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Illustration by Ally Boyd<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>

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Walking along the criss-crossing pathways on the Oval and carefully navigating the route during the first day of classes marks the beginning of students\u2019 college careers at Ohio State.<\/p>\n

Thousands pass one another without a glance, never realizing the life experiences endured by some to get there.<\/p>\n

For those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the systemic barriers mounting against them began far before they stepped on campus.<\/p>\n

Finances are often a common thread that results in struggles ranging from attending under-resourced schools to living in communities plagued with drugs and violence. Then, add personal trials that strike students and their families.<\/p>\n

Despite the odds, these students pushed past barriers and proved the system working against them wrong. Each road is different, but lined with traces of the same financial reality.<\/p>\n

These are the stories of students in their own words. Some accounts have been edited for clarity and brevity<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>

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About this Series<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
As of fall 2019, there is a total of 68,262 undergraduate and graduate students at Ohio State and its branch campuses.<\/p>\n
Underrepresented groups at Ohio State, as listed on the fall 2019 enrollment report, include minority students, first-generation students or Pell Grant recipients, who receive financial assistance based on their family incomes.<\/p>\n
One student could fall into each of these categories.<\/p>\n
Among enrolled first-year students, one in four were minorities, just less than one in four were first generation and less than one in five received Pell Grants.<\/p>\n
Out of Ohio\u2019s 88 counties, Appalachian counties are among the lowest numbers of enrollment. Out of the 20 counties with the lowest enrollment, 18 are Appalachian. In 2018, less than 2 percent of enrolled students came from those 18 counties.<\/p>\n
Each student in this series fits into one or more of these classifications, and while the numbers may help explain these students\u2019 backgrounds, they\u2019re exactly that \u2014 numbers. This project tells some of those stories behind the statistics.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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\u201cI love my community. I wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere else other than where I\u2019m from. I don\u2019t have nothing but love for my community. They made me who I am.\u201d<\/h1><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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Chyiah Johnson<\/strong><\/h5>\n
First-year in criminology and criminal justice<\/em><\/h6><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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\u201cMy hair wasn\u2019t always super gray, but with the stress of dealing with school and life, my body is literally recording the fact that I feel like I have to work so hard to survive.\u201d<\/span><\/h1><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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Melisa Diaz<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Ph.D. candidate in earth sciences<\/em><\/h6><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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\u201cThat quote by Langston Hughes, a dream deferred? That has literally been my life. And when that happens constantly, over and over again, you lose your faith in life. You lose purpose. You just think, \u2018You know, what is the point?\u2019\u201d<\/h1><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>
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Angelique Latham<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Second-year in communication<\/em><\/h6><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For students from underrepresented backgrounds, getting to college isn\u2019t first barrier they\u2019ve overcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4076,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[22],"project_tag":[],"coauthors":[13],"class_list":["post-504","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-landing-page"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4854,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/504\/revisions\/4854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelantern.com\/projects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}