I was born in Harlem at the Broadway Hospital. My whole family came to Rhode Island because the rent was cheap and it was easier to get jobs. It was everybody basically—both of my parents and all of the extended family that was situated in New York. I live with my mom and my older brother Jason who works as an intern at the statehouse. He went to Central, too—straight As. He leaves me some pretty big shoes to fill.
I'm looking to go to art school when I leave Central. I say art school because I don't really know what kind of art—maybe design, or painting, or even fashion design. Art has been my life since kindergarten. I know that because I was looking at my file in the guidance office recently and it had a note from my kindergarten teacher that said I was a great artist, even back then. Third grade, or so, I started getting really serious. I think that's why my handwriting is so bad. I focused so much on art that everything else came a distant second.
I thought for a while that I wanted to go the Rhode Island School of Design, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I'm trying to keep my options open as much as I can, keep looking around for the right place for me. The Parsons School in New York looks really good for me. I like New York a lot, and that's a big school with different kinds of people. I always like to expand my base and meet new people, so that might be a better place for me.
I can tell that my art has evolved a lot in the last three years I've been at Central. It's getting better. I've tried using a lot of different media. Before I only used pencil, really, but then I moved to pastel, then to color, now to oil. Outside of art, I've changed a lot as a person. I'm the Junior Class President this year, and that's something I never saw myself doing when I was a freshman. When I got here as a freshman I only knew a handful of people from middle school, but now I've got my hand in most groups in the school.
It was really my gym teacher, Ms. Smith. She told me that I would make a good president, but at the time, it was something I hadn't even considered. I did a mural in her classroom so I was there quite a bit and we started talking. She said that she thought I had a good chance and that I should give it a shot. So I did—because she believed in me. I like the meetings because everyone there listens to you. It's one of the only places I've been in this school where people really pay attention to what you have to say.
Imaging my future is what really motivates me. The thought of succeeding, of making money, of doing it all on my own—that's what motivates me. At the same time, I really regret not doing as much with my time here, or not joining as many things. I wish I had drawn more murals, or been more involved since freshman year. I should have done more work so that I could have gotten straight As my whole time here. That would have really set me up for college—those As always work! As far as the teachers go, they've been really good for the most part. Most of my teachers really admire me. Like my science teacher; he believes in me and tells me that he knows I'll succeed. I tell him that I'm going to make it, that I won't get myself down. I joined Science Olympiad with him because I like working with him. This year I'm in charge of building the planes.
If more teachers told their kids that they admired them or that they believed in them, then the kids would be more involved. I don't just sit in class and do nothing—I talk with my teachers, I participate, I do my work. A lot of that is because they show me respect. With my science class, as my communication has gotten stronger with the teacher, my grade has gone up. The more we know each other and understand each other the better I do in the class.
It's different with my scholarship to RISD. I signed up for two scholarships because there's one woman there who doesn't think I can cut it. She doesn't think I deserve the scholarship, or that I deserve to go to that school. It was last Saturday the 11th—I won't forget that day. There is this friend of mine that I helped learn how to draw when he was first starting out. He went to RISD and hasn't been doing that well, so this woman thought she would take it out on me. He didn't take advantage of his chances so she thought that I would do the same. I don't care—it doesn't keep me down. But there are people out there who won't believe in you for no reason at all. You've got to be careful of them.
Kevin Joaquim>>
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