YIA

The stories from the workers at YIA all sound too familiar to me. Being someone who grew up in Providence, went to public schools, and am a minority, I know first hand what a lot of these kids at YIA felt like while in school. We aren't given the best education, we aren't given the right support or resources because we simply don't have it. We never had a voice in school because the adults knew what was best for us. If we felt like speaking out, good luck finding other kids who will speak up and support you because no one felt like we can change anything anyways. Just like Monay, I felt like traditional education never addressed my needs and all the information that was spit out at me was useless. The students are powerless in public schools because they aren’t any (adult) leaders to encourage them to do so. A few months ago, I made the decision to move out of Rhode Island after I graduate and my heart is still set on it. In this article, it does mention how the kids who are “best positioned to give their voice and power to help fix what’s broken in these cities usually move on to better places and opportunities.” I’m one of the many people raised in Providence, brought up in not the best neighborhoods, and put through public schools, love their hometown, but feel like this is not the place where they want to be for the rest of my life or raise their future children for the simple fact that it’s hard to reach your full potential in a city like mine.