A Drive to Succeed Khadijah is becoming a successful individual. Her past identity impelled her to her new identity as an intellectual stable college student at Harvard. Khadijah is a brave fighter who is willing to succeed. She is an 18-year-old high school student trying to make it out of the streets by using her academic achievements. Her mother had her at the age of fourteen and was a drop out. Khadijah and her family are homeless; she has moved schools over twelve times. At school she had a different identity where no one knew she was poor because she always held her dignity. Being a homeless 18-year-old she was accepted to numerous elite universities such as Brown, Columbia, Amherst, and Williams. School was the only thing Khadijah knew growing up in the streets and in shelters. School was her only home, away from being with the thugs, dealers, and prostitutes. She never doubted her capabilities to strive for success. Khadijah’s academic achievements drove her away from her indigent social class to be a prestigious individual in society. Khadijah never got it easy, she had to work her way up to success. The article explains, “She awoke at 4 a.m. and returned at 11 p.m., and kept her grade-point average at jut below a 4.0 while participating in the Academic Decathlon, the debate team and leading the school’s track and field team (Bermudez p.5).” She always worked hard for her success in school; though she was homeless and had no financial help or stability.
In High school, she continued to excel where others fell short by focusing and exceeding in her academics, setting an example for others to follow and instilling confidence into others rather than letting them fall into peer pressure. With the help of her
Many Children in the world face challenges that most people don’t have to. For example, two of his people face very hard challenges, Abdul, and Kundila. Two people who have it harder in life then us.In these stories, Doris Pilkington, and Katherine Boo amazingly show the challenges these two people face. In Katherine Boo’s story, Abdul has to work for his family to raise money to move to a better neighborhood. In Doris Pilkington’s story, Kundila has to protect his family from the white raiders.
Invisible Backpack: Reflective essay Growing up we often fail to recognize the ways in which we are privileged and the opportunities we are given due to our privileges. In the essay “White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh discusses the privileges of being White and the ways she experienced advantages because of her race. Throughout the essay McIntosh allows readers to explore how she has been given opportunities, due to specific traits she has in her “invisible knapsack”, privileges she once had taken for granted. Her personal experiences take up most of the essay and with it she invites the reader to particepate in discovering which items their knapsacks carry.
Education had been completely banned for girls, and boys limited to learning the Quran when the Taliban entered Afghanistan. Latifa and her friend Farida had ‘lived this closeted life’ in which they do ‘nothing at all’ and they both thought they should pass on the knowledge they had acquired. Inspired by the bravery of their former teacher Mrs Fawzia who had set up a secret school but was then caught by the Taliban in the middle of teaching (her pupils were beaten, and she was thrown down the stairs causing her leg to break and then thrown into jail), Latifa, Farida, Maryam and another one of their friends (unnamed) set up a school where they teach mathematics, reading, writing, history and English in their own homes. The girls, their families, and neighbours all work together to ensure the school runs safely and smoothly, each person contributing one way or another, from gathering school supplies to keeping lookout for the Taliban. The creation of the school shows incredible bravery and resilience of the families’ human spirit in that they decided to all work together to give an education to their children, even though they could be caught and executed by the Taliban. By creating the school, their lives were transformed for the better because they had a focus and a purpose in their
Liz Murray is an influential student because she sets an example for students with struggling homes by pushing herself to live a better life and by going out to speak out and encourage other struggling students to live a better life. While Liz Murray could have done nothing to improve her life, she pushed herself to improve her awful life. For instance, according to reporter Rebecca O’Brien, Liz Murray “completed high school in two years, all while living on the street—rather than with an abusive grandfather who housed her sister—and occasionally spending the night with friends or in the subway”( O’Brien N.P.). This demonstrate that Liz worked hard in school, completing high school in half the time than most people.
