WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to John Granville, a slain Foreign Service officer from Buffalo, at a memorial ceremony Monday at the headquarters of the U. S. Agency for International Development.

Rice appeared briefly at the ceremony and announced that Granville will receive the Thomas Jefferson Star, the highest honor given to any Foreign Service worker.

Granville was shot and killed in Khartoum, Sudan, after leaving a New Year’s Eve party this year. Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, a Sudanese driver for the aid agency where Granville worked, also was killed in the attack.

The names of both men were added to a wall commemorating fallen aid workers at the USAID headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building. Granville will be similarly honored at the State Department’s headquarters in the Harry S. Truman Building.

“He loved his work,” Granville’s mother, Jane, said at the ceremony. “He loved Africa and most of all he loved the people of Africa.”

The State Department recognized Granville for his relentless effort to build relationships with the people he was working to help, despite the dangerous circumstances volunteers continue to work under in Sudan. Granville previously worked in Kenya and Cameroon.

At the ceremony, Rahama’s widow tearfully offered her condolences to USAID and the Granville family for their loss. She said her husband lived long enough to celebrate the first birthday of their son before he was shot, and that his death came at a time when she needed him most.

“The sadness was eased by the kindness and sympathies of USAID,” she said before leaving the stage to embrace Granville’s mother and extended family.

At the time of the killings, both men were returning from a party at the British Embassy when another car cut theirs off and opened fire.

In May, The Buffalo News reported that the FBI was investigating five Sudanese men in connection with the killings. Suspects have been detained, according to the Diplomatic Security office in the Department of State. The men were turned over to Sudanese police, according to the office of Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.

But the FBI, Department of State and the U. S. Attorney’s office in Western New York would not comment Monday on whether arrests have actually been made.

Higgins, who traveled to Sudan in 2006, attended the memorial service to offer words of support. He said Granville’s murder serves as an urgent reminder of the unstable conditions foreign aid workers face in developing nations.

“From Buffalo to Africa, John’s presence is mourned by the many people whose lives he touched; nevertheless his spirit lives on in the groundwork he laid through his missions,” he said.

The Buffalo News

WASHINGTON— Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl Jr. joined a handful of his Republican colleagues Tuesday to press House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call lawmakers back from their five-week break and immediately push for action on a comprehensive energy policy to offset high oil costs.

“I think it’s outrageous that Speaker Pelosi, a multimillionaire, travels about the country promoting a book when we, members of Congress, are receiving letters daily and phone calls, people pleading for help,” said Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, who is facing a second consecutive strong challenge in the 29th District from Democrat Eric Massa.

Kuhl and his colleagues held a news conference at the Capitol as part of the GOP’s Nationwide Gas Prices Protest, which began Aug. 1 after Pelosi dismissed Congress without voting on the American Energy Act. Kuhl called the bill “the all-of-the-above energy solution” Americans are looking for to alleviate the burden of oil prices and to prepare for higher heating costs this winter.

Meanwhile, Massa — citing Kuhl’s “close, personal relationship” with President Bush — called on the congressman to pressure the president to call Congress back into session himself to deal with the energy issue.

“While Representative Kuhl may be so out of touch that he does not realize this, his entire career in Washington has earned him the well-deserved reputation of standing with President Bush, and I think it’s time that he ask the president to do something for the people of Western New York,“ Massa said in a statement.

At the news conference, Kuhl read a letter from a constituent from Wayland that spelled out issues countless Americans and upstate New Yorkers now struggle with because of gas prices: a lack of public transportation and infrastructure that has made owning a car a necessity for many across the nation.

Pelosi was on a tour to promote her book “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.”

“We do not stand here today with Speaker Pelosi or any other Democratic member of Congress, and that is because they refuse to come back to work,” Kuhl said Monday, when he spoke on the issue on the House floor.

The Constitution allows the president to call Congress into session “on extraordinary occasions,” and Massa, in his statement, said the period of high oil prices qualifies as an extraordinary occasion.

He said the country is in a crisis generated by failed policies and “rubber stamps” in Congress.

“Middle-class America is having a hard time making ends meet at a time when Big Oil corporations are making record profits,” Massa said. “This is wrong, and now is the time to work out a commonsense solution to this crisis.”

The Buffalo News

By Phillip Lucas – Washington Informer
Thursday, 02 October 2008

As the green movement picks up speed, the District and Ward 8 are preparing to be in on the ground floor as all D.C. Public Schools are being mandated to participate in environmental initiatives. Ward 8 is beginning to see an explosion of eco-friendly contracting projects in the area.

