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How to Prepare for a New Semester
May 22, 2019For many, graduate school is an intense experience, very different from their undergraduate years. Whereas college is for many a four-year social experiment punctuated by academics, graduate school tends to focus almost entirely on the work. Add to that the adult commitments many graduate students juggle – work, family and other responsibilities – and graduate…
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Is Your Data Safe? A Cybersecurity Expert’s Perspective
May 22, 2019For decades, security meant locking the doors and windows of your home, maybe turning on an alarm system, keeping your banking information and credit cards away from strangers, and placing your personal papers and passport in a safe. Today, you have hundreds of doors and windows into your life, and your banking, credit card, passport…
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The Joys and Woes of Summer School
May 9, 2019Many summer classes are hybrid in-person/online or feature small class sizes. For those taking courses outside their core competencies, that can be extremely helpful. At the Lowcountry Graduate Center, classes generally contain no more than 20 students and many are much smaller.
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Credit Counseling for Student Loan Debt
March 28, 2019A panel studying the crisis of student loan debt led by Ivanka Trump announced recently that it would recommend borrowing limits to help prevent students from drowning in debt upon graduation. Student loan debt has tripled since 2003 to about $1.5 trillion nationally. An average college graduate leaves school with $42,000 in debt, with payments…
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The News About Cell Phones is Worse Than You Thought
March 19, 2019As of 2015, 91 percent of American adults and 60 percent of teens owned a cell phone. The average person spends two-and-a-half hours a day using their phone and 80% of us check our phones within 15 minutes of waking.
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Teaching Foreign Students English in Charleston
March 14, 2019Whether you’re a native speaker of these languages (Spanish, Mandarin, Hebrew and Polish), or any of the 6,904 others believed to be in use around the globe, you’ll need to speak English fluently if you want to attend an American university or just get along in the United States today.
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New Executive MPA Program Comes to LGC in Fall of ‘19
February 25, 2019A new program is coming to the Lowcountry Graduate Center in the fall and it would be fair to say it has never been needed more.
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Global Fluency Initiative
February 12, 2019Volvo, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Bosch, Showa Denko, IHG, Gildan and many more – the number of foreign-owned businesses in the Charleston region is growing, bringing professionals from abroad to enrich our community and increase its cultural diversity. Is this famously insular area prepared to take its place as a participant in the global community? Many Charleston…
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The Altered State of Graduate Education
January 28, 2019In the fluid learning economy in which we operate today, more people than ever are seeking to update, or acquire new skills. The last 20 years have completely disrupted the fields of journalism, marketing, music, publishing, travel, retail and many others. The shift from a knowledge economy to a learning economy – i.e. one where…
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The Value of an MBA
January 15, 2019A Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) is the single most common graduate degree in America. If so many people have earned this degree, how much value can it have? And is it worth the cost of going to graduate school? Fortunately, the MBA may be the most studied degree in America too, and it…
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Uncle Sam Wants You – and He’s Willing to Pay
January 10, 2019Are you visiting the Lowcountry Graduate Center to finish that master’s degree in engineering, because you know it will open career opportunities for you? Here is one opportunity you might not have considered: the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Air Force Reserve. Like many businesses in the private sector, the Air Force is recruiting heavily in a…
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10 Realistic Tips to Planning for a Successful Semester
January 2, 2019The start of another semester is upon us. If you’ve been struggling with the school (-work) – life balance, perhaps it’s time for a new plan. The key to a new plan is … planning. So get ready to do a little advance legwork to get your semester on the right foot. We asked around…
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The Value of an Advanced Degree in Healthcare
December 17, 2018Although policy makers lament the growing slice of the economic pie being consumed by healthcare, there is one group thrilled about it – people who work in healthcare. More healthcare means more opportunities for jobs, businesses and careers. Dr. Nancy Muller is the Associate Dean of the School of Professional Studies at the College…
