For many high school students, preparing for college may seem overwhelming.
Before selecting the college that’s the right fit and filling out all of the information required in the application process, high schoolers must first take a college entrance exam, such as the ACT.
The exam, most frequently taken in the spring by high school juniors, but may be taken multiple times, is a major stressor for many students, especially those unfamiliar with the process.
Drs. Darryl and Jennifer Jordan want to help.
Their recently released self-help book, directly addressed to students, “The Perfect Student! Lessons Learned from High School to College” guides students during their transition from high school to college, with an emphasis on college entrance exams.
“We put together notes that we’ve gathered over the years in education, particularly in elementary, high school and college that we thought would be beneficial for anyone planning to go from high school to college,” said Darryl. “We thought it would be helpful to students who are interested in taking standardized examinations, like the ACT.”
The couple will hold a book signing and discussion at Greenwood-Leflore Public Library from 9 to 11:30 a.m. next Saturday, Feb. 22.
All area educators and parents are encouraged to attend.
Jennifer, a Natchez native, is the author, and her husband, Darryl, is the co-author. The son of Sen. and Mrs. David Jordan, Darryl is from Greenwood and a 1981 graduate of Greenwood High School.
For his undergraduate degree, he attended Tougaloo College, which is where he met his wife. They both graduated from Tougaloo with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and went on to medical school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, which is where they reside today.
Darryl mostly works as a hospitalist but also has extensive training in pulmonary medicine.
Growing up with both of his parents being teachers, Darryl said education has been an important part of his life from an early age. Among the many college graduates in his family, there are five in the medical field, with three holding Doctor of Pharmacy degrees and two medical doctors.
“Education has been a major emphasis in our family,” he said.
With their book, the Jordans want high schoolers to know that educational goals can be attained by all students who have them.
“I came from small town Greenwood, Mississippi. ... I wasn’t always an A student most of my undergraduate career, and I think sometimes people think you have to have excellent grades to go on to medical school or graduate school,” he said. “Students need to know in order to achieve something you just have to work hard at it and stay at it and learn how to navigate through a system that you’re not accustomed to.”
Navigating that system in which many students are not used to is what “The Perfect Student!” is all about.
“We want to give students a model to follow,” said Jennifer. “I certainly want to make the point clear that ‘the perfect student’ does not mean the one who makes all As, but it is the one who asks a lot of questions when he or she does not understand a concept. Oftentimes, students may feel too embarrassed to ask questions, so this is why we have developed a model to help them gain the advantage in the classroom.”
Darryl calls his wife, Jennifer, “an ACT testing expert.”
“For years, she has gathered vital information that students can utilize regarding that test,” he said.
Jennifer has a mission to help students gain confidence in two of her favorite school subjects — chemistry and mathematics.
Just like her husband, she has a passion for education, and she homeschooled two of their four children.
Married for more than 30 years, the couple have helped all four of their children — Loren, Heir, Lindsey and Sela — through their transition from high school to college and the testing process and currently mentor students. Three of their children are college graduates and the youngest is a junior in college.
“We’ve gone through the process for a few years now,” said Darryl.
So the Jordans are familiar with taking standardized tests. With their book, they say they want to help students gain the confidence they need to pass those exams.
“We certainly understand the challenges that students face when taking standardized tests, and we want them to believe that they can achieve their goals,” said Jennifer.
The Jordans have worked with many students in testing preparation and have noticed that if a student performs poorly on the ACT, he or she has a greater risk of not finishing college.
“It has been documented that students who don’t do well on those entrance examinations and don’t have the support, don’t tend to survive that four-year undergraduate education,” said Darryl. “That’s kind of the impetus for the book, and some of the observational things we learned while mentoring and talking with young people aspiring to go to college but do not have the test scores to go along with it.”
The book has a focus on the ACT and college entrance exams. The Jordans both felt it was important to zero in on testing because of recent statistics that show that the nation is “falling farther behind the rest of the world in reading, math and science, and it is a trend that is continuing to drop every year.”
“This such drop in scores should be alarming to everyone, since this reflects the fact that the United States is losing its status in the global ranking system,” said Jennifer. “I think students do not realize that they are competing with students from other countries in their respective grade levels.”
The drop in test scores can also mean a loss of college degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
“Many students who aspire to have professions in these fields have to change their majors due to the level of difficulty,” said Jennifer.
Darryl stated recent statistics. “African American males make up less than 5% of all collegiate students, and there’s recently been an alert that the number of African American physicians will actually decline over the next several years,” he said.
Statistics such as these have propelled the Jordans to share their knowledge with students, parents and teachers. Their book also focuses on encouraging students while they are on the journey from high school to college.
“We want to believe that if students would practice, practice and practice at taking standardized tests they will eventually get better,” said Jennifer. “They will be more confident when approaching the test.”
“The Perfect Student!” gives students a guideline of how to prepare for a college entrance exam, how to stay encouraged if they don’t score well the first time and tips on how to improve their scores. The book also gives suggestions of protein-packed meals for test days, creative tips and strategies for students and parents, information about historically black colleges and universities, and how to choose the right college to attend.
Darryl said the goal of the book is twofold — helping students navigate from high school to college and also improving the substantiality of a community through increasing the number of people who hold college degrees.
“If you can get that young person enthusiastic about going into the sciences and encourage him or her to complete his or her undergraduate education, then you basically will ensure a community of individuals some degree of economic equal footing,” he said. “Our emphasis is really long-term in getting young people interested in achieving goals and becoming economically independent after having gone through school.”
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
What: A book signing and discussion will be held for Drs. Darryl and Jennifer Jordan’s recently released “The Perfect Student! Lessons Learned from High School to
College.”
When: 9 to 11:30 a.m. next Saturday, Feb. 22.
Where: Greenwood-Leflore Public Library, 405 W. Washington St.
