Access to equitable and quality education has always been a roughshod experience for me.
Being toted between two different homes in opposite areas of the city, while maintaining a social life, extracurricular activities, and my grades, proved to be difficult as a junior in my final years of K-12 education.
Through the advocacy of a trusted teacher, social worker, and now mentor, I came across and was given access to Georgia’s school lottery program, specifically targeting someone in my unique situation.
Though I struggled to maintain my academics, my mentor’s efforts and the resources provided by that program allowed me to reinforce my commitment to finishing my senior year with strength. After a year of pulling my GPA from an under resourced, unenthused and unfocused 2.7, I graduated with honors. I was admitted to every top program of my choice and accepted on a full ride scholarship. I wasn’t falling behind in school because of my own personal failings as I had previously thought.
I struggled because I did not think a quality education was a choice that I had access to, and I was one of millions who was cast aside as a result of this same thinking.
What you do not know, you cannot employ.
Education choice is not just a choice; it is equity. Quality education can open doors to worlds one could have never conceived of prior to being equipped with it, and I hope to usher in that same inspiration as a first-grade teacher and give that choice to thousands, if not millions of other students like myself.