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Studying for Finals
December 11, 2018Photo by Angelina Litvin via Unsplash For many courses in graduate school, the final exam determines a substantial part of the overall grade. That means a semester of work can be undone by one bad exam. So what’s the secret to studying for finals? Three veteran exam takers with very different studying styles share this…
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Student Loan Series: Part 3
December 3, 2018Photo by Jon Elswick—AP via TIME Magazine At the rate she is going, Taylor Bauer thought she would literally never pay off her student loans. A former teacher in the Berkeley County School District who is now teaching in Mexico City, Bauer has been making income-based payments for five years. The federal student loan program offers…
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Student Loan Series: Part 2
November 15, 2018Photo by Rawpixel via Unsplash Just as new graduates are beginning to pay back their federal student loans, prospective undergrad and graduate students are eligible to fill out the financial aid paperwork for next academic year. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) may be submitted as early as October 1 for the…
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Student Loans Series: Part 1
November 12, 2018Photo by Steve Buissinne via Pixabay The greatest test of a student’s college career is upon us: it’s time for May 2018 graduates to begin repaying student loans. The average college graduate leaves school owing roughly $42,000, in payments of $350/month for ten years. The problem, say financial aid officers, is that many students are uninformed…
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SC Teacher Prep
November 5, 2018Photo by Feliphe Schiarolli via Unsplash No intelligent discussion about improving college attendance and graduation rates can fail to address the onrushing teacher shortage now reaching critical levels in South Carolina. The past school year opened 550 teachers short. That explains why the state’s Commission on Higher Education (CHE), a statewide funding agency for educational initiatives in state-owned…
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The Changing Healthcare Workplace
October 23, 2018A new day is coming to the already rambling, shambling, expensive, labyrinthine American healthcare system. U.S. healthcare is twice as expensive as the next most expensive system in the world (Germany’s) while delivering worse outcomes than in most industrialized countries. Now, a seed planted by the Affordable Care Act is beginning to germinate into a…
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Free Trade Isn’t Just a Good Idea, It’s Ineviatable
September 29, 2018Image by Kyle Ryan via Unsplash A country can impose any tariff or pass any trade-restricting law it likes, rail all it wants about unfair trade practices, demand a better deal from this trading partner or that one, says Dr. David Jamison, professor of business at South Carolina State University, but they are fighting the…
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An Expert Talk About Principled Leadership
September 20, 2018In the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage, attributed to John F. Kennedy but likely written by his staff, the authors single out Edmund Ross, a Republican Senator from Kansas, for a most unpopular decision. Ross broke with his party and cast the decisive vote against the conviction of President Andrew Johnson, allowing him to…
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Tuition Credits to Ease College Burden
August 22, 2018Image by Caleb Woods via Unsplash Changes in the state’s tax law, under S.C. Tuition Tax Credit that went into effect this year could reduce college tuition bills for many South Carolina families this tax year, irrespective of income or student GPA. The significance of this change lies in the fact that college costs in…
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The Rise of the Unconference for Professional Development
August 16, 2018If you’ve been to a conference, you know the formula: The organizers determine the speakers, presenters, a panel of experts, maybe some breakout sessions that allow participants to chime in periodically. Participants show up, listen to experts and maybe walk away with some CEUs. If the keynote speaker is entertaining, that’s a bonus. Rarely is…
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Serving as a Bridge to Graduate Education in the Lowcountry
August 9, 2018The Lowcountry Graduate Center (LGC) was created to answer the community’s call for graduate education that develops the knowledge-based workforce needed by industries powering Charleston’s economy. LGC fulfills this mission in myriad ways, often by providing local remote access to courses taught elsewhere. Another meaningful way the LGC fills the gaps in graduate education…
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Lowcountry Grad Grads Have Value to Scientific Research Corp.
