I'm African but you all are my brothers and sisters and I consider myself AA. I had the experience of living in the ghetto from elementary - junior high school before finally moving to a more "quiet" neighborhood. Reading through this thread, this is my first time on SDN that I've read / seen this and I almost want to cry.
Some of the things you guys are saying, if some of you guys were here on campus with me, my grades, confidence, and motivation would be astronomical. Sometimes I feel like I have no one to go to with some of my fears and concerns. Most of my friends are in accounting, business and accounting.
I brought up the fact that I'm African because my situation with family and parents are quite the opposite of what you are describing. With me it's more like pressure and support but mostly pressure from my folks to make it as an M.D. I've gotten off to a really bad start in college because I lacked some fundamentals which I need to learn. So I got really discouraged and even recently was considering switching majors or going into chiropractor since I want to be in the health field but all anyone tells me when they hear about my awful academics is, "good luck. it'll take a miracle" etc., etc., Do you know how many times I've been told I'm not cut out for med school? I've been feeling like an idiot and I know it's not true but if only you knew my situation....
Anyway it's good to hear there are people out there who haven't forgotten their roots since they got "up there". Wish some of you guys go to school with me. The forumer who was advocating for a mentorship program, I'll tell you right now, if such a program was to be created it would really help people out; at least speaking for myself. Most AA kids who got 4.0's rarely stop to "mentor" other AA kids with lower GPA's. It's almost like a "I'm too good for you", "you're not serious about school enough to hang out with me". There is this guy who's in the sciences with a really good GPA and he's an academic superstar on campus. This guy know's I'm also in the sciences but doesn't even bother to come by and ask, "how's classes, bro? need help?" or even words of encouragement / advice. It's rather a dude who's in political science with a low GPA but good ec's that's been mentoring me.