I was born in Providence but my mother is from the Dominican Republic and my father is from Columbia—so I've got my Columbian side too. I'm the first generation of my family born in this country. My parents actually met at school, here at Central. They both went to high school here when they moved to his country and this is where they met.
I'm missing a credit, so next year I'll be going to CCRI doing general studies, then the next year I'll be going to URI. I'm doing Talent Development this coming summer for Criminal Justice. That's a program where you go to URI for the whole summer and take classes, and stay in the dorms, all of that stuff. It's just school basically. So if you do Talent Development, that means that URI won't look at your SAT scores when you apply. You automatically get accepted to URI. You have to get accepted to Talent Development First, but once you do that, you're basically into URI. I had to get a bunch of recommendations from teachers to apply to the program.
I'm going to the Criminal Justice program because I want to be a detective. I watch too many TV shows, like "Law and Order." I know that's not really how it happens, but I really want to do that type of thing. In order to do that I have to be a cop for a little while, I have to walk the streets, but that's no problem. Then they upgrade me—that's how all detectives get started.
What I'm really into is music, that's my thing. That's my passion. I've been singing since elementary school. I also act, and I write my own music. About six months ago I converted to Christianity, something that I did on my own. I go to church almost every day and I sing there a lot. I write my own gospel songs, but I also have my R&B stuff. When I go to church I feel so alive—that's where the music is and I really feel that.
Central's a home to me, that's the honest truth. I love Central High School. It's changed a lot since the past. And seeing all those changes, I'm very proud to say that I'm graduating from Central. There used to be a lot of fights here, like it was a school of war or something. And now everybody gets along, everyone's nice to each other and respectful. You still have those kids that mess things up but it's not like before, not at all. Ms. Almagno's doing a great job, trying to get all of these kids together. I'm very proud of her, how she's turned this school around. She didn't do it alone, she had a lot of help. Ms. DeCarlo last year was a great principal.
Anywhere you go, you're going to have people that criticize and are negative. Some people call them "the haters." That's something that I'd love to change. Not for anyone to treat people differently because of what they look like or what they wear, or what color skin they have. That's ridiculous. It's difficult to change something like that. It's just the way it is.
I'm really proud of myself. When I first came to this school I was a really bad kid, getting suspended left and right. I used to talk back to teachers all the time. But as soon as I hit my junior year, I really stepped up my game. I think it was being Class President that changed me the most. With the responsibility and the respect that you get from others—I'd never had that before. Not to sound self-centered, but I was always on top, everyone knew who I was. But I didn't feel good about myself, I didn't have self-confidence. I always thought that I was somehow lower than others. As soon as I hit this position, everything changed for me. I'm more responsible, I got the respect that I wanted. My grades have changed, I haven't been suspended once, haven't been kicked out of class once. People believe in me, and everyone sees the change. Some people like it and some people don't. But I'm growing up, going into a new world, so I had to mature and change. I didn't want to step into that new world acting the way I did before. I wouldn't have made it anywhere. It was time for change.
Elizabeth Enelcruz>>
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