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\nAlexa Imani Spencer<\/a> (NNPA\/DTU Journalism Fellow)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
WITH 14 COLLEGE ACCEPTANCE LETTERS, WHICH WILL HE CHOOSE?<\/h3>\n
History has been made in Ward 8 \u2013 an area in the District that\u2019s both notoriously underserved and incredibly resilient.<\/p>\n
But that didn\u2019t stop the 2017 Senior Class at Ballou High School, located in Southeast, from making a rare pact that they\u2019d all apply to college \u2013 and every one of the 170 students remained true to their promise.<\/p>\n
And on Tuesday, June 13, as they donned their caps and gowns and received their diplomas they had additional good news to share: every student has been accepted into at least one college or university.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is the celebration of our finishing high school. It’s done. Although the journey was hard and at times we didn’t know if we would make it, the destination was so worth it,\u201d said Kemuel Farmer, class salutatorian.<\/p>\n
Kemuel\u2019s words set the tone for comments that would follow from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White and singer Raheem DeVaughn, a Maryland resident who has made it his mission to help Black youth succeed in the DMV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot to celebrate here in our nation\u2019s capital. Our commitment to public education has been the foundation of our city’s great renaissance. And Ballou, in so many ways, is an example of that renaissance,\u201d Bowser said.<\/p>\n
Sitting with his classmates on the school\u2019s football field, graduating senior Randy Sams, 18, said his mind wondered occasionally, not from lack of interest but because he had recently made one of the most challenging decisions of his young life. After applying to some 15 colleges and getting accepted to nearly all of them, he has finally to matriculate at Penn State University. He will be the first in his family to attend college.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat inspired us [to apply to college] was ourselves, but mostly our teachers, because they wanted us to be something in life,\u201d Sams said.<\/p>\n
To motivate the seniors to apply to college, teachers at Ballou invited alumni to return to their alma mater and share their experiences. Programs such as AVID, in which Randy participated, and College Summit, also assisted greatly in preparing the seniors for college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThem making it easy for us made us want to apply,\u201d Randy said.<\/p>\n
He first visited Penn State on an overnight trip with a group of his classmates and says the peaceful atmosphere first intrigued him. He observed the tranquility and said he wanted to experience something like it for himself \u2013 a much-needed change compared to his life in the District.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up hearing about death and seeing a lot of people die, I guess happens everywhere, but it’s so normal here. I just don’t want to be in that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many other students, his way out has come in the form of an acceptance letter. The youngest of four children raised by a single mother, Randy said he\u2019s counting on his education to provide the foundation for his family\u2019s pending good fortunes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be the first to go to college, to make my mother proud and to one day be able to provide for my family,\u201d Randy added.<\/p>\n
Dawn Sams, Randy\u2019s mother, sat overwhelmed with emotion as she watched her son cross the stage. After the ceremony, the two celebrated in front of the school entrance. With tears in her eyes, she smiled before they embraced.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom his struggles from ninth grade to now, it\u2019s a blessing to see his growth. And we did it as a team. He kept pushing. I\u2019m pushing with him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On June 26, Randy departs for Penn State and summer classes that will put him six credit hours ahead when the fall semester begins. He\u2019ll return home in early August for about a week before returning to Pennsylvania with his mother to officially move into college.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure he gets settled in,\u201d Sams said. \u201cIt\u2019s not good-bye because I\u2019m going to see him again. We\u2019re just going to say, \u2018see you later.\u2019 Good-bye means forever and I don\u2019t want us to feel like we\u2019re disconnecting. We\u2019re still connecting. And that\u2019s going to be for a lifetime until God calls us home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Randy said he hasn\u2019t decided on a major but he\u2019s weighing his options between computer engineering and international relations. And he wants to travel the world throughout his career \u2013 leaving, as he says, a trail of determination in his wake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to leave behind a legacy of someone chasing their dream and finally becoming who they want to be, instead of who society portrays them as,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
PHOTO: Graduate Randy Sams and mother, Dawn Sams, reunite after the Ballou High School graduation ceremony. \/Photo by Noni Marshall<\/em><\/p>\n Alexa Imani Spencer<\/a> is a 2017 NNPA \u201cDiscover The Unexpected\u201d Journalism Fellow and a student at Howard University. This summer, Alexa is writing for The Washington Informer, a member newspaper of the NNPA. Follow Alexa on Twitter @Alexa_Imani<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#1c4693″ show_divider=”off” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” \/][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” name=”Alexa Spenser” position=”Fellow, The Washington Informer” image_url=”https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dtu-2017_0000_Background-copy-7.png” animation=”off” background_layout=”dark” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” body_text_color=”#ffffff” twitter_url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexaImani” header_text_color=”#ffffff” facebook_url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/alexa.spencer.14″]<\/p>\n Alexa Spencer is a sophomore at Howard University. In her few years on campus, Alexa has covered the Obama Administration as part of White House Press Pool for the Thomson Reuters news agency and she has also reported for The Hilltop student newspaper. Most recently, she interned at ABC 7 Investigative News. Alexa has emerged as a promising investigative journalist. She currently serves as a member of The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and the National Press Photographers Association. As a DTU Fellow, she intends to find new roads to help the African American community continue to move forward.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_social_media_follow admin_label=”Social Media Follow” link_shape=”rounded_rectangle” background_layout=”dark” url_new_window=”on” follow_button=”on”] [et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/alexa.spencer.14″ skype_action=”call” bg_color=”#3b5998″]<\/p>\n Facebook<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexaImani” skype_action=”call” bg_color=”#00aced”]<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”instagram” url=”https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alexaimani\/” skype_action=”call” bg_color=”#517fa4″]<\/p>\n Instagram<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network] [\/et_pb_social_media_follow][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_slider admin_label=”Fullwidth Post Slider” posts_number=”21″ orderby=”date_desc” show_arrows=”on” show_pagination=”on” show_more_button=”on” more_text=”READ MORE” content_source=”off” use_manual_excerpt=”off” show_meta=”off” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)” background_layout=”light” show_image=”on” image_placement=”background” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” use_bg_overlay=”on” use_text_overlay=”off” remove_inner_shadow=”off” background_position=”default” background_size=”default” auto=”on” auto_speed=”5000″ auto_ignore_hover=”on” hide_content_on_mobile=”off” hide_cta_on_mobile=”off” show_image_video_mobile=”off” arrows_custom_color=”#f4bc00″ dot_nav_custom_color=”#f4bc00″ header_text_color=”#f4bc00″ body_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_letter_spacing=”0″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#f4bc00″ button_bg_color=”#1c4696″ button_border_color=”#f4bc00″ button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon=”%%20%%” button_icon_color=”#f4bc00″ button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_text_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_border_color_hover=”#e09900″ button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ bg_overlay_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.53)” include_categories=”75″ \/][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" History has been made in Ward 8 \u2013 an area in the District that\u2019s both notoriously underserved and incredibly resilient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[119,122,123,120,121],"class_list":["post-3331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alexa-imani-spencer","tag-alexa-spenser","tag-ballou-high-school","tag-dc-mayor-muriel-bowser","tag-randy-sams","tag-washington-informer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3353,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions\/3353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}