austinmshari, you and I had dramatically different reactions to the podcast.
For the three students who are extensively profiled in the piece, the effects of that visit were dramatic, and in one case was definitely something that helped. That’s the young woman who graduated from Bates, who is now a teacher. It was that visit that made her realize that she wanted college, that she wanted a place where she could sit on the carpet and have long discussions with her similarly-minded peers. By proxy, the visit could’ve also made a difference to her boyfriend, because he was swept up in her enthusiasm and ended up with the Posse scholarship. Which didn’t work out, for heartbreaking reasons, but still.
And even for Melanie, the young woman, who didn’t get the Middlebury Posse scholarship, it was life-changing. It may yet be life-changing–she now has a paypal donation account so she can take college classes. Might work out for her. Might not. Dunno. It took guts for her to break her silence after all these years, to tell the story of how no, it hadn’t worked out for her, she hadn’t been able to move away from her neighborhood. I’m hoping that she’ll be able to soldier through this time.
Melanie dropped out because she didn’t apply anywhere else. Teachers and fellow students said she was brilliant, that she had insights during a Fieldston class that no one else had. We have no idea why she didn’t apply elsewhere, why no one at either school suggested she apply elsewhere. Posse is a wonderful program, but any student who gets to the final round without being accepted should be able to find another option for college that would cover expenses.
What I reacted most strongly to wasn’t the exchange per se, it was all of the things that my children take for granted that these young people couldn’t rely on. How to ask for help. How you can use the library. How they do deserve success when they’ve worked for it and demonstrated competence. How college admissions for them wasn’t like a reality show where odds were they’d get voted off the island. How they’re not the exception for getting a college degree. How they don’t think they’re sand their parents don’t tell them they’re s.
These aren’t things that are exclusive to expensive private high schools. These are things that should cost almost nothing.