Apprentice is the beginner - the first years you work in a craft in the European sense you are an apprentice. That takes 3 or 4 years. Then you are a journeyman. You can go from one master to another and learn other tricks and other secrets.
I even lived on campus to get the college experience. I had five roommates and I still keep in touch with them while I'm on the road.
Affirmative action was never meant to be permanent, and now is truly the time to move on to some other approach.