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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Cycle of Poverty

From our discussion on Monday and subsequent blog posts, it is clear that even two bordering neighborhoods can be worlds apart. From working with some of the seniors at Pomona High School on their college essays, I was able to hear one girl's struggle in her family's cycle of poverty as not just another statistic of people below the poverty line but as a very personal account. 

She grew up in South Central Los Angeles in which some zip codes show the percent of college graduates to be as low as 3%. Drive by shootings, drug dealers, and gang members are common on the streets. Her father was addicted to drugs, leaving her family broke with sometimes no money for food or for paying their gas and electricity bills. He passed away from AIDS, and her family moved to Pomona. 

She is the youngest of five children, and her brothers and sisters who are well into their 20s are either jobless or working minimum wage jobs. She will be the first in her family to graduate from high school and attend college, if accepted- which I have faith that she will be. Her way out of the cycle of poverty is a college education, and she knows it. She has worked hard these past four years, involving herself in extracurricular activities to keep her motivated and, in some cases, away from the troubles of home. Her older siblings, however, will most likely end up raising their children in similar environments. One of her main motivations to become successful is to be an example for her nieces and nephews that if she can do it, they can too. 

I believe that colleges accepting more and more first generation college students, those who have proved that they have worked hard and are willing to work hard like the rest of their peers in college, is one step in addressing the large gap in our class system.  

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