When your son or daughter graduates from college, will she be prepared for the real world outside her dorm walls? ChaChanna Simpson comes to the rescue with her new book, Life After College: What Your Parents and Professors Never Taught You, available from Booklocker.
We interviewed ChaChanna to find out more about her new book and why she felt there was a need to help college graduates in their transition stage into the real world of paying bills and learning how to handle their own finances.
Q: Thank you for this interview, ChaChanna. Can you tell us all about your new book?
A: Thank you for having me.
Life After College walks college grads through the first few steps after college and tackles issues, such as how to deal with moving back home, navigating through a difficult job search, managing finances, getting your first apartment, and more. I’ve also included stories from other college grads who’ve been there and are surviving.
The book is really about preparing college grads on how to enter the real world. College prepares you to be proficient in your major but not much else. And parents and other adults take the information that they know for granted and believe everyone knows certain things, so they don’t think to pass on what they learned.
Q: In what ways can your book help the college graduate?
A: When you graduate college, you have the tools to perform the major you have studied for four years. What you are not ready for is how to prepare for moving back home, presenting yourself in an interview, handling annoying co-workers, getting your first place, or what FICO is. My book touches on all those topics and more. My book is really about presenting and assisting in situations that a college student hasn’t encountered yet.
Q: You have a website called Twentity, which is a place for twentysomethings to go to learn how to enter the real world as well. Can you tell us more about it?
A: Sure, I started Twentity.com four years ago. Twentity.com, pronounced twent-eh-tee, addresses the important questions and concerns of recent college grads on how to make the transition from college life into the real world. It offers answers to questions such as: how to find an apartment, what life insurance is and why twentysomethings need it now, how to meet people after college, and many more questions. Readers are able to apply what they read directly and immediately to their own lives.
Regular sections include: Stepping Up the Game, which features a professional twentysomething who is on the path of their chosen career; Inner/Outer Beauty, which gives advice on personal healthcare such as skin care, nutrition, and fitness; Entrepreneurial Corner will give tips on how to own and operate your own business, and Out and About features cheap and free events in the Tri-State Area.
I update the site every other week. I also have a newsletter that goes out with any job openings I am aware of.
Q: You are also a strong believer of helping out in the community. Can you tell us about what you do to help the blind and dyslexic?
A: I volunteer at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic; it is a national non-profit organization that started around 1948. The founder Anne T. Macdonald believed that “education is a right and not a privilege.” So she created this organization to help soldiers who were blinded in combat or had other learning disabilities by recording textbooks on tape.
I am a reader, so I read textbooks so that anyone who is having a learning disability can still get their education.
Q: You have a famous saying that goes, “I believe that we are all on this planet for a purpose: to help others.” That is a beautiful saying. Who was your mentor growing up to instill that belief in you or did you find it came naturally?
A: It came naturally. I truly do believe we are here to help others. Whether it’s by volunteering for a cause you believe in or creating your own, you need to be out there doing something.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: My future plans are to expand my company, Twentity into a fashion line for college students that is really affordable for them. I’m really dedicated to helping students and recent college grads.
I also plan to open my own non-profit organization in ten years.
Q: I want to thank you for this interview, ChaChanna. You’re a remarkable woman and I hope you have continued success in all paths of life!
A: Thank you so much for having me. I’ve really enjoyed my time here.
You can find out more about ChaChanna Simpson at her Web site.