WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

David Schultz
in how to treat the disease and the enlarged spleen, received massive doses of
radiation at the Rockefeller Medical Center in New York to shrink it. Those
radiation doses years later contributed to her death.
I was a good student, but ill until I underwent a splenectomy. I attended
a working-class school, but one that had some students from rich families. I
attended school wearing second-hand clothes, often purchased at the Salvation
Army or Volunteers of America thrift stores. I often gravitated to those who were
poor. I remember one boy—Richard—who unfortunately died in a car accident
at age 12. His family was very poor; their house had no hot water. A fourthgrade
teacher used to pick on him because he came to school dirty or in soiled
clothes. The same teacher also made one girl, named Alicia—the only African
American in the class—water the plants and wash the boards every day. I also
remember the same teacher picking on one boy, Mark, who I am sure was gay.
She made the four of us sit at the back of the class together, as far away from
her as possible. The teacher was a classist, racist, and homophobe. On several
occasions, I would protest her treatment of Alicia, Richard, or Mark. I once
burst out in class and said to her something like, “How come you only have the
Negro girl washing the boards and not any white kids?” I got kicked out of class.
Luckily, my parents knew the principal and I survived.
College Bound
While growing up, I always worked. I cut grass, shoveled snow, helped clean
peoples’ houses, and had my own paper route. In high school I got a job as tutor
in math through the federal government’s Title I tutor program in my district. In
12th grade, I hit a home run—I won a New York State Regents Scholarship and
received free tuition to attend the state school in my hometown. Without the
scholarship, I doubt I could have afforded college. My father was dead, and my
mother and I received Social Security survivor benefits. I started taking college
classes as a junior in high school, and in college I had jobs working in hospital
kitchens, as a fry cook in a fast-food store, and in a warehouse. Often I worked
30–40 hours per week, including the graveyard shift, while taking a full load
of classes. I worked most weekends and nights. I lived at home, and the money
supported my mother and me.
I attended the State University of New York at Binghamton—the flagship
of the SUNY system. I was a townie. My favorite high school teacher told me
it would be tough competing against all these bright students from elsewhere
(mostly New York City)—but I could do it because I was smart and could
outwork everyone. Hard work and smarts, and not connections—lessons I
learned from my family—would have to be my key to success.
I began college as a nuclear physics major but quickly abandoned that idea.
A trip to Boys State in high school and efforts by the Navy to recruit me to their
academy and then work on the nuclear fleet during the Cold War turned me away
70 Journal of Public Affairs Education