College Admissions Essay: My Life As A Young Minority Student

As a young minority male with two African-born parents who received zero education, acceptations were high at a young age. When I was five years old I attended PS 156 elementary school. The school had poor academic grades and eventually shut down after receiving a F. I always managed to maintain mostly As and was consistently top of my classes. I loved school and hated to see it end. When I was in fourth grade I maintained a high grade even though it was sort of a middle school atmosphere. My teacher recommended me to attend KIPP Academy Middle School due to my proficiency in public school. KIPP challenged my work ethic and showed me that oneself needs more than brute intelligence to be successful. I struggled when I first arrived because I

I had nothing to motivate me. Then in sixth grade when I tried out for the basketball team,and I barely made it. Mr Jones, my former teacher and basketball coach, told me that I needed to work on my skills. I wasn’t really interested in expanding my game because I had already achieved my goal of making the basketball team. Then I had an epiphany that if I keep this up I won’t be on the team in my seventh grade year. Mr.Jones lectured me by stating, “If you want to be average then all you have to do is nothing.”. So I interpreted this quote to mean that those who are successful today must have worked hard to become successful. Mr. Jones has a significant influence on me because he taught me life lessons through his own experience. He changed me from being a lazy kid to a kid who has a motivation. After that I started to realize that he wasn’t any ordinary teacher but, he was more like a second father figure in my life. He told me about his own experience growing up in the Bronx and overcoming adversity in order to play college basketball at Dartmouth college and maintain substantial grades. This motivated me because it show me that “impossible is nothing”. Mr.Jones is my motivation to succeed in