Johann

Johann’s relationship with basketball began while watching neighborhood kids play the game. He decided to give it a try. Before long, basketball was a hobby. And then a habit. And now a passion.

“I became a student of the game,” he wrote in his essay, describing basketball as “an escape route through times of personal adversity.” He started high school with the goal of making the varsity basketball team, a goal attained in his freshman year. In his junior year, he was named team captain. 

Johann has been just as committed to his studies. “He is an incredibly ambitious and reliable student who prioritizes his education,” his college counselor says, with the kind of work ethic that “has allowed him to excel academically throughout his entire high school career. He has been on the honor roll every semester, which is even more impressive considering the rigorous courses he has taken.”

Johann’s experience in his school’s Corporate Work-Study Program, through which students intern in the business world, has taught him valuable workplace skills and heightened his interest in studying for a career in that industry.  But there’s yet another side to Johann, too.

“He related to me about a life-changing summer he spent in his mother’s country of the Dominican Republic,” his junior physics teacher wrote. “Seeing the situation there different than at home, he came back grateful and aware of the opportunities afforded to him in New York. Johann gives back in gratitude by volunteering in a soup kitchen and by his dedication to his mother, with whom he lives.”  

Faye Hood, my college guidance counselor, has been more than just a counselor– she became family. Not only did she help me reach my goal of getting to college, but she has supported me in numerous ways that I cannot count.