“The focus here is making sure that people of color and Black folks are the drivers of the green economy,” said Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, a field organizer for the greening movement’s National Day of Action at last week’s “Get Going, Go Green, Green Jobs Now” community event near the Anacostia metro station.

“We want to make sure the people who are most negatively affected by pollution are the ones that benefit the most from a green economy,” Abdul-Matin said.

The green economy, complete with green-collar jobs, has the capability, according to the 1 Sky environmental organization, to create up to five million new, cost effective and sustainable jobs. The issue is that the people who need those jobs most have to get educated on the greening movement and become involved.

“I consider the economy we’re in now to be the old economy. This will be the new economy. All people have the chance, if we provide the wrap-around services, and if we provide the training, then all people will be able to effectively raise themselves up and become productive members of society,” said Ward 8 Environmental Chair Jackie Ward.

“Instead of being on the outside looking in, we want them inside, on the ground floor, being a player,” Ward said, referring to District residents, specifically the working poor.

The potential for five million jobs, which the 1 Sky organization said could be the essential economic stabilizer, doesn’t come without the acquisition of new or slightly altered skill sets for workers in the area.

Recently, Howard University was given a grade of “F” in terms of environmental awareness. In response, the school hosted the Green Careers Day of Action, where student leaders met with the campus Environmental Society to outline possible paths to greening the university, little by little.

Abdul-Matin said for students, residents and ex-offenders re-entering a brand new and quickly constricting job market, learning to survive in a green economy is simple as keeping an open mind and knowing how to use connections to get the skills necessary to be competitive.

“They need to be aware of it, they need to be mindful that there’s a role they can play, they need to be connected to some community organizations-and there’s a lot of them here. The other piece is they need to have the will,” he said. “They need to see the value of the opportunity and they need to seize it.”

Allison Fisher, from Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light said her organization focuses on mobilizing faith-based communities in the city to be stewards of change in their own right.

“I think the best thing is what all the prophets did, they spoke out, they spoke to government they spoke to leaders and they demanded it of them,” she said, referring to the need for area residents to demand training for jobs in a green industry.

“It’s a question of us changing light bulbs, it’s a question of us lessening our footprint overall, but it’s also a question of us getting active and making our voices heard.”

With the greening movement becoming more pervasive in everyday life, environmental organizations emphasize that buying a “green” product doesn’t make up for wasteful habits and the use of non-sustainable resources.

Ward said Council members Marion Barry, Tommy Wells of Ward 6 and Mary Cheh from Ward 3 have been instrumental in expanding the greening movement through the city, and have plans in the works for even more educational outreach.

“He [Barry] viewed this movement as a way to get the excess human capital that you see exists in our community opportunities to be trained,” Ward said.

“We just want to make sure we have our people ready to work, ready to go.”

The Washington Informer

Rashad said student protestors handed her a flyer, as she entered the auditorium, which explained their frustrations with the Board of Trustees and administration’s decision to increase tuition in the 2009-2010 academic year. “It is good to see that spirit of activism in students,” Rashad said.
“I received it gladly, remembering myself in that position,” Rashad said, referring to the protests she remembers participating in during her undergraduate years that led her to earning a Bachelor‘s of Fine Arts and graduating magna cum laude.
“I agree, we must protest for the right to educate all of our people, and we must support our staff and be mindful of the cost of education and housing,” Rashad said “This is not a time for rancor, discord and discontentment, this is a time where great things are achieved by coming together and working together in mutual respect for each other.”

The planned tuition increase has been a source of many debates and protests on Howard’s campus, including the protest during the Charter Day ceremony, which is the first event in a weekend set aside to celebrate the University’s founding in 1867. However, Rashad reassured students that although the decision has been made, it wasn’t a popular one.

“As much as students don’t like it, believe me when I tell you trustees dislike it even more,” Rashad said.

Howard University Student Body President-Elect Bryan Smart, a junior from Houston, Texas, said he applauded the students for their effort since, in his opinion, many students voice frustrations concerning the university, but few ever act on it.

Rashad, the first African American woman to win a Tony award for her performance in “A Raisin In The Sun,” said she thought of herself as a “rather inconsequential” piece of Howard’s community, but urged the audience to “rise up and create a new,” leaving many students and faculty inspired as the school closed for spring break.

An early portion of her speech outlined her highs and lows at Howard, including her initial disappointment with the campus and facilities.
“A few weeks later I went to my first dance and I was just fine,” Rashad said.

