I've been here at Central all four years. It's been a really good experience. I'm seventeen years old, born and raised in Providence. Right now I don't really know what I want to do, so that's why I'm going to university—to find out where I am, where I stand. Right now I'm enrolled in the Talent Development program at URI which will help me go to URI. I'll be living there, right on the campus.
I have three brothers and two sisters and they've all finished college already. So I'm the last one. My mom didn't have the opportunity to go to school at all. My dad couldn't finish high school because he had to go to the army. They came to Providence from Laos about 24 years ago during the war. They like it here, especially my mom. My dad gets the urge to go back, because he says that it's his homeland. I grew up hearing lots of stories about what life was like there during the war.
Hearing stories about my family, knowing that they went through so much hard work, it pushes me. My parents made the decision to come here to better our lives, so that's what pushes me to work harder and not give up. My brothers and sisters didn't have it easy. When they got here, there wasn't anybody to help them. They didn't have much to prepare them. I'm the youngest and people sometimes say that I'm spoiled. But I don't want to be like that. My parents always say that they want me to have things that they couldn't have, but I want to work for it because I know it wasn't easy for them.
I work at the Providence Place Mall, at a Chinese restaurant. After school I go there and work till ten. On the weekends I work all day. It's probably close to 40 hours a week. I'm doing it because I want to help my family. Sometimes we struggle with payments, gas and things like that. So I want to work a lot just to help out. Even though they don't want to accept it, I really want to give it. Some of the money I put away for college. My dad doesn't work anymore, and my mom was laid off two years ago. My brothers and sisters are all out of college so they have steady jobs. Even though I don't make as much as they do, I'm still helping the family out. That's what makes me feel good. We're a very close family, always together and talking.
People say that kids get bullied here a lot, but I've never seen anything like that. Everybody here is friendly, everybody gets along. You see everyone together, conversing—if there are fights they're only once in a while and it's nothing big. It doesn't matter what people say. They have to come here and experience it. I heard things and I doubted this place. But then I got to see it for myself, and I realized what potential it has. It's got a lot of positivity.
This place taught me not to believe anything before you see it for yourself. This school is put down a lot, but it's a good school. Everyone here is doing better. Attendance is better, the dropout rate is not that high any more. The school's improving a lot, but it hasn't had the chance to get its name out there. I've had a lot of good teachers. They make it fun, they make you want to learn, they push you really hard. I do all this work and it makes me feel good, and then the grade comes out and I feel really accomplished. I know I worked hard for it, I didn't cheat.
My sophomore year, I really wanted to play on the boys' volleyball team, but they hadn't had one for ten years. So I talked to the coach, talked to the principal, got some papers and had people sign them. And we got started my junior year as a club. And this year we actually have a team going. That was one of my high points, when I felt like I really achieved something I worked hard for. I can always look back at Central and know I was the kid who started the boys' volleyball team again. And now it's going to go on for years to come.
Juan Medrano>>
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