Muir Achiever Talks About High School Experience

Destiny Iwuoma was a finalist this Spring for one of the most prestigious scholarships in the country: The Gates Millennium Award.

While Destiny did not end up as a winner, he still has accomplished something very notable: admission to The University of California at Berkeley.  As many know, John Muir High School has been on a scholastic decline for years so producing a student on such a high level of scholastic achievement is all too rare, but very much welcomed.

I sat down to talk to Destiny about his achievements, about John Muir and what teachers, administrators, and the community can do to improve it.

GM: What are your parents' backgrounds? Are they business professionals or educators or just ordinary working class people?

DI: My mother is a nurse, a LVN. She did not graduate from college, and my father graduated from Cal State a while back, and he is retired now.

GM: What is your situation with Berkeley: Have you been accepted and what do you plan on majoring in?

DI: Yes, I have been accepted, and I will be majoring in Business and minoring in Education.

GM: Can you tell us how you remain on such a high level of scholastic achievement when so many of your immediate peers are not doing as well?

DI: Initially, when I was younger, my parents stressed education, education, but as I got older, it began to sink in. I was never the best student in middle school or elementary school; I was just all right, with Cs and Bs. But when I got to high school, I got involved in different enrichment programs, like Upward Bound, where I took math and English classes during the summer at Cal State LA. I was involved in a Puentes English class there, which was an honors English class during my freshman year. That class propelled me to get more engaged. I felt that I was never quite challenged before as a student earlier during the lower grades, but upon entering high school, I was challenged to do better as a student.

GM:  Do you feel that schools like Muir, especially with a majority of African-American and Hispanic populations, actually challenge their students toward higher learning?

DI: I don’t think they give them the proper opportunities. They just toss everyone in the same bundle without really guiding them toward anything specific. They need to show the kids that school is “worth it,” and then they may try to do better, but that message is not pushed well enough in our school.

 GM: What do you hope to become later when you graduate?

DI: Honestly, I don’t believe the occupation that I want to do in life exists yet. Basically my goal in life is to change the world through education. As a person that grew up in the PUSD schools from K through 12 I don’t believe the system did a good enough job at educating me, or more specifically, for educating so many of my friends. I feel that there needs to be more support programs for the students, especially minorities to succeed in education and that is what I want to do with my life.

GM: Is that what you are trying to do currently here at Muir with your youth mentor program that you started?

DI: Yes. I see so much potential in all these freshmen, but most of them are not on the right path. There are only two counselors available here at the school, so it is difficult to see all the students and put them on the right tracks. Most don’t even have the opportunity to see a counselor and get the proper advice. I try to help the seniors, also, because they need immediate help in what they are about to do. Many of them still don’t know what to do even at that stage.

Peer counseling can go a long ways, because we are right there in the same positions and know what the students are facing. I also realize that a senior advising a freshman is monumental and priceless in assisting them in getting on the right path.

GM:  Did you have this sort of help as you came into Muir?

DI: No, I did not have any true mentors during my freshman year. I was just going to my classes, and I knew that I needed to do well because of my parent’s pushing education.

GM: What about the MPYD program? Were you involved in this program? Was it there to help you?

DI: Yes, I was involved in this program since my freshman year. One day, I was sent to the office for talking in class and calling the teacher a name, so I was invited to attend the program during lunch. I became deeply involved in the program, listening to all the guest speakers, and it has been very instrumental for me.

GM: Do you feel that the program is an effective tool for male students in general? Are the kids just coming to the program for the free lunch or are they there to get what you seemed to have gotten?

DI: Well, there are always those who are looking for a free lunch, but there are students that come nearly every day that sit in the front row gazing at the guest speakers, and they gain tremendously.

GM: What do you feel Muir students need most, based on your bird’s eye view?

DI: They need a consistent role model that they can look up to. When they are freshmen, they need to already have been somehow identified so they have a support group that they can turn to for specific advice. I had a counselor that I could call on when I was a freshman to ask about these things. They need someone that they can identify with that will help them with any advice or specific concerns that they may have. They need a source to call if they have questions about their class requirements, college or anything they may be facing. That system is not promoted for the students.

GM: I also hear that you were an intern for our assemblyman, Anthony Portantino. Is that true, and what do you think about that experience? What does it entail?

DI: It was a great experience seeing behind the scenes of what our politicians actually do. It is good to see how they actually interact with the communities they serve. They actually let me go into the communities with them to events, presentations and dinners and stuff like that, so I actually got a chance to see what it means to be an elected official.

GM: Would you consider being a politician one day?

DI: It may be something that I aspire toward because many people have mentioned that I might be good at it, but I don’t know. …  Maybe something like the Mayor of Pasadena … or something like that.

GM: Do you have a favorite teacher or class here at Muir?

DI: Yes, my favorite teacher on campus is definitely Ms. Donahue. She has been the most influential for me ever since I entered into the business academy. She is the main reason why I am thinking about majoring in business. She is definitely there for the kids and has been there for me since my 10th grade year. I was probably the only 10th-grader in her class with a whole bunch of seniors. I guess I sort of stood out. I can always email or speak with her about advice regarding college and stuff. And she has always been there for me. I represent business academy for her now at school.

GM: Do you have a large group of friends that support you here on campus?

DI: Well, I have a lot of friends because I played football and stuff like that, so I am really close to those guys, but I don’t really have a set circle of friends that I hang out with. At this school you can’t really be a follower where you end up doing something wrong, but you have to be more of a leader and stay on your path. To me that is one of the keys to success: You can’t just be a follower, but more of a leader.

GM: What would you like the public to know about Muir? There is this perception that the school is really going down. What do you have to say about that?

DI: Whenever you want to know information, go to the source, as you are doing now talking to a student that has been here for four years. You can’t talk to someone that doesn’t live in the northwest area that think they know what is going on, yet they really haven’t been around the campus or know what is really going on here. Take the time to come to the school and get to know the students in order to get the right information.

GM: There was a report a few weeks back about a Black/Hispanic race riot here at the school that people were speculating about through the rumor mills. How true was that? Would you classify that as a race riot or anything of the sorts?

DI: I disagree with what the news was saying. I read those articles and misrepresented completely what actually happened. It was basically a fight between two students, and the entire campus ran over to see the fight. Since our school is predominately Blacks and Hispanics, any fight would naturally be between those two races, but it is not a racial issue. There is no race issue here on campus. It was only a fight between two students.

GM: How do you see the race relationships here on campus between Blacks and Hispanics?

DI: During my freshman year I didn’t know that much but there was a perception of this so I thought it was a problem, but it really wasn’t like that at all. Many of us have been friends since grade school, and there is no problem between the two races at school. It is just what the media plays up. If they are reporting about the school and do not get the information from the source then their information is automatically inaccurate.

GM: What about going to college at Berkeley, are you intimidated or fearful?

DI: I was just up there during our spring break and can’t wait to get back up there. I am looking forward to the challenge that it brings. I have heard of how hard it will be up there, but nothing for me so far have been easy, so I welcome the challenge. I have taken college courses before so I have an idea of what to expect.

GM: . So somehow students need to learn how to meet the challenges head on?

DI: Students don’t really understand the cycles that go on in their lives. When they first enter school they seems prepared and motivated to learn but when they get to the ninth grade things change. They get to the point that they no longer want to learn: It seems that there is a transformation where the students lose the love of learning. That needs to be addressed.