Most colleges have black student unions. Such organizations promote a sense of community within minority students, especially when there is a major cultural difference between the dominating races at a school.

The POWER Scholars Program at Harriton is not exactly a black student union. However, it shares some of the same goals a black student union would have. Objectives include to “recognize, celebrate, emulate, and exemplify the many positive attributes of African-Americans,” and to “interact together within a space where African-American students can discuss, problem-solve, and more comprehensively understand the complexities and dynamics of culture, society, and the historical struggles to gain quality education.”

Both of these goals seem to promote a very positive atmosphere for black students in Harriton, and, without a doubt, are largely met.

Starting off my freshman year, I was beyond excited to receive my schedule. Nervous, I hoped to get all the electives I had signed up for, and wondered what classes I might share with my friends. But when I opened the letter that would contain my well-anticipated schedule, I was confused.

Listed, as a replacement for one of my electives, was a class I had never signed up for called “POWER.” Immediately I panicked. Even as someone straight out of eighth grade, I knew going through my counselor to tweak my classes could be a lengthy process. And what even was this class anyway?

After a long correspondence with my counselor, I was able to have it removed from my schedule. I’m a mixed race girl. Heritage is important to me, and I wouldn’t say for a second that I identify as Irish before black. But why should I be recommended to take a class, solely because I’m labeled as a “black student”?

Why couldn’t I just be a student—and why should the school have the right to change my schedule based on my race? I question the basis of POWER. While the benefits to providing at outlet for African American students seems fundamentally good, forcing them to forego an elective—an engineering, perhaps a journalism course that might have given students a leg up in college admissions AND life skills—is not worth it for many students.

An opt-out program targeted to a minority is essentially wrong. Why must POWER be a part of every black kid’s school day? Wouldn’t it make more sense to be an after school club, or an elective that a student actually signs up for?

I do not need to be taught about the “many positive attributes of African- Americans”; as if the stereotype is that we have nothing but negatives. Straight A students that happen to be black shouldn’t have to waste their time in a class that teaches “the skills necessary to reach their goals as they pursue their interests and talents” and “study skills, organizational skills, time management skills.”

It’s patronizing. And because of that, it seems like POWER categorizes black students as more susceptible to failing, rather than elevating them as learners.

But these sorts of effects are not purposeful. I realize that fully, and I understand the good intentions POWER has. A program to connect minority students in a primarily white school, without a doubt, has a place at Harriton—but its execution fails to meet the needs of the motivated black student, trying to prepare themselves as well as possible for a promising, but uncertain future.