I moved to New Rochelle from Colombia in 2009. I did not speak English nor understand the complex cultural differences. I entered Trinity Elementary School in the 5th grade and thanks to the CILA program was able to catch up to my classmates once I started at Isaac E. Young Middle School. By the time I stepped into New Rochelle High School, I was taking advanced math and science classes and on a path to graduate having taken more than 8 AP classes. All this to say that New Rochelle schools gave me incredible opportunities and allowed me to attend the college of my dreams. However, through my path in NR schools I realized how early on in the process students are picked out to succeed or to be mediocre, how segregated these academic opportunities are, and how disillusioned many students become with their own academic futures.

 

As I began to take advanced classes at IEYMS, the majority of my classmates were Latinx or black. Why then was I one of 5 or 6 non-white students in AP classes at NRHS. I slowly saw how my friends were discouraged from taking challenging classes by a sudden lack of support, an overwhelming feeling of impostor syndrome, and incredibly detrimental comments from teachers and counselors. I am privileged to come from a family that values education, to have an older brother who had navigated the schools before me, to have two parents with stable incomes amongst many more privileges. Had I not had these privileges, I might have also felt isolated in classrooms full of white students, confused about challenging content, ultimately felt inadequate and opted out for regular classes. This path of thinking makes sense and it's exactly where schools need to meet students and instead of intimidating them, encourage their growth. I want to see a NRHS where advanced and AP classes demonstrate the racial composition of the school, where the opportunities that the Board of Education and the city government constantly brag about are actually accessible to all of its students, not just to those that are already destined to succeed. What use is it to help a sprinter run? We must create equity by providing real pathways for disadvantaged students to achieve their full potentials; just having them to provide affluents students a taste of the diverse real world is simply not enough.

 

 

Below are two specific examples of prejudice I experienced at NRHS:

 

I'm my freshman year social studies class, the teacher was attempting to explain the concept of the "American Dream" to us. He began to sing a song mocking a central American country, sarcastically singing about the fortunes and success in that place. He then proceeded to ask me and then the only other non-white student wherever he was being mean or rude. In such a position where I felt not only like a minority but also minimized by the authorite figure in the room, I agreed with him and said no, he was not. This experience was particularly memorable for me because of the irony of my white educator teaching a Latina immigrant about the American Dream.

 

The following year, in my social studies class our teacher split us up into groups for a project. I was randomly assigned to a group with all ALMS students except for a white girl, that had attended IEYMS with me. I vividly remember how the first thing one of our group members did was turn and ask the white IEYMS student how it felt to the be only white person at IEYMS. She completely ignored me and appeared unaware of how that question would make me or it's recipient feel. My classmate was flustered and gave a non answer. The lack of perspective and sensitivity in my classmates became glaringly obvious to me from that point on.

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Ana Acevedo

NRHS Class of 2017

University of Pennsylvania Class of 2021