August 6, 2018For years, particularly since the development of the aeronautics sector in the Lowcountry economy, employers have been agitating for more governmental and academic support for the development of STEM expertise. For the longest time, the Charleston area had no graduate-level programs for engineering, technology or science – other than the life sciences at MUSC. Imagine,…
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A Second Year of Success Thanks To Support from SCMEP
June 28, 2018A unique South Carolina resource, with a little help from an old Pig, has catapulted a local company and begun creating jobs in North Charleston. The South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership (SCMEP) is a private, non-profit group that serves as a resource to South Carolina businesses, providing them with a range of helpful strategies…
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Returning to School as an Adult
June 12, 2018This profound nugget of wisdom came from, of all places, the Dear Abby column in the newspaper. A 36-year-old man whose life dream was to be a doctor had frittered away his college years. He was considering a return to school but fretted that finishing his degree, medical school and an internship would take seven…
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Coastal Conservation League Outlines Priorities at Healthcare Advisory Board
May 29, 2018Because environmental issues are health issues, the Lowcountry Graduate Center’s Healthcare Advisory Board recently invited Emily Cedzo, Land, Water and Wildlife Program Director for the Coastal Conservation League, to present the organization’s priorities for 2018. The Coastal Conservation League’s mission is “to protect the threatened resources of the South Carolina coastal plain — its…
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Nursing MBA Offers a New Perspective, Opportunities, On Health Care
May 8, 2018Sally Bethea always had a head for business and a heart for taking care of people. She followed her heart and got a nursing degree from South Carolina State University, working for a spell as a floor nurse at Providence Hospital in Columbia. A series of personal tragedies – the death of her father…
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DNA and Criminal Justice
April 18, 2018On August 2, 1986, the body of 15-year-old Dawn Ashworth was found in the woods of Leicestershire, England, raped and strangled. The specific modus operandi recalled the murder of Lynda Mann in the same vicinity three years earlier. Mann’s case had never been solved. The prime suspect in the case was a local 17-year-old…
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Women in Aerospace: Challenges and Opportunities
April 9, 2018Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, Dana Farmer’s talent for math and science was evident, so school counselors pointed her towards accounting and business, not engineering or science. Because of her natural talent, she gravitated in her career towards engineering but found not having an engineering degree hindered her from securing some…
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The Hard Truth About Soft Skills
March 21, 2018We’re in the communication age, yet fewer people seem to be adept at communication than ever before. This has massive implications for the workplace, but most schools do not teach students business communication skills, by and large. Asked to rate the soft skills most important to business in a Harris survey, executives selected communication eighth…
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Begin With Books
March 5, 2018Ninety percent of brain development in humans occurs in the first three years of life when we learn how to learn. During that time, we develop – or we don’t – the neural pathways that will speed the learning process for a lifetime. By age six, the window of opportunity to develop those pathways…
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Why High Quality Early Education Is So Critical
February 26, 2018If you were to plot brain growth in humans against America’s public investment in young people by age, (as we demonstrate below) you would see a curious shape: The two lines are nearly mirrored images. In other words, the more public investment can make a difference in a child’s future, the less we invest…
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High Schoolers Learn About Banking by Running A Credit Union
February 26, 2018The credit union branch at Goose Creek High looks just like a professional branch except for the school logo. Morgan Montemayor speaks the language of financial institutions. She has handled member accounts at Heritage Trust Federal Credit Union, ensured compliance with company policies and federal regulations, and established proficiency in financial systems. Morgan…
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The Mental Health Component of Social Work
February 20, 2018The number of people with mental healthcare diagnoses has been on the rise for nearly half a century. Ever since the 1970s, and the de-institutionalization of mental healthcare, people struggling with diseases of the mind and the issues surrounding them have been thrust back into communities. With the rising number of people in need…
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Impact of Logistics to SC Economy Larger Than Expected
January 2, 2018A growing manufacturing sector in South Carolina has produced a growing need to move products from one point to another. The state recently quantified the impact of this business, commonly known as logistics or supply chain management. Logistics are particularly tied to advanced manufacturing, SC’s fastest-growing industry this decade. The study found advanced manufacturing employs…
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Charleston County Responding to Teacher Shortage
January 2, 2018As we documented a few months ago, a looming teacher shortage resulting from Baby Boomers retiring and a lack of Millennials to replace them in the classroom has begun to hit Charleston County hard enough to warrant a response. Charleston County School Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait has proposed that the school district hike starting teacher pay…
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Working For More Justice in the Criminal Justice System
December 13, 2017In almost every county in every state in America, jails and prisons are filled to overflowing, often with people who neither belong behind bars nor are best-served there. Many in jail are awaiting trial, a process that can take months, even years. Many struggle with drug addiction and mental illness and are low-level offenders who…
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Is The Thought Process the Key to Reducing Recidivism?
December 4, 2017Rickey grew up surrounded by drug use, poverty and criminal activity, so it surprised no one when he headed off to prison, or when he returned repeatedly. After each stint in the penitentiary, Rickey resolved not to make the same mistakes, but change is hard and he always reverted to his old ways. In…