Latest news with #Gravley
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
First Responder Friday: Clemson Police teach children how to call 911
CLEMSON, S.C. (WSPA) – When you call 911, it's often during one of life's worst moments, but what if a child has to dial the number in an emergency? 'The hardest callers we deal with are children,' 911 dispatcher Pam Gravley, of the Clemson Police Department, said. 'Whether they're terrified or they simply don't know their information technology.' Gravley is an experienced dispatcher with more than 21 years of service to the City of Clemson. She's also the author of children's books. The idea came from bedtime stories she created with her family at bedtime. 'She (granddaughter) would pick her stuffed animals, and we would tell stories before she went to bed, and that was every night,' Gravley told us. 'They write the stories. I just put them on paper.' The characters in her books are all stuffed animals, but in her most recent work, Gravley decided to combine her job with her passion. 'Calling 911: An Interactive Guide to Calling 911 for Children' was published this year. 'The night before I started this book, we actually had a call from an eight-year-old who was at home with his six-year-old brother. He did not know his address. He did not know he lived in an apartment.' Gravley's book is designed to be read by children and their parents or guardians. It contains instructions for adults and some interactive projects for young people to learn vital information that can help in an emergency. 'Every second counts, and if we can get to your street, we're going to find you,' the dispatcher told 7NEWS. 'If you can give me the number of your house, we will go door to door until we make contact with you. But it's so simple, just teach your child your address.' Gravley reminded us that while cell phones can ping a location, that information is often insufficient for arriving first responders, especially at an apartment complex. The book contains pages where children can write out their name, address and their parents' names. She suggests parents post it in a common place, like a kitchen refrigerator, but at a lower level where children can see it. Now that the book is published, Gravely wants 'Calling 911: An Interactive Guide To Calling 911 For Children' to be read by children, parents, groups, schools, churches and more. 'I would love for this to be in the hands of every child in the school district across the state,' said Gravley. 'It should be part of the curriculum, because you never know. And it's not just a book. It's going to save their life or someone in their family's life.' You can order any of her children's books by visiting her website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gulf Today
09-03-2025
- General
- Gulf Today
Millions of adults have some college but no degree
MiMi Gravley works full-time, as a community relations liaison at Strawberry Mansion High in Philadelphia. She's also a full-time college student and juggles raising her own kids and making ends meet. Gravley is smart and motivated; she wanted to earn a college degree, but life and bills got in the way. She left college once because the price tag was too high. 'You want the degree, but if you don't have the money, you don't have the money,' said Gravley, who grew up in Philadelphia and attended culinary school after graduating from Central High. She earned an associate's degree at Community College of Philadelphia during the pandemic, then enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at Eastern University before halting classes because of the expense. This time, Gravley, 36, is on a surer route to her bachelour's degree. She's enrolled at College Unbound, a college with local ties that gives adult learners from underserved communities affordable paths to graduation, with low tuition, strong supports baked in, credit for relevant life experience, a cohort model that helps keep students engaged, and impressive early results. College Unbound began in 2009 in Rhode Island, when Dennis Littky, a founder of the educational nonprofit Big Picture Learning, joined with Adam Bush, a jazz historian with experience in higher education. The idea, said Bush, was to 'democratise access to credits. Learning isn't something that's only happening when you're in a classroom, when you're paying for it.' Bush sees College Unbound as a 'degree completion' school — most of its students have some college under their belt, though that's not a requirement for enrollment. Its average student is 38; most are women of color. Many are caregivers and many have experience with the prison system, either themselves or via a family member. College Unbound costs about $11,000 per year, and most of its students qualify for Pell grants, which pay $7,395 of that bill. About 80% of local students attend at no cost to them, officials said. The college owns no buildings; all classes are online or held in spaces owned by other organisations, typically with supports like food and babysitting provided. All faculty are adjunct. Students earn a bachelor's degree in organisational leadership and change, most in under 2 1/2 years. At first, College Unbound operated with partner institutions; in 2015, it became accredited to grant its own degrees. It currently has 500 students enrolled in Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington, Del., and Washington state, and has graduated about 500 students. College Unbound's Philadelphia roots date back more than a decade. David Bromley, then the director of Big Picture Philadelphia, had a conversation with Wendell Pritchett, then a member of the School Reform Commission, about Big Picture's concept — personalised learning, real-world experiences — and what that might look like at the college level. (Pritchett is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's law school, and Penn's former provost and interim president.) The idea fascinated Pritchett, who's now chair of College Unbound's board. 'There are 50 million people who started college and didn't finish,' said Pritchett. 'We in higher ed should be embarrassed by that and we're not. I call it reparations — to repair a lot of the damage that higher ed has caused.' In the Philadelphia area, 157,055 adults have some college courses under their belt, but have not earned a degree, according to US Census data. Most of them are Black or Hispanic. Bromley left Big Picture Philadelphia in 2021 to bring College Unbound to the area. To date, it's had 153 students enroll through partnerships with the Philadelphia School District, ASPIRA, Philadelphia Housing Authority, and Public Health Management Corporation. 'We're really trying to find our space in the Delaware Valley, not to compete with 73 institutions of higher education. It's to serve this niche group, this population in a super supportive flexible way that also benefits the partner,' said Bromley. More partnerships are forthcoming, he said. A group of College Unbound students gathered digitally on a winter weeknight. It was a big day — final presentations. College Unbound structures its curriculum around student interests and the work they are doing in real life. The students, all paraprofessionals in the Philadelphia school system enrolled in College Unbound through its 'Para Pathways' program that seeks to build the teaching pipeline by helping paraprofessionals earn credentials, talked about projects they had undertaken at their schools. Danette Swindle, who works at Sullivan Elementary in Frankford, created an after-school basketball program. Her why, she said, was the death of her cousin, killed walking to a corner store in 2021. More resources are needed for youth, she said. It wasn't easy, but Swindle learned a lot, she said. 'While I was building my after-school program, it built my resilience,' said Swindle. 'I wanted to give people resources and help them navigate their daily challenges.' College Unbound students move through their classes in small cohorts, and those groups provide built-in supports. Classes run on eight or 16 week cycles, might run synchronously or asynchronously, and every class begins with a one-on-one meeting with a student and professor.
