Download - Valedictorians 2015
CENTRAL COLLEGIATE ACADEMY “WE WERE BROUGHT UP IN THE BANKRUPTCY
AND THE STRUGGLE OF DETROIT. BUT WE’VE MADE IT; WE’VE DONE IT.”
– ANTONIO VANLEER
HENRY FORD HIGH “I LOVE PROVING
PEOPLE WRONG.”– JOSH DAVIS
DENBY HIGH“EVERY DAY I THINK ABOUT
MY FUTURE AND WHERE I AM GOING TO BE. THAT’S WHAT KEEPS ME GOING.”
– ALEXIS WARDLAW
MUMFORD HIGH “WHENEVER A REPORT CARD CAME OUT, EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY WANTED TO SEE MY GRADES. I HAD TO LIVE UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS.”
– FRANCISMARY UMEJIEGO
SOUTHEASTERN HIGH
“MY PARENTS TOLD ME ONCE I MADE IT TO 12TH GRADE,
I HAD ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED MORE THAN THEY HAD.”
– DEANDRE CRUMSEYPERSHING HIGH
“WHEN I GIVE MY VALEDICTORIAN SPEECH, I WANT TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE
JUST AS I’VE BEEN MOTIVATED.”– MOESHA MATHEWS
ALL STUDENTS DESERVE ACCESS TO A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION, AND THE EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT AUTHORITY
OF MICHIGAN IS COMMITTED TO STUDENT SUCCESS.
LEARN MORE AT:
WWW.ICANSOAR.ORG.
THE FACES OF EAA SUCCESS CONGRATULATIONS, Class of 2015 Valedictorians.
THE EAA IS VERY PROUD OF OUR SCHOLARS.
Antonio Vanleer knows being a student in Detroit is not easy.
“You have the music, you have everyone in the neighborhood, you have the drugs and you have the violence,” Vanleer said.
To be a student who excels is even harder when you see students who drop out and make money by selling drugs.
“It makes it hard to not live that lifestyle because you see a guy with a lot of money and he’s living a good life but you’re going to school and you are struggling and you see your mother still struggling,” he said.
Just before entering high school, he came to a decision point: “This is a defining moment where I can either slack off and take a route where it won’t help my family or help my mother get to a better place. Or I can strive for greatness and do great things and help my mother out in the long run.”
He chose the latter, and the dedication has paid off.
Antonio Vanleer
“We were brought up in the bankruptcy and the struggle of Detroit, but we’ve made it; we’ve done it.”
Central Collegiate Academy
He has received acceptance letters from 25 universities across the
country including Michigan State University, Clark Atlanta
University, Alabama A&M and Eastern Michigan University.
Along the way, he was named Central Collegiate Academy’s
valedictorian — an accomplishment he never sought to achieve. It
was merely a byproduct of that decision he made more than four
years ago.
“That was my main focus,” Vanleer said. “It wasn’t to be the
number one guy in my class. It was to better my family.”
The support is mutual. Since having Vanleer at age 16, his mother
has motivated him to be a risk taker and to never settle.
“My mother is my biggest supporter,” he said. “My mother is my
biggest fan. My mother is my backbone.”
Throughout the last four years, he has seen the dynamics of his
high school change to a place where students can thrive. It was at
Central where Antonio found his love for film (one of two majors
along with psychology he is considering). Now he looks forward to
the day when his younger brother will attend Central.
“He’s going to have an extraordinary learning experience,” Vanleer
said.
In his valedictorian speech, Vanleer hopes to relay to his fellow
graduates the importance what of they’ve accomplished.
“We were brought up in the bankruptcy and the struggle of
Detroit,” Antonio said. “But we’ve made it; we’ve done it.”
Alexis Wardlaw didn’t have to look far when answering who it was
in her life pushing her to succeed. She has been her own greatest
motivation.
“Every day I think about my future and where I am going to be,”
she said. “That’s what keeps me going.”
Wardlaw has never been a follower or given much weight to people
who have doubted her.
“You can’t be distracted or you can’t be following after people,” she
said. “You have to have your own mindset because there’s going to
be a lot of stuff and people coming at you.”
Her mantra of independence has worked. When she was named
the valedictorian of Denby High School, Wardlaw’s first reaction
was relief that her persistence throughout the last four years had
been for something.
