Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Online Degrees: Stay Home and Get Smarter

By Donna Monday

We all know that an education can improve your standing in life. A college degree can increase your opportunity to enjoy a better standard of living, and also bring you career fulfillment. But what if you don’t have the time or ability to quit your job and go to college full time?

Many busy people choose to attend night classes on a part time basis. While this is a good solution, it can take many years to earn a degree this way. Plus, you have to take the classes when and where the college offers them. Not much flexibility in that.

Thanks to the Internet, it’s now possible for you to earn a college degree in your spare time at home.

Don’t confuse legitimate college degree programs with diploma mills. When you enroll in a legitimate online college degree program, you will have to follow course guidelines and do your homework – just like every college student. The only difference is, you won’t be sitting in a physical classroom.

You’ll have the benefit of studying under top-notch teachers and instructors who will guide you in your studies and be available via email to answer questions. One-on-one support is very important, especially when studying long distance. You’ll want to make sure your online degree program offers this type of help.

To avoid being scammed by unscrupulous degree mills, you’ll want to do your research and make sure the online degree program you’re interested in is fully accredited. It won’t do you any good to have a degree that isn’t recognized by employers and professionals.

Whether you’re looking to earn a bachelor’s degree, masters degree, doctorate, or earn a certificate of training, you have many fine online degree programs to chose from. So go ahead and investigate your options in advanced education. You are no longer restricted by time or location from reaching your goals. If you aspire to improve your status in life, a diploma is only a click away.

About the author:
Copyright 2005
Donna Monday
Earn a degree online in your own home
http://www.online-distance-learning-careers.com

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Top 5 School Fund Raiser Ideas

By Dion Semeniuk

TOP FIVE SCHOOL FUNDRAISING IDEAS

Schools often look for ways to make money. Sometimes, new playground equipment is needed, or perhaps band equipment and uniforms, it might be that the football team is in need of uniforms, or that the debate team needs money to travel to a meet. Fundraising is quite common and an excellent way to make the money required while teaching students about good sales and marketing, as well as money management. You will also see schools using fundraising to help other people. For example, during the Tsunami, schools all around the country joined efforts to raise money that could be used for medicine, food, clothing, and other needs. As you will discover in this article, there are many innovative ways of making money.

Discount Cards

With discount cards, you can offer one particular type or a book that consists of several different cards. For example, three of the favorites are shopping cards, pizza cards, and prepaid phone cards. With the shopping card, you would choose from local and national merchants that provide nice savings at retail shops, grocery stores, florists, etc. For the pizza card, this is just what it sounds, a card that would offer a discount off the price

of food sold at major chain pizza restaurants. Many of these cards offer limited use but for a mere $10, the person might receive a discount 20 times, making this a real bargain. Finally, prepaid phone cards are always a great fundraising option, used by families that live across the country from one another or for college students. For this type of card, you can choose from a number of denominations of $10, $20, $24, and even $30.

Sweet Candy.

The second school fundraising idea is something just about everyone loves – candy. Most often, candy sales are associated with school clubs, sports groups, music departments, and church youth groups. Because this is a small dollar item, they sell well but a good marketing plan to increase sales must also be developed and implemented. Ideally, find low-priced candy suppliers, ones that support school fundraising projects, choose the type or types of candy you want to sell, determine your price, and then get started selling.

Rubber Ducky

Next on the list of school fundraising ideas is the rubber duck derby. In the past few years, this has become a very popular school fundraising idea. Not only is the rubber duck derby fun, but also a great way to involve the community while earning money. You could work with your local grocery stores to sell rubber ducks for $1, which gives the buyers a chance to win a valuable donated prize. Then on a specified date, the ducks are taken to a local park with a lake. All of the rubber ducks are emptied into the water at once and the first one to cross the finish line wins.

Car Washes

Next for successful school fundraising ideas is the car wash. Many companies will donate the water for car washes so all you have to do is bring garden hoses, towels, Windex and paper towels, and signs leading people in the right direction. You can set the price at $1 to $5 per car or establish the car wash fundraiser as a donation basis. Either way, you will find that you make quite a bit of money in exchange for some hard work and fun.

Bake Sales

Finally, one of the most popular and most successful school fundraising ideas is a good, old-fashioned bake sale. For this, students (and probably parents) would donate baked goodies to include brownies, cookies, cake, pie, and miscellaneous items. Then, the students would work outside a strip mall or grocery store, encouraging people to buy. Usually, people are very supportive of a bake sale and if the food is good the money is too.

About the author:

Dion Semeniuk is the proud father of 2 girls. He's actively looking at ways to be able to generate money for kids to be able to participate in special events. Learn about School Fund Raiser Ideas, visit http://www.school-fund-raiser-directory.com