#8 Omar & Huong: How can Parents Help Their High School Child With College Admission & Scholarship

[0:00] is your child is in high school
[0:04] if yes then please do watch this video
[0:07] because we are discussing how you as a
[0:10] parent can help
[0:11] your child
[0:13] with college admissions the topic that
[0:16] we will be covering in this video
[0:19] college admission scholarship fafsa we
[0:22] will also talk about a college roadmap
[0:24] that you can follow for four years
[0:27] and guide
[0:29] yourself as a parent as well as your
[0:32] child
[0:33] to prepare themselves for the college
[0:35] admission
[0:41] this channel where i talk about uh
[0:44] career i talk about people from their
[0:47] high school to wherever they are in the
[0:49] career as
[0:50] parents doing
[0:52] so many things for ourselves to to build
[0:55] our career we also have our kid and
[0:59] responsibility where we are trying to
[1:01] help them
[1:02] to begin their career and
[1:05] there are so many things that we can do
[1:07] as a parent especially when they are in
[1:10] high school prepare them
[1:13] for the college admission and then
[1:15] actually go through the college where
[1:17] they are not only gaining the knowledge
[1:19] but they are also building their own
[1:21] character their own
[1:23] inspiration and
[1:25] trying to kind of prepare themselves for
[1:27] next 30 years
[1:30] so
[1:31] do you want to add anything to that
[1:34] no i think vinnie you captured that very
[1:37] well
[1:38] you and i have been working together for
[1:40] almost five years now with the
[1:43] college and career center at seminole
[1:45] high school and i think that going
[1:47] forward we can extract a lot of that
[1:50] experience to help
[1:52] parents and students that coming up in
[1:54] the future so really appreciate what
[1:56] you're doing vinnie
[2:02] i can start like with just a part of
[2:04] like i thought college was totally out
[2:06] of reach so yeah share that omar
[2:09] so that was like the first thing i
[2:12] when i was talking to with my son and
[2:13] thank god i have three kids and i was
[2:15] talking with my oldest i told him you
[2:16] know i can't you know i'll do my best to
[2:18] help you of course go to college and all
[2:20] that but i don't have a hundred hundred
[2:22] and fifty thousand dollars laying around
[2:24] just for you to you know kind of test
[2:26] out college and see if you like it or
[2:27] not
[2:28] um but then when when i started doing
[2:31] the research start actually calling like
[2:33] the the schools around me and i found
[2:36] you know that the ucf
[2:37] you know a full college
[2:39] they their actual tuition i think was
[2:42] around 30 000 for the whole degree i
[2:44] think it's like four or five years
[2:46] and the rest was for them boarding so i
[2:50] was like well why why you know why leave
[2:52] the house why don't you stay with us i
[2:53] know that's the cool thing to do
[2:55] and and have that cool you know
[2:57] experience with your friends but why
[2:58] don't you stay with us
[2:59] and
[3:01] save that money and then now we focus
[3:03] only on thirty thousand of that
[3:05] so we started you know working on that
[3:07] but then that's when hung and i started
[3:10] talking and then hong kong was like no
[3:11] no no no no no no no no no no no wait
[3:12] there is scholarships i was like yeah
[3:14] but scholarship is supposed to be like
[3:15] for super smart people and she's like no
[3:17] no these scholarships are open for
[3:18] everybody and then it you know it
[3:20] changes based on of course your your
[3:22] academic background uh racial background
[3:25] all that so there is a lot of
[3:26] opportunities for for so many other
[3:28] people
[3:29] so that's where i had no idea i heard of
[3:32] course about it before but i didn't know
[3:34] that it helped that much most of the
[3:36] time when you hear of a scholarship it's
[3:38] you know a thousand dollar here or there
[3:39] but for it to cover
[3:41] a big chunk of of that 30 000 that's
[3:44] that's a huge factor and that doesn't
[3:46] even include the other scholarship the
[3:48] one that you told me about
