Personal Statement Essay: Poverty Among College Students

To many high school students, college seems like a far away land, a mysterious place where everyone wants to be yet not many know how to get there. As children, our parents tell us how much time we have to think about college, and that it is too far down the line to think about. The truth is it is never too early to think about your future. I, like many people, put little thought into my future career and now am lost in an unfortunate mix of indecision and anxiety. Not knowing where you want to be in the future is a hard burden to bear. Many of us tend to find out that we only know what we do not want, not what we actually do want. Do we want to be poor? Absolutely not. Do we want a boring job? Of course we don’t. We all want our

Unfortunately, the school's lack of appropriate education results directly from poor government funding. So even with hard work, the lower-class student is still held down by his socio-economic status. Poverty-stricken parents are unable to offer their children the same attention and motivation as parents of a higher-class can, therefore never providing these children with the mindset that they are able to accomplish the American dream. According to Mantsios, 40 million Americans live in poverty, and the mental and physical affects the low standard of living has on them is undeniable (Mantsios 328). Citizens who live in poverty work long hours for little pay, yet return to a household that in no way symbolizes the hard work put forth. Within this environment, very few people have the positive outlook to mentor children successfully.

A majority of the students in Middle Tennessee Public Schools come from a low- income family household. The school in which I work, Clearview Middle School is not only low- income, but is also a “priority” school. Priority schools are in the bottom five percent in being in the category of lowest- performing in the school district. The population of students at Clearview Middle School are majority African- American, but the cultures among the school are rich and diverse. Many students at Clearview Middle School have high potential of achieving great academic success, but fall short due consistent classroom disruptions throughout the day.

The topic is important to the teaching profession since more and more of our students are experiencing poverty. In 2011, over 15.9 million children under the age of eighteen were in poverty (NCES). In Texas, there was a forty-seven percent increase in the rate of children living in poverty between 2000 and 2011 (MacLaggan, 2013). In 2012, 1,777,000 Texas children lived in poverty and 749,000 lived in extreme poverty (Kids Count). Poverty and its stressors are linked to impairment of cognitive development and have implications for development of brain structure and function (Berliner, 2009). Children in poverty are twice as likely to be retained in school, are more likely to be placed in special education classes, perform less well on standardized tests, have lower grades, and are more likely to not complete their high school education (Berliner, 2009; Woolfolk, 2013,

The American Dream today seems dismissed as an idealized cliché. I know better. I am a second-generation Albanian-American, political refugees’ grandchild, son of a single mother whose sacrifices facilitated my success. I would never have sung for the Metropolitan Opera had my grandfather not toiled in a deli; my working on cutting-edge biomedicine at Harvard Medical School would not be possible had my mother not had opportunities to be an entrepreneur. The first in my family to graduate from college, I hope to honor their sacrifice by using my medical research education to improve others’ lives.

Poverty in the United States today has many faces. There’s the pleading face of a middle-aged man on a city street holding up a sign that says “Hungry, Need Help.” There’s the anxious face of a young child in a schoolroom somewhere, whose only real meal today will be a free school lunch. There’s the sad face of a single mother who doesn’t have enough money to buy clothes for her children. And there’s the frustrated face of a young man working at a minimum-wage job who can't afford to pay his rent.

Hunger and poverty are global issues that American is not an exception to. As of 2012, statistical data provided by the government reported that "46.5 million people were in poverty, including 16.1 million children under the age of 18" and households with children are hit disproportionately with hunger (Feeding America, Hunger). This disproportion results in an equally startling deficit in the quality of education for our children. These alarming statistics attest to the fact that poverty has become an epidemic. Educating all students to ensure they become productive and successful citizens cannot just be a desire, but a need. The required reformation to fix this epidemic requires government and community assistance with teacher involvement.

In today’s classroom, teachers do much more than just teach. They are counselors, nurses, role models and more. Landsman found that very seldom will you find a classroom in which the basic needs of children are met. It is very important for teachers to focus on ways to enrich the education given to disadvantaged students.

