The Unbreakables

The+Unbreakables

A personal phone call from Harvard, an email from Davidson’s president and likely, a letter from Yale: these are exchanges many high school seniors can only dream of, but four years ago, it was one New Hanover High School student’s reality.

Patrick Peoples has deep brown eyes with eyelids that naturally squint so that you can barely make out their almond shape. Soothing one moment and sharp the next, they tell a story that sings of experience and travel but also cries of adversity. He wears a maroon sweater, complemented by a white undershirt that matches the white horse on his blue Polo hat. Altogether he looks confident and collected, which is not unbecoming of the future he wishes to one day hold.

Patrick Peoples. Courtesy of Gabriella Dionisio.

Before Patrick traveled abroad in London, learned how to craft public policy as an intern for Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and then as an intern for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (alongside Claire Comey, former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter), he was just a kid from Wilmington, North Carolina.

Patrick had always been academically gifted, but his devotion to his studies did not always come from a place of ambition; rather, Patrick had an unshakeable desire to leave North Carolina far behind. With a distaste for the students he went to school with and an intelligence that had the ability to take him anywhere, there was no reason to stay after graduation.

Patrick was a student at the New Hanover High School Lyceum Academy, which is described on its website as “a school within a school.” The program is rigorous, designed to weed out the average from the intellectually elite, though the brochure doesn’t say so. To gain entrance into the program, an application, letters of recommendation and an interview are required.

Patrick was enrolled in this prestigious Academy during his junior and senior years of high school, but as a person of color in a school filled with the wealthier, white kids of Wilmington, he was largely underrepresented in the student body. He felt the effects of this circumstance regularly.

“There was a lot of racism,” Patrick shared of his experience at the Lyceum. “A lot of these students had never met an Afro-Latino who had a family who had gone to college and wasn’t really struggling. There’s a certain image these guys had of blacks and Latinos and because I didn’t fit that image, they didn’t know what to do with [me].”

He describes multiple instances where classmates would justify their offensive comments about other students, typically those who were not white, who weren’t in the program. Their racist remarks would prompt a refute in Patrick, to which the students would often reply: “Oh, you’re just Patrick,” as if to say, ‘You’re not like them. You don’t behave the way they do.’

Patrick was a minority, but not just because of his racial makeup. He didn’t “act” black, but he wasn’t white. His dad wasn’t in the picture, but he didn’t fit the stereotype of a kid from a single family home. Students couldn’t touch his test scores or academic accomplishments and it was no secret that he outdid his peers – but if that was the case, why did Patrick constantly feel like an underdog?

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Mayra Robles, a young woman of Mexican heritage, graduated from Heide Trask High School the same year Patrick graduated from New Hanover. Now a senior at UNC Wilmington [UNCW], Mayra’s resume entering college was nothing less than impressive. A few of her titles included salutatorian, senior class president, and color guard captain, but just like Patrick, she didn’t feel like she had a place.

In her high school graduation speech, which flowed back and forth between Spanish and English so that her parents could hear how thankful she was for their support, Mayra spoke about how even though she was graduating second in her class, she didn’t feel as if she accomplished anything.

Currently a Spanish and education major with a concentration in English as a second language, when Mayra originally presented her plans to enter the field of education to her family and teachers, she was met with unexpected pushback.

“In my speech [at graduation], I mentioned how people perceived me being a future teacher,” Mayra said. “I spoke about how people would say ‘you have so much more potential than to be a teacher.’ It hurt me, especially hearing it from other teachers.”

Mayra is a first-generation student and comes from a family familiar with laborious work days. Her dad is a farm worker and is typically in the field for 12 hours a day. Mayra’s mom cares for a number of children. Neither of them have a college degrees— Mayra’s mom never finished middle school and her dad went to a technical school.

Though she supported her older siblings’ decisions to either start a family or join the workforce, college wasn’t optional for Mayra – not for the career she wanted.

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Mayra was academically advanced but was fearful that money would be a roadblock. Student debt is an unforgiving burden many college students are saddled with upon graduation and then for the foreseeable years after. According to the Federal Reserve, there is $1.45 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt, with 44.2 million Americans managing student loans. On average, a person who takes out loans to fund their education will pay back $351 in loans per month after graduating.

For people who come from single family homes like Patrick’s and blue-collar ones like Mayra’s, it’s not uncommon to question whether pursuing that degree is worth it when countered with the pressure of taking on such significant debt, and a solid understanding of scholarships and financial aid are crucial.

When Mayra told her older brother about her plans to attend a four-year university, he encouraged her to work or enroll in a community college because of the financial burden a university could place on their parents.

“My older brother thought I was wasting my time and money by going to college – because of that, I questioned myself a lot,” Mayra said. “I was very impressionable at that time.”

Patrick’s mom encouraged him to stay in-state so that the tuition would be more affordable. He listened and understood her concerns, but because of his high school experience, his plans didn’t include North Carolina.

Regardless, Patrick and Mayra never questioned that they would attend a university, and lucky for them, they had a different form of support and guidance that many high school seniors in similar situations did not.

