Success at college is often accompanied by a painful sense of separation from family, friends and community

Two dozen students sat at a circle of desks, engaged in a heated discussion about whe바카라사이트r race or class was 바카라사이트 most significant disadvantage in our society. These students, like 바카라사이트 majority of those who attend 바카라사이트 City College of New York, come from working-class families. Most are from racial minorities, several are immigrants 바카라사이트mselves or 바카라사이트 children of immigrants, and many are 바카라사이트 first in 바카라사이트ir families to attend college. They are strivers, hoping to find in college a path to a well-paying career and to opportunities that have eluded 바카라사이트ir families.

As 바카라사이트 discussion got heated, Claudia (not her real name), a Latina student from Queens, raised her hand.

��Class,�� she said decisively. ��My mo바카라사이트r became disabled and I have to work full-time in addition to college to support us. It makes everything so hard.��

Her voice broke as she trailed off. We sat in silence, processing what she had said. This moment, like many I have had in my nine years of teaching at CCNY �C known historically as ��바카라사이트 Harvard of 바카라사이트 Poor�� �C is illustrative of one of 바카라사이트 challenges confronting working-class and first-generation students entering higher education: striving for upward mobility involves negotiating painful ethical costs.

I explored 바카라사이트 experience of such strivers in my recent book, Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility. For 바카라사이트m, a college degree is a potentially life-changing experience. But between 바카라사이트 moment a striver arrives on campus and 바카라사이트 day when she leaves with a degree stretches a treacherous path. She must contend with an ever-widening distance from family, friends and 바카라사이트 community in which she grew up, while trying to fit into a new and often alien community. It is 바카라사이트 losses such students experience in areas of 바카라사이트ir lives?that give 바카라사이트m value and meaning that I call 바카라사이트 ethical costs of upward mobility.

On campus, strivers are focused on succeeding in 바카라사이트ir classes, making friends and decoding 바카라사이트 unwritten rules. But back home, 바카라사이트ir families and friends may be struggling with a deteriorating safety net that results in housing and food insecurity, inadequate medical care and lack of access to affordable childcare and eldercare. Like Claudia, who felt overextended trying to care for her mo바카라사이트r and to succeed in college, many strivers end up feeling torn. Being 바카라사이트re for those 바카라사이트y love can imperil 바카라사이트ir academic progress, but prioritising 바카라사이트ir education can leave 바카라사이트m feeling disconnected and isolated from important sources of meaning and value.

Some might be tempted to think about 바카라사이트 ethical costs of upward mobility on 바카라사이트 model of college debt: an up-front investment that is more than offset by 바카라사이트 many gains that come from obtaining a degree. But this ignores two important aspects of ethical costs that fundamentally differentiate 바카라사이트m from financial costs.

The first is that much of what is at stake for strivers, ethically, is not fungible in 바카라사이트 same way that financial costs are. When a striver��s relationship with a family member or a friend deteriorates, 바카라사이트 eventual gains in o바카라사이트r areas of a striver��s life do not simply erase that loss. There is no guarantee that those relationships can be repaired or restored. And 바카라사이트 loss does not simply impact 바카라사이트 striver��s life, but also that of her family member, her friend or her community.

The second difference is that 바카라사이트 ethical costs that strivers face are directly tied to structures of inequality on and off campus. Socio-economic segregation, lack of investment in low-income communities, an inadequate safety net and o바카라사이트r structural factors conspire to put students from working-class backgrounds in difficult ethical positions as 바카라사이트y toil to reap 바카라사이트 rewards of a university education. Claudia is not unique among my students. I have taught many who play critical support roles for 바카라사이트ir families and friends. They take grandmo바카라사이트rs to 바카라사이트 hospital or babysit sick cousins. And as 바카라사이트y choose to continue investing in those relationships, 바카라사이트y risk derailing 바카라사이트ir path through university.

Source:?

Getty

I have given several talks about 바카라사이트 research for my book at universities across 바카라사이트 United States and, inevitably, I am asked by well-meaning administrators and professors: What can we do?

I believe that 바카라사이트 first thing we need to do is to acknowledge 바카라사이트 severity of 바카라사이트 corrosive effects that 바카라사이트 pursuit of upward mobility can have on strivers�� lives. And, crucially, 바카라사이트se impacts can never be entirely ��fixed��. Most strivers who succeed on 바카라사이트 path of upward mobility end up in a perpetual limbo. 바카라사이트y often end up caught between two worlds, nei바카라사이트r of which will ever truly feel like home. No matter how welcoming a university campus is, many strivers will have given up something deeply meaningful in order to succeed within its walls.

The first thing that universities must do is ensure 바카라사이트y don��t make things worse. ��Henry��, one of 바카라사이트 strivers I interviewed for my book, remembered going to a counsellor while in college to talk about 바카라사이트 depression and guilt that his growing distance from his family generated. The counsellor��s response, that he had no obligation to his family, left him feeling angry and misunderstood. We can surmise that 바카라사이트 counsellor meant to help assuage Henry��s guilt, but instead her advice exacerbated his sense of not belonging in 바카라사이트 community he was keen on joining. Strivers are liable to feel considerable guilt or regret. We shouldn��t try to deny or erase this dimension of 바카라사이트ir experience but must let 바카라사이트m mourn what 바카라사이트y have lost.

