Meeting the Education Challenge

Artimus Quick is a junior at Warren Wilson College. He has come here from Goldsboro, NC, and brings his story of challenge and success as a first generation, African-American college student in a predominantly Caucasian community.

In high school, Artimus was a bright kid with an attitude and a passion for basketball. Today, he’s developing a ten-year plan to start a sustainable farmer’s co-op that will work to strengthen the economy and society.

As we talked about the advancement of his path and goals, it became clear that Artimus is living a life of service and fueling his own growth so that he might be of the best assistance possible to his community.



He
wasn’t always so focused, however. Artimus’ mother passed from cancer
when he was seven years old, and he had a hard time finding healthy
ways to express his grief within a changing family unit. “I held it in
and was really rebellious in school. I was a smart aleck and didn’t
know how to let my intelligence come out in a productive way.”


Additionally,
Artimus was keenly aware of the expectations of his peers and found it
difficult to set priorities. “It’s really hard to be smart in the inner
city; it’s really hard not to hang out with everybody and it’s hard not
to be the best at basketball or the best at football or the most
popular person.” Artimus was also receiving pressure to succeed in
athletics, which served as “tradition and foundation” within his family.



His extended
family also had a strong foundation in the Christian church, however,
and Artimus became involved in service early in his life. “My mom
helped raise about nine children outside of my family, from women at
the church and their babies…so I had a lot of early childhood
development practice!” he said. He continued helping children
throughout high school by volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club.



These two family
values-athletics and service-later opened the door to college. Without
knowing precisely what his goals were, but that college was necessary
to get there, Artimus pursued and received the Bonner Scholarship at
Warren Wilson that helped finance his education.



Having made this step, Artimus reflects on his peer group and notes a lack of awareness.



“In terms of our
goals, I think that our generation of African-American kids don’t
realize the struggles that our parents went through. We’ve given up the
fight for equality within society, whether it’s [seeking] better jobs
or [taking advantage of] our public school systems.”



During his time
spent serving and working with youth, Artimus has seen poor
circumstances and disheartening problems. At the Boys and Girls Club,
it became clear that the Club served as a means of keeping kids off of
the street who might otherwise face unsafe hours after school. During
his time working with “Under One Sky” in Asheville, Artimus became
aware of the issues teens in Asheville face regularly.



“Kids are
talking about having to steal food or getting beat up because they’re
the only white kids living in the project here in Asheville …[There
are] kids who have to learn different routes to go home because they’ve
given up being in a gang and they don’t want to tote guns anymore.”



Overall, he
notes that his peers face adversities that make aspiring to higher
goals challenging. Furthermore, teen and young adult pregnancy can make
achieving full life and career potential difficult. “We’re having
problems with [young] men having children and not taking part in their
children’s lives.

They’re not even inspired to do anything: working in
a hotel, working at Wal-mart, McDonalds…anything! And it’s hard to
aspire to do something if you’re focused on providing for yourself. You
can’t see another way out besides what you’re going to eat the next
day.”


Of course,
education is the key solution to this problem. Artimus notes that when
faced with adversity, you have to make a choice. “You can excel and
realize your talents, or you can be complacent, cynical, and critical
of those around you and not be productive.”



Artimus chooses
productivity. Despite the hard realities he has faced in his own life
and sees throughout his community, he believes in finding “pillars of
strength.” “I try to find a common place within myself where I can be
empowered and encouraged. I’m finding pillars, things in my life that
make me feel strong, upheld, and uplifting.”



His advice for other first generation college students returns to issues of character.



“Graduating from
college is a goal, but throughout college make sure that you grow as a
person. Keep in mind that you have to take small steps. Make
commitments that you know that you can wholeheartedly [keep], and
maximize the potential of every experience-because you don’t know who
you’ll meet! By maximizing your experiences with like-minded people,
you maximize your potential as a good person.”