Imagine you’re an ambitious 12th grader with hopes and goals for a college degree and profession, to achieve independence and not raise a family in need of free meals. You got your scholarship for tuition and housing but how do you pay for all the additional essentials like books, laptop, transportation to college, school & dorm supplies, activities fees, meals. At a DC university the meal plan costs $3000/semester. You work part-time while in high school and plan to while in college, but a large portion of your paycheck has to go to your family’s electric bill. Another DC university has a Food Pantry for students experiencing food scarcity. Wealthier families don’t have problems covering the cost of meals and all the other supplemental necessities for their sons and daughters.
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Read an eye-opening story, a first hand experience and get the picture: “I Was a Low-Income College Student. Classes Weren’t the Hard Part.” by Anthony Abraham Jack, author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.

Give to Cultivate Independence & Stories of Achievement
Education in the US, unlike other developed countries, is fraught with systemic injustice, built-in roadblocks for youth from families with limited financial resources. All Out for Change®, via organizations and students we support with College Access Funds and Supplemental Scholarship Funds, helps break through the roadblocks along the journey to achievement and upward mobility.

Why isn’t anyone talking about outdoor classrooms? With sports cancelled and fields and playgrounds available among other unused outside spaces, large, medium and small canopy tents can be set up, and chairs and tables arranged with space needed between students. Pods of students could be created. Wouldn’t this idea present a safer option, with some brainstorming, resourcefulness, and thinking outside the (classroom) box? 

People use open canopy tents for outdoor events for sun and rain protection. Restaurants in DC now use them to replace parking lanes for additional outdoor seating with extra space between tables; people feel safer outdoors instead of indoors. While talking with a colleague about my idea she suggested canopies with a couple of roll up sides in case students need more weather protection. 

Christine Esposito, a teacher, recently wrote in The Washington Post, “Many risks stand in the way of me being with my students”. I’m curious as to how receptive teachers and parents would be to this idea if “These 8 Basic Steps” from The Atlantic July 9 Ideas contributors were combined with outdoor classrooms. 

Run an outdoor classrooms idea by infectious disease experts to get their thoughts. The more heads that come together to think outside the (classroom) box, the more likely it could be tested and tweaked. 

When I shared the idea with a friend, she suggested unused cafeteria tables and chairs for desks. Then I thought, put cardboard figures in between students to create space protection and set up modular plexiglass shields; and maybe everyone wears face shields in addition to masks; and put out sanitizer jugs everywhere, and give pocket-sized sanitizers to students, teachers and staff.

We need to explore ways to meet ALL needs and minimize risk. The 11th and 12th graders we support through All Out for Change®, who are the first in their families with aspirations for college, experience disadvantages without real teacher time and school resources to cultivate their achievement. Their wealthier peers, whose well-educated parents can help with online schooling at home, have quite an advantage.

It might be wise to look into this, perhaps less risky idea further as an option, so our less wealthy youth can be better served in the coming year. We need to prevent their fall further down the ladder they’re climbing in pursuit of higher education, careers and upward mobility. We must put our heads together to facilitate continued achievement and keep ALL students on track.

I didn’t expect my curiosity about the idea of outdoor classrooms to take me down the systemic inequities path. But not surprising that’s where my thoughts headed since the organization I founded addresses the systemic inequities many low-income high school students face, including the “digital divide” that hurts them now more than ever. Last year we provided a local youth development program with 9 laptops for a computer workshop and workspace. We were told it was a “game changer” for 11th and 12th graders; unfortunately, students without computers can’t access the space now nor can they attend group college counseling and professional development workshops in the space. 

Since campus shutdowns, the computers we provided to individual 11th and 12th graders have been invaluable tools, allowing them to go online for classes at home. Yes, the computers the students received are a silver lining around a massive dark cloud. But as the new school year approaches, a July 22 Washington Post article shed light on another systemic injustice arising out of the pandemic: “Private teachers and the cost of inequality; Many parents are set to pay for home lessons to avoid health risk, remote learning woes, widening education gap”. 

The students who received computers from us could finish the school year online, but they will face a more serious disadvantage besides no family members to help with homeschooling in the coming year. Now their wealthier peers’ parents are paying for private teachers to create in-home schools.  Campus shutdowns clearly exacerbate the conundrums and hurdles our system presents to under-resourced students in their pursuit of high school achievement and higher education.

And speaking of conundrums, I totally appreciate Ms. Esposito’s concerns as a teacher, and wonder how everyone could be better served in the new school year. If infectious disease specialists suggested that some version of the outdoor classroom idea could possibly work, by implementing specific protocol, would she, as a teacher and parent, consider being with her students?

MaryAnn Puglisi
Chief Engagement Officer & Founder 
All Out for Change®
Washington, DC

Donate your Macs today - cultivate hope & success! All Out for Change® is fortunate to have a Mac specialist committed to helping our 11th & 12th graders, and college students stay on track by transforming your used equipment into essential tools for students in need. We have 4 more students with immediate needs.  If you live in the DC metro area, and would like to make arrangements for us to take computers off your hands and put them into students’ hands, please email me, [email protected].
Since March, we have equipped 21 students pursuing high school and college degrees with computers, allowing them to stay on track and connected during campus shutdowns and remote learning. With the invaluable help of Mitch at Computers on Demand, we have provided:

• 7 refurbished iMacs to 11th and 12th graders without computers at home in need of them for school and their college prep program; their tutor, and a student's family.
• 14 refurbished MacBooks to high school grads, college students who returned home without good working laptops, and 12th graders anticipating they’ll need them through the school year and then in college;
• we’re about to gift 4 more MacBooks to 2020 high school grads starting college online soon, and then hopefully safely on campus in the near future.

Campus shutdowns shed light on the “digital divide” and serious consequences for a student’s present ability to stay on course toward high school and college degrees, and future opportunities. Share in the gratification of a donated computer that’s essential to an ambitious youth’s educational & professional pursuits, and upward mobility.

Supplemental Scholarship funds will help high school grads with expenses like small tuition gaps (enrollment not allowed otherwise), transportation to and from school, laptops, books & school supplies ($1,200), dorm room bedding and towels, essentials that students' families can't afford. 
College Access Funds typically help with for costs of college fairs, campus visits, college prep workshops, application fees; currently, many college students without housing and meals on campus have additional emergency needs for food and housing assistance, internet access during the pandemic and campus shut downs. 
Help make success happen through invaluable college prep programs we support: 

• American University awarded Desmond a full scholarship to study Computer Science to pursue a career in IT; Clyde, a Cameroonian refuge, received a 89% scholarship to study pre-med and biology at Albright College in PA; also with Scholarship funds, Janiya will attend Old Dominion University, and Denise, Bowie State University; Cierra, a Psychology major, graduated from Salisbury University, MD and will attend graduate school.  
• Braswell, has an undergraduate and graduate degree in Education and works for the Tucson School District; Fabricio participated in a professional and technical skills program and we hear he has "done marvelously as an IT guy", purchased a house for his family and, mentors a 12th grader.

With your support they can continue their coursework and pursue their professional aspirations en route to upward mobility.