Alexis Wardlaw“Every day I think about my future and where I am going to be. That’s what keeps me going.”
Denby High School
“I was really happy and proud of myself, and it feels like it’s finally
paying off,” she said.
Despite her independence, she hasn’t become number one in her
class entirely on her own. Her siblings — two older sisters and two
younger brothers — have played a large role in her success.
Wardlaw’s greatest influence is her oldest sister — 21, graduated
from college and already working in her career field as a clinical
dietician.“I look up to her a lot because she is successful and
young. I feel like she is always someone I can go to. I can tell her
anything,” Wardlaw said.
In fact, Wardlaw is so inspired by her sister that she plans to
become a clinic dietician. Wardlaw has received acceptance letters
to Bowling Green University, Michigan State University, Central
Michigan University and Wayne State University. As of her
interview she was still undecided on the school she will be
attending.
In her valedictorian speech, she hopes to spread her self-motivation to her peers, those who will be in high school next year
and to her younger brothers who look up to her.
“Do not try to fit in, and stay focused,” she said. “That’s what really
put me on top.”
At age 18, it would be difficult to confine Josh Davis’ accolades to a
one-page resume.
This year alone, the Henry Ford Trojans boys basketball superstar
has been named MLive Player of the Week and First Team All-City
in the Detroit Public School League (PSL). In November, he
committed to Western Michigan University, which offered Davis a
full-ride scholarship.
In February, the Detroit league’s basketball coaches named him
Mr. PSL, an honor given to the top boys and girls senior players in
Detroit.
But his athletic accomplishments are only half the story. In March
— the same month he was leading the Trojans to the state finals in
Lansing — he was named the high school’s valedictorian.
For Davis, both accomplishments are linked: His passion is
basketball. Good grades were a means of ensuring he stayed on the
court — a mandate that came from his father.
�1
“I love proving people wrong.”
Henry Ford High School
Josh Davis
“I don’t want grades keeping me off the court, and I want to keep
my parents happy because they really want me to be successful in
the classroom more than on the court,” Davis said.
That mandate almost went into effect while Davis was still in
elementary school. In 5th grade, he received a C on his report card.
Davis’s dad wanted him off the team, but Davis made up the
missing work and improved his grade for the subject.
“That was the point when I was like I don’t want to get bad grades
anymore,” Davis said.
His enrollment at Henry Ford is also linked to basketball. The
EAA high school is not his neighborhood school. After watching
Davis play in a middle school age summer league, Henry Ford
Coach Ken Flowers asked Davis to play under him.
“I loved his coaching strategy and the way he tried to develop me
as a player,” said Davis of Coach Flowers.
Davis said he wasn’t always being recruited by coaches and being
offered scholarships from universities. There was a time people
doubted he could compete in PSL. Their doubt only motivated
him more.
“I love proving people wrong,” Davis said.
�2
Francismary Umejiego had some big shoes to fill entering his
senior year of high school. Not only had his three older siblings
gone on to college but two of them had been named valedictorian
of their high schools. His family expected much of the same from
him.
“Whenever a report card came out, everyone in my family wanted
to see my grades,” Umejiego said. “I had to live up to their
expectations.”
Needless to say, academics is a big deal to the Umejiego family. In
addition to the sibling competitiveness, there was the threat of
being pulled from the soccer team if his grades slipped, and to a
young man from Nigeria who had been playing since age 4, that
was the greater impetus toward academic success of the two.
Eventually, he became the third child to be named valedictorian —
a familial feat made even more notable by the fact that Umejiego
and his siblings immigrated from Nigeria in 2010.
Francismary Umejiego
“Whenever a report card came out, everyone in my family wanted to see my grades. I had to live up to their expectations.”
Mumford High School
His parents had come to Detroit five years prior in hopes of
finding work and making money before bringing their kids to the
United States.
When Umejiego and his brothers and sisters arrived, they faced
two immediate challenges. First was the Michigan winter, which
they were not prepared for.
“When we came here (my parents) forgot to tell us it was going to
be cold so we showed up without a jacket or anything,” he said.
Second, there was the language and cultural barriers he and his
siblings had to overcome. The English vocabulary he had learned
overseas was British based, and his Nigerian accent made it
difficult for teachers and classmates to understand him, which led
to teasing from the other middle schoolers.
