Economic status is no hindrance to achieving your dreams, this is something that one graduating class from Watts, Los Angeles, California has been able to prove.
The senior class from Verbum Dei School, an all-boys Jesuit High school, has achieved a 100% college acceptance rate this year.
According to the school administration, all of the students came from a low-income background and were academically behind when they first arrived in the classroom. But with hard work and determination, they were able to turn things around with all of them now bound for university.
“I want to major in mathematics and do a program with Georgetown and Columbia, where I can become an engineer,” said class valedictorian Nicholas Spates.
Verbum Dei is known for sending its graduates to some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States , and Martinique Starnes, dean of counselling for the school, has credited the drive to better themselves as the reason why the students have achieved their goals: “The key to success for these students is the desire for more,” Starnes said.
But it also appears to be a desire to help the people around you: “A lot of people think we just do community service for class. We do it — not for a grade — but for the community. I think that’s what a lot of people don’t see,” said senior student Daniel Tobar.
Salutatorian Zachary Byrge also said that it is important to look back on where you come from, and in the end it is that which motivates them to keep on striving.
Keep Up With PopWrapped On The Web!
Author