[3:49] i can't pronounce
[3:52] um that's the better kiss though
[3:54] yes then it kissed one
[3:57] so that one even that's even better but
[3:59] that one that the trick with that one is
[4:02] we got to start at the beginning of high
[4:04] school so i met with my wife met with
[4:07] mike also with with the other kids like
[4:08] all right we couldn't make it with with
[4:10] the old one but at least for the other
[4:12] two
[4:13] let's you know look into that and see
[4:14] how we can
[4:15] apply for that and again another way to
[4:18] look at things that i was actually
[4:19] telling my son today
[4:21] um a lot of time people like oh i don't
[4:23] want to apply for a scholarship
[4:25] how long this is going to take me i
[4:26] don't like writing this much and an end
[4:28] as of well think about that for a minute
[4:31] how much
[4:32] you know for you to go work at a place
[4:34] and let's say that you're going to work
[4:35] you know a really neat starting job 15
[4:38] an hour
[4:39] how much that's gonna you know give you
[4:41] how long will it take you to make that
[4:42] 30 000
[4:44] it's going to take you at least a year
[4:45] if you're making 15 an hour multiply
[4:47] that by 40 by 52 weeks that's 30 000 for
[4:51] a year not including any of the taxes or
[4:53] the fees so that's assuming full money
[4:55] come into your pocket compare that to if
[4:58] it takes you even 10 hours
[4:59] writing a paper or writing an essay why
[5:02] not
[5:04] so
[5:06] that was a
[5:07] hopefully an eye-opener for my son
[5:10] to encourage him to to to you know to
[5:13] to apply for all these scholarships and
[5:15] again if he applies for 10 and he gets
[5:17] one and that will be the one that will
[5:19] pay that much even you know where even
[5:22] that thousand dollar scholarship it's
[5:24] still worth it thousand dollars again
[5:26] multiply the number of hours that you
[5:27] don't mind working at so in soleplays
[5:30] and making that 15 even 20 an hour it's
[5:33] still you spend a couple of hours and if
[5:35] you can get that grant
[5:37] that's that's way better
[5:39] i i agree so much with that omar and i
[5:42] have the same conversation with my
[5:43] children so i think when it comes to
[5:45] parents we all agree
[5:47] that um just sitting down spending an
[5:50] hour writing that essay submit the
[5:53] scholarship application uh it could be
[5:56] you know 10 50 100 hours of working
[5:59] minimum wage right if you get a thousand
[6:02] dollars or 2 000
[6:04] um so the point that vinnie and i've
[6:06] been trying to share with parents in the
[6:08] last many years is that there are a list
[6:11] of scholarships out there
[6:13] for every county um seminole county
[6:15] school board there's that um orange
[6:18] county school board so everywhere you
[6:21] have this list of scholarships for local
[6:24] scholarships that you can apply for in
[6:27] addition to all the national ones so
[6:29] it's just a matter of looking through
[6:32] choosing the one that fits your criteria
[6:35] and uh and apply but on top of all that
[6:38] exactly like you said omar there's
[6:40] bright futures
[6:42] uh for the state of florida
[6:44] and that's not a scholarship that you
[6:47] apply
[6:48] it's a
[6:49] almost like a three four years of
[6:51] preparation in high school right so you
[6:54] have to meet all the credit hours you
[6:57] have to have a certain gpa and then they
[6:59] have three levels so if you don't meet
[7:00] one you can meet the one lower etc and
[7:04] then the community service hours that
[7:06] you need to
[7:08] qualify as well so if you are aware and
[7:11] you prepare it's very easy to get from
[7:14] for many of the florida students
[7:20] another idea we're thinking of we don't
[7:21] know i don't know if it has any
[7:23] disadvantages but i told them look why
[7:25] don't we start with the community
[7:26] college you have to do these classes
[7:28] anyhow one is cheaper than the regular
[7:30] caller two it gives you a year or two
[7:33] actually i think two years for you to go
[7:35] figure out what you want to get into
[7:37] do the training do the volunteering get
