I trust that you are enjoying/have enjoyed your first weekend as a bona fide college student. In less than four years you will be moving on after closing the chapter on your undergraduate studies at Florida State University.

Here is a follow up on the great advice your cousin, Leah, gave you at your recent high school graduation party. She urged you to begin your college career with your sights set on earning a 4.0 grade point average your first semester. The clock starts now.

This is what an early 4.0 looks like. Once you get it, no one can ever take it away. It makes a great—everlasting—gift to parents and cheerleaders as well. The key, as Leah suggested, is to negotiate for classes that first semester that count toward graduation, but classes that you know you can earn an A in them.

Since this is about demonstrating Academic Excellence in college, I wanted to show you also what summa cum laude looks like.

Tyrone Keys, Jr. tpkeys graduated summa cum laude this year from North Carolina State University, one of FSU’S fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member institutions. It might not hurt for you to seek out an FSU senior who is on track to graduate summa cum laude with an Accounting degree and buy him or her some pancakes!

I have this link that I want to share with you. “The invisible men” is a piece that appeared in 2005 in the St. Petersburg Times. From time to time, reporters and others seek out black men from FSU to help describe the state of academic achievement in the black community. You have the opportunity to remind yourself and others that you are in a “glass house.” This also provides you all excellent opportunities to project the level of Academic Excellence that got you to FSU in the first place.

Finally, folks at the Florida Department of Education also keep track of the number of black males who graduate each year. This chart shows “our piece of the 2006 State University System (SUS) Grad Pie.” Because you are planning to major in Accounting, I trust the numbers say something to you. Hint: The chart only displays the number who kept their eye on the ball!

In His Service,
Jason

Jason D. Mims
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired
3906 W. Tyson Ave. Tampa, FL 33611
CELL: (813) 787-0392
jason

The MIMS Institute www.mimsinstitute.com
Promoting academic excellence in key urban zip codes

…The fruit of LOVE is SERVICE. The fruit of SERVICE is PEACE.
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