Extra Credit: Unlikely: A Pursuit of a Better U (documentary)

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The video that I watched was about the university dropout crisis. The link to this documentary (trailer) is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5YASi5J4Kc


    The title of this documentary is “ Unlikely: In Pursuit of a Better U”. This documentary sheds light on the underbelly of the higher education system -the student dropout crisis. Not everyone knows this, but the US has one of the worst college completion rates in the entire world - less than 50% of students who start college ever finish. Now there are more than 35 million Americans who started college but never finished, leaving them saddled with debt, and behind their peers in earning power. The documentary has few featuring interviews with LeBron James, Howard Schultz, Michael Crow, Bridget Burns, and America's leading voices in education, this penetrating and personal new documentary investigates America's college dropout crisis through the lives of five diverse students as they fight for a second chance at opportunity and highlights the innovators reimagining higher education for the 21st century. 

    These individuals seemed to be fighting the idea of " post-secondary access" that their school systems have made it nearly impossible for them to be able to access after high-school education. Post-secondary access for underprivileged students can be limited based on many factors such as their social status,  race, gender, sexuality, ethnic background, or physical and mental disabilities. This was also highlighted in the short journal, "Complicating conditions: Obstacles and interruptions to low-income students' college “choices”" by Rebecca Cox. In her research, she came up with potential solutions in order to aid low-income students by giving these students actual postsecondary pathway by giving short-term interest-free loan programs, counselor interactions, partnership with the local food bank and housing authorities, and free tax preparation services, which are organized for supporting the students from low-income groups. Similarly, in the documentary Lebron James and known people collaborated together and decided to give out $1 million dollars to the college that shows improvement in graduation rates, and Akron, Ohio won the amount and was given to low-income students as scholarships and former Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz briefly appear on camera to promote their initiatives and foundations that attempt to bridge the inequality gap. This shows how low-income students can have access to opportunity just by giving them a little push by offering necessary stuff needed it could little as giving proper advice by a counselor or by giving them more scholarship oppourtinity.



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