It’s that time of year again. That’s right, college application season! The time for graduating high school seniors to pan over the 7,000+ post-secondary institutions in this country, select the best options for them and make their 300-word case for why they should be allowed to continue their education.

On a Thursday morning in early November, I had the opportunity to play my part in the application process by volunteering to help Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s (DEPSA) graduating seniors with their personal statements for the 2014 College Application Week.

There, I met a young woman who had spent the summer withstanding the barrage of concerned questions and underhanded insults thrown at her after casually stating “Oh, I’m from Detroit” to peers at a Harvard Summer Program. She is applying to attend Boston University for Journalism with the hopes of learning how to deter the negativity and portray her home in a positive light.

There, I met a young man who instead of being excited to open his Christmas presents as a child, looked forward to taking them apart to figure out how they work. His late grandfather, a male role model in place of his incarcerated father, had been an engineer and left an entire workshop to him in the basement of their Detroit home. He is applying to be a mechanical engineer at one of the prominent engineering programs in the state.

This opportunity reminded me that There Are Birds Here waiting to spread their wings and take flight.