     It seems in the society we live in today, having a college degree is a necessity. Years ago it was the norm for people to just go right into a full time job after high school, if they even finished high school; they did this to support their families. In today’s society a person has a difficult time getting a decent job without a college degree. During an adults working life, bachelor degree graduates will earn about $2.1 million and a high school graduate can expect to earn an average of $1.2 million (Day and Newburger, 2002). This is quite a difference and it puts a college education in

According to Feeding America (n.d.), 46.7 million American people live in poverty including 15.5 million children. The status of living in poverty often makes families experience food-insecurity, or the inability to provide substantial, nutritious food to their children (World Hunger Education Services, 2015). Unemployment and job uncertainty often lead to food insecurity and both have become a growing problem in America. As a teacher in a cyber- charter school who severs a cross section of children throughout the state of Pennsylvania, I have taught many children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. This wide range of students has allowed me to expand upon my own knowledge of poverty in America and witness the impacts to a child’s education.

When I start the school year, I was on food stamps. There are a lot of students who feel like they are not as important as other students because they cannot afford expensive things. I make sure that I let the children know that you always have an opportunity to turn your situation around. I might be on food stamps, but through a good education, I can position myself to make more money. I acknowledge the students who mess up but start making good choices. I give students second chances so they know all hope is not lost when a bad decision is make. These actions let the students know that not only do I care, but I also forgive, and hold them accountable for their actions. I always say make good choices, it is never too late to start. If the student does not want to follow instructions, I ask if it was worth it after they are in trouble. Then, revert back to single mother mode, I discuss how being a parent is hard and a misbehaving child makes it harder to motivate the child to do

The air is heavy with the salty stench of wild fish and sweat. Fire ants and beetles maneuver their way through the thick dirt road, bustling with people. Venders are shouting wildly in a language I cannot understand, trying to sell their goods. I notice one vender selling larvae in a shop and turn away in disgust. Women are balancing large baskets effortlessly on top of their heads as I watch in awe. On the side of the chaos, a group of children, not much older than 7, are playing soccer with a makeshift ball pieced together with cloth, tape, and bits of rubber. I see more children on the corner of the road. I can distinguish the frame of their ribs as they silently stand awaiting passerbyers, with their hands extended in front of them. As I give them some fruit, they

One of the richest experiences that I had while at my service learning site was working with an English as a second language group. This group was filled with students who had just moved to the area and who were not fluent in English. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with this group in their ELA class and their Science class. This group was able to teach me so much about myself and they were also able to help me see how different my life was from theirs. When I began volunteering at the Edward F Parthum Jr Middle school two years ago, I believed that I would be able to connect with the students because I was raised by a single mother. I was raised in a very affluent town, however, by no stretch of the imagination was I rich. I thought that my financial situation and home status would allow me to connect with these students because I felt that my life was similar to theirs. I was soon shown that I was very wrong about my assumption. The students that I work with have a much worse like than I did. Many of these students do not receive support from their families because their parents work two jobs. I realized that many of these individuals did not receive support at home after watching them get their first science exam back. When I was working with the students the previous week, the teacher printed out study guides for each student and then she called each student’s parents to ask that they encourage their students to study. I went back to the school the next

What are the challenges college students are facing today? Students are under a lot of pressure

Teaching children of poverty can be very challenging. These children are more likely than their peers to experience poor nutrition, parents with low educational attainment and underemployment, broken families, child abuse and neglect, drug abuse, teen-age pregnancies and high rates of dropping out (Holt & Garcia, 2016). It has been my experience that these students are a little rough around the edges which may cause an educator the inability to see beyond the exterior of the child thus treating them more harshly than their peers. Being employed in a Title 1 school, I have had the pleasure of working with students and families whose major source of income is welfare. They often came from a single-parent household and arrived at school improperly dressed and usually hungry. I found that meeting the child’s basic needs helped them focus on school and took some of the stress off of their parents as they knew their child was in a safe, caring place. One thing that was vital in our classroom was firmness and consistency. Unfortunately, many teachers and schools do not possess the knowledge and experience required for success in these more challenging schools. Impoverished students often do not care about their education nor did their parents seem to care how their children perform in school (Holt & Garcia, 2016). I feel this can be attributed to distraction from just trying to survive. In order to have greater success in the classroom of impoverished students, teachers need to