero debt. Because I promise you medical school, you don't go for free.

Correct.

So with that, we, we've had to really reverse engineer the program. And we start off with what kind of lifestyle does the student want? Do they want the fancy house, the fancy cars, you know, how much money do they need or want? And then what career will give them that? What major will give them that career, what high school will give them that major and that college. And so everybody's chasing it the other way, trying to fit themselves into a college when, in my opinion, that's just part of the process to get to the end result. And if the end result is to be self-sufficient and not in debt, why would we not start there? So that is the foundation in which we work on. And so at College Ready, we are an all-inclusive program. We believe that it takes an academic rigor, it takes a testing with a strategy, it takes a passion project from the heart, it takes leadership and the right extracurricular that the student can thrive in. All of these things have to fit into picking the right college to match all of that. And there are some really generous colleges out there. It's just people don't know where to find them. So we help people to do that, make the match. Then we help our students to understand what it takes to apply. We give them the support. We do not do it for them. We are completely 100% ethical. I'm part of the HECA organization. And we then guide the family and help them understand how does the FAFSA work, the CSS Profile, what is your expected family contribution, what does work-study mean, what, what is all of this financial business about. Most people don't even know that the FAFSA looks at the second semester of the sophomore year and the first semester of the junior year. So I get phone calls where somebody is going into their senior year and they say, oh, I'm early, but I kind of want to jump on this. And in my opinion, financially, they're really late to the game. So we're helping students. We start them from when they promote from 8th grade and we bring them into our system whenever they find us. And everything we do is meant for that student to Decrease anxiety, have fun in the process, and graduate without debt. So that is the foundation. When I was featured on Fox 5 News, it was a year ago, right before the full scandal broke, and I was helping people understand what it takes to go for free. And I was constantly challenged. And the reality was, as soon as I was able to show that Harvard diploma right behind me, My son gave that to me when he graduated because he truly felt that we did it together. So the foundation of the program has everything to do with finding the best fit school, academically, socially, and financially. And our goal is to educate. So I'm offering free strategy sessions during this at-home COVID virus situation. For 30 minutes, absolutely no strings attached. And I even produced a guide, 35 pages long, of what they can do now. COVID virus has absolutely changed the way college admissions is going to work because the second semester of the year, who knows? Some schools are now going test prep— or sorry, test optional. And people want to know how they should test prep. The essay just became a game changer. So we want to make sure students are using their time wisely. And there's so much involved. And while students may be discouraged at home, our students are making amazing things happen. A group of our students from across the globe have come together online, never leaving their home, and they created COVID-19 Relief Passion Project, in which they are all leaders of this organization. And I believe they're up to somehow like 11,000 masks and PPE and face shields that they're providing for our first responders, which is near and dear to me with my, my husband, a first responder, my son in medical school, and my daughter in nursing. So I am so grateful for all of them. It's the least we could do to give back.

And Shellee, I just want to tell you that I'm so grateful for you and all that you're doing and some of your free resources. And I will put your website below this video and information where people can contact you and, you know, help them. What is the average debt for a student coming out of college? Isn't it in $35,000, $40,000?

For sure, at least that, because most people don't count housing and meals and books books and all of it. They're just looking at tuition. So, you know, I'm from Southern California and we have a couple of the most expensive schools in the nation, not the, but a couple of close ones. And one of our schools here is $72,000 a year. And multiply that just times 4 years and you're looking at a lot of debt. So I, my goal is to help students understand, will that degree give you the best job with the best return on investment? Because not all careers need that college name. There are many, many that don't. And so it may be better spent on a master's or a PhD or on your, your child's first home. So I'm always looking to help families understand, and I have a lot of wealthy families here in Southern California. And they are not the ones who are impoverished and they are still getting their kids in for reduced or free. So, it doesn't have anything to do with your socio or economic situation. It is just pure knowledge. It is just understanding what you don't know and how to utilize what I can teach.

I so appreciate you and it is exactly what I'm doing with my parent course to give the information that parents need now that 22 million kids are at home scrambling. So again, thank you, Shellee, so much. I'll post this video, your website, and do everything I can to get you to your million goal.

Well, thank you so much, Jim. I appreciate it.

Thank you again, and bye for now.

Okay, okay, bye.