[7:40] to meet with more people and it gives
[7:42] you at least a chance for you to go
[7:44] through
[7:44] at least two years before you make that
[7:46] decision and then god willing at that
[7:48] point you can go to ucf and then focus
[7:51] on the career that you want
[7:53] i think that's a great suggestion i i
[7:55] think that that is perfect for him to to
[7:59] try out college and then like you said
[8:02] continue the conversation and and um
[8:05] seeking out advice
[8:06] um from either ucf from other people
[8:10] that he knows i think that's a great
[8:12] path
[8:13] florida state community college and ucf
[8:15] are tightly integrated with each other
[8:17] so they support that you do
[8:20] the first two years in the florida
[8:23] state college
[8:24] which is as you said much cheaper
[8:27] and then
[8:28] there is the transition from there to
[8:30] ucf um
[8:32] as far as that mission is concerned
[8:35] so many people are actually adopting
[8:37] that
[8:38] i know somebody with the family
[8:41] they adopted that
[8:43] procedure where their son is going to
[8:45] the florida state college for first two
[8:47] years and then from there go to the ucl
[8:53] omar i mentioned the fafsa right
[8:56] f-a-f-s-a yes so that's very critical
[9:00] for all seniors in high school to start
[9:02] looking at filling out
[9:05] at seminole high school
[9:07] there are not only two major events for
[9:11] seniors
[9:12] in regards to financial aid one is to
[9:15] assist the students to fill out the
[9:17] fafsa it's always a big event during the
[9:20] year because it's so important and all
[9:23] the students regardless of the you know
[9:26] parents income etc uh um encouraged to
[9:30] fill out the fafsa so that's
[9:32] very important and the second event is
[9:35] about bright futures um so every time we
[9:38] have a financial aid night
[9:40] we focus on those two things
[9:43] um helping the students to complete the
[9:45] fafsa and helping the students to apply
[9:49] for bright futures
[9:51] fafsa is one application
[9:54] that
[9:55] you fill
[9:57] for all the the scholarship
[10:00] as well as all the uh the loans even
[10:03] though you don't
[10:04] have to take loan or you're not planning
[10:06] to take loan you still have to fill this
[10:09] application so that you can
[10:11] you can get scholarship money
[10:13] so that's kind of the tricky part so
[10:16] whenever when you submit and when they
[10:18] then
[10:19] send you later for you qualify for this
[10:21] grant be sure
[10:23] that the grant is the actually free
[10:25] money or is the loan
[10:27] because you definitely don't want to
[10:29] take loan um but then the free money
[10:32] that they they will give in terms of the
[10:34] scholarship that was the wrong
[10:36] perception that i had with fafsa every
[10:37] time i i read it i thought it was only
[10:40] for for like money borrowing i didn't
[10:42] know that that was also part of the
[10:44] actual grant you know kind of requesting
[10:47] process yeah and if if you don't fill
[10:49] fafsa then you won't get any any
[10:52] scholarship any grants
[10:53] exactly exactly so that's why it's a
[10:56] very beginning of of everything um
[10:59] yes yes
[11:01] um so besides the fafsa um once you've
[11:04] done with the fafsa and bright futures
[11:07] and just to notice that there's a lot of
[11:09] details to look into
[11:11] so that's why the event session to teach
[11:13] the kids how to fill out the fafsa
[11:16] because you have to have all the parents
[11:18] information at your fingertips before
[11:21] you figure it out
[11:22] the kind of
[11:23] id and things that you put in it's gonna
[11:26] stay there forever because the fafsa
[11:28] need to be reviewed every year when
[11:30] they're in college if they want to
[11:32] continue receiving the grant or the
[11:35] scholarship so whatever you put in it
[11:37] has to be very thoughtful very accurate
[11:39] um you know a lot of things will cross
[11:42] with the irs as far as income and tax um
[11:45] so it is a process in itself um omar
[11:48] some preparation that's required um so
[11:51] there's the fafsa the bright future is
