This is the first article in a three part series.
Part 2: Holding Old Ties, Wearing New Ones
Part 3: Making It Big To Set Things Right
NEW HAVEN, Conn.⁓tudents glimpse it briefly: the cracked sidewalks and Family Dollar, the mural advertising the pawn shop that accepts gold, electronics⁷hat it takes to make it from one week to the next.
This is the scene Bryan C. Barnhill ‰8 drove past on his way to The Game. It wasn⁴ Harvard Square, or even one of Yale gothic courtyards, but it wasn⁴ altogether unfamiliar to him.
Bryan had put on his Harvard-preppy look: white button-up, Harvard sweatshirt, tight jeans. An earring glinted in each ear. He was ready. The football teams would compete in the stadium, this time for the 124th year, but Barnhill had his own game to play, and he knew the rules.
Barnhill parked the U-Haul at the tailgate. A DJ began spinning tunes, and the beat pulsed through the morning. Over it floated a languid refrain, ⁙ou don⁴ know me...you don⁴ know me.
Harvard had schooled Barnhill in a style, a manner, a way of life.
Like a growing number of Harvard students, Barnhill grew up outside this realm of privilege and struggled to adjust to its demands. But he also worries Harvard culture of privilege might tempt him to turn his back on those left at home.
TAKING INITIATIVE
Today, Harvard takes in more low and middle income students than ever before, according to Sally C. Donahue, the College director of financial aid. As Harvard becomes more economically diverse, more students find themselves in Barnhill situation.
During his sophomore year, the College launched the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI), which now promises that parents who make less than $60,000 do not have to pay a cent for their children educations.
This year, one of every four freshmen come from families who make $80,000 or less a year, Donahue says.
And one of every 10 students across campus comes from a family making less than $40,000 a year, according to the financial aid office Web site. That not far from the country median family income, a little over $48,000 last year.
HFAI, Donahue says, tries to attract more low-income students to Harvard as conscious effort to close the widening gap in opportunity in this countrynd actually etween those students who grow up with resources and those who don⁴.
⁍Y BLOCK
Growing up in the East Side of Detroitegularly ranked among America most dangerous cities⁂arnhill knew which houses to avoid: the abandoned building next door, the house down the block where the crack addicts gathered to buy drugs. Many windows on the street were shattered.
His neighbors and family members worried about finding jobs. The threat of violence hung over the neighborhood: sometimes, Barnhill fell asleep to the patter of gunshots. A liquor store beckoned from every corner.
⁆or the longest time, †Barnhill says, ⁉ thought the entire world looked like my block. †
Barnhill came to Harvard wearing his usual outfit do rag and baggy jeans.
⁍y parents told me, you shouldn⁴ do that, you shouldn⁴ wear these things, and I say, ⁎o, I from Detroit, I going to show these kids who I am and where I from.”†
Barnhill was the first in his family to win admission to an Ivy League school.
⁉ was going to Harvard for so many other people, †he says. ⁐eople in my family, people in my neighborhood, people in my city, people of my race. †
Barnhill says he expected the other students to wear pocket protectors. He wasn⁴ prepared for Ralph Lauren and J. Crew.
Harvard provided little official guidance for the drastic transition Barnhill had to make his freshman year.
⁉ really feel like I didn⁴ get much support here, †Barnhill says.
DISORIENTATION
Harvard financial aid officials say they know students may need guidance, but they worry about making assumptions based on student backgrounds.
⁗e⁶e wrestled [with] this, †Donahue said. ⁗e really don⁴ want to separate out students who come from less sophisticated economic backgrounds. †
Harvard philosophy, Donahue says, has always been to bring a wide variety of students to Harvard⁴hen treat them all the same.
Other schools take a different tack. Across town at MIT, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are invited to an orientation program to ease their academic transition.
Interphase, MIT orientation program, brings together about 70 students the summer before freshman year for a head start on physics, writing, and calculus, says Karina I. Vielma, the dean of MIT Office of Minority Education.
The program, which pairs the students with upperclass mentors and this summer ferried students to Martha Vineyard, is free.
During HFAI implementation, Mueller says, there were plans for a mentorship program, but it fizzled out because of a lack of student interest.
Students like Barnhill have access to an e-mail newsletter, a seminar called ⁆inancial Aid 101, †and a booklet called ⁓hoestring Strategies for Life @ Harvard: A guide for students on a budget. †But little official support exists to ease the cultural transition.
And while Barnhill found a community within the Black Men Forum, many BMF members were as privileged as their white peers.
One exception was Brandon M. Terry ‰5, a former BMF president who had come to Harvard from urban Baltimore.
Black freshman from tough neighborhoods face two dangers, Terry says.
⁏ne, that you come and completely flip out, because you can⁴ stand it, †he says. ⁁nd then there another, where you come in and forget your whole past, and then you fail as the person you could have been.
By November of freshman year, Barnhill had had enough. Sick of feeling like a guest in some other world, he sat on the steps of Widener and told himself ⁔hese are your trees. These are your buildings. †
He could represent Detroit, he decided, in a collared shirt.
⁓taff writer Lois E. Beckett can be reached at lbeckett@fas.harvard.edu.
