Saturday, January 18, 2014

Access and Opportunity in Higher Education


Three insightful and expressively-written articles/essays on access to higher education, in general, and not necessarily, veterinary medicine.  But I thought the underlying issues affecting access are well-expressed.
 
'On Privilege and the Ph.D.' by Kate Bahn.

Liz Riggs writes about mentoring programs for first generation college-goers who can easily find the experience isolating and alienating. 

Andrew Simmons asks whether college offers earning potential or social mobility or intellectual awareness or possibly all three. 

And a fourth, for those who appreciate creative-writing pieces with a personal touch, author Anne Raeff makes us all aware of how hopelessness can systematically and almost irreversibly breed despair already in the minds and souls of children and teens.  

“You have to live as if you believe that something will change and you will be able to go to college.” I explained, but they just shook their heads. “Nothing’s going to change,” they said.

--in Seeing the Snow by Anne Raeff