‘Personal Statement,’ the Emmy-nominated story of three high school seniors who sought to close the college opportunity gap for students at their low-income schools, makes an encore Oct. 8 at 8/7 Central on PBS’ ‘America Reframed’ and the World channel.
In an era when the college admission scandal underlines the lengths to which well-heeled parents will go to get their kids into prestigious schools, this documentary directed by Juliane Dressner offers the stark reminder that for financially challenged families, mere entrance to any college can feel like an impossible goal.
Uplifting and inspiring, the film ‘Personal Statement’ profiles three seniors from three different Brooklyn high schools, who struggle not only to attend college, but to help all of their classmates do so too.
“College access is one of the dominant civil rights issues of our time. We made the film because we wanted to shed light on the fact that the vast majority of students don’t have access to the support they need to navigate the increasingly complicated college application and financial aid application process,” says Dressner. “Many people aren’t aware of the fact that we have a huge college guidance gap.”
‘Personal Statement’ will be available for streaming for 10 days after the PBS broadcast while community screenings are being organized in various markets throughout the U.S.
The feature-length documentary has been lauded by the New York Times, the Washington Post and CBS News, among other outlets. In March, Enoch Jemmott, one of the students profiled in ‘Personal Statement,’ drew attention to the issues chronicled in the documentary in a New York Times opinion piece titled “The Implicit Punishment of Daring to Go to College When Poor.”
Most public high schools don’t have dedicated college counselors, instead, school counselors provide college guidance and the typical student-to-counselor ratio is 464-to-1. And school counselors say they can only spend 20 percent of their time on college counseling. That’s why the three inspirational stars of the film decided to close the guidance gap in their schools by working as peer college counselors, even though they were applying to college themselves. As you see in the film, navigating the byzantine college and financial application process can be especially daunting for low-income students who would be the first generation in their families to attend college, making college feel like an elusive dream.
The three seniors chronicled in ‘Personal Statement,’ Karoline, Christine and Enoch – called “captivating” by the Washington Post – were determined to get themselves and their classmates to college.
A series of educational and impact screenings and events across the country are taking place to help bring awareness to this issue. The goal is to bolster efforts to increase access to college for low-income students by building support for more resources to close the college counseling gap and to eliminate other systemic barriers to college. More information about upcoming and previous educational and impact screenings can be found here.
‘Personal Statement’ has been featured in more than a dozen film festivals throughout the country, including AFI DOCS where it was the opening night film, Margaret Mead Film Festival, SXSW EDU and the Woodstock Film Festival. It was also selected for the State Department’s film diplomacy program, American Film Showcase. It is an official selection at the upcoming Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, taking place Nov 1-10, 2019.
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