Not being able to “walk” at graduation was only one of the challenges students at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate, a Massachusetts K-12 charter, had to overcome, writes Hermon Kaysha in Education Post.
Hermon Kaysha
“Some of us have to work to support our families,” he writes. “Others have had to take care of our siblings after school, or didn’t have a home at some point in our lives. Many of us, as minorities in this country, have had to — and continue to — endure racism and stereotyping.”
His parents left Ethiopia for the United States in search of opportunity, leaving their one-year-old son with his grandparents. When he finally reunited with his mother, she was working long hours to pay rent, despite being seven months pregnant. She couldn’t earn much because she didn’t speak English, he realized.
“Shortly after my arrival, my mother stopped working to have my second brother and separated from my stepfather,” he recalls. The family became homeless.
I realized that (my baby brother) and I had a lot in common: he was new to this world, and so was I. Neither of us knew our place in this country, and we both had to learn a new language. He had to learn how to walk, and I had to learn how to walk in this new place.
. . . Although we found temporary shelter for our family, my mom’s lingering illnesses required me to step up and become the foundation of our household.
He did the shopping, cooking and cleaning. He practiced English with shelter residents. “This level of responsibility, on top of making sure that I was doing all my school work, required that I manage my time and value each minute,” Hermon writes.
At KIPP, Hermon started the Math Club and was a teaching assistant in precalculus. He earned a scholarship to MIT, where he will major in math.
He’s clearly intelligent, but that alone would not have gotten him to MIT.
What are the most important words he uses? I nominate “learn a new language,” “required me to step up,” “responsibility” and “manage my time and value each minute.”