Tomayia Colvin

     I graduated from high school with honors and in the top 25 percent of my graduating class. I began college expecting to graduate in four years, and I thought I was academically prepared for the rigors of college work. Imagine, then, my shock when I was placed in developmental classes in college. As I would later understand, I lacked the necessary college skills because I attended an under-funded, inner-city high school that had outdated textbooks and few supplemental educational materials, and few teachers—none in my case—who provided students with challenging curricula and standards. I paid a price for that lack of preparation, academically and psychologically. In college, when I had difficulty concentrating, I blamed myself. My grades plummeted; I was put on academic probation, then suspended from the university and barred from receiving financial aid. During this decline, the university health center diagnosed my depression and I began treatment. It was only then that I learned that, according to the American College Health Association, 10 percent of college students suffer from diagnosed depression. The same report notes that 38 percent of first year female students “feel overwhelmed” by college life. My diagnosis changed my life.
     When I re-enrolled at the university, my grades were mostly A’s and I was on the Dean’s List. At the same time, I became a single mother. I receive no assistance from my child’s father, no social services, and no government assistance. I work full-time and attend school part-time. I will succeed in college not just for my sake, but for my daughter’s sake as well. My monthly child care costs are more than my rent. It took four years before I was again eligible for financial aid. The university closed the health center that had changed my life. I worry about the many others like me who will not obtain the help needed to successfully complete their degrees. Without the treatment and support I received from the Student Health Center, I would be a college drop-out instead of a graduating college senior. My experience made me realize that there are many other students who, like me, needed a support network. To help fill this gap, I began a student organization for female students called Gifted Educated Motivated Sisters (GEMS). We help each other achieve academic success by establishing study groups and social networks. We also reach out by working with homeless women and women in shelters.
     In August of 2005, I will graduate and begin teaching high school English. I am determined to provide inner-city youth with an education that will make them college-ready. I intend to be a teacher who challenges my students; I want to make them critical thinkers and careful writers so that they will not have to start college in developmental classes. I realize that this will require much work on my part, but my students will understand that I believe in them and in their abilities. I also know that I am providing my daughter with a valuable role model. I am a gifted, educated, motivated sister—and she will be also.

Photo Exhibit

A nationally touring exhibit of 50 framed, museum quality, color photographs coupled with narratives created by students who are welfare eligible, single parents changing their lives through the pathway of higher education.  The installation presents a unique view of poverty from insiders’ perspectives and reframes the cultural (de)valuations of poor single parents vis-à-vis family, work and higher education in the United States today. View the Gallery Guide.