Life lead me after high school, to Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I was blessed with a football and academic scholarship to play at the Division 2, collegiate level.
I graduated in May of 2024 with my bachelor’s in Biology (pre-med emphasis), and was also selected as the commencement speaker at my undergraduate ceremony. I was the first black man to give a commencement speech in my school’s history. The two main points of commencement speech, was to 1, count your blessings and not your problems. 2, be the change you want to see.
I served as a campus safety dispatcher on campus for 2 years, and as a resident assistant (RA), for 3 years on campus. I’ve been serving as the chair of the diversity, equity, and social justice committee within our school government for 2+ years now. I’ve piloted multiple annual diversity summits for my university, where we have had a number of keynote speakers and affinity groups on campus share their stories.
I was selected as the 100th year homecoming king in 2023, which was also the first time a black man has won in my school’s history. It was a really awesome experience, especially because I won homecoming king at Case in 2019 as well.
I’ve been an all-conference cornerback and am a 3 year starter on my team. I’ve won two conference championships, and been to the NCAA division 2 playoffs twice.
I am currently in the MBA program (Master’s of business administration), and am on pace to obtain that degree in spring of 2025.
My plans for the future are to either continue my pursuit of medicine, by getting more patient care hours and taking my MCAT, then applying to medical schools. Or, I am looking to pursue medicine/healthcare in a different way, by getting into healthcare administration. I’ve built some solid connections with Augustana board of trustee members, presidents and VP’s within hospital chains in the Sioux Falls area, and they have expressed how the healthcare admin field wants more people with biology backgrounds running the hospitals. Since joining the MBA, that has become more enticing. Nonetheless, those are two of the options I have mostly been looking into doing in the future.
I would love to do all of these things closer to Racine, Wisconsin
I would say that my high school experience helped prepare me for my future in a great way. Not only is Case high school a great school with great teachers, the well-rounded diversity and plethora of differences that everyone in the building has, has been super helpful towards my growth. Coming from a school with so many different types of individuals, it has contributed to my emotional intelligence like no other.
On the academic front, the IB program is second to none, in my eyes. That may be biased, but truly, I came to college so prepared to succeed. I vividly remember my FYS (first-year seminar) professor, asking me what style of education did my high school have because my writing seemed to be much different from the rest of the students, but in a good way. I was at first scared but she like was, “no sir, don’t be scared. This seems like you’ve been writing essays for years in college already.”
I owe that credit to teachers like Ms. Hanson, Mr. Schwei, Mr. Anderle, Mrs. Morey, Ms. Cervera, Mrs. Humphreys, Mr. Halleen, Mr. Kevin Roth, and so many other great teachers. When it came to taking Spanish courses, I flew right through those, haha! Thank you to Ms. Jackson and Mrs. Sommerfeld for that!
Biology and science courses, will always be hard; no matter who it is or where you take it. However, Augustana is known for having a tough biology program. Nonetheless, the biomedical pathway at Case was phenomenal and the teachers did a great job of challenging us. Also, the IB biology courses I took were great introductory classes to my first year of biology courses my freshman year. Teachers like Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Fellion, and Ms. G, were big reasons for that!
I believe that the academies of Racine are a great addition to the district’s new curriculum, and hope that other students feel the same way. I want kids to know that it is okay to not be okay, and to reach out for help! While I understand that school may not be for everyone, LEARNING should be. We all should be driven to learn, each and every single day.