“No matter what happened, I just kept to myself, and I didn’t let
what other people say affect me as a person,” he said.
By the time he arrived as a freshman at Mumford High School in
2011, he was much more comfortable. He formed friendships,
joined sports teams and developed relationships with teachers.
Mumford became such a second family to him that Umejiego
passed up an opportunity to attend a nearby magnet school.
“It’s like a home,” Umejiego said of Mumford.
In his valedictorian speech, Umejiego plans to thank the high
school’s teachers and staff who supported him.
“I would not be at this point without their help. I want to let them
know that I really appreciate the time they’ve put toward my life,”
he said.
High school will not be the end to sibling rivalry. It will continue
on in college. Umejiego has been accepted to several universities,
but he will likely attend Michigan State University for pre-med
studies. There, he hopes to join the soccer team, play his brother’s
team at Marygrove College and win.
“Hopefully I can come home and tell my dad I beat him,” he said.
Months before commencement, Moesha Mathews had already
started to plan out the theme to her valedictorian speech.
Imagining standing up in front of friends, family, peers and people
she didn’t know made her nervous, but she planned to rehearse the
speech in front of her parents until all the nerves were worked out.
“When I give my valedictorian speech, I want to motivate people
just as I’ve been motivated,” she said. “I also want to tell the
seniors graduating with me this is just the start. You have your
whole future ahead of you. It will be hard, but you have to keep
pressing.”
This fall, Mathews will be the first in her family to attend college.
It’s an accomplishment that makes her proud and excited but also
anxious. She doesn’t have anyone in her family to turn to for advice
on what to expect.
“I don’t know the background or how it feels to go to college,”
Mathews said.
Moesha Mathews
“When I give my valedictorian speech, I want to motivate people just as I’ve been motivated.”
Pershing High School
Her parents played a large part in getting her to this point, though.
“When it comes to grades, I would just think of them and what they would think of me if I got a bad grade on my report card,” she said.
In addition to the family support she received, Mathews is also thankful she attended Pershing High School, where she spent three of her four high school years. She said the smaller school setting allowed for an increased focus on students.
“I love their support here,” she said. “They care for you.”
She said the staff motivates the students to apply for college.
“You have people who care more, they teach you more and they want to get you out there,” Mathews said.
In all, Mathews was accepted to five universities, but it was the letter from Oakland University, the college where she has wanted to go since she was in middle school, that made her most excited.
“When I got my acceptance letter, I started jumping up and down because that’s the college I wanted to go to,” Mathews said.
DeAndre Crumsey’s parents never made it past high school.
“My parents told me once I made it to 12th grade I had already
accomplished more than they had,” Crumsey said.
Knowing firsthand the importance of getting a diploma, Crumsey
said his parents made sure to motivate and incentivize him and his
siblings to succeed in school. So when Crumsey came home with
the news that he had been named Southeastern High School’s
valedictorian, they were elated.
“Honestly, they were happier than I was,” he said.
Crumsey’s motivation also comes from seeing the struggles his
parents have endured.
“I really do depend a lot more on my family than I realize because
I look at them, I see what they are going through and I’ve decided
that I don’t want the same struggles,” he said.
“My parents told me once I made it to 12th grade, I had already accomplished more than they had.”
DeAndre CrumseySoutheastern High School
Crumsey has two older brothers, who are now both in college, to look up to.
“Without my brothers, I don’t know where I would be or what I would be doing because seeing them succeed actually pushed me that much harder to try, too,” he said.
Crumsey plans to attend Eastern Michigan University in the fall, where he’ll study 3D Animation for gaming and film — a talent cultivated at Southeastern, where students have access to a STEM Lab.
“It has given me a taste of what you can do with technology,” Crumsey said.
Before entering a college classroom, Crumsey has already created two video games and as of the interview was in the middle of making a stop-animation film thanks to the STEM Lab.
His message to next year’s incoming freshmen and those who will be returning to Southeastern is to not take time for granted.
“One thing that would have helped me out even more is less procrastination,” he said.
He spent all four high school years at Southeastern. During that time, he has noticed a change in the school.
“It is more cohesive, and it’s infinitely more peaceful,” he said.