Raising Expectations, Fighting Poverty

Diana McCue ’07 spoke to students on Thursday about her work with disconnected youth at the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) in Washington, D.C. 
 
 
As a job developer and job readiness trainer at the LAYC, Diana works with students who have dropped out of school or have been forced to leave school for personal or family reasons. Many of her students have criminal records, are homeless, are involved in the drug trade, or are already young parents themselves. 
 
Despite the dramatic complications in their lives, Diana helps them overcome educational obstacles by preparing them to attain a high school equivalency or even a specific skills certification, and by teaching them life skills necessary for the work force. She then helps them line up interviews and jobs in the retail and hospitality industry.
 
Her talk was tied to last summer’s all school read, The Other Wes Moore, which examined the divergent paths of two young African American men, both named Wes Moore, growing up young and fatherless in Baltimore. One became a Rhodes Scholar, while the other ended up imprisoned for murder. Like the author of that book, Diana believes that we are all “products of our expectations.” She credited both her parents and her teachers at Groton for holding her to high expectations, which could be stressful at times but which pushed her to achieve more than she might have otherwise thought possible. If she were to ask her own students what was expected of them in ten to 15 years, many would say they might end up in prison or worse. She is hoping to help them raise those expectations and break the cycle of poverty.
 
Diana, who soon heads to graduate school for a master's in social work, noted one particular similarity between her current students and Groton students: both tend to be cloistered in their own small worlds. Diana remembers her life on the Circle fondly—she was fully present in her experience here, even if a bit sheltered in retrospect. The difference, she added, was that Groton students have the opportunity to expose themselves to the world beyond the Circle. She urged her listeners to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. 


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