Most of the attention on COVID-19 revolves around the physical consequences of its spread, especially in communities of color, but a secondary effect has to do with a decrease in academic attainment, especially in the Latino community.

 

The educational fallout from the pandemic is seen in figures collected by the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). During 2020, the first year of the pandemic, Hispanic enrollment in higher education fell overall by 5.4 percent.  More alarming is the decline in first-time enrollment among Hispanic students, at almost 20 percent. These statistics present a difficult future for one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population. The warning from NSC is stark. “If we don’t take concerted steps to counter these declines, opportunity gaps in this country will only grow, and Hispanics will be left behind,” the organization’s representatives said.

 

Some parents hope to secure a better future for their children by encouraging them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, better known by its acronym, STEM. Careers in the humanities on the other hand, including the study of languages and literature, the arts, philosophy, religion, and history, are considered more unstable by some, with gloomy prospects for employment.

 

However, although STEM degrees outpace those in the humanities by a rate of almost 2 to 1, many academics, sociologists, and educators continue to promote the humanities. As one college senior observed in a December 2019 article published on studybreaks.com by Madison Feser, “With only mathematicians and engineers, who will record our history? Inspire our creativity? Challenge our politics? Foster our language?”

 

One institution helping to pave the way to college for those wanting to dive into the humanities, and still get a job after graduation is Columbia University. The Freedom and Citizenship educational program for New York City high school students was founded in 2009 by the Center for American Studies and Double Discovery Center at Columbia University. In that time, they have helped nearly 400 first-generation and low-income students attend college.

 

Jessica Harriet Lee received a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 2016 and is the program’s current executive director. “We’ve grown to 45 students per year,” Lee said, adding that they started with high school students who were transitioning from junior to senior year. “The goal is to expose these high schoolers to college-level courses in a supportive environment.”

 

Once accepted, students attend a free, four-week program in July comprising an intensive seminar on political philosophy. They then commit to a year-long, civic leadership project where they research contemporary political issues under the supervision of undergraduate teaching assistants. They are helped with the college application process by Columbia College undergraduates and successful students receive letters of recommendation from their summer professors.

 

Growing up across from the Bronx Zoo on Southern Boulevard, Debora Camacho, a 19-year-old Puerto Rican, was attending the Bronx High School for Law and Community Service at the Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus on Fordham Road when she was encouraged to apply in 2020 to the Freedom and Citizenship program. The idea of studying philosophy wasn’t very appealing to her, at first. “The thought of [studying] philosophy, thinking about it really hurt my brain……but I went for it,” Camacho said. “Why not take philosophy?”

The critical thinking that goes along with questioning how knowledge is produced was not easy for Camacho, who described herself as “more [of] a STEM person” and was part of the group, “Girls Who Code.” But something about philosophy piqued her interest. “Since I went into more humanities [and] philosophy [studies], oh my gosh, it was such a big difference and I’m glad I took it!” she said. “It opened my eyes to a lot of things……thinking big, bigger questions… instead of just being settled on one answer, because there can be multiple answers to anything… and how that actually sounds pretty cool.”

 

A future in the humanities can be concerning to parents who may be unfamiliar with such a broad field of study. “I think there is an idea that the humanities are dead or [if] they’re [even] relevant,” Lee said. “Most of our students are like Debora; they kind of come into the program planning to major in STEM, thinking ‘Philosophy might be interesting,’ and then it switches after the program. The majority of our students major in the humanities and social sciences.  These are relevant texts, these are relevant questions, these are relevant conversations, and the students are interested in them.”

 

Indeed, rather than having to make a choice between studying a STEM subject or one in the humanities, Camacho sees the possibility of a more holistic approach. “Humanities is important, STEM is important; you can combine the two,” she said, adding that it is definitely possible for students to find ways to study what they love and also be financially stable. Camacho is currently enrolled at Smith College, a private, liberal arts, women’s college in Massachusetts. It is described by The Princeton Review as “an incredibly prestigious, diverse, academically rigorous, socially liberal, and well-respected institution.”

 

According to Micaela Cacho-Negrete, public relations and digital presence liaison at Freedom and Citizenship, to date, the Columbia University program has been met with so much interest that it recently helped create “Knowledge for Freedom,” a national consortium of schools that will create similar programs in over 25 universities by 2024, reaching thousands of students.

 

For those parents and high school students looking at Camacho’s impressive academic resume and concluding the program is not for them, Cacho-Negrete has some encouraging words.  “We’re always trying to reach more students,” she said. “This isn’t just one girl who did this…. She did it; you can do it too! We’re accepting applications and want to hear from you!” The link to apply is: https://freedomandcitizenship.columbia.edu/apply.