Through these stories, some troubling, others hilarious, she deconstructs the lies and half-truths she herself would later tell as an admissions professional, in addition to the myths about boarding schools perpetuated by popular culture.

In ADMISSIONS, Kendra looks back at the three years she spent at Taft, chronicling clashes with her lily-white roommate, how she had to unlearn the respectability politics she'd been raised with, and the fall-out from a horrifying article in the student newspaper that accused Black and Latinx students of being responsible for segregation of campus. Her new job forced her to reflect on her own elite education experience, and to realize how disillusioned she had become with America's inequitable system. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep schools, she persuaded students and families to embark on the same perilous journey she herself had made-to attend cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. As independent schools continue to grapple with their legacy of white supremacy, and as educators work to create truly inclusive communities where all students feel a sense of belonging, James' memoir is a must-read.A sharp-witted and deeply insightful look into the storied world of elite prep schools from the first African-American legacy student to graduate from The Taft School.Įarly on in Kendra James' professional life, she began to feel like she was selling a lie.

Looking back on her high school experience after several years of working as an admissions counselor at similar independent schools, James reflects that 'like many Black people, the life I dreamed of was paid for with the American currency of a minor trauma.' Until independent schools truly listen to all BIPOC voices and engage in sustained antiracism work, James concludes, these spaces will continue to perpetuate harm toward BIPOC students. She describes the daily microaggressions and the outright racism she experienced as a student at this elite institution, all in exchange for the American Dream of connections and upward mobility.

In both hilarious and sobering vignettes, James explores themes of belonging and segregation from the perspective of a teenage millennial raised on respectability politics navigating issues at the intersection of race, class, and privilege. Following in the footsteps of Lorene Cary's memoir Black Ice, Kendra James' Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School recounts her three years as the first Black American legacy student to graduate from Taft in the early 2000s.

Kendra james taft