photo: lemuelinchrist/ BY

I plan on attending a community college in January to study to be a licensed vocational nurse, or LVN. I will start by attending a two-year college. After that, I eventually plan to become a registered nurse. When I heard about Obama's American Graduation Initiative, I was pretty excited because I feel that right now I can't afford to go to a four-year college. 

I thought it was cool that Obama recognized in his recent speech on the American Graduation Initiative, that community colleges are great training grounds for a lot of jobs in the medical field, including "medical technician, health IT worker, lab specialist, or nurse." He mentioned a statistic I didn't know--that 59 percent of new nurses come from two-year schools, so I guess I'm making a good choice now.

The longer I stay in school without working, the more money comes out of my parents' (and my own future) pocket. My godsister actually attended a four-year college and said that it was a waste of time and money. She feels she could have gone to a two-year college and finished quicker. I think Obama's investment will help students in community college finish quicker by preparing them to transfer them to a four-year college or helping them get jobs quicker upon graduation. According to Education Undersecretary Martha Kanter, community colleges haven't done enough in the past to get their students through to the next level, whether it be a four-year college or a job.

Besides saving and time and money, the program Obama proposes sounds good because it will offer grants for the students and improves classrooms and research facilities on community college campuses.  I think this is a great idea because I think it would give the students in community colleges more opportunities in general. The research money especially will help in terms of finding treatments for disease.

I think Obama's new plan to boost the economy is a great idea. I feel like investing twelve million dollars in community colleges will benefit students, especially after graduation, when their education hopefully will translate into jobs.