Hi my name is Alondra Zamudio and I am a freshmen in college. I come from a low class family and environment. Growing up it was Me, my mother, three sisters and an older brother. Sometimes we did not have anything to eat even if that meant not seeing my mother for two days straight. Not trying to sound like a pity party but just giving you a taste of what the majority people in the Detroit system might go through. I graduated from Western International High School in Southwest Detroit in which I transferred in my sophomore year. Before that I attended my last year in elementary and my whole middle school years in a school in the suburbs. My graduating class was nearly four hundred students, yes I know...holly f***.

Not once attending WIHS have I been in a class where we had neither, a teacher nor a seat for everyone, or maybe even both. It seemed as if the more students we received the less education became a priority. To the teachers, the students and even the janitors stopped keeping up with maintenance. I bring this to the attention of many because the more and more I speak with my peers here in Adrian, Michigan the more and more shocked their faces express as I tell them where I am from. Many of those reasons are due to what they see on social media. Which consists of Detroit being poor, which means no money, which means no expensive university; featuring in an expensive university. Also, Detroit means lack of common knowledge because our graduating average is the lowest of all mankind.

However I do not blame them. Nothing is ever completely true though until the other side is heard. Did I mention we live in a community where our governor is seriously trying to get rid of us? But that's a story itself. With that being said our voices are never heard. They hired an Emergency Manager behind our backs and threw our vote against it. He did the amazing job of poisoning another low class community and fired over half our school faculty that helped parents communicate of things concerning the health and safety of their kids attending the school. I mean not like the staff was even getting payed a respected amount to begin with. More students less seats, more students less resources, more students less teachers, less teachers less pay. How does this make sense? Not a clue. How does it work? Not well at all. Having an average of over 30 students per class ran by one teacher is not preparing you for the next level of education that follows.

I am more than fortunate to have received such an amazing scholarship at Siena through a nonprofit called buildOn. However, where I come from the streets are reality to many. Selling drugs and stealing things were our way of making it through the day. This is no excuse I know, but when jobs are getting taken by people outside the community, by the Caucasians in a predominately colored area, and by those who are exposed to having some experience of the field that is claimed being built for us, gives us no hope.

Many have been kicked out of our homes because a water bill was not payed that month, yet companies in Midtown Detroit owe thousands and thousands of dollars in utilities. Many public schools in Detroit have been and are being shut down due to "low academic records" not because students are incapable of going to class or passing a test, but because they do not have teachers wanting to work in the Detroit Public School system (DPS) due to low pay. Also because the city does not use their funding that is suppose to go to the schools for the schools; which then leaves us to little to no resources for classwork or even homework. My junior year I was in a class of 34 students and only five text books for the whole class. How are we suppose to take education serious when we do not get treated like our education matters.

We live in a society where our voices are claimed like it matters, our rights are advertised as respected and we the people are not actually WE. THE. PEOPLE. Our society is definitely brain washed and manipulated by the sneaky system. The most ironic thing is only we can make a difference but it is so hard to be heard when the people doing the damage are the ones who manipulate what can be heard. I am not ashamed of the city of where I am from. I am ashamed however, of the country. We are known for "The American Dream" but dreams are just that. A taste of what is not reality but what we wish it was.