Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 134, Number 26, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 28 June 2012 — Page 4

• Advance News • Thursday, June 28,2012

Page A4

Hie 4 myths of education There are four huge barriers to getting a college education — but they are not real barriers at all. There are quite a few reasons for getting a college educa-

tion and they are the obvious reasons you have already thought about Your education is your planned effort to learn and build learning skills. A degree can help open doors to better jobs and build skills you need to create your own opportunities in business and

life. A college degree is a useful signal to others drat you can leam, and stay engaged in learning. Some of us get off track in that effort, and our educational journey can sometimes follow a blind alley or two before we decide on a better path. That's where the first myth comes in; 1. It’s too late. Is it ever too late to leam and develop some new skill? If that were true you would still be listening to record players and trying to figure out a newfangled remote control. This "too late" myth is not true because you are constantly being thrown into the deep end of the pool and learning to develop new skills and knowledge in technology, job tasks, and a hundred more dungs before next Tuesday. "Your education relies on your ability to try to learn, not your ability to be 'perfect' after being out of a classroom for a few years. You can earn a college degree in two years or less at a place like Andlla College because we offer focused, high impact associates degrees," said Andlla president Ronald May. 2. It’s too hard. "Getting back into a degree program may be scary if you've been out of school for a few years," May said. "But most people don't understand how much they are learning every day, in all sorts of contexts, when they say 'l'm too old' for school or 'l'm not cut out 7 for college anymore. The fact is, every year you can read about 60, 70 and 80-year-old college graduates. They do not have a special genius. They just dedded to jump bai in and get a degree." 3. It’s too expensive. While educational costs have skyrocketed in many states, and tuition has increased nationwide faster than inflation, there is a local option to getting a college degree that tears apart this myth. "Andlla College has frozen our tuition, and it's at a level that makes us the least expensive private college in Indiana. Anyone, at any age, can apply for state and federal aid and there are several ways to finance the costs of college," May said. "But I often ask people... what's the cost to you if you don't have a college degree? What opportunities, promotions and jobs' db'jfojitfjiss out bn? Can you really afford to not get an educationtoaay?" 4. It’s too far. With its location just two miles south of US 30 near Plymouth, Andlla College is located within an hour of every major dty in Northern Indiana. "One thing we've noticed with the new Logistics and Inventory Systems degree we are offering at Andlla is just how connected we are. As our faculty and staff looked at transportatioa materials handling, and warehousing management —a huge part of our economy right here in our back yard—we saw that travel time was actually much shorter, and travel costs much less, than travel and housing at larger institutions further away in Indiana," May said. "Students already enroll in Andlla's 14 degree programs from South Bend, Mishawaka, Warsaw, Valparaiso, Hobart, Rochester, and points beyond," said Eric Wignall, Andlla's Interim Director of Admissions. "We serve students in seven counties (outside of Marshall County) that live and work within 45 minutes drive." Andlla College enrolls 500 students in 14 two-year Assodate's Degree programs ranging from business to nursing. It was founded by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ 75 years ago, and is located on Union Road south of U.S. 30 near Plymouth.

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Chargers Corner Dr.RonaidMay President

Opinion/Community

Camping out even with the finest in roughing-it luxuries and the latest in technology does not always mean things will run smoothly. Generators will die; bulbs and fuses will bum out; someone will get sunburned (normally me) arid knowledge moving through cyberspace from one place to another gets lost. No matter how much I open my mind, I cannot understand how a program can on one end, say it is there or that it was sent, and then on another, not be there or say it wasn't received. Where is it then? Is someone's computer on the other side of the planet getting it and it's going to their spam folder? Is it floating about in the air; my words and files now virtually invisible, floating around for 747 s to plow through them? When someone creates a program or an app that can confirm that my recipient has what I sent them in their vision I want someone to let me know immediately. Steve Jobs and Stephen Hawking can't or aren't likely to be able to do that so someone should really step up to the plate. Also when camping, you never know what you'll get, or how long something will last. Take the campground showers or restrooms. You might get something that is comparable to the local shopping mall's facilities or you might get a door that doesn't fully close, with no lock, no paper, and a spider waiting to crawl from his web up your leg. Showers, if you're lucky enough to not have to wait for one, also are surprises waiting to be realized. You may find a wide shower stall, done in ceramic tiles and a shower head (or two) that would male your bathroom at home

