First and foremost, many thanks to The Berkeley Beacon for its advocacy to lift the voices of the Emerson College community. This is a response to an interview published in the April 8, 2021 issue where my daughter Justina Patrice Thompson expressed her perspective on the challenge of managing college costs and her strategy of turning to crowdfunding to help alleviate expenses. I am thankful for her sharing her views, though I believe a critically important aspect also weighed heavily on the experience that affected her, and our, financial decision-making, and that was the COVID-19 pandemic. Like so many other families, we struggled to manage our lives, careers, and academic experiences.
As a life-long academic, holding a Ph.D. from an Ivy League institution and having held academic appointments at the Penn Graduate School of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, my experiences supported my family by growing savings to help during the very challenging times of the pandemic. What we have, and the ways we see our resources, are choices in perspective. I am thankful to have worked in these spaces to be able to provide for my daughter as much as I was able to.
As far as the struggles to find work my daughter witnessed, to this I say that as a Black woman in higher education I acknowledge, in solidarity, this well-documented experience by the higher education research community. I pray that as she grows and develops as a Black woman that she never experiences the types of challenges I faced. The savings that she lived on are a testament to this. As a scholar of higher education, and a first-generation doctoral degree completer, I am well aware of the costs that so many college students struggle with. It is an area we must continue to be vigilant in providing resources and advocacy for, to ensure pathways to graduation and beyond. I am happy to know my daughter developed self-sufficiency to support her academic journey: a lesson many young adults experience.
Peace.
Dr. Pamela Felder-Small with Daughter Justina.