Essence Robinson

Jasmine Hilton
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 01:35:37 +0000
Hilton-SP2020

Essence Robinson, a fifth-year in human development and family science, began her Ohio State career at the Mansfield campus. Transferring to the Columbus campus in her second year proved to be challenging, as she came with no financial support or knowledge of resources on campus. Robinson was also confronted with the struggles she faced in her past throughout school, including an undiagnosed learning disability.

“I grew up in a single-parent household with seven other siblings. There’s eight of us total. So it was hard for my mom. She can’t really help me financially. So it’s like, I have to take out loans to pay for stuff. And then I don’t really like taking on loans just because I know that’s gonna mess up my credit in the future. But I had to do what I had to do just to graduate.”

“For me, growing up and having a big family, I was connected with a lot of people. Growing up, we had programs throughout the summer and I was fortunate enough to go. Nowadays, there are fewer programs — and some don’t even exist anymore — to help children stay involved, and it’s creating a cycle where it’s like, if these kids aren't involved in programs, they get involved with the wrong crowd; they get into gangs. It’s a cycle we need to break.”

“The year I came here, I was a sophomore. I struggled, like, really bad. Coming here with no scholarship and no support, I didn’t know where anything was or where any resources were. I wanted to take a year off, but my mom told me to keep going because it’s like, ‘You’re almost done.’ She motivated me to literally keep going because if it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t still be here.”

“People who took AP or [went to] private schools, they have better resources, so they have a better advantage at succeeding in college, whereas, like, for me, I didn’t have that. I couldn’t afford tutors. So I have to go out and push myself to find resources and stuff like that to help me succeed in college.”

“I would have wanted somebody to help me in high school in the areas I struggled with. Because I know I struggled a lot in high school, and I would push it off because it’s just like, if nobody’s going to help me, I’m going to just graduate, ease by, because I didn’t think I was going to go to college or get accepted or anything.”

“At the same time, I felt like I had a learning disability. It didn’t dawn on me until I came to high school. I would stay up hours doing homework. None of it made sense. I started looking up learning disabilities, and I looked more into dyslexia. I was looking at the symptoms, and all those signs pointed toward the things I was struggling with in school. I saw people had to pay to get testing done, and I knew that my mom was still trying to go to school and take care of all of her kids. She couldn’t pay for it.”

“A lot of my teachers thought I had dyslexia. Even when I came to college, my one professor, she asked me, ‘Are you dyslexic?’ and I said, ‘No.’ But then, I brought the subject up to my therapist, and she said that because I was in school, they would pay for it. After she said they would pay for it, she set up an appointment. When I went to go get my evaluation done at Younkin [Success Center], they told me that it looked like I was under a lot of stress, and there could be a small chance of a learning disability.”?

“I told my mom what was going on. I felt like they focused mostly on my stress because I was working two jobs. But before college, I wasn’t working two jobs and I was still struggling in school. They didn’t really see my learning disability. I felt like, for me, I wasn’t getting heard.”

“After I learned that, I went to talk to my mom and my therapist, who told me to get a second opinion. Now, once I finish school, I’m going to get a second evaluation.”

“I feel like coming to college is like an escape for certain people, so it’s like, if you don’t accept them and then they come from a low-income background, that’s probably like their only way of getting out of their community. How are people who don’t have all the advantages supposed to succeed?”

“Do I feel like I succeeded? Hm. I feel like I could have done better in college overall. I feel like if I would have started off with the right help, I would have been better off.”