Rising Class

YA nonfiction 

"Briani stood in the line of students at Hartley Hall, sweating in her oversized button-down shirt and jeans.  Her flight was first thing tomorrow, and her room was only half-packed.

     But this wasn't just anxiety sweat; this was four-alarm-fire sweat."

     In this scenario described in the prologue to Jennifer Miller's Rising Class it's March 2020.  Briani, a first year student, is having to vacate her dorm because her Ivy League college is about to shut down.  If she can't find her college issued moving bin she'll be out $350 she can't afford.  After a desperate day and night she learns that a floor mate had just borrowed it.  Briani is a first generation low income student; the floor mate isn't.  The incident reminds her of how different she is from many of her classmates.  "They all lived on the same campus, but they didn't live in the same world."

     Last summer I did an internship with Upward Bound, a program that helps first generation low income high school students get into and survive in higher education.  The students candidly shared with me the gaps between their experiences and those of their more affluent peers.  Having to work or provide child care for working parents, for instance, often left no time for extracurricular or academic enrichment activities.  I felt that the book might help me understand what could lie in store after making the transition.

     Miller followed three first generstion low income (FLI) students through their first year of college, a year that coincided with the arrival of the pandemic.  Briani, Connor, and Jacklynn grew up in rural Georgia.  While Briani and Connor became dorm students at prestigious Columbia University in New York, Jacklynn, Connor's girlfriend, decided to live at home and commute to local Ozarks Technical Community College.  As their month to month experiences are documented in alternating narratives you see how their experiences are similar to and widely differ from those of their more established and affluent peers.  

     Some of the challenges FLI students face are primarily or totally financial in nature.

     "Problem: The library, including the new FLI lending library, did not carry a lot of course texts.  So if you couldn't afford those books, what were you supposed to do?"

     [Reviewer's note:  if you haven't been in college recently, you'd be surprised how much required texts cost.  Quite a bit of sticker shock at the campus book store.  My kids have purchased some of mine as birthday and Christmas gifts.]

     Some are less tangible.  There's lack of social capital--"connections and the ability to work the system."  There's starting behind in classes where more affluent students have already covered course material and spending a lot of time just catching up.  And there are microaggressions on the part of fellow students, professors, and administrators.

     I think that Rising Class will fly off the shelves of high school and public libraries.  Teens are eager to learn more about the next step many will take in life.  It can help students who are first generation and/or low income feel seen and maybe become less likely to experience impostor syndrome.  Hopefully it can inculcate empathy in more affluent peers.

     It should also be required reading for faculty members, student services professionals, and administrators because what they don't yet perceive often hurts more vulnerable students big time.

On a purrrsonal note, despite this weekend's gorgeous weather, it was an internship and homework weekend.  My big concession was doing as much of it as I could outside in fresh air and sunshine.  I motivate myself by thinking of all the fun things I'll do when I have my semester's work out of the way.  (Jules)

That and a lot of candy.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to the other students working on getting all their work done on time.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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