We are excited to announce that the winner of The Jeffrey Hensley Scholarship for the year 2017 is Juan Martinez from Florida International University. Below is Juan’s scholarship winning essay:
What can be done in the U.S. to improve access to higher education for minorities?
Being a Hispanic minority myself I can identify with the struggle of reaching a higher education, this is a process that starts early on through school. I would even say it goes as far as elementary education. I was always at a disadvantage due to my language background, this led to my struggle in many classes and a great loss of learnings. Classes later on even thought my English had improved were hindered by those teachings I had missed out on, most commonly basic processes in math or basic grammar rules. Even though I can say to some degree that at some point I managed to even out much of my difficulties, at least in comparison to the rest of the students; many others were not able to do so, many kept falling behind on their classes and overall learning. Some minority students had problems so severe that I believe it was big factor in their lives, for taking decisions like dropping out before even finishing high school.
However learning challenges are not the only thing that affects students in school settings. The knowledge American parents have and their familiarity with the school system creates an advantage, where kids are guided through the system better. Many minority parents are not acquainted with the system or don’t pay that much attention to it, due to varying reasons such as being immigrants, dealing with poverty or a lack of knowledge. Simple things like enrolling children early on in “advanced” classes leads non-minority students, to receive a more rigorous and a better education overall. Preparedness for pivotal points of life are not supported within minority communities, as much as their within non-minority communities. The importance of being prepared for exams such as the SAT or ACT, this are the type of things that are inculcated to non-minority students by their parents. Sadly through my experiences this is the same case of support non-minority students receive from their community.
Through a close analysis of these problematics, it easy to see the importance of creating an environment prosperous for non-minority students. Prosperous in the sense of their education, life values, support system and overall knowledge & understanding of the educational system that surrounds them. This could be achieved through community programs that focus attention to students early on, setting the stepping stone and mentorship this students may lack in their lives. Programs led by people who share their background and understand their struggles, focusing on the key factors that present difficulties for students. Overall a reinforcement of the educational values school is supposed to transmit, but somehow misses the minority populations for various reasons. If targeted from a very early age, programs will not have to be so rigorous in the future. As they will have developed tools they need for success early on.
Overall creating a system of autonomous education and self-awareness, transferring that mindset that is so common between successful minority individuals. The mind-set for why it is so important to succeed in their academic lives, and why the future is so important. At the end of the day the learning has to be undertaken by the students, which is not being done for one reason or another. The motivation to do so, is the most important thing that will lead students to succeed. Instituting programs within schools that specifically target minorities for their advancement, this is feasible and will certainly lead to improvement. It could be done in the form of introducing it to the classroom curriculum, or through afterschool programs. As minorities are commonly the ones in most need for this types of programs.
Moving on to a later points of children’s life such as Middle and High School, tends to be a bit harder in the sense of creating these environments. As years have passed that may have influenced attitudes of students, towards certain cycles of life and certain habits. However it is this very same things that educators and communities have to target, in order to achieve a meaningful change. While set attitudes, personalities and habits may mean, what we usually categorize as bad habits. We can learn to harness these same qualities in way that students find an interest in education, re-inventing the way we traditionally teach is imperative.
Programs such as magnet schools is where I believe many students can be transformed, where we can draw on their innate qualities. Environments like these lead students to focus on aspects of their life they like, and through school curriculums we can focus on those aspects to “healthy learning”. Environments like these unite students with similar qualities, students focus on this qualities for judgement within their norms. Creating an environment closer to a free “non-judgmental” zone on other factors, such as race, inequality, poverty, culture and many others. This is typically seen in many magnet schools as I have seen firsthand, students criticizing others based on their “art knowledge and skills”, on their “acting knowledge and skills”, on their “technological knowledge and skills”, on their “aviation knowledge and skills” and so on.
Through environments like this and a pure dedication and interest of students, environment are created where students can be molded. Molded in other areas of their life regarding their disadvantages and helping them overcome them, while being held strongly by a center of their inborn interest. This while not though out on this manner, ends up being the result of many programs like this. Without an immense emphasis on the subject, these programs by their nature manage to create this effect. As they create and harness the perfect conditions for students, to innately find a passion and motive to overcome their difficulties for being a minority.
Now that we have discussed this type of special programs. We now can understand the perfect viability for this type of programs, to create a successful impact on a children’s life. After seeing how possible and feasible it is to create this conditions, in programs such as magnet schools. It is not so hard to imagine how we might be able to do the same into any regular school system. Enabling us to efficiently target all of our minorities, and even farther all of our students. Even those non-minority students that might be dealing with the same problematics, most minority students deal with.
The problematic in the U.S education is led by misguidance of standards. Misguidance such as the question for the prompt, that leads us to think only in U.S. and compare within us. Our minorities in comparison worldwide are richer in many aspects beyond just money. However it is our perception that creates many disadvantages, and as so they actually become reality. The reality of our students is that they don’t live under $1 a day, they have accessibility to education, housing, food, etc. The discouragement by the system, the socioeconomic obstacles, community and even the minority community itself, is a big part of what creates our educational obstacle. The fact that all of this “perceived disadvantages” (only by comparison to others), translate into discouragement in education. In more precise words, our minority students have the necessary tools to succeed already. However their problematic lies in a sociological fault in our community, that lead them to being discriminated on different levels and being discouraged on their success.
Essentially this notion is what I believe we have to tackle, from two different fronts. The front of the students’ perception and the front of society’s perception. Encouraging the student throughout the course of their studies and leveling them off, in any fallbacks the may have acquired. While progressing on making a change, in the fallacies that lead to differences in our communities regarding minorities. While minority disadvantage is not something that will be easily changed, many programs can and have created a difference. It is however a matter of the formation that the very communities have; finding a way to include values that are missing in these communities, and in many cases are still being robbed of these values through a variety of perceived disadvantages.