[11:53] the same as you looked up and you saw
[11:55] omar there's a number of
[11:57] credit hours the gpa
[12:00] and also we mentioned the
[12:03] community service hours
[12:05] and then for say like for the community
[12:08] service hours they have to be
[12:10] acknowledged and signed by
[12:12] teachers at the school
[12:14] so again in itself is a process you know
[12:16] every few months the students have to
[12:18] fill out a form
[12:20] for the counselor or the teacher
[12:23] the people who acknowledge their service
[12:26] have to sign and then the counselors
[12:28] have to sign um so that's that
[12:31] is that part
[12:32] but on top of that there's also websites
[12:35] out there for scholarship
[12:39] it's like a one-stop shop for
[12:41] scholarship that makes it really nice so
[12:43] if you go on these websites and you fill
[12:46] out all of the students information
[12:49] then it will go out and match you
[12:52] um
[12:53] with the criteria um that fit your um
[12:58] whatever you know race or ethnicity or
[13:01] um and then it will point you to the
[13:04] scholarships to apply and it will remind
[13:06] you every day this scholarship is due
[13:09] you know um december first the next one
[13:12] will do february first so it's extremely
[13:15] helpful um so that's something to to
[13:17] keep in mind as well for scholarships
[13:20] thank you for that i didn't know about
[13:21] the yeah one shop
[13:22] website because that's usually very
[13:23] exhausting like oh i have to go to like
[13:25] 17 websites i try to fill up my
[13:27] information everywhere but this helps a
[13:29] lot
[13:30] i still receive the email every day for
[13:32] for my daughter they keep sending me
[13:34] things and the reason because even when
[13:37] the the students in college they can
[13:39] still continue applying for scholarship
[13:42] it doesn't end when you finish high
[13:44] school
[13:46] um omar as we speak i keep thinking
[13:49] about things that was helpful for me
[13:52] so i'm gonna put in the chat another one
[13:55] um this one
[13:57] they have been sending me things
[14:00] in the last four years and uh i use that
[14:04] to it's called collegevine.com
[14:07] um
[14:08] yeah so a lot of things that are free
[14:11] you know if you want to pay you can pay
[14:13] and they assigned you a counselor to
[14:15] work with for college admission but a
[14:17] lot of the emails if you sign up just
[14:19] for emails i find so much useful and
[14:22] timely information with this
[14:25] organization so call it fine.com if you
[14:28] can go on sign up with them they send
[14:31] you very frequent emails and tips for
[14:34] everything s-a-t a-c-t how to apply for
[14:37] college what are the work around for
[14:40] different things um so yeah that's
[14:42] another useful resource
[14:44] yeah
[14:45] thank you very much
[14:49] nice and i remember that
[14:52] when when vedic was in 11th and 12th
[14:54] grade my wife has set up these rules and
[14:57] she was receiving emails um what she was
[15:00] doing
[15:01] she would
[15:03] do the job of the screening
[15:05] and then whatever she think is matching
[15:08] to vedic my son
[15:10] she would send those
[15:12] to vedic and then she will ask him to
[15:15] apply
[15:16] but by doing this she was reducing the
[15:19] time that vedic will have to spend
[15:21] otherwise going through this website and
[15:24] finding what matters or what matching to
[15:27] him and then do all the work to apply it
[15:30] so
[15:31] if you ask kid to do this entire process
[15:34] they're probably not gonna do that but
[15:36] what she was doing she was minimizing
[15:38] the work and then she was uh kind of
[15:41] asking him that this is um this is the
[15:44] match and and see if if they're actually
[15:47] the match and and if it is then then
[15:49] apply
[15:52] which he was being a project manager i
[15:54] guess at that point
[15:56] for my son to to do certain activity
[15:59] every week
[16:00] and it can be very overwhelming the
[16:03] senior year in high school you know
[16:05] there's so many things that they have to
[16:06] do the college application process is