“I really felt as though many students were able to relate to her speech,” Smart said. “A lot of her experiences are our current ones.”
To add to her many awards and honors, the Howard University Board of Trustees Chairman Addison Barry-Rand, recently appointed CEO of the AARP, presented Rashad with an honorary Doctor of Humanities for her achievements.

The Washington Informer

WASHINGTON — Two years after trying to get pro-war combat veterans “embedded” as reporters at major newspapers, Vets for Freedom — formed by retired Army Sgt. David Bellavia of Batavia and other Iraq War veterans — has reemerged with an ad campaign that appears to benefit Sen. John McCain’s campaign.

Bellavia and eight other Vets for Freedom leaders described their multimillion-dollar ad campaign at the National Press Club last week, insisting that the effort is bipartisan.

“I don’t believe that there’s a place on your dog tag for a political party,” said Bellavia, a Republican who toyed with a run for Congress from New York’s 26th District this year.

The message, however, resolutely backs the war — as does McCain.

“We changed strategy in Iraq,” one vet says in the first Vets for Freedom ad. “And the surge worked,” says another.

“Now that’s a change we can believe in,” says a third — mocking the slogan of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting.

The Obama campaign refused to comment on the record on the Vets for Freedom campaign, but it sent an e-mail to reporters noting that the group bought air time in Virginia after the McCain campaign pulled its ads in the state. The same thing essentially happened in three Michigan markets.

Vets for Freedom opposes a timed withdrawal from Iraq that many Democrats — including Obama — are calling for.

The sense that media coverage of Iraq was too negative prompted Vets for Freedom to come together in 2006, starting with an unsuccessful effort to embed veterans — including Bellavia — as war correspondents for major newspapers such as The Buffalo News.

The group refuses to disclose where it gets its money.

“Quite frankly, we have 25,000 members and most of those members don’t want to have their information put out there,” Bellavia said, adding that about 500 are in New York, most in Western New York.

pls2004@msn.com

The Buffalo News

WASHINGTON — At the ripe age of 6, Declan Hurley of Clarence knows exactly what he wants out of life: to be the first deaf president of the United States.

Standing in front of the Treasury Building after touring his hoped-for future home Thursday, Declan said he wants to be president because he’s smart and wants to help people.

“And I want to make money,” he added, proving that he may some day be one of those truth-telling candidates.

Declan toured the White House with his parents, completing a dream that began when he wrote to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N. Y., to ask for tickets.

“I’m sorry you’re not the first woman president,” Declan wrote.

And then he quickly asked for the senator’s vote when he runs for president someday.

Clinton called Declan after getting the letter, pledging her support, Declan’s parents, Peter and Jennifer Hurley, said. And before long the family got the White House tour tickets that Declan had been craving.

The family spent about a half-hour on that tour Thursday, admiring the paintings and meandering through public spaces that were nearly deserted.

And although it is at least 29 years too soon for Declan to be measuring for drapes in the Oval Office, he’s not too young to dream. And if his dream comes true, he would be a landmark president.

When he was only a year old, Declan underwent surgery to implant a cochlear hearing device at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. The implant allows Declan to hear and speak normally, an ability he uses to recite the presidents of the United States in order of the years they served in office.

Fresh out of kindergarten, he doesn’t stumble over a single name.

Adding “Hurley” to that list is just one of Declan’s dreams.

He’s already planning an undergraduate career at Notre Dame before getting his medical degree at Johns Hopkins — meaning he might just be the first physician president, too.

“It’s funny that you want to be the president; I wanted to be mayor of Buffalo,” said Declan’s father, director of sales at Stampede, which sells home theater products.

Paul Hurley, Declan’s grandfather, is currently president of Trocaire College in Buffalo. And Declan’s parents said their son, on his way to first grade at Harris Hill Elementary School, is set to outdo both his father and grandfather someday.

“He knows he belongs here,” Jennifer Hurley said after the family toured the White House.

She told her son he could go wherever he wanted for vacation this summer. Declan passed up the colorful childhood tradition of Disney World for the museums and history offered in Washington.

“My son is 6 going on 70,“ Jennifer said, adding that all of his friends at school come to him for advice.

Maybe that’s because Declan knows much more than just who the presidents were and when they served.

Declan said his favorite president is Abraham Lincoln “because he helped the deaf.” Lincoln chartered Washington’s Gallaudet University — a world leader in education for the deaf — in 1864.

What’s more, Declan is already practiced in persuasion.

