How does your school prepare you for college? What steps does your school take to give you the experience of college? As a junior attending Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, the school has started to get me thinking about college and career options. The Chavez Schools mission is to prepare scholars to enter and succeed in competitive colleges. As a soon-to-be senior it is almost time to start looking for colleges, but like most seniors I am confused on which school is right for me.

I have been at Cesar Chavez since 7th grade and have always had the same idea of what I was going to become after school — and that was a veterinarian. Since building a relationship with the staff at Cesar Chavez they have always been supportive of my dream. They encourage scholars to be a part of advanced placement courses, to think about a career versus a job, and to think about being the employee or the employer.

My experience at Cesar Chavez has been good so far, and since being there I have been to many colleges, met with sororities, and researched colleges that fit my career path. At charter schools, it’s about opportunity, success, and change, and attending a charter school I can see how true that is. Senior year for me will be interesting because I will be applying to different competitive colleges, receiving many opportunities for scholarship programs, and going on many more college visits.

Since enrolling in Chavez, I have taken college tours at Delaware State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, American University, University of The District of Columbia, University of Maryland, Bowie State University, and Marymount University. I have had the pleasure of meeting with members from sororities such as Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and many

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Snob Nation
by Fawn Johnson
National Journal
March 5, 2012

Is President Barack Obama a snob? A brief look at his personal education might make you think so. He attended the prestigious Punahou prep school in Hawaii. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. If I had seen that resume at age 18, I would have rated him high on the snob meter knowing nothing more about him. (I was starting college with lots of prep-school classmates, which made me acutely self conscious about my public school education.) Personally, I don’t know if Obama is a snob, and I don’t care. I figure that as president, he’s entitled either way.

I am intrigued, though, with Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum’s use of the sassy slur to lambast Obama for his efforts to increase college attendance and graduation. “What a snob,” Santorum said, railing about “liberal” college professors “trying to indoctrinate” impressionable teens. The huffy reactions to Santorum’s rants are to be expected. He’s good at eliciting them. An essay from the Harvard Crimson entitled “In Defense of Snobbery,” which is quite well written, is just one sample of the many people who disagree with Santorum.

But I wonder if Santorum is on to something. It has become increasingly clear over the last 20 to 30 years that college is a necessary component of a middle class lifestyle in America. Should it be that way? Do we want to be the kind of country where a mortar board is a de facto requirement for being a part of the community? Perhaps Santorum is simply expressing the frustration many people feel that the achievement goal posts keep moving.

It’s certainly easier to get a job with a college degree. The unemployment rate for

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