Fostering Individual and School Resilience: When Students at Risk Move from Receivers to Givers

Abstract

As a low-income black male, the odds were stacked against me growing up. From an absent biological father who took no interest in his son to a mother drowned in work to support her family, the idea of a college degree was not a reality for me. When I was in fifth grade, my self-esteem and any sense of purpose that I had as a 10-year-old boy were crushed. I remember staring at a crumbling ceiling tile in my elementary school’s counselor’s office, as my fifth grade teacher told me, “You will never amount to anything, and you will never thrive in any school setting.” The implication of her words became extremely evident in my actions from that moment on. From a steep academic decline to severe behavioral problems, it was the new norm for teachers to write me off as “troubled” and as a kid who “could not be helped.” It was a norm I accepted, embodied and BELIEVED! (Aaron, University of Alabama Premier Award Essay, 2015).