Many of us know about the work John and Elizabeth Edwards have done on behalf of young people -- from the computer lab set up in their son Wade's name to the College for Everyone program in Greene County NC to help high school students from this rural and impoverished area go on to college.
[cross-posted at JRE blog]
Helping to inspire high school students to reach for college is a big part of what the College for Everyone program is all about. This program says, work hard and commit to success and we will make it happen. For kids in Greene County, this is making a strong positive difference--where before many didn't even dream of going beyond high school, now they dream and can realize that dream.
Teenagers in poor urban and rural areas alike, however, share more than the lack of a dream or the chance to make it a reality. For many, they may never have been given the information or the individual encouragement necessary to be prepared to succeed in their dreams.
This is where College Summit, a partner with the College For Everyone program, comes in. For what good does the promise of tuition/fees/books for the first year do, if a student never gets accepted in the first place.
There's a multimedia slide show titled Counting Words, Courting College online at The New York Times that I find particularly inspiring. [The accompanying article, Making a Hard-Life Story Open a Door to College, was published on July 26, 2007. Photo by Michael Temchine for The New York Times.]
The voices you will hear are of the students attending a 4-day College Summit workshop at Howard University in Washington, DC. These are not policy abstractions but real live kids. Listen to the wonder in their voices as they experience encouragement and gentle pushing to achieve, some for the first time in a school setting or ever.
Listen to these voices. Every child should have that sense of possibility, that moment of discovering that they are someone special with much to offer.
Over the next year, there will be plenty of times when we might get so caught up in the primary and then general election race, that we focus more on the win than the why. If you find that happening, go back and listen to these voices. And remember the one candidate in this race who really gets it -- John Edwards.
I'd love to hear about other successful programs helping high school students from impoverished or at risk areas get to college and/or helping them succeed in college.
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VirginiaforEdwards.org, turning Virginia Blue in 2007 and beyond! Tomorrow Begins Today!