Hold Fast To Dreams: A College Guidance Counselor, His Students, and the Vision of a Life Beyond Poverty

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Description

When Joshua Steckel left his job as a private school college counselor on New York City's Upper East Side to work at a public high school in Brooklyn, he discovered that for low-income students the competitive game of college admissions has entirely different rules and much higher stakes. The winner of the Ida and Studs Terkel Prize and now available in paperback, Hold Fast to Dreams traces the pathways of ten of Josh's students from their obstacle-ridden application processes through their life-changing college experiences.

Reviews

Praise for Hold Fast to Dreams:
"Weve written a lotabout efforts to increase the number of high-achieving low-income students at elite college. The true granularity of that work comes alive in Hold Fast to Dreams."
Motoko Rich, The New York Times

"In the event the first lady is not in the room to offer guidance to the staffers charged with putting the White House [higher education] directives into action, somebody should slip them a copy of Beth Zasloff and Joshua Steckels new book, Hold Fast to Dreams: A College Guidance Counselor, His Students, and the Vision of a Life Beyond Poverty."
The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Invaluable both to educators who deal with children from similar backgrounds and to non-educators, who often dont appreciate the overwhelming odds stacked against poor children."
The Washington Monthly

"Beautifully written. . . . This book reaffirms the essential role teachers can play in the lives of their students, and raises important questions about the failed promises of higher education as the key to class mobility."
Rethinking Schools

"As the population of Americas future college students becomes more diverse, stories such as Hold Fast to Dreams become ever so more important."
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

"Hold Fast to Dreams is about the difficulty poorer students have in grasping the American dream. It is essential reading for those who care about the lives of all children."
Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and former op-ed columnist for the New York Times

"I love it. It was better than a good novel. I couldnt get Santiagos dilemma out of my mind. . . . Its magnificentthank you!"
Deborah Meier, author of Will Standards Save Public Education and founder of the Small Schools movement

"Hold Fast to Dreams is not another manifesto extolling the benefits of college. In this important new book, Joshua Steckel and Beth Zasloff provide a heartfelt analysis of the factors that make it difficult for so many urban youth to access the opportunities that college provides. Drawing on years of direct experience counseling young people for whom college is little more than a faint dream, the authors show us what it takes to bridge the opportunity divide and use education to transform lives and expand opportunity. . . . This book is a must-read."
Pedro Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University and author of City Schools and the American Dream

"You wont soon forget these powerfully rendered stories of young people battling big odds to go to college, for Hold Fast to Dreams is, all in one, a great read, an educational manifesto, and a testament to the vibrant ability of kids who just need a chance to realize their dreams. This book should be on every policy makers desk."
Mike Rose, author of Why School and Lives on the Boundary

"The important new book Joshua Steckel has written with Beth Zasloff, Hold Fast to Dreams, follows ten students at his former school and illuminates the dogged commitment and insider knowledge required to ensure that all students, regardless of background or circumstance, have access to the educational and economic opportunities that are often closed to many of our nations young people."
Richard Stopol, president of NYC Outward Bound Schools

"This is more than a heart-wrenching look at the particular struggles of 10 inner-city students. It is a profound examination of the obstacles faced by low-income students to get into and through college and the kinds of reforms needed to make higher education and the upward mobility it promises more accessible."
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Author Bio

Beth Zasloff is the co-author, with Edgar M. Bronfman, of "Hope, Not Fear." Joshua Steckel is a college counselor at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies. Zasloff and Steckel are married and live with their three children in Brooklyn.