[16:09] very involved trying to finish up all
[16:12] the required courses for graduation
[16:15] and then all the things that we're
[16:16] talking about now it can be very
[16:18] overwhelming for them
[16:22] um so omar i just put in the chat the
[16:24] link for the fast web for the
[16:25] scholarship
[16:26] thank you thank you very much
[16:28] i i think so too um so omar as far as
[16:32] bright future i think that would be the
[16:34] most urgent at this point
[16:36] for your older son so i would recommend
[16:39] looking at the bright future
[16:41] requirements right now
[16:43] and try to match that with his
[16:44] transcript right like you know all the
[16:47] courses
[16:48] um look at the gpa because like i said i
[16:51] think they're like three different
[16:52] levels like it will pay 100 or 75 or 50
[16:56] based on the gpa
[16:58] and then look at the requirement for the
[17:00] community service hours and see how much
[17:04] can he speed up to meet all the
[17:07] requirements by
[17:09] graduation like for this year of 2021
[17:12] the deadline for applying for bright
[17:14] future is not until end of august so if
[17:18] they keep that for 2022 he still have
[17:20] time until end of august 2022 to meet
[17:24] all the requirements
[17:26] it's a good idea also what you guys said
[17:28] about
[17:29] because i'm thinking like i'm gonna tell
[17:30] him but he has to figure out he has to
[17:32] go and fill it up but you guys are right
[17:34] like that it's very hard for them to to
[17:36] do all that work but if i split it kind
[17:38] of with him
[17:39] do some part and like i'll you know i'll
[17:42] meet you halfway or meet me halfway i'll
[17:44] i'll do one part but you got to do your
[17:46] part too so yeah that's that's a very
[17:48] good point
[17:50] yes yes and you know just like you know
[17:53] um vinny's wife i i had to jump in and
[17:56] you know do certain things too because
[17:58] when you see them drowning
[18:00] my daughter was an ibm which he was
[18:02] definitely drowning the last year of
[18:04] high school
[18:06] you just have to stand by and help them
[18:09] with whatever you know
[18:10] especially the administrative kind of
[18:13] work yeah the the research for
[18:16] scholarship and that type of thing it
[18:17] can be overwhelming
[18:20] yeah consider yourself their assistant
[18:22] or project manager or whatever it is but
[18:24] it's a teamwork
[18:26] yeah
[18:28] one more comment on the the scholarship
[18:30] when you look at these a scholarship
[18:32] um there are national label scholarship
[18:36] and then there are local scholarship and
[18:38] local scholarship could be a county
[18:41] label where you only have seven school
[18:44] who can participate
[18:46] it could be local
[18:48] that a dentist around your area is
[18:51] giving a thousand dollar scholarship for
[18:54] anybody who is interested in him in
[18:57] science field
[18:59] all these scholarship
[19:01] what they ask for
[19:03] is uh
[19:04] you
[19:05] will go to a a science college right um
[19:08] engineering or something or whatever
[19:11] and then you're writing an essay
[19:14] for whatever
[19:15] a topic that they have and most of the
[19:18] time
[19:18] it
[19:19] um these
[19:22] essays include
[19:24] about you who you are
[19:26] so you're writing about yourself you're
[19:28] writing about uh why you want to be
[19:31] uh
[19:32] an engineer or why you want to be in
[19:34] science why you like it so all that
[19:37] you write once it will be hard it will
[19:40] be tedious because you have to go deeper
[19:42] into yourself to understand really the
[19:45] real meanings of all these questions
[19:48] and what why
[19:51] what they mean to you
[19:53] but once you're done with it
[19:56] the next application and the the next
[19:59] application would be easier because
[20:02] the core part will be there and you will
[20:04] be tweaking or adding
[20:06] additional items based on um
[20:10] what a specific thing that they are
[20:11] asking for looking for the number of
[20:14] hours that you spend and if you get one
[20:16] two or five a scholarship
