Maybe I Wasn’t Overthinking It: What Returning to College at 38 Years Old Taught Me About Bias, Power, and Institutional Barriers
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Coming back to college after a nineteen-year hiatus has taught me far more than what appears in a syllabus. I did not return as an eighteen-year-old trying to determine what I wanted to become. I returned as a mother, entrepreneur, community professional, and business strategist with almost two decades of experience in entrepreneurship, business development, workforce development, and economic development. I came back because I wanted language, education, research, and credentials to deepen work I had already spent years doing. What I did not expect was for higher education itself to become one of my greatest case studies. Over the past year, I have learned something that now influences how I think about economics, community development, institutions, and the future work I want to do in regional and spatial planning: A system can technically exist for people without actually functioning well for the people it was created to serve. That distinction has changed the way I see almost...