In Their Own Words: Founder’s College Students on their First Day of Classes

Founder’s College students on their first day of classes

Student Profile: Karmani Burton

Founder’s Degree Pathway: Business

Professional Aspiration: Real Estate Entrepreneur

Why Founder’s? I am 19 going on 20. I am supposed to be a sophomore in college now. I took a gap year. I was trying to be there for my family. It didn't feel right going off to school. I don't think I was ready. I just didn't feel as if I could focus on school. Last year, me and my mentor, we were looking for schools. Her sister-in-law ended up reaching out to her about Founders. We read over the website and I said “Wow, debt free, all these resources, very nice people, they know how to communicate very well–that was a good sign for me. I felt at peace when I started communicating with them and making this decision. It just seemed right. So, I said, you know what? We're just going to go for it.

How are you feeling on your first day? I feel like this semester is just going to really teach me how to navigate through college because this is my first time here. I think this semester is going to be like a navigating type season for me, learning how to navigate and, you know, get comfortable with my whole schedule and just get used to the college life. I feel like with my work and my homework and stuff like that, I'll be pretty okay with that. I don't think I'll struggle too much with it. If I do, I have a million people around me to help me, so I'd be all right.

What are your professional aspirations. When I was younger, I thought about being a doctor or a nurse or a teacher. But then as I got older, I'm like, “what would I really want to do that reflects my personality, that reflects who I am, something that I could actually have a passion for?” I feel like real estate, I can be a little social, not too social. I can still be business oriented. I can still show a little bit of my personality. I think when I get into real estate and I actually start my own firm, I want to be able to help people who actually need help. I want to provide resources for people who don't usually get them–people who have trouble getting in homes.

What are your goals for this year? I feel like the whole point of college–they offer so many resources, so many things we could utilize, why not use it? Why not gain from it? I could stay here for another four years if I wanted to, you know? Everything that they're teaching us, all the majors I could learn about, why not? I want to learn what's behind the scenes of running businesses. And I want to learn that so when the time comes for me to do my own thing, I will know how to do everything. I want my brain to be an academic monster. I want my brain to be full of knowledge. Like I just want to be very very smart, you know?

Founder’s College Students Daviam Alamo and Ethan Hurd

Student Profile: Daviam Alamo. 

Founder’s Degree Pathway: Youth and Community Advocacy

Professional Aspiration: News Anchor

Why Founder’s? I went on a field trip to Butler in high school and I was like, “I want to go to Butler.” It is obviously expensive because this is an amazing university. But I was planning to go somewhere else, but then one of my teachers said, "Hey, I have this scholarship that you might be interested in." I was still planning on going elsewhere, but when I got accepted, I was like, "This was God, literally." So that's why I came here.

How are you feeling about your first day? Amazing. I feel comfortable. I feel like I'm from here. I feel like I want to keep coming here. What's coming next? I want more, you know, like you want to take over the world almost, right? I want go keep going. Yes. I feel like I can eat the whole world.

What are your professional aspirations? Since I was a little kid I knew I wanted to be an actor. I had this opportunity in High School to join a class where you produce your newscast, do your own stories, go out and record videos, do your own script. We did everything a real news anchor does. I was like, "this is what I love. I love getting ready to go out and putting my mic on and getting that camera ready to record. Then that opportunity opened up more opportunities. I had an internship with a news channel. So I did more stuff that real producers or news anchors do. So I had that experience too. I was like, "Yeah, I definitely love this. I definitely want to go for it. Journalism is something that fills me up.

What are your goals for this year? My goal is to take something from everyone, to be more professional, to perfect my English and get more comfortable talking to people. I want to go out there and meet new people. Work on my networking. I want to get my degree. I want to have that professional achievement. And I definitely want to keep learning. I don't just want to get my degree, then do something else. No, I want to actually keep learning. I want to keep going. Even when I have my bachelor’s, I want to keep learning. I was thinking last night, when I retire I can teach journalism at Butler. I don't see my brain stopping from wanting to learn. 

Student Profile: Ethan Herd. 

Founder’s Degree Pathway: Youth and Community Advocacy

Professional Aspiration: History Teacher

Why Founder’s? For me personally, it was more of a money thing than anything. My dad sent me the flyer and was like, "Hey, E, you should go look at this." I live right down the road, so this is really convenient. It's awesome for me. It's great. 

How are you feeling about your first day?  I feel like they really made this place into a community of sorts. They have this whole little communal area just for us to come. We can hang out. I just really feel like they've done a lot to make it feel less of a school and more of a place where we're coming together to be something better than we are right now.

What are your professional aspirations? For the longest time, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I was just like, I’ll probably end up working at a gas station or something like that. And I just wanted something that I could go and do, head home, and be happy, content with my finances and all that. And when I got into high school, my history teacher, Mr. Miller, I just really liked the way he did things. Like most of my school career, I was like, I hate this place. But I just really enjoyed the way he did things. I actually got to talking to him and I learned a lot from the guy, right? And I took a few education courses where I shadowed some actual schools and I just really enjoyed it. I did some student teaching, not a lot but still some. And I really enjoyed the experience. I really liked working with the children. 

What are your goals for this year? I think my main only real goal is to get through it. I know that sounds kind of diminutive, but I really just want to get this done so I can move on and do what I want to do. You know what I mean? I am excited. Mostly just to be here. I'm just excited to have this chance.