Roland Jones is starting early. His son is just weeks into his seventh grade year at Bailey Junior High School and Jones is already preparing him for college. On Saturday, Jones attended a workshop entitled "College Prep 101" which went step by step through what parents can do to steer their kids in the right direction as they enter the season of applying for college.

The workshop was just one of many targeting parents during this year's Youth Education Summit (YES!) held on the UT Arlington campus for students grades 7 through 12 and sponsored in part by the Alumni chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

What organizers of the YES! Summit have found over its years of sponsoring this day-long conference for students and their parents is that college guidance needs to come from more than the school counselor.

"It's never too early," Sam Houston High School Counselor Cynthia Carter told parents. "While you might have some students who early on start to think about what needs to be done for college, believe me, a lot of other things are on most of their radars. It's up to parents to jump start things and lay down that foundation."

While parents were also able to sit in on workshops dealing with finances and the importance of pushing their children to take advanced courses, students learned how to deal with test anxiety and financial literacy. One of the most popular - and lively - sessions was the "Real Talk" workshop where students discussed everything from peer pressure and parental control to whether it's a good idea to date before college.

Brian LeGrand, a Fort Worth seventh-grade teacher who grew up in Arlington, led the "Real Talk" session and asked students about their thoughts on their parents.

The answers ranged from "too strict" to "untrusting" to "crazy."

"I'm never surprised to hear any of these comments - it's typical for that age," said LeGrand, who shared with the students how his parents insisted on straight As. "I try to tell them that the sooner they get it, that their parents love them and want the best for them and therefore push them, the sooner they will stop rebelling against this notion and kick it into gear themselves."

Pushing themselves outside of the realm of mediocrity was a constant theme during the day. Motivational Speaker Baylor Barbee told the students to "commit yourself to excellence and not mediocrity."

"Don't think about becoming excellent later," he said. "Think about becoming excellent right now. Think about it while you are in your workshops. Think about it when you go back to your schools. All these things are preparing you for tomorrow."