[20:19] the effort that you write may if you're
[20:21] putting to write these essays and
[20:23] application
[20:24] is
[20:25] really productive it's really
[20:27] so oma i just sent you the link this is
[20:30] seminole county public schools
[20:32] scholarship opportunities and if you
[20:34] scroll through there are a variety
[20:36] between 1 000 to 10 000 scholarships um
[20:40] many of them are local just like vinnie
[20:42] said
[20:43] um so
[20:44] you can use this because
[20:47] they could apply to any county basically
[20:51] um
[20:52] or
[20:53] you can also go to the counselor at your
[20:55] son's school or your son should go and
[20:58] ask
[20:59] um you know
[21:00] it's an equivalent list for orange
[21:02] county um and then look through them and
[21:05] see what's um applicable
[21:08] they'll be great yeah because every time
[21:10] i ask him so how did it go
[21:12] did you talk to anybody they weren't
[21:14] there like oh did you set up time with
[21:15] them they weren't there
[21:17] email them oh i didn't think about that
[21:20] come on
[21:21] right right and and you know um
[21:25] to his defense they're just a few
[21:28] counselors in the school right
[21:30] so but like vinnie said if if
[21:33] you know the student reaches out and and
[21:35] makes an appointment um you know go you
[21:38] know visit
[21:40] or attend these events
[21:42] there's a lot of information that they
[21:44] can share
[21:45] so i really encourage um all parents to
[21:48] stay in touch with the counselors in
[21:50] school they they're very helpful
[21:53] um then they're just so much information
[21:56] out there omar
[21:59] do you want to share the roadmap
[22:04] great um so what you're looking at here
[22:07] are the four rows one for each great
[22:09] right so we start with the on the top
[22:12] it's a senior so with your second son
[22:14] you want to start from the very last row
[22:16] and and and um go upward
[22:20] um so so what you're looking at here is
[22:23] the
[22:23] majority can you see or is it blurry
[22:28] yeah because it's very good for me you
[22:29] see okay yeah so at the very bottom yeah
[22:33] thank you for making that bigger
[22:36] um you see um create a four year high
[22:39] school plan
[22:41] consult with the counselor so we just
[22:43] talked about that from the very
[22:45] beginning you want to get to know the
[22:47] counselors in the high school yeah get
[22:49] to know them because you're going to be
[22:50] working with them for four years
[22:53] what do we mean by create a four-year
[22:55] high school plan you know when you look
[22:57] at the curriculum to finish high school
[23:00] i don't know about the school where your
[23:02] children go but at seminole high school
[23:04] there are many tracks that they can
[23:06] choose from they can be in ib
[23:09] international baccalaureate or they can
[23:11] be in the health
[23:14] academy if they want to go into a health
[23:17] care field
[23:18] or they can be traditional or they're
[23:22] a couple of other paths that they can
[23:24] take so
[23:25] depending on the interest of your son
[23:28] you can talk to the counselors to
[23:30] understand what are these tracks and
[23:32] help him select one and he can change
[23:35] later it's not you know
[23:37] coffin stone but at least to get him to
[23:40] start thinking about his interest
[23:42] and then create the um
[23:45] the the classes for each year so that's
[23:48] the four year high school plan
[23:50] and then we have research career choices
[23:53] i always tell parents that it's never
[23:56] too early to ask the children to think
[23:59] about what they want to do in their life
[24:00] because it takes a long time for them to
[24:02] think about it but the sooner you get
[24:04] them thinking the better but then i i um
[24:08] stress the word caution there too right
[24:11] so as parents we want to tell our
[24:14] children okay if you want to be a doctor
[24:16] these are the number of years in school
[24:18] and these are the costs if you want to
[24:20] be an engineer or a car mechanic or a
[24:24] dentist or whatever these are the
[24:27] choices
