Frances Beroset is a first-year adviser serving with the Duke College Advising Corps at Southern Lee High School in Lee County.

By Frances Beroset
College Advising Corps

I once spoke to a woman who said she thought that “staying where we were put” is the best way to minimize the negative impact we have on the world. In the years since I first heard it, I’ve turned what she said over in my mind many times.

A lot of students from communities like my own—Pittsboro, NC—and the one where I work now, Sanford, view a college acceptance as a one-way ticket out of town.

But that woman’s comment made me take a different approach. During my time in high school, and as an undergraduate at Duke, I built my own philosophy: Why be useful elsewhere when there are useful things for me to do here? I view my college degree as a way to bring what I’ve learned home.

After graduating, I chose to become a college adviser in Sanford because I wanted to be able to give just as much warmth and support to each of the students at my school as my community poured into me when I was growing up.

As most of us know, many people get to Duke and schools like it because they were born into wealth. When you’re rich, more resources are provided for you. You attend well-funded schools, but you also get “rich” experiences (in both senses of the word): summer programs, travel, and meeting other rich people who share their own rich experiences with you. How do you know you want to be a lawyer if you’ve never met one? When you’re born into wealth, you get more chances to become the most informed and connected person in the room.

When you’re born into wealth, you may have an uncle who went to Duke. That uncle knows somebody in admissions who can tell you and your parents how to assemble a great application to elite colleges. Maybe that uncle knows a neuroscientist you can job-shadow to give you a transformative experience for a great college personal statement. You don’t get these opportunities because you’re a better person, or smarter, or more driven. Instead, you get them because of the people you know, like your uncle. How would you get these experiences if you didn’t have that uncle, or if you only knew a few people who had been to college at all? Most of the students I work with would be the first in their families to go to a 4-year college, and over half receive free or reduced lunch. They don’t have that uncle, and, as a result, they don’t have some of the knowledge of the tasks that need to be completed to apply to college.  

But that’s where College Advising Corps comes in. Whether it’s helping students and their families complete the FAFSA, exploring which colleges provide strong preparation for specific careers, or identifying possible scholarship opportunities, I’m in Sanford because I want to be that connection to college for students who don’t already have it.