day one of mentoring

Frederick Douglas Academy II is a high school not far from my home in miles.  It is located in Harlem, a neighborhood that is not familiar to me.

 As I walk around, the storefronts remind me of another era.

Even the campaign posters are not current.

Today is my first day of mentoring.  One of the coordinators wants to take a group picture.  I swear, it isn't my suggestion, though I’m glad I have a small camera with me.  

We meet the students we’ll be working with.  They are all finishing their junior years.  I am assigned an articulate girl whom I’ll call Jasmine.  She wants to be a veterinarian.  We spend about 90 minutes getting to know each other.  Jasmine is determined and hard-working.  I like her immediately.

I can’t help but think of my son, and the advantages he’s had.  All his friends went to top high schools; all his friends were tutored for the SAT; all his friends got in and are currently attending top schools.  This is pretty much the life my son knows.  And I am grateful for that.

Had Jasmine had a different economic upbringing, she would have heard the term, by now, early decision.  She would  know of, and probably have taken, some SAT 2’s.  She would have gotten at least two hundred points higher on her SAT’s, because she would have been coached.  Her college reach schools would be her safeties.  

Yet the person she admires most is her mother.  So perhaps in ways that count most she's been lucky.