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At Georgetown, one student’s path to success stands as an
example
of academic achievement.
Rashema Melson graduated at the top of her high school class at Anacostia High this past year, in one of the poorest sections of Washington, D.C. For most of high school, she lived in the DC General homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. with her mother and two brothers, but largely hid this fact from her classmates.
“It was nobody’s business,” she said. “And if it was, I didn’t want to be pitied, I didn’t want to be looked down upon as if I couldn’t do it, because I’m a strong person.”
Melson was accepted to Georgetown University with a full scholarship and began taking classes there this summer in a program designed to smooth the transition.
The program, Community Scholars, is similar to other programs in universities across the country that target first-generation college students to help them adjust.
At Georgetown, the country’s oldest Catholic university in an affluent part of Washington, D.C., many students are unaware of Anacostia, where Melson attended high school. The two neighborhoods are only several miles apart but socioeconomically very different, according to Dennis Williams, the associate dean of students at Georgetown.
“It really is two separate worlds,” he said.
Data
from the U.S. Department of Education shows that more than 1.2 million homeless students were enrolled in public schools last year. Approximately 76,000 of those students live without parents or guardians.
About 75 percent of homeless youth live with friends, relatives or anyone who can offer shelter, but do not qualify for government assistance.
Some cities have responded to student homeless by creating initiatives to help ease the struggle and lead these students to graduation. In Los Angeles, the Homeless Education Program provides school supplies, hygiene kits and other resources to students.
Warm up questions
- Where is Washington D.C.? Have you ever visited? If so, what was it like? Why is it our nation’s capital?
- Have you ever been to a city where the level of wealth and poverty are very different within the city even if they are physically close to each other? Which factors do you think play the most important roles in this phenomena?
- Have you ever overcome a big challenge in your life? What was it and how did you do it? Do you think that your strategy might work in other areas of your like where you face obstacles? Why or why not?
Critical thinking questions
Warm up questions
-
How would being homeless affect the following areas of your life?
- Personal (friends, family, etc.):
- Education
- In the story, Georgetown freshman Rashema Melson described some of her goals: I still see that picture in my head of me having my own house, and having my degrees on the wall, having a job to go to from 9:00 to 5:00, having a consistent paycheck, paying my own bills, and just being — being the woman that I always — I always wanted to be . Do you share any of the goals that Rashema has? Do you have any short term or long term goals you have you set for yourself? Choose one goal and explain how you might be able to achieve it.