[24:28] and these are the costs so that they can
[24:31] start thinking the way we think you know
[24:33] there's costs and and benefit to
[24:36] everything that we do
[24:38] another link that i would send to you
[24:40] omar which i think very helpful for
[24:43] parents
[24:44] is from the department of labor
[24:46] um
[24:47] they list our hundreds and hundreds of
[24:50] occupation and the most current salary
[24:53] for each of them
[24:55] um so i think it's very eye-opening for
[24:57] students to look at these things and and
[24:59] you know just to have an idea
[25:01] um the next um
[25:04] item that i have prepared for the psat
[25:06] and this is the um what we talked about
[25:09] the benecisto scholarship
[25:11] the bene crystal um is
[25:15] um
[25:16] it's really based on the psat
[25:19] and that you take at the beginning of
[25:22] sophomore year so we want our freshmen
[25:24] to prepare for that to start
[25:28] practicing with the psat
[25:31] take challenging classes
[25:33] maintain a good gpa
[25:35] participate in extracurricular
[25:37] activities
[25:39] and community service develop leadership
[25:42] skills um explore summer programs so
[25:45] starting right between the summer
[25:48] between freshmen and sophomore year you
[25:50] want them to do some sort of community
[25:52] service or do internships even unpaid
[25:56] internship and on this i want to share
[25:58] something omar
[26:00] every year almost every high school that
[26:03] i know have an internship fair
[26:06] and they only do it once a year so you
[26:08] have to know when it is
[26:10] you're lucky if they have it twice once
[26:12] in the fall and one in the spring but
[26:14] sometimes they only have it once so you
[26:17] need to get into that fair and you know
[26:20] it help the students learn how to
[26:23] interview how to present themselves how
[26:26] to dress up how to talk to people
[26:29] etc how to create a resume and bring the
[26:32] resume with them to this fair with many
[26:35] employers
[26:37] the city so it's a really good practice
[26:40] um so that's what that is about summer
[26:43] program
[26:44] internship
[26:46] and then um start working with their
[26:48] parents and their counselors
[26:51] a financial
[26:53] aspect of college
[26:55] so that's what we want the freshmen in
[26:57] high school to start thinking about and
[26:59] start preparing
[27:01] and then the rest of the
[27:04] items
[27:05] uh going from sophomore to junior and
[27:08] senior are very similar um omar if you
[27:11] look at them they are very similar it
[27:14] just become more and more focused when
[27:16] you um go toward being a senior
[27:20] but
[27:21] we want them to keep doing the same
[27:23] thing every year but more focused
[27:26] and with more knowledge so that when
[27:28] they are senior in high school they are
[27:30] a hundred percent
[27:32] prepared this is perfect thank you thank
[27:35] you
[27:38] so now omar you have your work cut out
[27:40] for you for your second son
[27:45] your next four years are planned
[27:51] and and by the time you get to your
[27:53] daughter you can do this with your close
[27:55] eyes yeah
[27:58] is there anything else omar that could
[28:00] be helpful at this point no the part
[28:03] that i thought that i can be hands off
[28:05] and just kind of like
[28:06] it's your job now take responsibility
[28:10] that doesn't really work out i gotta
[28:11] like actually
[28:13] not do it for him but at least kind of
[28:15] guide him through it so omar you have
[28:18] our ears if you need anything holler we
[28:22] will make it a challenge for you now
[28:24] omar that you're gonna
[28:26] you know make all the resources
[28:28] available to your sons
[28:30] and you know hopefully they can take
[28:33] advantage of them
[28:35] yeah and let me know if you guys need
[28:37] help like what with what you know what
[28:39] you both did
[28:40] really helps a lot and i'm sure a lot
[28:42] more
[28:42] people i'm sure that vent health and
[28:45] others
[28:46] will really benefit from from this that
[28:48] is so true it's so true omar uh in my
[28:51] experience especially when vinnie and i