Drought causes lawn stress

Last week 1 wrote about the affect drought has on com and soybeans. Since then, I have had questions about the stress our lawns are under. The most common species of grasses used in lawns include Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue, and tall fescue. All these species are known as cool season grasses because they grow best when daytime temperatures are in the range of 60 to 75°F along with adequate soil moisture. These lawns look the best during the spring and fall. Once temperatures exceed 80 degrees, and rainfall becomes sparse, these species show signs of drought stress by changing from green to either bluish-green or gray-green. Wilt is a sign of water stress and is usually most evident during mid to late afternoon periods. If dry conditions persist, the lawn will stop all growth, and go dormant. Dormant grass is not dead but is in a condition to preserve the vital parts of the plant. By becoming dormant, grass reduces water usage and can concentrate the limited amount of available moisture into the crown, rhizomes and roots. This condition will allow the turfgrass to survive adverse conditions for extended periods until soil moisture reserves are replenished. The length of time lawn grasses can survive in a dormant condition depends on several factors including soil moisture levels, daytime temperatures, and the health the grass before dormancy. In general, our lawns can be expected to survive dormant conditions for up to 4 to 5 weeks with limited damage if temperatures are at or below normal. If daytime temperatures are elevated (mid-80's or higher) consistently through the stress period, only 3 to 4 weeks of survival should be anticipated. Dormant grass is lost once the crowns, rhizomes and roots begin to dehydrate. Areas of the lawn along sidewalks, curbs, driveways, and south facing slopes tend to have the most stress and will be the first areas to be lost during extended periods of drought. To help your lawn survive dormancy, try to follow the following steps: 1) Limit your activities on the lawn as much as possible. Mow high (3 inches) and less frequently. Dormant grass is

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jealous. Or (and more typically) you that find a shower head that dribbles, and even better; that is controlled from a wire (that looks suspiciously like a bent hanger) that you have to pull to make the water spit out. And still better yet, when the water emits, it sprays to the left and the right but not actually ON you where you stand immediately under it. You may also find that the showers have no hot water, or no hooks or benches within the stall to put your dry things. Other undesirable things you might find about your shower stall is the relative to that spider in the bathroom stall, a band-aid, or even more unsavory, a hairball that you are thankful to have recognized soon enough to not run out of the stall screaming from, because you first identified it as a mouse. Another thing you can't really can't anticipate, though you should be able to, is that your space will be uninhabited when you return from running somewhere. Or that the chairs or wet towels or stack of firewood is awaiting your comeback from getting ice cream. The main thing you can't be sure of is not the weather conditions (but hey, if you're in Indiana you can just wait them out), but how much fun you will have with the company with which

Mytwo cents By Angel Perkins Editor

Purdue Extension

Knowledge to Go J

Elkhart County By Jeff Burbrink Extension Educator

not growing, so fertilizer is not necessary. 2) A light watering or rainfall at 1/2 inch every two to three weeks will help minimize damage to the lawn during the dormancy period. This watering practice will supply enough moisture to keep crowns, rhizomes and roots hydrated and alive. This small amount of water will not regreen a dormant lawn, however, it will help to insure good recovery once rainfall occurs later in the summer. 3) Avoid the temptation to control those green weeds in your brown lawn. Drought damage turf can't handle the added stress of weed control products very well. Wait until fall to get the weeds back under control. For those people fortunate to have irrigation systems, remember that daily or every-other-day watering schedules are not a good way to water turf. It is best to apply one to 1.5 inches of water in a single sprinkling, and allow the turf to harvest that water from the depths of the soil. Typically, a lawn given an inch of water should be able to go 3 days in mid 80 degree temperatures before watering again. Drought can show you how to adjust your irrigation system. I have driven by several irrigated lawns that are now an interesting swirl of green and dormant grass. The brown patches are receiving enough water to stay alive, but not enough to avoid dormancy. Many of these lawns are suffering from the combined effect of frequent, low dose watering and a poor water distribution pattern. Using several straight-sided coffee mugs to measure sprinkler output may help you to see how to even out the water distribution pattern. * For more tips on watering lawns, visit Purdue's turfgrass publication website at www.agry.purdue.edu/turf/pubs.

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COMMUNITY SINGSPIRATION at Community Gospel Church SR 331 3 miles north of Bremen Sunday, July 1 at 6:00 p.m.-? Free will offering Questions? Call 574-546-4927 or 574-546-5680

you've chosen to keep. I'm not what one would call an athlete, I {flayed softball as a child and later a cheerleader which back then, didn't take a whole lot of flexibility or strength like the squads of today with their aerial acrobatics. In fact, I don't like to sweat in general. But playing horse with my son on a basketball court, throwing sandbags (quite terribly I might add) into too-small holes, and whipping a Frisbee toward a goal I can't even see from where I was standing - even in the 90-degree sweltering sun, is fun, when you're doing it with (or rather against) someone you love (even if you are prone to losing - which I unashamedly am). It can rain. You can miss the last call for canoe trips. You can find that "trails to hike" means about a mile of gravel driveway circle. You can get stung, scraped or stained. You can have most any calamity - but when you're with the right people, none of it really matters much. It's almost like fate (God, luck, nature - fill in your preferred powerful force of choice) has decided that you need a little gloom and a handful of minor challenges to make up for the good you are wallowing around in. One thing that IS a sure thing with any leisurely trip, whether it's to a family member's house for a two-hour visit or two weeks in the Bahamas, there is that meloncholy on the return trip. You missed home, and are glad to sleep in your own bed and avoid your own hairballs, but the fact of the matter is, everybody wishes they had been given just a little more time ... and nobody likes unpacking.