When I was back home this past weekend, the college town where my parents live was filled with returning and brand-new college students. It was strange, and made me feel significantly older, to walk through the neighborhood I used to roam so confidently when I was a college student, and to have to weave my way past the throngs of eager college freshmen with their iPods and hip clothes and too tight T-shirts. [more]

On average, I have more men in my classes most semesters than I do women; many of the young men have beat the odds, some still won't. They laugh, they joke; some work hard, some don't.  Behind them the invisible women in their lives--their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, surface from time to time, voices over their shoulders telling them to push on, work hard, and keep their chins up. They are relentless in propelling their boys forward--ever forward--into opportunities they themselves didn't--and couldn't--have. [more]