Role Model Needed

I was playing with my little brother the other day when this girl approached me and asked, "Are you an Auggie?"

"Ummm, yeah....?" I answered sort of questioning how she knew that.

Then I asked her how she knew about Augsburg because I was in fact wearing an Augsburg t-shirt that I had gotten after being accepted to Augsburg in 2007. She mentioned that she remembered me from the time she visited Augsburg with her school class.

Then I remembered! Students in the 2nd grade from Bruce F. Vento Elementary had come to visit our school along with their teacher. Well, their teacher happened to be my roommate's mom. My roommate and I helped out with their visit. We played, went along campus tours, had lunch with them, and talked with them. It was a great visit. The Admissions people later in the Spring went to visit the students to their school.

Well, where my family lives is a place where children are more likely to end up in many places other than college. I see this in different ways. One is that there are no libraries close by. There are no healthy food outlets, other than gas stations and liquor stores. Transportation is very hard to navigate and housing is very inadequate. Many of the families living in this area are more likely to be low-income, do not speak English as first language at home, and do not know how to navigate the system.

This means that these students really lack role models. My experience in school is that there were not many people who looked like me, other than students, for example. At home our families struggle to make ends meet and sometimes education, although important, becomes secondary to the daily survival. Overall, their future looks very grim.

It has been a few times that I have seen this student. I have talked to her a few times. Sometimes, while I am outside playing with my siblings, she has gone into her place and bring out her Auggie backpack she got when she visited Augsburg in the Spring. Some of her peers now know me as well.

We've talked about college and what I do. I also have asked her about what she wants to do when she is older and if she is going to go to Augsbugr when it is time. She always says yes--I hope she does.

But, what has been eye-opening to me is that not am I a role model for those in my family; I have become a role model for students who live in this area. There needs to be more students like them going into college. Because I came out of a place they know, I hope they see that they can do it too. That they can make it to college, to Augsburg.

Now I have another reason to visit my family at home.