The recent events taking place in my city has only made me further appreciate how lucky I am to have gone to St. Ignatius. All of us that were fortunate enough to attend the school were given opportunities that many kids in the city don't get. Many of us were able to go to some of the best private high schools in Baltimore such as Loyola Blakefield, Gilman, Mount Saint Joseph, and Boys Latin, get a quality education, and further our education by earning our degrees at different colleges across the country.
Please believe that it wasn't always fun and games however, and nothing was handed to us. Just like how many of us were not used to be surrounded by white kids, they weren't used to being around black kids from the city. Though it was rare, I sometimes heard white students saying we were only there on scholarship "because we were black." That made me personally want to earn my stripes and prove I belonged at Loyola and was as smart as everyone there, if not smarter.
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| Father William Watters, founding president of SILA and a parent. |
But without St. Ignatius there's no way I would've even gotten such an opportunity. Most kids in the inner city simply are not given those same opportunities for success as their counterparts in more affluent areas--they're just not. I have a lot of people to thank for that but I'm not going to name them all because I'm sure I'll forget someone! So many people gave me hope and the encouragement I needed to keep going when I wanted to take the easy route and just coast by or simply give up and quit. I just hope that I was able to be a positive example to the kids at the luncheon by telling them of my accomplishments since graduating from the school, and letting them know the importance of the school in my life.
