The next in a series about last month's college trip.
By Ravenswood Program Director Karlisle Honore
One of my Dreamers recently asked me what my college application experience was like when I went through the process years ago. She wanted to know, specifically, what factors led me to select the school I eventually attended. There were several, but the most important was the desire to live away from home. Similar to the majority of our Dreamers, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to live on a college campus and take time to learn about myself away from my parents. But unlike many of the Dreamers, there was never a question of whether I would visit my schools before attending, nor was there a question of how I would get there. Through the College Access Challenge Grant provided by NYS HESC, IHDF-NY was able to overcome both of these hurdles with our high school students this year. During Midwinter Recess in February, Dreamers participated in 4-day road trip that took them to six colleges through upstate NY. The primary purpose of the grant is to expose underserved youth living in New York State to the variety of college options available to them right here at home.
Dreamers visiting SUNY Fredonia on their college tour
As part of the preparation for this journey, students were required to attend a 1-day College Summit designed to provide them with basic information about the college going process and to encourage community and relationship building between Dreamers from different program sites. Workshops were held at The New School, and topics included understanding the language of college; financial aid and packages; and a roundtable discussion on the college search process. The trip was ultimately attended by nearly 60 Dreamers from all of our current high school programs. Dreamers visited SUNY Fredonia, SUNY University at Buffalo, SUNY Buffalo State, SUNY Oneonta, Alfred University, and Syracuse University. The experience of walking onto a college campus, through academic buildings, dining halls and residence halls, libraries and activity centers, was incomparable to any virtual tour our students could have taken online. Being exposed to different cities and towns and to the variety of diversity on the campuses was a great learning experience. The trip was made more worthwhile (and realistic) by the freezing temperatures we had to deal with. Dreamers were equal parts cranky, amused and shocked by the weather and how it didn’t seem to deter life. School was open, and people were going to class. It is through these visits that students get to sample the environmental and cultural adjustments they may have to deal with once they leave home. They get a truer sense of how large the world is beyond their neighborhood, and begin to learn how prepared they are to leave their comfort zone.