[28:54] organized the first and very big college
[28:58] fair at seminole high school we met
[29:00] hundreds and hundreds of parents who
[29:03] said the same thing you just said
[29:05] that they were not aware of these
[29:07] resources and these opportunities
[29:10] so i think one thing it's good that
[29:12] vinnie you're doing this via youtube
[29:15] having different
[29:16] um channels to share the information but
[29:19] i i think that you know we need to
[29:21] challenge ourselves to find as many
[29:25] ways of communicating this is possible
[29:27] i'm not sure what they are
[29:30] but there's so many parents out there
[29:32] that are not aware
[29:34] my my very last word on this for today
[29:38] oh my my advice because i had many
[29:41] challenging experiences as a parent
[29:44] with a senior in high school twice once
[29:46] with my son and one with my daughter is
[29:48] for you to stay close to them that
[29:51] is so important um college application
[29:55] process that vinnie just talked about
[29:57] can be very consuming
[30:00] and so many details and it takes several
[30:02] pairs of eyes especially for parents
[30:05] with the you know the first child going
[30:07] to college
[30:09] so i would advise that you work very
[30:11] closely with him double check everything
[30:13] make sure that he doesn't miss anything
[30:15] because it's very easy to miss something
[30:18] whole college application process
[30:21] and uh and and you know stay close with
[30:24] the advisor and counselor in school
[30:27] um you know because a lot of times we
[30:29] don't know what question to ask so it's
[30:32] um it's better just ask that open ended
[30:35] question
[30:36] please keep me posted
[30:38] please give me you know on your email
[30:40] list when you send out anything for
[30:42] seniors
[30:43] um invite me to all the events etc
[30:47] but the closer you are to him in the
[30:50] process the better
[30:53] yeah definitely yes yeah
[30:55] all these information can be
[30:56] overwhelming you don't have to do each
[30:58] and every step in one day or one week or
[31:01] one month
[31:02] um as uh who was helping with the the
[31:05] priority she was saying the bright
[31:07] future would be the number one thing
[31:09] pasta would be the number two thing and
[31:11] then
[31:12] scholarship would be number three
[31:14] and a city would be number four right
[31:16] those in sequence
[31:18] and then
[31:20] what will work
[31:22] if you set
[31:23] um
[31:24] weekly or monthly goals
[31:27] so for november month
[31:29] these are the top three things we will
[31:31] do between you your wife and your son
[31:34] right
[31:35] and then
[31:36] um
[31:37] similarly for december january february
[31:40] pick the top three things to do in
[31:42] november and same thing repeat that in
[31:45] december and january
[31:48] you will be better off
[31:50] very good advice yes thank you
[31:52] if not that it becomes very overwhelming
[31:54] for him to do the research and work on
[31:56] it yeah just even if i you know
[31:59] give him everything for him to work on
[32:01] it it's still super overwhelming but if
[32:02] i can filter it out for him and just
[32:04] give our here is kind of like that as a
[32:06] highest impact one than that and then we
[32:08] like you said every month take three
[32:11] four of them and see how many you can do
[32:13] every month and just keep repeating that
[32:15] every month
[32:18] all right i think we're good for
[32:20] ready for the weekend
[32:22] yes yes i've already
[32:24] love this conversation we are helping
[32:26] our kids
[32:28] um and building the better future for
[32:30] everyone
[32:32] and financially for the parents too yeah
[32:35] better future for us if
[32:37] we have to spend less on education then
[32:39] it's better future for us too totally
[32:42] good for our retirement and i told him i
[32:44] won a motorcycle when he graduates he
[32:46] wants to buy me a motorcycle
[32:49] [Laughter]
[32:50] all right let's let's make sure you
[32:52] graduate then
[32:54] yeah
[32:57] all right guys have a great day
[32:59] thank you
[33:13] you