Growing up I knew that I needed some form of distraction from hardships I was facing. I turned to my education. Since the third grade, I have tried my best to focus on my education because I knew that the only way to escape my abusive and toxic environment. Also, I needed to have an education because being half African American, society views me as fully African American. I knew at a young age that I would have to work ten times harder than the average white male. In addition to being half African American, I am also part of the L(G)BTIA+ community, yet another marginalized group. I didn't let my setbacks define me or get in the way of my education.

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Junior year I focused on understanding issues posed for high school counselors within the LGBTQIA+ community as well as the Latinx community. These two perspective origins derived from my sexual identity - gay - and my experience at Chinquapin, where the student body is predominately Latinx. I wanted to see the struggles that counselors were facing and to try to assist in some way. Through my research, I learned that high school counselors carry a lot of weight and wear many hats, they also balance the stress from students wanting to go to college. Many high school counselors have the responsibility of getting roughly 500 students to college. That’s 500 students to 1 counselor. I interviewed two professionals Dr. Ken Jackson, researcher on the topic of education for the LGBTQIA+ community and Elizabeth Santos who is on the board of education and advocates for the Latinx community.

 

This research inspired my senior project. My partner and I created C.A.L.S 101. My hope was to provide younger Chinquapin students mentoring and instruction in college preparatory skills so that they would be well prepared for the college application process.

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