Wesleyan

When I got into Wesleyan, it wasn't as exciting as I expected it to be. I wanted to yell and shout that I got in to all my friends and family back home, but no one knew what Wesleyan was or it's eliteness. Most people at home only know about the Ivy League schools and if you didn't get into one, you were just going to another regular school. Although I'm a first generation, college was never important to my parents. I've always been the one to push and challenge myself academically. Now that I'm at Wesleyan I'm able to reflect on my past educational experiences and see how certain decisions changed the outcome of my life. If any one of these steps didn't happen I could've been in Chicago, with a teen pregnancy, on foodstamps, like many of my old friends. It's sad to see how schooling can change the course of your life. I believe that a lot of youth in Chicago that have incredible potential are stuck in a cycle of complacency with life because the schools systems on the south side of Chicago aren't doing their jobs at helping kids become successful. A lot of kids don't know what success is for people who look like them because everywhere they turn, everyone's struggling. The only way we are going to break the cycle is by addressing all the issues in the school systems. Lack of funding, violence, and the lack of resources are only a few things that need to change before the lives of Chicago black youth does.