Ah, the college years. The time in our lives where we’re encouraged to ask questions, be selfishly introspective and grasp at what we want to get out of life. Sounds pretty hackneyed, but query any liberal arts student as to the top five things they hope to get out of the college experience, and chances are something derivative of the phrase “finding out who I am” will make the cut. And, by golly, being memorable and quirky could very well help forge connections that could springboard you into the next stage in the game.

Now think back to when you were in high school. The vast majority of us were not so keen on bombastic public displays of self-discovery. Indeed, being singled out as an “individual” at certain points during the teenage years made a lot of folks, myself included, feel isolated and lost. To combat this, many of us chose to sink our time and effort into becoming just like our peers.

I used to have this high school friend with whom I would debate this topic. In particular, we’d go back and forth, poring over our shared high school experiences and analyzing the forces that were at work in making us the kind of adults we are now. Unlike my friend, I was raised largely without the myriad influences of pop culture; cable television, music, movies – if you can name it, then it wasn’t present in my home. As a result, I became a scholar of all things mass media during the hours I spent at my friends’ houses so that I wouldn’t feel so “out of it.” Really, the sun seemed to rise and set over every trivial happening within the walls of my high school and I wanted to be prepared. I just desperately wanted to fit in with the other kids, learn their collective “language,” and twiddle my metaphorical thumbs, waiting for the chance to tackle that tricky process of self-actualization during college. If you’re reading this, the chances are high that you’re identifying somewhat with what I’m saying.

Now, what if that fervent adolescent desire to conform wasn’t just for narcissistic comfort, but rather a form of self-preservation? Imagine for a moment that you are a high school student trapped in a life situation so unpredictable, so unexplainable, so out of your own control, that the only way to handle it is to go to school every day, if you can get there, and try your hardest to blend with your peers. Currently, the city of Minneapolis has approximately 5,500 public school students, kindergarten through grade 12, who are trapped in roles such as this. They are students identified as homeless and highly mobile and their numbers are increasing at an alarming rate every month.

Minneapolis is home to roughly 33,000 public school students. According to mid-2008 data collected by the Minneapolis Public Schools, 5,458 of these children and youth were identified last year as homeless or highly mobile. For those of you not in the mood to do the math, that’s damn near 20 percent of the total public school population. Even more disturbing, the number of homeless students is now 18.6 percent (or 1,000 students) higher than last year, shattering the average of 4,500 homeless students that had been in place during the previous five years.

Of course, when you take into account the transitory nature of these students’ lives, it follows that these numbers are, on some level, a bit unreliable. It certainly doesn’t help that, in addition to the massive amount of other stresses placed upon them, public schools are actually the only entities in the United States responsible for pinpointing homeless students. Under federal law, school districts are required to have homeless education liaisons to identify and assist homeless students. Suffice it to say, identifying homeless and highly mobile students is incredibly tricky. After reading the details of the McKinney-Vento Act, the homeless student equal-opportunity legislation, it isn’t hard to see why. According to this legislation, a student meets the criteria of homeless or highly mobile though living in any one of these conditions:

• In a shelter
• In a motel or some other form of weekly-rate housing
• Living temporarily with friends or family
• In a car or abandoned building
• In some form of temporary foster care
• Generally lacking a reliable place to sleep at night

Once a student is determined to be homeless, the school creates a confidential file containing their information, which is used to provide free meals and assorted supplies. To complicate the matter, this file is only kept on record for the duration of the school year and then deleted before the next can begin. Between this loose tracking and the paper-thin financial resources of the school, it’s a wonder that there’s even a bankable number at all.

Let’s shift gears and return to an earlier topic – high school culture. Most of us didn’t have to worry about things like where our next meal was coming from, or whether or not we’d get to sleep in the same bed the next night. Those things were a foregone conclusion. Most of us were fortunate to have all the time in the world to explore hobbies and bask in self-involvement. With an epidemic of mortgage foreclosures and job losses, many kids and their families are facing homelessness for the very first time. At a time in their lives when they should be focusing on their futures, these teens are relegated to the impossible position of living day-to-day with great uncertainty. At an age where you’re pushed hard to conform and consume, it’s not outrageous to conjecture that there are many homeless teens in our environment every day. We’re just not capable of identifying them.

I don’t think I need to remind anyone that we live in a very visual culture. We think in images and stereotypes. There’s not a whole lot we can do about it at this point. Could it be that, because we as a society do not have a collective image of what the homeless teen looks like, we’ve zeroed out the concept as a possibility? Even though the word ‘homelessness’ conjures different mental pictures for different people, most of us immediately think of adults. In my opinion, this is largely due to the mass media’s inadequate depiction of what homelessness is and who is affected. We may read or view the statistics and sigh but, ultimately, we’re placated because we thrive on ‘success stories.’ The odd warm fuzzy about the homeless high school senior who slept on a bus bench for a year and then got into Harvard is simply not going to cut it, because it hijacks our attention and obscures the larger issue. People are still homeless. Teen homelessness doesn’t usually have a face or end in a feel-good yarn. It wants to blend. It wants to fit in. And you would never recognize it if it sat next to you on the bus.

That being said, I’ve had the privilege of working in a large Minneapolis high school this year, and there are lots of ways to be a positive force in the lives of these students. Volunteering to provide basic services to these students can actually make a huge difference; go to Volunteer info: volunteermps@mpls.k12.mn.us to find more information. Most high schools are always on the lookout for new volunteers and, nine times out of ten, what you’ll be doing is simply getting to know really great kids who need you.