photo by steed media service

Rising high school dropout rates in our nation’s largest cities inspired Hotep, the president and founder of HustleUniversity.org, to find a creative solution to keeping young people engaged in learning. He is accomplishing just that through the establisment of a cool, hip teaching methodology that uses an essay contest to get students’ attention, and they, in turn, get their educational “hustle” on.

“Up until now, I don’t think anybody has successfully reached out to the young people in a way that they can practically see the correlation between school, hard work and success,” explains Hotep. “Through this essay contest, what I’m going to do is … [show] that young people understand this language, they understand how to apply it in school. Now [they] can say, ‘You know what, I can get my hustle on in school … if I’m a student, then my business is to get an education and I need to hustle at that.’ ”

The contest is open to Georgia high school and college students, who will have until June 1, 2008, to submit their essays, explains the educator of 12 years. Hotep adds that students must explain how they will apply principles from his book, The Hustler’s 10 Commandments, to excel in school. The book’s principles include dressing for the job, networking with other professionals and financing business ventures.

Hotep hopes his message will be well received and spread to students throughout the community. “The hustler’s gospel is … basically where we teach people not to wait for opportunity but how to create it for themselves, and I use Hustle University as the church,” he concludes. -marissa mitchell

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