Opinion submitted by Kevin Shannahan

The STORY (Small Town Outreach, Recruitment and Yield) Information Session on Sunday, Sept. 14, presented by Yale University’s Admissions Office at the LSMSA should have been packed with teachers, guidance counselors and students from every high school in the parish. Sadly, it was not. Things need to change in our community. We have our priorities out of whack and let an incredible opportunity go by the wayside. Our children deserved better.

Not just Harvard. Not just Yale or Princeton. The entire Ivy League was at the college fair as were MIT, Caltech, Wellesley, Smith and an incredible array of some of the finest colleges and universities in the nation, if not the world. They were there with the expressed intent of reaching out to underserved rural areas such as central Louisiana. They were there for our young men and women, the only such fair to be held in the entire state of Louisiana.

One would think that an opportunity to meet with several Ivy League recruiters would pique the professional interest of the area’s school officials and guidance counselors. One would be wrong.

I have always held that our children are as smart, talented and capable as those in any area of the country. They will rise to any challenge put before them. All they need is vision and leadership!

Yale STORY Program to hold College Information Session open to ALL Cenla high school students