Ayana Christie believes it was destiny that brought her to prep school. However, it was the choices she made that determined the outcome. Ayana is an English major on her way to graduate from Dartmouth College in 2011.
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Imagine being in a world where everything happens for divine reason; time after time, I am reminded that my destiny is predetermined. That said, there’s no doubt in my mind that I have arrived at my present identity because of my experiences at Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH). With no thought of boarding institutions in mind, 7th grade homeroom was interrupted by a pivotal moment, when my guidance counselor presented a prep school admissions video. At that very moment I knew it was for me.
My parents and I made up our minds that attending high school outside of the New York City public school system would be the best choice for my education. My mother was very adamant in managing the necessary legwork in order to successfully complete the application and interview process. Despite an array of choices, my decision to visit NMH came with ease. The welcoming environment made the offer to attend impossible to refuse.
Accepting my enrollment at NMH as a blessing imparted by grace and circumstance, I arrived in Northfield, MA open to absorb a new world but ignorant to the magnitude by which this place would shape me. To navigate a space where almost every value and preconceived notion is challenged on a daily basis, proved to be an empowering and deeply stabilizing experience.
Aside from bearing the title of minority in skin color and familial background, to identify as the minority in social capital and positive influence, is where I credit the emphasis of my growth in high school. In the beginning, I was indeed exposed to the varied racial encounters that occur at majority institutions, but was blind to how it really affected me. It was not until my junior year that I understood how to teach others around me the appropriate way to react to “difference.”
We had to help each other understand the complexities of our identities as citizens and furthermore, as a collection of perspectives living, growing, and learning in such close proximity to one another. Granted, at the time I was in fact perturbed about my seemingly uncompensated teaching position, but in retrospect, I couldn’t be more grateful for enduring, and thus claiming, the responsibility.
Northfield Mount Hermon School set me on an irrevocable journey of self-discovery that has uncovered other invaluable endeavors, namely, attending Dartmouth College. Now I understand what four years of adolescence between the trees really did for my pursuit of excellence. Proud and ever evolving, I am a “Prep School Negro”.
- Ayana Christie
Candidate for B.A. 2011 | English Major
Dartmouth College