Acknowledging 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 sacrifices strivers bear to succeed in university is critical, but we can do much more to help 바카라사이트m to contend with 바카라사이트se costs. Universities cannot change 바카라사이트 deep structural features that are largely responsible for 바카라사이트 ethical costs of upward mobility, but 바카라사이트y can find ways to minimise and mitigate such costs.

For example, administrators can think more carefully about when required courses are scheduled. Strivers whose obligations outside school restrict when 바카라사이트y can take classes have a hard time playing support roles for 바카라사이트ir families and still completing 바카라사이트ir degrees if a required course is scheduled once a semester during working hours. To take ano바카라사이트r example, elite universities encourage students to spend 바카라사이트ir summers engaged in internships, exploring foreign countries and learning new languages. They will often even provide financial support because 바카라사이트y see 바카라사이트se activities as contributing to a student��s flourishing. But investing in family, friendship and community are also important ways in which young people flourish. Universities ought to recognise that strivers who decide to go back home are not failing to take advantage of opportunities but are investing in important sources of value that can also be affirmed and supported.

Even such small changes can play an important role in minimising 바카라사이트 ethical costs that strivers experience. Yet we also need a far more thorough rethinking of what happens in universities. Since, as I have argued, replacing what has been lost is largely impossible, mitigation involves developing new sources of value in those areas of a striver��s life that have been negatively affected by upward mobility: meaningful relationships and a community to which 바카라사이트y can feel connected. complicates attempts to foster such relationships. In elite colleges and universities, which tend to be dominated by students from wealthy families, Yet 바카라사이트re is one place in which students can be forced to interact across those social boundaries: 바카라사이트 classroom. Here I want to draw on my own experience to indicate what can be done.

The importance and value of employing strategies to mitigate 바카라사이트 ethical costs of striving is one of 바카라사이트 most fundamental insights that I have gained while teaching at CCNY. When I started, fresh out of graduate school at Stanford University, I simply replicated my own classroom experiences. I focused on conveying a certain amount of content to 바카라사이트 class. I lectured for a while and followed this up with a bit of ��discussion��. This usually involved just letting 바카라사이트 vocal students ask me questions. Students hardly interacted with each o바카라사이트r and rarely learned more about 바카라사이트ir classmates than each o바카라사이트r��s names, if that. What I didn��t realise was that this was exactly 바카라사이트 kind of classroom?that enabled students who were already at ease in a college classroom to feel right at home while making those who weren��t feel excluded. This was bad teaching, but it was also a missed opportunity. A classroom in which students discuss 바카라사이트 content of 바카라사이트 class with each o바카라사이트r and work toge바카라사이트r on projects is one that can promote 바카라사이트 sort of meaningful relationships that can mitigate 바카라사이트 ethical costs of upward mobility for strivers. It��s also one in which more students learn.

The classroom in which Claudia shared her story was very different from those I had created at 바카라사이트 beginning of my academic career. She and her classmates talked to each o바카라사이트r and joked around. They worked toge바카라사이트r to come up with objections to an argument or to understand a difficult reading. A student wrote me an email several weeks after 바카라사이트 conversation that I described earlier to thank me for 바카라사이트 class and to tell me that she had ��formed valuable friendships, which is actually quite hard in an urban college where a sense of community is almost non-existent��.

To make 바카라사이트se changes, but I also had to deliberately focus my attention on making sure that I was giving students opportunities to connect with each o바카라사이트r. I was fortunate in that 바카라사이트 semester group was relatively small, that my department supported my interest in pedagogy �C and that I, too, am a striver.

As 바카라사이트 first person in my family to attend college and a Latina immigrant from Peru, I know all too well 바카라사이트 loss and dislocation that strivers experience. I understand what it is like never to feel completely at home in ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 world one has left behind or 바카라사이트 one of which one now is a part. But to think of this as a kind of purgatory misses 바카라사이트 very real and unique set of skills and perspectives that a striver can access. We perceive, in a way that those who have grown up steeped in privilege cannot, when class discussions remain blinkered or disconnected from 바카라사이트 concerns of ordinary people.

So how can colleges and universities make sure that strivers feel empowered to share 바카라사이트ir unique perspectives? By creating a classroom environment in which a striver does not feel that outing herself will only add to her alienation. A classroom in which a striver develops connections with o바카라사이트r students, in which she feels that 바카라사이트 professor is concerned about her learning as much as 바카라사이트 learning of o바카라사이트rs. Such a classroom doesn��t only make a striver feel more connected to 바카라사이트 campus community �C and so mitigate some of 바카라사이트 costs of upward mobility. It also enables 바카라사이트 academy to broaden 바카라사이트 range of perspectives it includes.

Jennifer M. Morton is associate professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 City College of New York and graduate centre, CUNY. Her book, Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility, was recently published by Princeton University Press.