Dear University Of Wisconsin Madison Admissions - 1588 Words

Dear University of Wisconsin-Madison Admissions, Growing up a Caucasian, upper-middle-class child in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I remember feeling perplexed every time I visited my neighborhood grocery store. While the groceries in one part of the store served a demographic population similar to my own, the other items catered to the low-income, predominately African-American population located in the adjacent neighborhood. My grocery store mirrored the demographic make-up of my city, yet was not reflected in my educational trajectory. My parents, like many financially secure families in my area, sent me to a private college-preparatory school to escape the deficiencies of the public school system in East Baton Rouge Parish. While white†¦show more content†¦A conversation ingrained in my memory involved two adolescent boys from San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD). When asked about their future ambitions, one student casually responded that he would â€Å"go to prison like his father.† The other expressed a desire to rise above his inner city milieu, but had little sense his abilities or of his options. In stark contrast, students from Alamo Heights, an affluent neighboring district, held ambitions to become doctors, lawyers, and politicians, and demonstrated an understanding of the prerequisites for their desired career path. The graduation rate of Alamo Heights stood at 98% while SAISD’s graduation rate lingered around 60%. The contrast between these two districts grows more disturbing when considered through the lens of racial equality. While SAISD’s population is 98% minority, the Anglo population in Alamo Heights totals slightly over 55%. Yet, 74% of Alamo Heights graduates achieve a four-year college diploma, while only 4% percent of SAISD alumni attain a bachelor’s degree. An opportunity gap results from this discrepancy, ultimately proving detrimental to social mobility. In 2013, I became a Teach For America Corps member in Mission Texas, a small town on the border