Diversity & Inclusion in Higher Education

I sat on the train this morning. Crowded as usual. Lucky for me, I found a middle seat next to someone I sort of knew. For years, we have met on the train and have exchanged occasional pleasantries. Today he was distressed. His kid had applied early decision to the university of his dreams and he was stressed about the possibility of his kid not getting in. None of this was unusual. I sympathized. I have a kid applying to college; I get it. What surprised me was how the conversation unfolded. 

My fellow commuter was particularly preoccupied with the thought that some “undeserving minority kid” would “take” his son’s spot. He mentioned how seats were being “handed out” based on some “irrational basis of rectifying past sins” and how the schools were “wasting” sought after spots by “highly qualified” young adults. They were “giving them away,” and for what purpose, he wondered, because these minority kids could go to other schools were they would “fit in better.” It was his own kid who could make good use of this particular institution’s education because of the connections he could make there. “Obviously, right? I mean, really…”

I first reminded myself to breathe and remain calm, and asked him to clarify exactly what he meant, in case I was still waking up and had misunderstood some of what he was telling me. In fact, I had not misunderstood one single thing. 

I then had to ask him if I should apologize to someone for having taken his spot at Georgetown, many moons ago. He seemed perplexed. See, this man, who for many years had seen the partner of a law firm taking the train to GC wearing my red soles and carrying my interlocking Cs handbags, while discussing securities and law firm management, did not - for one moment - conceive that I was one of those kids that took a “handout.” I didn’t fit his stereotype. There is so much that can be said about that; like, for example, shouldn’t my name have given him a clue?! (His “excuse” was that he thought I was French, what I am is indeed 100% Puerto Rican.) 

Nevertheless, I do not want to talk about what went wrong this morning or dissect his biases and misconceptions (yes, of course, I schooled him). But rather I want to focus on the importance and long lasting positive effects of D&I in higher education. I do not know if I “took someone else’s spot” at GU. In fact, I have no idea what that means. What makes a 17 or 18-year-old kid more deserving than another? How do you measure grit, curiosity, positivity? I could never work on Admissions, clearly. But I am a realist. And I will be the first one to tell you that, although I was the Valedictorian, my high school was small, in a small town, in a small island, and poorly funded. Unlike my sons’ high school, we were NOT studying differential equations at 17! Also, I could not speak English very well. A bit of a hindrance and certainly a challenge the first year! What I do know is that when that GU door opened, I walked right through it, and I have been challenging stereotypes ever since. You see, grit is something I have in spades. 

The scholarship that allowed me to attend Georgetown so many years ago has afforded me many opportunities, allowing me to grow professionally but significantly, also to reshape people’s perceptions. And therein lies the societal value of D&I in higher education. It has a positive rippling effect that still today, this morning, 30 years after I graduated, pays off. It has given me the privilege - and the duty - to show some people that things are not always what they seem and that we shouldn’t be all too quick to judge. 

This year my son is applying to colleges, and as I told my fellow commuter this morning, no, I did not “waste” my seat at GU and, yes, if he gets in I can now fully pay for that seat that was once "given to me." More importantly, my son will know that he is no more or less deserving than anyone else accepted there, or anywhere else he attends. Because while he knows that I couldn’t have been able to afford that privileged seat if it had not been for Georgetown’s commitment to diversity, that did not make me any less worthy or successful. And that is the message that we, the parents, need to give our children when we send them off to college. Because they will need to work on that critical inclusion piece, so that years later that girl - turned professional woman, entrepreneur, athlete, politician, advisor, mother, all of the above, or whatever she decides to be - doesn’t have to listen how she took someone else’s spot.

Finally, to the schools going through the admissions process, please never forget how many of us you have impacted by opening that door.

#Georgetown