Does My Neighborhood Want Me to Drop Out of College?

A Student in Watts Asks Why She’s Spent a Decade Choosing Between Survival and Her Degree

Zócalo celebrated its 20th birthday recently! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of our most impactful stories and public programs. Watts resident and student Shanice Joseph revisits her own essay “Does My Neighborhood Want Me to Get Pregnant?” and pens an update on her journey—and struggle—to get her college degree.

Over a decade has passed since I published my first-ever viral essay.

I was struggling to make ends meet while pursuing my journalism degree at Long Beach …

by Shanice Joseph | September 9, 2024

Who Needs Student Debt When You Can Get Together for a ‘Conversation’?

The 19th-Century Women Who Educated Themselves Outside the Ivory Tower Offer Inspiration for Learning Today

by Emily R. Zarevich | September 11, 2023

On a dark, chilly evening in November 1839, a woman in Boston, Massachusetts, convened a party at her friend’s house. That might seem an unremarkable event, but this was not …

So What Exactly Happened to the MOOC?

In 2012, Massive Open Online Courses Were Supposed to Revolutionize Higher Education. Then They Disappeared—But Only from the Headlines

by Valentina Goglio | December 15, 2022

Ten years ago, in May 2012, Harvard and MIT announced the launch of edX, their nonprofit platform for Massive Open Online Courses (better known by the acronym MOOCs). Together with …

Californians Shouldn’t Need a High School Diploma to Go to a Public University

To Make Up for the Pandemic-Era Student Achievement Gap, Our Higher Ed Systems Should Skip the Requirement

by Joe Mathews | May 3, 2022

Why should you need a high school degree to go to university in California?

In 2020 and 2021, the state’s public schools ditched their students, shutting down K-12 campuses for over …

Can America’s Status-Obsessed Universities Figure Out a New, More Inclusive Way Forward?

Three Higher Ed Leaders Share Their Ideas—And Wish Lists—for the Post-Pandemic Future

by Jackie Mansky | January 15, 2021

American higher education will not be the same after the pandemic. But in the wake of this crisis, what should be changed for the better? Zócalo brought together a panel …

A Micro-Loan at a Time, an Atlanta University Is Bridging the Racial Achievement Gap

How Georgia State Challenged a Broken Educational Model and Skyrocketed Its Graduation Rates

by Andrew Gumbel | August 26, 2020

Students like Tyler Mulvenna drop out of college all the time, for all the wrong reasons.

Mulvenna was bright and resourceful and full of promise when he enrolled at Georgia State …

Why I Don’t Care About My Neighborhood’s Bad Reputation

A Lifelong Watts Resident on the Perception, and the Reality, of the Much Maligned Area

Does My Neighborhood Want Me to Get Pregnant?

A College Student in Watts Asks Why She Gets So Little Support Compared to Young Women Who Have Children

For College Prep Charter Schools Serving Underprivileged Communities, High School Graduation Is Just the Beginning

With a Majority of Students From South L.A., USC Hybrid High School Rejected Teaching to the Test to Focus on Getting 90 Percent of Graduates Through College

How Watts Provided the Foundation for a Family’s Rise in America

Baseball, Small Business, and Legal Status Helped a South L.A. Clan Develop Deep Community Roots

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