Langan grew up in conditions of extreme poverty with barely suitable clothing to wear and living with an abusive father. While he eventually made to college because of his natural talents it abruptly ended because of his mother’s failure of his fill out required financial paperwork eventually leading him to the decision of dropping out of school. In Langan’s case achievement ended up being more about his mother’s in ability to understand paperwork and his bad decision of dropping out, than the talents he possessed. This is the case with many other children raised in poverty due to the effects that poverty has on decision making. Children raised in poverty rarely choose to behave differently, but they are faced daily with overwhelming challenges that affluent children never have to confront, and their brains have adapted to suboptimal conditions in ways that undermine good school performance. In many cases poverty chooses the path for an individual making other opportunities limited, leading to less desirable options. The conditions of poverty are pragmatic one action makes certain future actions more or less possible. For example dropping out of high school after only a ninth grade education made going to college almost completely impossible for
(1) Education, while not popular for slum residents, was a way to move up the social caste system. This is also seen in developed countries; educated residents are able to enter career paths with more opportunities, higher salaries, and greater prestige. Manju, the daughter of Asha, was attempting to complete her education at a local women’s college. If she completed this education, she could marry someone in a higher social caste and escape the slum. Her mother Asha often discouraged her because it violated the social role of women; women should be married off and serves as servants to their husbands. If Manju were able to complete her education, she would be Annawadi’s first female college graduate. Nevertheless, it is difficult for a person to receive an education when structural conditions do not allow. At one point in the story, Manju has to stop teaching the local children to assist her mother in ripping off a Western nonprofit- Asha was running a fake kindergarten program.
Salva never gives up and always keeps on walking, this allows him to go to America and see his father again. He then realizes how much water always means for him so he makes it his life purpose to give water to people in Sudan. Similarly, Zahira, from On the Way to School, hikes four hours on Mondays and Fridays to go to school. Zahira also realizes her purpose. After trudging through her hardships, she understands how deeply she cares about school and kids receiving an education, as a result, she puts it on herself to construct more schools so that young girls wouldn’t suffer the same fate. After discovering the flaws of life they try to prevent them from happening again or make it a lesser problem in the world. Their perseverance gives them purpose which gives them something greater in life to look forward
To continue, Chin’s grandma has no money, therefore in order to experience a better quality life, she is sent to live with other relatives, however many of them consider her a burden because she’s just another mouth to feed. Each time Chin moves, she experiences harsh class differences, for example in some of the homes she stays at, they have no electricity or running water. While on the other hand, other families she has stayed with have been fortunate enough to afford color television, a maid and other luxuries. Fortunately, Chin is able to overcome class stereotypes with her intelligence, which allows her to attend a prestigious high school regardless of her class ranking.
Evidently, her life exemplifies the overcoming of poverty and how it really is possible as long as you stick to education and persevere through life.
As a young girl growing up in Haiti, I experienced first hand that the path my parents chose for themselves was not the life that I wanted for myself. I was able to relate closely to Richard Rodriguez in “The Achievement Desire” because he faced many struggles that I too faced as a young girl. My parents always pressured me to work hard at school, I was always suppose to have my homework for Monday done by Friday night, which made
The more education a person acquires throughout their life-time means they are more-likely to find high paying jobs. So, the amount of education a person receives correlates with if they live in poverty or not. “None of Crystal’s siblings finished high school. Instead, they became adults when they were teenagers” (Potts 598). Without a high school diploma the chances of any of the family members attaining a job that makes above minimum wage was almost impossible. The desperation of not being able to make an adequate amount of money for basic needs, lowers the life expectancy for poor women. “The more educated among us are better at forgoing pleasurable and possibly risky behavior because we’ve learned to look ahead to the future” (Potts 595). In the case of Crystal, she dropped out of high school because she married Possum. In today’s society a majority of women want to continue their education before marrying, because marriage is risky with possibilities of children, or their spouse may
“They will not stop me. I will get my education if it is in a home, school, or any other place” these are the words of Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel peace prize winner, a human rights activist, and a Pakistani girl, who has traditions, stories, and a unique experience. She was named after Malalai of Maiwand, the greatest heroine of Afghanistan, and she lives up to her name as a heroine for girls education. Despite the cultural traditions of Malala Yousafzai’s community, she has grown as a world leader in spreading world peace throughout the globe, through her challenges, her accomplishments, and her growth in publicity, with her common goal being an education for all girls.
“I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is an education,” said Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education. In today's society, many people don’t realize how grateful they should be for the education they receive. Even the slightest education is much more than people were receiving just three centuries ago, and even more than people in countries besides the United States of America. In specifics, women and African Americans were once unable to pursue any form of education in the United States, along with many other ethnicities.
on the atmosphere in which she was living. The scholarship being taken away from her,