Public

INCOME: $35,000
FATHER'S OCCUPATION: (deceased)
MOTHER'S OCCUPATION: clerk
FATHER'S EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: Some high school
MOTHER'S EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: two-year college graduate

World History	A	A
English 2	B	A
Geometry	B	B
Chemistry	C	C
French 2	B	C

US History	B	B
English 3	A	A
Alg.2/Trig	A	A
Math Anlysis (Hon)	B	A
Biology(Hon)	B	B
French 3	B	B

Senior Class President

MESA & BSU Vice President/ CSF member 10th&11th

Football Running Back 9th Grade

Basketball Point Guard 9th-11th

Baseball team 9th-12th

City of Richmond Youth Commissioner

WCC USD Public speaker

TECHS tutor

Community Work as researcher

City of Richmond Distinguished Service Award

West Contra Co. Unified School District Award of Recognition

American Chemical Society Award of Recognition

Nat'l Youth Leadership Conference participant

Richmond Rotary Society, sponsored participant

EMPLOYMENT (summers)

Salesman, Richmond Traffic

Project work at Chevron

Combined	880

I remember when I spoke at a local "School to Career Conference." Here I was invited to speak on my experiences over the previous summer working at Chevron Research and Technology in a program called "Project Seed." I spoke about my job that I had analyzing lubricating oils and how I became one of the key assets in the laboratory. I had to analyze some of the samples that came from the oil refinery. My measurements where so accurate that certain oil companies were requesting that I perform their analysis. I also spoke on how I helped discover new methods of finding certain elements that were too low to detect on our machines. This led to visits from oil companies from countries around the world. They wished to inquire about how my mentor and I were coming up with these techniques. I can remember all of the lunches that my mentor and I had with all of these people from other countries to talk about our methods. One thing that was brought up in every conversation was the fact that it seemed ironic that a high school student was operating a million dollar machine. And because of my success my mentor said, cleverly, that I was going to win the next Nobel Prize.

Also, another time that was most memorable when I spoke was at the National Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. I was nominated and sponsored because I was labeled the most academically outstanding leader in my school. This conference included young leaders from around the world. The conference consisted of work groups that constructed the steps of a proposed bill. The students and I also learned about our Nations Capitol. Moreover, because of my outstanding leadership potential over the period of the conference, I was chosen to speak on the House of Representatives' floor. It was the same podium where the president gives his annual State-of-the-Union Address. I gave some concluding remarks after a Member of Congress from Connecticut spoke to the students in the Leadership Conference. Since some of the students from the other parts of the country, and the world, did not have even one person in their school that was African-American. This speech compromised the stereotype with which television had filled the listeners. Throughout the whole conference I showed them that African-Americans do not resemble the stereotypes that they have seen on television. It made them look at African-Americans in a whole new light.

Then I had to deal with death of my father. At the age of fourteen it put me in a role that had great responsibility --being the "man" of the house. This role was nothing I had prepared for in my life. I had to get a job in order to relieve some of the pressure on my mother. I gave every check earned to my mother to help with the bills. After a while I learned how to overcome this situation by organizing all of my responsibilities so that I could complete them all. This included my academic studies and gradually my G.P.A improved. The whole situation started my high school career off as a rough one. However, I learned that if one is persistent enough- like my mother- you can get out of any dire situation.

I had the determination to overcome this situation because I wanted to escape the norm that almost every African-American male has to deal with. I did not wallow in self -pity. I did not fall short to fast cash, criminal behavior, or drug addiction. Instead I struggled to make it. I did not want to be that pan-handler asking for change at the gas station, all because he or she could not break out of the cycle that depression can lead to. I wanted to be someone. So I took the skills I had gained from this situation and applied them to my academics and extra curricular activities. My experiences growing up in poverty did not weaken me; instead they helped me develop confidence in my ability to transcend obstacles. As a result, I am able to handle many situations well and I try to prove that poverty-stricken people that have disastrous situations in their lives' can break out of the norm.

In relation to all of my most memorable speaking moments in my life, my future goals are to become a broadcast journalist so I can continue to dispel myths about poverty and race. However, I would like to attend U.C. Berkeley and study communication. The reason I intend to study in this field is because of an experience I was lucky enough to have in the tenth grade. I was selected out of 500 teenagers to co-host a show with a Bay Area radio personality on a major sports network (SportsChannel Pacific) called "Sports in the Classroom." My objective on this show was to interview professional athletes from a teenager's point-of-view. I was very successful in doing this because I took advantage of my age as well as my race. One can conclude the supporting fact that over half of the players in professional sports are African-American. So, in turn, they jumped at the chance to talk to a young African-American male, only because of the fact that they were used to seeing the average sports journalist who was Caucasian and in his mid-fifties. Because of this I was able to get most of the shows,' as well as the networks', exclusive interviews.

In conclusion, as you read through this essay, my accomplishments have given birth to the many qualities and skills that were responsible for all of my achievements. That is one of the reasons why I chose to attend a university. I know that from the qualities I have gained, I will be able to take advantage of all U.C. Berkeley has to offer!

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