The Red Mountain Institute (RMI) is an idea for a 501(c)(3) in Birmingham, Alabama, dedicated to sponsoring original student research and providing trade school scholarships to graduating high school students across the state.
Why Trade School, Not College?
Offices of financial aid do their best to make education affordable. Yet the costs of college and graduation education in the U.S. are ballooning at alarming rates. The administrative bloat in many colleges and universities adds to the problem.
Moreover, too many students feel obligated to attend college and to take on five- to six-figure debts in the process. Too many employers require college degrees and even master’s degrees for nearly every position, even though many individuals without a college degree could perform the job as well as, if not better than, many people with college degrees.
Part of running a scholarship program is outreach. This component is as important as any because it presents an alternative path to college that so many high school students stand to benefit from. Careers—not just jobs—in what we refer to as the “trades” are societally valuable and lucrative; plus, they don’t require another 4-8 years of school and mountains of debt.
Trade school is the ideal path for many students. RMI will make the trades more affordable, attractive, and appreciated across Alabama and the Southeast U.S.
Why Sponsor Student Research?
Research is more than collecting data points and writing sentences that describe them afterward. It is the very process of discovery and verification. At its core, research is essentially exploring a specific question in a structured manner. Sponsoring student research at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels gives students an opportunity to explore what piques their interests, building valuable, transferrable skills along the way.
Whether the focus is economic, public policy, historical, or otherwise, conducting research teaches students that complexity is unavoidable but navigable with the right set of skills. It also grounds the researcher in a body of knowledge with which genuine expertise can be developed. If you research a topic for two to three years, you are likely in the top 10% of ‘experts’ on it in the world. The confidence boost from having done the research and from always having something you can discuss with great detail in job interviews or while networking cannot be underestimated.
Alabama is steeped in history; however, high school curricula seem to skim through it, hitting a handful of topics from K-12. Teaching K-12 students about Alabama’s trials and tribulations—from De Soto to the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era—is essential to bettering Alabama’s youngest voting-age citizens and instilling in students a meaningful connection to place—to their family, but also to their heritage, regional affinity, and all the possibilities that await enterprising individuals.
If you have an interest in partnering to create RMI, know of someone who might, or have an inquiry, please contact me.