During New York’s presidential primary, Declan brought dinner to a screeching halt when he asked his mother if she had voted yet. She said no.

“We got up from dinner, we ran over, and we voted,” she said. “He went in with me and pulled all the levers to vote.”

If he’s allowed to, Declan says he will help his mother vote again in November’s general election.

When Jennifer asked her son whom he would vote for this time, he said, without hesitation: “Barack Obama. He’s gonna win.”

And when that happens, “I’ll write him a letter,” Declan said.

However, Declan said he wouldn’t be upset if Sen. John McCain is elected president.

“That’s the fun thing about being in America, right? You get to pick who you want,” Peter told his son.

“You know, it would be nice if you could do eenie, meenie, miney, moe,” Declan said in complete, almost presidential, seriousness.

plucas@buffnews.com

The Buffalo News

WASHINGTON — Buffalo businessman Anthony H. Gioia has been nominated by President Bush to join two U. S. senators in representing the United States in the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which takes place this month in New York.

“It’s certainly a great honor to receive something like this,” Gioia said Wednesday.

The longtime Republican fundraiser served as the U. S. ambassador to the Republic of Malta from 2001 to 2004. His nomination to participate in the General Assembly has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, and though he hasn’t seen any opposition, Gioia says it would be presumptuous to assume that his appointment is final.

White House spokesman Trey Bohn said Gioia is qualified to serve in the General Assembly based on his performance as an ambassador during the critical period after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In addition, Bohn noted that Gioia has also been involved in advancing U. S. trade in North Africa and Europe.

“Given that, he’s certainly capable of representing U. S. foreign policy interests at the General Assembly,” Bohn said.

Though General Assembly debates begin next week, Gioia wouldn’t specify which concerns he plans to discuss at the meetings. He noted he has expressed interest in a multitude of issues.

Sen. Bob Corker, RTenn., and Sen. Bill Nelson, DFla., have also been nominated to serve in the General Assembly, which runs through mid-December. Gioia said he has not worked with the senators prior to his nomination.

Gioia has garnered the support of both Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, for his nomination.

He said he was aware that his appointment — which included being subject to a months-long background check, review of financial disclosure documents and confirmation by the U. S. Senate — was under consideration.

Gioia recently hosted a dinner for high-end donors to Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, in Buffalo. Previously Gioia was a top fundraiser for the presidential campaign of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and as a “bundler” collecting donations for Bush during his presidential campaigns.

plucas@buffnews.com .

The Buffalo News

]]> http://unphiltered.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/un-general-assembly/feed/ 0 PhilLucas http://unphiltered.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/a-warm-welcome-for-the-littlest-citizens/ http://unphiltered.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/a-warm-welcome-for-the-littlest-citizens/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:42:21 +0000 philndablank http://unphiltered.wordpress.com/?p=124 ]]> Updated: 12/13/08 08:54 AM

Don Yager navigates the paper trail for adoptive parents

Don Yager works in a downtown Buffalo office for Homeland Security, a federal agency best known for its fight to keep would-be terrorists from crossing U. S. borders.

But Yager specializes in the softer side of the department’s work: putting babies born in harsh circumstances all around the world into the hands of loving American parents.

Those new parents couldn’t be more grateful.

“In an adoption process that is dominated by paperwork, uncertainty and frustration, it was amazingly refreshing to encounter the likes of Don Yager,” said adoptive mother Paz Galupo of Towson, Md.

By all accounts, it’s work that he’s great at — even if it’s work that began amid an unusual confluence of circumstances.

Yager left a job at a private shipping company and took a temporary job at the Buffalo field office of U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2003, hoping the job would eventually be made permanent. “I was sweating bullets,” Yager said.

Meanwhile, the office director, Mary Frances Holmes, proposed making the Buffalo office the national processing point for the most heavily sought-after type of children’s citizenship visas, promising to cut the processing time for those visas down to 45 days or less.

Washington officials at Homeland Security, which oversees the citizen and immigration offices, agreed to the Buffalo office’s proposal.

And now, thanks to the work of Yager and his colleagues, the average processing time for children’s citizenship paperwork out of Buffalo is about 30 days, according to Buffalo District records manager Paulette Ratcliff.

“Previously, it was taking months and maybe years to get done,” Yager said.

In a governmental rarity, there have been no major paperwork backups since the Buffalo office took charge of the program in 2004.

“It’s a huge feather in our caps too,” said Yager, 54, of South Buffalo. “We pulled it off, they never thought we could pull it off, and we kept it under the number of days we said we could get this out to the public.”

