Today my students and I traveled to Wilmington to visit the campus of UNC-Wilmington. I must admit that I was extremely impressed by everything the school had to offer. There were tons of amazing resources on campus- from their student center, to the building that housed their School of Education, to the 14 dining locations on campus (so they’ll never be hungry in college- LOL).

During the tour and our lunch I talked with students to gauge their feelings about the campus. Unfortunately, most of them felt that it was “too different” for them.

All of this led me to wonder- what good is equal opportunity without equal desire? Now this is not to say that my students don’t want to go to college- they do. But I struggle to understand why they would want to be in an environment that is so much like where they come from for their 4 years of college. How can you grow if you’re always surrounded by what’s similar/familiar?

As a teacher/counselor, how do I push my students to consider the many options that are available to them?

And seriously- what good is the equal opportunity they have if they don’t want it/desire it?