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My name is Damiya Dorsey I am 18 years old and I attend Trinity University.
I am studying mathematics and education.
I enjoyed my high school experience.
And being in college, it’s like you are really on your own.
I can say I'm closest to my mom,
she's like a very big deal around Ballou Senior High School,
she has been volunteering here since she graduated in 1994.
She started off going to college,
but being that she had me she had went into another field.
I was the captain of my flag squad from
my 11th and 12th grade year and I had other girls
from my squad that didn’t even think about college at first.
By me being the captain I inspired them to go out and apply for scholarships
and now they are on the honor roll,
they're making grades and it’s their senior year now.
But the only benefit I noticed by living in this neighborhood
is by going to school here in neighborhoods like this there’s
many resources and people that want to help you be what ever you want to be.
JAG-DC, the class it was very diverse,
it prepared you if you wanted to just look for a job after high school,
if you wanted to go to college, it support you for college.
It had alternatives, if you wanted to go into a trade or different work fields.
People that drop out of school it really affects the people that are in school
a lot because the retention rate of the school goes down.
And so people that are in school
they have to hold the position to keep the graduation rate up.
I would tell the companies that their support and funding these programs
really makes a difference in the student’s life because it’s not likely
for people to invest in advantage of a child – some people
don’t know what’s out there unless they have resources to go to.
Even though that it’s in an urban neighborhood there’s really
a lot of kids that want to be something in life,
and sometimes they don’t know the direction to go in or go to
unless they have somebody there to support them or let them know
this is how you can get there, they need steps, they need resources,
they need information, and they need somebody that 's going
to motivate them and people that are going to support them to get there.
I am most proud of graduating school,
being in my freshman year in college and moving forward.