Yager’s work landed him in Washington, D. C.’s Constitution Hall last month, where he received the Homeland Security Secretary’s Award for Exemplary Service, presented annually to 20 of the department’s best employees.

Brian Vega, of Springfield, Mo., is especially familiar with Yager’s work and commitment to adoptive parents.

Vega is the adoptive father of 2-year-old Augustus and 1- year-old Gustavo, two Guatemalan children Yager helped become citizens and part of a loving family in 2006 and 2008.

Vega contacted Yager by chance after some of Augustus’ citizenship documents were lost in Miami in what Vega called a pretty standard adoption procedure. Two years later, Vega sought Yager’s help again when Gustavo’s adoption didn’t go as smoothly.

“In the middle of it, Guatemala shut its doors to U. S. adoptions,” Vega said, adding that the first adoption took 10 months and the second took nearly twice as long and cost much more than anticipated, because of issues with the Guatemalan government.

In the first adoption, Vega visited Guatemala twice — once to see Augustus and another time to bring him to America. Vega visited the country six times throughout Gustavo’s adoption process and said it was one of the most emotionally taxing experiences he’s ever had.

“There were times we didn’t think it would happen,” Vega said, remembering when his adoption agency in Guatemala was raided by police and baby Gustavo was missing for months.

“I literally sat in offices crying, begging to have people help me and release my case,” Vega said. “It was just unbelievably frustrating.”

Vega, who has kept in touch with Yager since the adoptions, remembers Yager’s friendliness and efficiency when times got rough for him.

“It was just so nice to have at least one person I could deal with that was very easy and friendly and hassle-free,” Vega said.

In his recommendation letter for the secretary’s award, Yager’s supervisor wrote that he responds to each parent’s e-mailed question — between 250 and 300 a month — with at least one and sometimes many phone calls, always treating each case with the same positive attitude.

Within the community of adoptive parents, Yager has made quite a reputation for the Buffalo field office, and himself. Parents writing on blogs and message boards refer to him as “the very nice guy with USCIS.”

On one message board, one adoptive parent of a Guatemalan child said she would send a fan letter to the government about Yager if she could, and many parents have done just that.

Yager helped Galupo find her daughter’s certificate of citizenship after it went missing for months when her adopted daughter needed to get a Social Security number.

“Mr. Yager made an overwhelming task so much better and put a friendly face to the Department of Homeland Security — complete with a sense of humor and a calm demeanor,” Galupo said in a letter to office director Holmes after her adoption was finished.

Such responses are reassuring, Yager said.

“It makes it worthwhile after all the stuff you deal with sometimes,” he said.

Yager and his colleagues on the Child Citizenship Act Team in Buffalo have arranged 68,000 adoptions since 2004.

In fact, they have brought so many families together that when Yager vacationed on Cape Cod two years ago, he bumped into some of the families he had helped.

Yager also returns copies of the paperwork and special keepsakes of the adopted children to their birth parents when he can — like the paper snake a child made that somehow made its way to America in a stack of citizenship documents.

He could have put it back in the file and gotten on with his day but, thinking about the child’s birth parents, he took the job one step further.

“I went to the mailroom, found some bubble wrap, got a little box and wrote a note to the mother saying ‘I found this in the file, you may have never even known it was there,’ ” Yager said.

And now, small gestures like that have resulted in a big award for Yager, and a sense of great accomplishment for his colleagues in Buffalo.

“Don is just one person, but he makes a world of difference to these parents with his work,” Ratcliff said.

plucas@buffnews.com

The Buffalo News

Editor’s note: CNNU is a feature that provides student perspectives on news and trends from colleges across the United States. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN, its affiliates or the schools where the campus correspondents are based. Contributor Phillip Lucas is a student at Howard University in Washington.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Attending college in the urban center of Washington presents a new political perspective to many students who may not have been politically aware before.

Students at Howard University, a historically African-American school, are known for being informed. When they were asked which political issues were important to them, their interests ranged from AIDS in Africa to protecting affirmative action.

Rachael Allen-Stephens, a junior at Howard University and vice president of both the Pre-Law and Political Science societies, expressed concern for the welfare of other countries. (Read what issues are important to students at the University of Nebraska)

“I’m really concerned with AIDS in Africa. People are apathetic and uninformed. While we’re going to war to liberate Iraq, we don’t have enough money to help with AIDS. Our money isn’t going toward the right issues in foreign policy,” she said.

Allen-Stephens said she believes the government is letting its citizens down, especially African-Americans.

