Recently, I saw this article on the New York Times and reminded me of an incident I faced as a college professor:
I was walking back to my car after teaching and met a woman standing outside my building. She asked me when the tour was supposed to end. I said I had no idea, I teach here, but the tours are administered by the Admissions Office. She then proudly said her daughter is currently touring the campus and would like to attend school here. They drove 12 hours to reach the campus for a college tour. I was happy, and being a person promoting my place of employment, asked why didn't she join the tour? A lot of parents do. She said, rather solemnly, that she didn't want to embarrass her daughter by asking any irrelevant questions, so she would rather wait outside and let her daughter take the tour so that the daughter does not get embarrassed by her mom.
She went on saying how she worked two jobs and save up so that her daughter can go to college. I looked at her, smiled, and wished her and her daughter the best of luck. I said that eventually a college degree would pay off and their family would be much better off.
We say a lot of things about ensuring more students attend college. As society, we think that giving students from poor background a full-ride is enough for them to have a great career. However, as the article shows, there are many obstacles that these first-generation students face when they set foot in college. Many have to work to pay for their books and food, while their wealthier friends can afford not to work and study or socialize instead. Many feel some degree of social stigma of admitting that they are first-generation and come from a low-income background. As the article notes:
"Ana Barros grew up in a two-family house built by Habitat for Humanity, hard by the boarded-up buildings and vacant lots of Newark. Neither parent attended college, but she was a star student. With a 2200 on her SATs, she expected to fit in at Harvard.
Yet here she was at a lecture for a sociology course called, paradoxically, “Poverty in America,” as a classmate opened her laptop and planned a multicountry spring break trip to Europe. (Ms. Barros can’t afford textbooks; she borrows from the library.) On the sidewalks of Cambridge, students brush past her in their $700 Canada Goose parkas and $1,000 Moncler puffer jackets. (Ms. Barros saved up for two years for good boots.) On an elite campus, income inequality can be in your face."
It can be difficult for a student to blend in. In many cases, the first-generation students feel world apart from their fellow peers.
Thus, universities and colleges should ensure that the campus is inclusive and allows first-generation students feel at ease. For example, when I was in undergrad, I had some friends sneak in and stay in the halls during Spring Break (the halls were officially closed during the break) because they could not afford to go home. Just keeping the dorms open during Spring Break could solve this issue. First-generation students need additional resources to help them succeed. So, giving all the resources to first-generation students after they set foot on campus could help them succeed in their post-graduation career.
No comments:
Post a Comment