When Community and Education Come Together

By Nikki Crishen Evans

My k-12 experience was heavily focused on attending college. The school motto for the charter school I attended from kindergarten to ninth grade was “College for Certain” and the time I spent at my Oakland public high school planted the seeds to fulfill this dream. Due to my college-emphasized upbringing, I knew to create and establish college-focused mentors. There were a wide variety of future career options that were highlighted and encouraged by the school staff. I knew to take advantage of this as much as I could as it was only a two-person team- but with a bigger support team, many more students would have felt empowered to engage in these opportunities. 

The encouragement was centered in our school’s library where our amazing librarian and the accompanying college readiness team resided. They were so supportive and resourceful. Even though they were there to assist us with the college application process or to simply be a librarian, their impact on the student body went beyond that. They were resources for general life advice, funny stories, and opportunities we never would have had access to if we didn’t have them in our school. The college success team encouraged me to apply to a college readiness program that empowered students from marginalized communities to intern at companies we wouldn’t have access to without this network. I spent my senior year interning at Salesforce and was able to network with a lot of people, without even knowing what “networking” was. This type of social capital can only be acquired through direct experience, and coming from a low-income, immigrant background there are not a lot of opportunities to explore the corporate world, so I am grateful for that experience that was given to me by the college readiness program. I am grateful to the mentors that I had that helped make the transition to adulthood  comprehensive and real. 

All this to say, community is an essential aspect to highlight when discussing education access. Without the plethora of resources and mentors I was given and the drive inspired by my schooling, my journey to college would have been much lonelier and twice as more complicated. We need to increase funding for all high schools and college readiness programs, so more kids have the opportunity to engage in the same experience as I had—opening up a network of possibilities for college recommendations, work references, and other empowering experiences to prepare them for life.