Ahh… The college experience.
A once in a lifetime experience to do basically whatever you want academically in order to find your career, while finding yourself in the meantime. It also gives you this sense of freedom towards establishing your inner adult hood and can also help create a purpose in your life while expanding your knowledge. Overall, the college experience is about bringing people together and immerging yourself within a connected community. There are also various organizations, clubs, and interview opportunities that you can take advantage of, and become a leader of which is highly praised within the school system.
Now what if I told you that the school system is investing on you as property instead of a healthy investment in your future? And what if I also told you that the minority culture is highly underrepresented within the school system, whether it be middle school, high school, or college?
You wouldn’t believe me would you huh…?
That’s what’s wrong with the college system today. They suffer from a lack of care and support that goes into the minority culture. Far too many times the minority culture is underrepresented in colleges all across the world; with exceptions to the so called “black universities”. These universities then use the black culture as a grappling hook to draw in minorities in attempts to make them feel equal. It is a depressing fact that often gets overlooked, because of the overshadowing factor of graduation rates, college life, athletics and sports; in which keep the student interested in the college for all the guts and glory, instead of the one reason they actually paid their hard earned money for.
The expansion of their knowledge.
A hard act to swallow, but the college system is basically a network of business men, in which strive to make these schools historically high, regardless of the student retention rates, G.P.A. rates amongst 4 year graduated students, or the simple fact that the students are disconnected from the academic side of campus; and are more involved with the entertainment part of campus.
It then leads the school to receive massive amounts of money from the students willing to sacrifice their final grades and test scores for an opportunity to go to a school sponsored concert, or a state basketball game. Although these aspects are what make the school special, one must ask themselves exactly how much is being out into these programs, and how much is equally being out into the education system. The real education system.
I’ve had an opportunity to see the changes first hand at my state college SUNY Buffalo State, where the words “Dedicated to Excellence” is seen within the school’s logo. Throughout the years, I have stood by that statement, convinced that the school system is headed in the right direction; flowing with diversity, and exceling in their craft towards making Buffalo State a school of “Excellence”. I have since come to terms that the school still represents excellence, but has taken a rebuilding process that transform that quote into a future projection of the school’s goals, rather than an affirmative statement on the school’s current success.
They have launched a brand new Houston Gym, revamped the Science and Math Complex, and completely fixed up and reopened the famous Claudel Hall once again for learning and social engagement. Yet I feel as if I haven’t receive my profitable stock in education or in benefits. I am still restricted in the amount of classes I can take, or where I can take them, the departments associated with specific majors utilize the students as trinkets to their illustrious career achievements, and advisement is rested on the shoulders of teachers who share that time with their lunch, office hours, and scheduled meetings. Not enough has been done to put the student’s future first.
Another problem within the college system is that the students in this institution are still restricted to the same discrimination that they have faced with their whole lives. Students like these face hardships throughout their 18 years of schooling, only to come to college and become spoon fed with the same runaround that they have been faced with their entire lives.
One person that I know from experience that have felt this way, is Marlo Moses…
Marlo Moses is an aspiring undergraduate student who is considered a senior although she is currently in her third year. She expects to graduate from SUNY Buffalo State College with honors from theXi Theta Chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, of The National Political Science Honors Society, and hopes to become a lawyer in the future, while owning multiple assets in real estate marketing.
What made her the perfect candidate for interviewing her on the challenges she has faced within the school system was her inability to give up despite numerous attempts from others that sought to shut her down. In interviewing Marlo Moses, you get a sense of neglect and mistreatment within the school system, but nevertheless she pushed on to become a well-rounded student with the future looking bright.
In interviewing Marlo, she speaks about being underrepresented in schools that were predominately white and how opposing administrative staff tried to impede her passion for learning. Growing up within a neighborhood that did not favor her skin complexion, she was forced to fight her way through life to achieve the accomplishments and honors she has now.
This is her journey:
“Growing up in a predominately white neighborhood was an eye opening experience. In fact my parents were the first African-American family to move into the neighborhood. Being the ONLY African-American female in each grade was difficult. In fifth grade, my Jewish teacher Brooke Escowitz gave me the hardest of times. She would start a long line of those who robbed me of my excellence through the education system.
The day after I permed my hair for the first time she asked if it was my real hair in class and asked if she could touch it. Too many times have I come across professionals not living up to the definition of the term. Escowitz taught my brother when he was in the second grade. Every time I expressed myself through assignments, she would always ask why I could not be like him. She always told me that I will and could never compare to him. That always stuck with me. Just to think she was nearing 30, living in her parent’s basement in Staten Island, and had the nerve to compare me. Her motivation to make my life a living hell continued when she would ignore me in class, and took away my honor’s award without explanation. Do not ever let anyone tell you cannot do or be something or even compare you.
On the last day of class, I scolded her in front of the class and she threatened to change my grades dropping them lower. I on the other hand challenged her to go ahead as I looked forward to starting a new chapter of my life in junior high school. Of course she was the first of many to hate on an African-American child destined to success. I certainly learned that the hard way through the grace of God. Fortunately success does not come from man but from God himself. No matter how much the devil tried to steal from me such as Escowitz she could not triumph. Since then I have been on each school’s Deans List from junior high school up until now in college. It surely has been a fight but that’s a fight one must accept when being a colored child in a predominantly white environment.”
Through her struggle, she rose out from the ashes of systematic neglect and outright disrespectful prejudice thoughts; to become to woman she is today. That’s the type of people that we need to look up to in this day and age. We take pride in the things that limit us as human beings and we miss the main purpose we are here in the first place. Whether the political powerhouses like it or not, whether our school teachers like it or not, even whether our society likes it or not, we are equal and we will not stand for anything less than equality.
There is power is the declaration of independence, and there is power in the color of our skin. Whenever you feel as if you freedom is in doubt, remember that WE THE PEOPLE hold truth in the fact that we are CREATED EQUAL with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS.
And whether you like it or not, I will strive to expand my knowledge in higher learning, and not be subjected to vindictive people or systems.
We are all in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, whether it comes in the form of a book or a lecture. So don’t tell me what you’re going to do.
Do it…