“The country seems to be set up in a way for African-American people to feel like failures and end up looking like failures, too.

“In D.C., the nation’s capital, we have some of the worst public schools in the country and down the street from the Capitol building are some of the worst neighborhoods in the District,” she said.

Allen-Stephens credits living in Washington for her broadened view of politics, even before she completed an internship on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Burkett, a freshman broadcast journalism major, said Howard’s closeness to the nation’s political center has had a limited impact on his knowledge of politics.

“You may be in the place that politics thrive, but that doesn’t mean you’re actually involved,” he said.

“I feel deeply saddened when people think affirmative action is useless,” Burkett added.

Kristen Price, a freshman political science major, said she is concerned about the war in Iraq and the country’s relationship with the rest of the world.

Price also said she feels that the wealthy are being best served by the government and that during the next round of elections, more candidates that cater to the middle-class majority are likely to be elected.

Price also said certain issues should be set aside to address bigger problems nationwide.

“The U.S. focus on gay marriage is receiving too much attention. This is only detracting the American people from other issues that are more important that we need to be attending to,” she said.

The presidential election is two years away, but Price has opinions on what the next leader’s plan of action should be.

“The next president needs to bridge the gap between the two parties because the American people are not too fond of either at this point,” she said. “I believe that this next administration needs to also change the negative perception that other countries have about the U.S. and rebuild our alliances. Also, the next administration needs to slowly back out of Iraq,” Price said.

Cnn.com

By Phillip Lucas
Special to CNN

Editor’s note: CNNU is a feature that provides student perspectives on news and trends from colleges across the United States. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of CNN, its affiliates or the schools where the campus correspondents are based. Contributor Phillip Lucas is a student at Howard University in Washington.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — For many college students, being short on money and being away from home presents a dangerous temptation: credit cards.

Kandace Barker, a freshman public relations major at Howard University, said shopping with credit cards made her feel as though she could still buy clothes even if she didn’t have money.

Barker has credit cards from New York and Company and Victoria’s Secret, where she used to work.

Along with the debt from the two cards, Barker faces thousands of dollars in student loans after graduating. She is currently about $9,000 in debt.

“I think before I was an impulse shopper, but now I can’t be. That’s why I have so much debt … especially at Victoria’s Secret,” said Barker.

Too many college students go off to school without understanding finances, said Shalonda Jones, a representative of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

Parents make the mistake of not introducing financial literacy to children at a young age and most parents are equally clueless as to what it takes to remain financially stable, she said.

“Shoving kids out the door [to college] is like shoving them off a cliff,” Jones said regarding students leaving home without knowledge of personal finance.

“We all know when you’re away from home with a little freedom and money, students tend to take that freedom and lose their heads,” Jones said.

Ashley Shaw, a freshman broadcast journalism major at Howard University, says she shops with cash, not credit, so she’s aware of how much she can spend. But even without the credit card, she occasionally runs into trouble. She recently overdrew her checking account during a shopping trip.

Right now, Shaw isn’t in any credit or student loan debt. However, she expects to take out student loans in the near future to cover her college expenses.

“As a younger teen, I actually received a credit card and didn’t know my spending limit and that kind of thing, so I maxed out the credit card and was penalized for it, and that’s why I don’t have one now,” Shaw said, explaining her previous troubles with credit.

“My parents covered it,” Shaw said when asked how the debt was repaid.

Many students don’t realize that the purchases and payments that are made during college can directly influence the amount of items (or the quality of the items) that may be bought later in life, including cars and homes.

However, a bad credit score is not a life sentence, said Ted Daniels, founder and president of the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development. Consistent payments and reducing debt will improve a student’s credit report and credit score, he said.

Daniels recommends students wait until after their freshman year to apply for credit cards.

Shaw agrees that freshmen should hold off on credit card applications.

“As a freshman you’re kind of careless as to what you’re doing with your money, and who has to pay for it. Especially since most freshmen are not working. By sophomore year it’s early enough to build up your credit history, but not too late to not be conscious of exactly how credit works,” she said.

Barker added that credit cards are an easy trap to fall into.

“I guess I just have to manage my money better. There’s a difference between what I want and what I need. I should just stick to what I need,” Barker said. “I would wait until junior year, maybe the summer of sophomore year to get one little credit card, but not until you’re actually responsible.”

When asked what advice she would give to students applying for credit cards, Barker’s response was straightforward.

“Don’t do it, period. But, if you do, don’t purchase anything that you can’t pay for with cash. And make regular payments.”

CNN.com