Despite Harvard outreach, the needy face socioeconomic gulf – The Boston Globe

Despite Harvard outreach, the needy face socioeconomic gulf – The Boston Globe

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People don’t realize how difficult it is to be the poor kid on campus.  I grew up a blue-collar kid in a classic New England mill town.  In tenth grade, I transferred from my public high school to an elite boarding school.  What a shock to my system.  Academically, I learned to make adjustments.  The true difficulty was learning to walk the walk with the wealthy students who dominated the population.  I’ll never forget trying to explain to my friends why I couldn’t go with them to Boston because I didn’t have money for the train.  They didn’t understand that there was no money for my parents to put into my bank account.  My dad had lost his job two years prior, and we were on the verge of losing our home.  The last thing I could do was call home and ask for money for frivolous trips to the big city.  My experiences were vastly different than those of my friends’.  

In the end, I’m grateful for my high school experiences –  I learned a lot about myself, and learned to embrace my blue-collar roots.  But I have to agree with the students interviewed in this article – being the poor kid shouldn’t be something you have to hide.