Admissions : : a Memoir of Surviving Boarding School

Locations
Call Number: 370.92 Ja, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / James, Kendra
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	370.92 Ja	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / James, Kendra	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / James, Kendra	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Kendra James began her professional life selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for select prep schools, her job was persuading students and families to embark on the same perilous journey, attending cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, an elite institution in Connecticut where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. Forced to reflect on her own elite educational experience, she quickly became disillusioned by America's inequitable system. In ADMISSIONS, Kendra looks back at the three years she spent at Taft, from clashes with her lily-white roommate, to unlearning the respectability politics she'd been raised with, and a horrifying article in the student newspaper that accused Black and Latinx students of being responsible for segregation of campus. She contemplates the benefits of the education she got from Taft, which Kendra credits as playing a role in her career success, as well as the ways the school coddled her--perhaps, she now believes, too much. Through these stories, she deconstructs the lies and half-truths she herself would later tell as an admissions professional, in addition to the myths about boarding schools perpetuated by popular culture. With its combination of incisive social critique and uproarious depictions of elite nonsense, ADMISSIONS will resonate with anyone who has ever been The Only One in a room, dealt with racial microaggressions, or even just suffered from an extreme case of homesickness"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Very heavy, felt like reading someone's reflective journal. submitted by mmiller15 on June 21, 2022, 9:20pm Very interesting read. Heavy content, and a high level of writing. She goes into great detail to describe the school environment, her friendships, and the tie to race in all of it. It was very interesting, but due to the high level of reading, may take some time to read. More than just her experience in an elite boarding school, but also about systemic racism in such institutions during her time (the early 2000s) and beyond. Very reflective. Not sure if I would read it again, but it was informative and felt like reading someone's cathartic journal.