Motivation for College: From Homeless to Harvard

In a particularly inspiring college admissions story, the Los Angeles Times recently reported that Khadijah Williams, an 18-year-old with a long history of family instability and homelessness, will be attending Harvard this fall. Recognizing her intelligence after scoring in the 99th percentile on a standardized test in third grade, Williams took pride in her achievement and worked hard to keep herself in the gifted programs of the countless schools she attended over the years.

Her story may have many parents wondering how it is that someone with the deck so stacked against her could overcome the almost insurmountable odds of getting into Harvard (or any other top-ranked school—Williams was also accepted by more than 20 other colleges, including Brown, Columbia, and Amherst), while their own children, who hold all the cards, seem far less motivated and don't fare nearly as well.

Part of the answer may lie in Williams's circumstances themselves and her sense of self-efficacy. The life dictated by her mother's choices and actions was a powerful negative motivator—Williams knew she didn't want that kind of existence for herself. Moreover, she realized that the one thing she did have—her intelligence—could, combined with hard work and perseverance, be her ticket to better things. In other words, Williams recognized that she had control over this one area of her life and that she could, with help from other adults, largely determine her own future.

Obviously such rags-to-riches stories aren't the solution for relatively unmotivated, underachieving privileged students. But they do suggest that being handed everything on a silver platter—and then pressured by parents to make use of the advantages they confer—may not be the best way to foster children's self-determination and academic achievement.

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