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.

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“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.

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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.