(College) Hunger Games A high school junior wants school officials to introduce college to students in marginalized communities in a more civilized, effective way

YOUTHBEAT OPINION | 

By Carolyn Dorantes

This article was co-published with palabra. and an earlier version appeared in The Hechinger Report.

Ask any 11th grader and they’ll tell you: Applying to college is a cutthroat competition. Thousands of high school seniors apply to highly ranked universities, hoping their academics and extracurriculars will set them apart from the crowd.

But for many first-generation college-bound students, it’s really no competition. They are often stuck studying in school during the day and left feeling helpless by nighttime, having to face the reality that they’re unable to keep up. Each day they wake up wondering if all their studying and hard work will ever be enough. They go through the day affected by internal fears and external limitations.

“¿Mija, cuándo vas a empezar a aplicar para becas?” my mom asks me, wondering when I’ll start applying for scholarships.

“Sé que hay algunas que se abren en el grado once, pero no estoy segura,” I reply, telling her that some are open for 11th graders like me, but I’m not sure.

“Ponte lista porque no te puedo ayudar mucho en eso,” she adds, reminding me to be prepared because she can’t help me much with the applications.

My mother did not attend high school, so she has limited knowledge about college readiness. Most parents in my community, on the growing north side of Salinas, are in the same position.

We need a new tradition

In Salinas, 79.3% of the population is Latino, 37.3% is foreign-born. Just 13.3% of adults have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Living in a community where many students are first-generation college-bound students, the idea of going to college is accompanied by extra pressure. Yes, every U.S. high school student considering college faces daunting deadlines for scholarship and program applications. For many, students have an advantage with aware and proactive parents — even professional coaches — to help track all the requirements and deadlines. But for those of us who end up going alone on this journey, it’s easy for opportunities to slip by.

 

Instead of being preoccupied with the prom committee or planning for summer trips, we are left worrying about how we’ll find time to study for those SATs that are only a month away.

For many high school students who are first in their families to get this far in school, the junior year is the most stressful. We’re constantly told that if we want to go to a four-year college, we must take the most rigorous high school courses possible, filling our schedules with AP classes that make us feel like we’re drowning in classwork. We’re left combating a foreboding sense of inadequacy as we see peers from other neighborhoods with better opportunities apply to national summer programs and take trips around the world that will enrich their college applications. Meanwhile, we have to pick up summer jobs to help our families make ends meet.

At my school, many students struggle to find resources that can help them figure out college applications. It’s common to hear students complain about slow responses from school guidance staff.

I am a junior, and my lack of access to quality college information has been particularly stressful. I’m researching my options, although I fear it may not be enough.

I attend a new public high school that was built to accommodate students who live on the outskirts of Salinas. Here, agriculture is the main job sector and many students live with farmworking parents. A new school can be a blessing for a neighborhood. It helps establish new cultures and traditions. But it can also be a curse, since a college-bound culture takes time to develop.

I don’t have the experience of watching students in the year above me get letters of acceptance to their dream universities. I do not get to be in the room when they sit in class, silently debating the pros and cons of different financial-aid packages. I am not exposed to the thrill that seniors experience when they commit to a college and start planning out their lives for the next four years.

A simple remedy

Because there is a lack of resources to help the college-bound, I am calling on my school and any community organizations around me to invest more in college readiness. This could be done through programs that promote earning credits for an associate’s degree during high school, college student panels and college counselors.

Administrators at our school say programs like Advancement Via Individual Determination  prepare students “in the academic middle” for college, and Puente, a four-year college prep program by the University of California’s Center for Educational Partnerships. Also, administrators say, every campus has a career center. But from what I’ve seen, these efforts are limited and for specific students. I’ve found that parents and students want schools like mine to make college guidance available to all students, whenever they need it.

We could do what schools in other parts of the country have done:

In Mississippi, Natchez-Adams High School students can participate in a program that gives them a head start on higher education. They can enroll at their local community college and take classes to get associate degrees. This pathway is strongly encouraged by administrators there, and 75% of students in the 2021 graduating class of the Natchez Early College Academy received associate degrees this way.

And in Minnesota, Minnetonka High School offers a considerable amount of college prep for students. The school maintains a college and career center that is truly active, especially compared to the career centers in my school district. Minnetonka High boasts more than 175 colleges and universities that send representatives each year to visit the campus. The high school also provides an annual College Forum, where recent high school graduates share the journeys and experiences of their first college semester. These actions help create a college-going tradition among the school’s students and alumni.

Minnetonka High School also has a college counselor whose job is to provide information to guide a student’s college search. The advice includes presentations and webinars for juniors and seniors at the beginning of the school year. Again, these counselors are specifically hired to provide college resources and have more experience in college research than regular school counselors.

The Salinas Unified High School District should place similar counselors on our campuses, where students currently have to do the research themselves or rely on a supportive teacher for help. Unfortunately, I know students who choose not to go to the regular counselors because they know they’ll only receive surface-level information about college. Right now, some 60 students at my school have turned to one teacher for advice about college opportunities. They know this teacher has substantial experience with the college application process. But depending on only one person, who also has lesson plans and meetings to worry about, is unsustainable over the long run.

A model for success

A couple of high schools in our district have advanced their college readiness in the past few years. Alisal High School, on the Eastside of Salinas, has done a significant job of promoting college as an option for its students. The school holds quarterly assemblies informing students about the college application process. From freshmen to seniors, students are informed about what they can do that year to be prepared for college admissions. The support from staff and access to information has paid off, as Alisal High School has Salinas’ highest number of applicants and enrollments in the University of California system.

It’s important to highlight these achievements. But I have to ask: Why hasn’t every high school implemented the same initiatives? Why are some students not finding enough information, while a handful thrive from the allocated funding?

I encourage all districts to consider creating more programs that help students get not only high-quality information but also high-quality assistance as they plan for college. Consider it an investment in the future: A 2019 report said about half of Latino students are likely to be the first in their families to go to college.

Being one of the first in my family to seek college admission, I’m looking for the tools necessary to compete in this cutthroat race. Only when copious numbers of students benefit from college-information resources will applying to college finally be a normal thing in my community.

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Carolyn Dorantes

About Carolyn Dorantes

Carolyn Dorantes, a recent graduate of Rancho San Juan High School in Salinas, will head to Harvard this month to study computer science. This is her second stint with the Young Voices Media Project.