Our staff came decked out in college gear.
To someone growing up in New York City, college can seem awfully far away. To bring it closer to home, we held our Foundation’s first annual College Day on Wednesday.
Troy Jones, our College and Career Readiness Coordinator, led the program and came up with the theme for the day, “My Collegiate Future.” Prior to the day’s discussion, our after school students researched and compared both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s proposed policies for higher education. They came prepared to discuss how President-elect Trump’s plans might impact their collegiate future.
Before the student discussion began, our staff members took turns talking about their college experiences and answering questions. Schools represented by our staffers included Cheyney University (Jones), Yale (Jordan Rogers), FAMU (Farrell Evans), Connecticut (Brian Hwang), Xavier (Herbert Brown), Sacred Heart (Randy Taylor), Michigan (Jeffrey Cowitt ) and City College (Charlie Cohen and Tiffany Kolozian). The discussion ranged from academics and majors to social life, finances and more. Evans and Hwang talked about being on the golf team at their schools, and the challenges of balancing athletics and academics.
Executive Director and Co-Founder Farrell Evans talked about his time at FAMU and his experiences on the golf team.
We then asked each student to talk about their own futures, and how Trump’s policies could affect them. During the campaign, Trump did not offer nearly as many specific plans for higher education as his opponent, but the students were able to see that a general push for lower taxes and smaller government could result in fewer resources for students in need.
Triniim Jones said Trump’s policies wouldn’t affect him at all; he was planning to go to school in England. Antonio Cortorreal was worried that money diverted from colleges would make it harder to get scholarships. Josiah Yoba echoed Antonio’s concerns, saying Trump’s focus on immigration and terrorism might lead him to neglect the nation’s colleges.
By the end of the day, our students had heard first-person accounts of a wide variety of college experiences and had thought seriously about their own futures. College, while still a long way off, didn’t seem so distant anymore.