Influential Social Factors: Education, Family, Socioeconomic Class

I believe that the three most contributing social factors that have brought me here to Webster University are my education, my family, and my socioeconomic class. Over the course of my life, I have been greatly influenced by these three because they became such omnipresent entities in my everyday life. It all started in kindergarten with one test. One small test has and will continue to influence me the rest of my educational life. The test was an aptitude test that placed me in the “accelerated” classes starting in first grade. I was “one of the smart ones”. However, in first grade I took another test, and that put me into the EXPAND program at school. EXPAND happened once a week, and I would miss an entire day’s worth of class to go do even more advanced work. There were only five or six of us in EXPAND per grade, and we were considered the exceptionally elite ones. We were plucked from the accelerated classes of the grade we were in, and then pushed to learn things that were months before everyone else or even sometimes years

First off, none of my family has gone to college aside from one or two random classes required by their jobs. So this was a big deal with my being in the “smart classes”; it meant I was going to college in their eyes. Another contributing factor was my grandparents. I’ve lived with them my entire life essentially; they’ve basically raised me. This being said, I was also the first grandchild, which translates into disciplined. Since I was a “smart kid”, perfection was expected, and nothing less. Anything less would be questioned, scrutinized, and more than likely chastised. There was no choice or question for me; “I was supposed to be smart”. So, that meant I had to take the harder classes, I had to get good grades, and I had to go to college. And, being a “smart kid” was the only way I could get