A college-bound culture

A physics teacher at my high school used to refer to the students there as the “snobby, rich kids on the hill.” Many of my peers were offended by this label, but he wasn’t necessarily so far from the truth. Most of us didn’t ever realize how good we had it and how many opportunities were available to us. With this comfort came certain expectations, a common one being that we were expected to get a college education. Our parents expected it, our teachers expected it, and many of us grew up expecting it.   

Then I think of a certain 17-year-old girl I met here in Ogden last semester. Her father had left her family when she was young. Her mother had a difficult time supporting her children. This girl was supposed to graduate from high school that year, but was not even close to receiving all her credits and had no desire to do so. She was also pregnant, with the baby’s father in prison. 

There was no chance that she was thinking of college. She had never even thought it a possibility. No one had ever expected her to. How different this was from my mindset at that age – all because we had been surrounded by differing expectations. 

Unfortunately, far too many teenagers are in situations very similar to this girl’s situation.  For them, gaining a college education is rarely seen as a reality, much less a priority. It is for this reason that many pre-college outreach programs have been created across the nation in an attempt to get such kids to attend college, working especially with those who are traditionally non-college-bound.

The programs designed to assist such students offer aid in many different areas, but one of their most valuable aspects is their ability to act as a support system to the students they serve. Going to college becomes much less of an impossible undertaking upon the simple realization that there are people who sustain them in their endeavors. They are provided with tools that allow them to raise their expectations for themselves, and with these rising expectations comes the increased capability for excellence.

Young people have the ability to accomplish great things when given ample encouragement. And it should not be difficult to find. In fact, they should be able to expect it.