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Mentors Initiating Community Action, Support, and Advocacy – MI CASA, for short – is a mentoring program hosted by UNCW’s Centro Hispano, a cultural center dedicated to fostering diversity at the university level and offering a support system to Latinx students. UNCW is the only school in North Carolina to have a center dedicated to Hispanic students, though other universities like UNC-Chapel Hill have mentoring programs and initiatives similar to MI CASA.

Beginning in 2011, the two-year mentorship aims to identify high achieving Hispanic students from local high schools who have an interest in furthering their education. When the program began, it had seven high school students — two of which were Mayra and Patrick.

The program entered their lives at crucial times. Each day, Patrick and Mayra both had a laundry list of tasks to accomplish. Between clubs, leadership, and rigorous school work, MI CASA was an escape they looked forward to — and one that not only provided them with the necessary tools their schools had not, but with an inclusive atmosphere that allowed them to feel at home in their ethnicities.

A few Saturdays out of the month, they were invited to the university for academic or social programs. Some days would be dedicated to career exploration and SAT prep, while others were geared towards team bonding and self-growth.

Mayra’s father attended every session MI CASA offered to the parents. Together, they were able to learn about the importance of education, as well as how to make it affordable.

But for these high-achieving students, the emphasis placed on college applications, scholarships and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid [FAFSA] was a tremendous helping hand they still give thanks to.

One of the requirements of the mentoring program is that all mentees must apply to UNCW. According to Chris Montero, the program coordinator, they retain about half of the students who join the program.

Mayra was accepted to UNCW and enrolled shortly after. Weeks before her high school graduation, she was given the news that not only would she be going to a four-year university, but also that her tuition was entirely covered.

She received four scholarships that, combined, took care of the cost of attendance. Between those she applied to through MI CASA and the ones her counselor provided her with, the weight of the cost of college that Mayra carried was lifted. And her older brother began giving her the support she needed.

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Around the time Mayra was absorbing that she was officially college-bound, Patrick was making one of the hardest academic decisions he would probably ever be faced with.

Unlike Mayra, a university was always a sure part of his future, but Patrick’s desperate desire to escape North Carolina made for stubborn conversations between him and Chris.

Financially, Chris strongly encouraged the mentee to look more closely at in-state universities. Though Patrick had no interest in attending a North Carolina school, he applied anyway and was met with an incredible response.

Not only was Patrick offered the Morehead-Cain scholarship from UNC, but one of Davidson’s admissions representative called him personally, informing the high school senior that he was impressed and was interested in nominating him for the Belk scholarship.

With two unbelievable offers on the table and acceptance into all but one of the Ivies, his time was dwindling and a decision of which college he would attend needed to be made.

“I was in the middle of SOHO with kids from Columbia when the Director of Admissions from UNC called me,” Patrick said, recalling that he had been awaiting this man’s phone call. “I felt like I was going to pass out. I had to tell him no, and it was the hardest academic decision I’ve made.”

To turn down two of the most prestigious scholarships North Carolina offers is unimaginable. But Patrick had a goal – one he wanted from the beginning and one he intended to stand by.

He remembers it well: being in New York, touring Columbia and seeing for this first time in his life that the world was so much bigger than he had ever imagined.

After touring the majority of the Ivies and accepting his choice to turn down the Belk and Morehead-Cain scholarships, he made the decision to become a bulldog. Yale Blue would be his chosen color for Saturday tailgates and the dreams of leaving North Carolina would come true.

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On May 21, 2018, Patrick will participate in Yale’s 317th commencement ceremony. Donning a black cap and gown with a white hood, this future lawyer will walk across Old Campus and receive his bachelor’s degree in political science. After graduation, Patrick plans to take a year off before entering law school — the university he will attend is still unbeknownst to him. UNC-Chapel Hill is on his radar, but with the connections he’s established over the past four years, anything is possible for this pre-professional.

Mayra (right) mentoring a current MI CASA mentee. Courtesy of Mayra Robles.

Two weeks earlier than Patrick, Mayra will walk across the same stage she did as Salutatorian almost four years ago. Though she won’t be delivering a speech this time, she’ll be accepting something no one in her family has ever achieved: a college diploma.

Mayra stayed connected with the MI CASA program in college. In high school, she was a mentee, and during the past four years, she has served as a mentor to many students. In her senior year at UNCW, she was hired as the assistant coordinator of the mentoring program.

Between her major and leadership roles in MI CASA, Mayra is armed with all the necessary knowledge to enter the classroom, though she hopes to spend her first few years as an educator with the Peace Corps in Indonesia. She knows that one day she’ll have the opportunity to share her beloved language with English-speaking students, but believes that there’s a greater need for her skills abroad. She smiles nervously about the idea of being accepted into the program, but overcoming obstacles is never something she shies away from.

“I’ll just leave it up to Him,” Mayra said looking up.

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There is something to be said for the power of strong mentorships and inclusive communities. Taken together, they can have a massive impact on the lives of high-performing, motivated students like Mayra and Patrick.

Thousands of students feel the weight of ethnic stereotypes and financial burdens, especially those who grow up in a predominantly white and wealthy community. But, just as in any trying situation, a persistent drive to break loose from the stigmas and setbacks that have been placed upon you make for incredible success.

These students have a story, they have passion, and because of these things, they have an unbreakable will to attain the future many only dream of.

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“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou