HBCU Made by Ayesha Rascoe

Author:Ayesha Rascoe [Rascoe, Ayesha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Perseverance Every Step of the Way

Rebecca K. Roussell

Those standardized tests, which of course were a requirement to get into college, tried to take me out. I was not a good test-taker. I took the ACT five times and the SAT once. My high school counselor would tell my senior class, multiple times, that the ACT was the more favorable test. I had no idea why, but I do know that’s why I took it so many times.

I had been an honor student in high school and a member of the coveted National Honor Society, and I knew that my low ACT scores were truly not a reflection of my ability, but I would find out that some schools placed a lot of weight on that score and if you didn’t make the benchmark, you were not allowed admission. After five tries, I scored a twenty-one, and I refused to go through the anxiety and angst to take it a sixth time. A twenty-one was what I was giving and that was that.

And so I went from being excited about applying to colleges to not feeling good enough in a split second. I received my first rejection letter, from Florida State University’s admissions office, because of my low ACT score. I was devastated. I sulked for a few weeks before I built up enough courage and determination to go at this draining task of applying to colleges again.

I received my first acceptance letter from Clark Atlanta University, and that’s when my entire attitude changed. You couldn’t tell me I wasn’t going to be a CAU Panther come fall 2002. So, my parents and cousin, also looking at colleges, hopped in the car for a road trip from New Orleans to Atlanta.

I visited the mass comm/journalism sessions and was completely blown away. I had been in television studios before, but this time I felt like this, in a big city like Atlanta, could be my reality. The feeling was just so surreal. CAU was definitely going to be my home for the next four years.

“How are we going to afford this?” my mom said.

I had not even thought about the cost. I had been accepted, I liked the school, and that was it. I told all of my friends I was going to Clark Atlanta after graduation. I kept that acceptance letter with me and carried it around in my backpack.

Then we received a follow-up letter detailing “out of state fees” that pretty much sealed my fate. Like, what in the world were those? How were schools allowed to tack on additional thousands of dollars because I lived out-of-state? Tuition, plus room and board, books, supplies, and the dreaded out-of-state fees were enough for my mom and dad to unfortunately say, “Becky, we just can’t afford this.” I felt so defeated. And the realization began to set in: I was literally a couple of months from graduating and I did not know what school I was going to attend.

With CAU now off the table, I applied and was accepted to my mother’s alma mater, Xavier University.

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