Francesca Huynh

While walking briskly on a cold night, the kind that is humid and frigid right before a morning snowfall, my eyes scanned Nostrand Avenue’s permanently shuttered and closing storefronts.

Instead of learning how to become a civic actor who understands the ins and outs of the world and its rights and wrong, I spent over 15 years of my life preparing to appear good enough to get into college.